How’s this for a genius concept: in a world where monster wrestling is a global sport and monsters are superstar athletes, a teenage girl named Winnie (voiced by Blockers’ Geraldine Viswanathan) sets about coaching a loveable underdog beast named Steve (Will Arnett) into being a champion.
“The elevator pitch was Rocky meets Godzilla,” laughs Hamish Grieve, here making his directorial debut after working as a story artist on Shark Tale, two Shrek sequels and Monsters Vs. Aliens. “It’s this idea of a giant monster and mushing that together with a classic underdog sports movie. We’re used to seeing these monsters smash up cities and be quite frightening. The idea that we could tell a classic Karate Kid-style story was fun.”