It has been more than a dozen years since Disney released a traditionally animated feature film, having taken audience indifference to middling mid-aughts efforts like Home on the Range and Brother Bear as a sign that computer-generated animation was the wave of the box office future. Whether they were right about that or not—the massive U.S. grosses of the likes of Moana and Frozen suggest they were—I still miss old-school Disney cartoons. Luckily, smaller, independent studios have emerged to fill a void in the market.
Cartoon Saloon is the studio behind the films The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, The Breadwinner, and Wolfwalkers, all four of them deservedly nominated for Best Animated Feature Oscars. If you ask me, they’re doing Disney better than Disney, and are on the most consistent run in animation filmmaking since the early days of Pixar—and the streak looks to continue with their next film, My Father’s Dragon, arriving on Netflix on Nov. 11.
Based on a classic children’s books by Ruth Stiles Gannett, the film follows a young boy who travels to an enchanted island filled with strange talking animals and befriends the titular winged beast; together, the two must save the island from a mysterious force causing it to sink into the sea. The animation unquestionably follows the Cartoon Saloon house style that made their previous films such singularly gorgeous affairs, while nodding to the art from the books (credited to the author’s mother, Ruth Chrisman Gannett).
Netflix’s other big film release for November is The Wonder (Nov. 16). Florence Pugh trades the 1950s trappings of Don’t Worry Darling for the period costumes of 1860s Ireland for this adaptation of the novel by Emma Donoghue (Room). The film concerns a nurse (Pugh) sent to a rural Irish village to care for a young girl who has gone months without eating with no apparent ill effects. Directed by Sebastián Lelio, whose 2017 film A Fantastic Woman won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, this one is among the streamer’s crop of 2022 awards bait; it has already screened at several film festivals, generating awards buzz for Pugh.
Less likely to be nominated for anything, and more likely to be watched by way more people, is Christmas With You (Nov. 17), in which a pop star (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) works with a fan to try to write a holiday hit song; we can probably imagine where this is going. I’m also cautiously intrigued by Slumberland (Nov. 18), a loose adaptation of the fantasy adventure comic strip Nemo in Slumberland from Francis Lawrence, the director of I Am Legend and two of the Hunger Games films. This update follows a girl (Marlo Barkley) who teams with an outlaw (Jason Mamoa) to track down her father in a magical land, said father being Nemo, whose comic strip adventures are treated as prologue.
On the TV side, Netflix will premiere a Tim Burton-produced update of The Addams Family in Wednesday (Nov. 23), which plops the macabre teen of the title into a contemporary high school. Fans of the cultish German sci-fi series The Dark will want to watch out for 1899 (Nov. 17), a new show from the same creative team that follows the passengers on a turn-of-the-century sailing ship that is redirected into stranger waters. Plus: The last season of Dead to Me (Nov. 17), more Cuphead (Nov. 18), and some holiday-themed Great British Baking Show hijinks (Nov. 18).
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) Netflix in November.
What’s coming to Netflix in November 2022
Coming Soon (date TBA)
The Last Dolphin King — Netflix Documentary
Arriving Nov. 1
Gabby’s Dollhouse: Season 6 — Netflix Family
The Takeover — Netflix Film
Attack on Finland
The Bad Guys
The Bodyguard
Dennis the Menace
Dolphin Tale
Key & Peele: Season 1
Key & Peele: Season 2
Key & Peele: Season 3
The Legend of Zorro
The Little Rascals
The Little Rascals Save the Day
Man on a Ledge
The Mask of Zorro
Mile 22
Moneyball
Notting Hill
Oblivion
The Pink Panther
The Pink Panther 2
Still Alice
Think Like a Man
Top Gear: Season 31
Training Day
Up in the Air
Arriving Nov. 2
The Final Score — Netflix Series
Young Royals: Season 2 — Netflix Series
Killer Sally — Netflix Documentary
Arriving Nov. 3
Blockbuster — Netflix Series
The Dragon Prince: Season 4 — Netflix Family
Panayotis Pascot: Almost — Netflix Comedy
Arriving Nov. 4
Buying Beverly Hills — Netflix Series
Ẹlẹṣin Ọba: The King’s Horseman — Netflix Film
Enola Holmes 2 — Netflix Film
The Fabulous — Netflix Series
Lookism — Netflix Anime
Manifest: Season 4 Part 1 — Netflix Series
Arriving Nov. 5
Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste — Netflix Documentary
Arriving Nov. 6
Captain Phillips
Arriving Nov. 7
Deepa & Anoop: Season 2 — Netflix Family
Arriving Nov. 8
Behind Every Star — Netflix Series
The Claus Family 2 — Netflix Film
Minions & More Volume 2
Neal Brennan: Blocks — Netflix Comedy
Triviaverse — Netflix Special
Arriving Nov. 9
Angels & Demons
The Crown: Season 5 — Netflix Series
FIFA Uncovered — Netflix Documentary
The Railway Man
The Soccer Football Movie — Netflix Film
Arriving Nov. 10
Falling for Christmas — Netflix Film
Lost Bullet 2 — Netflix Film
Love Never Lies: Destination Sardinia — Netflix Series
State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith — Netflix Documentary
Warrior Nun: Season 2 — Netflix Series
Arriving Nov. 11
Ancient Apocalypse — Netflix Documentary
Capturing the Killer Nurse — Netflix Documentary
Don’t Leave — Netflix Film
Down to Earth with Zac Efron: Down Under — Netflix Series
Goosebumps
Is That Black Enough for You?!? — Netflix Documentary
Laguna Beach: Seasons 1-2
Monica, O My Darling — Netflix Film
My Father’s Dragon — Netflix Film
Arriving Nov. 14
Stutz — Netflix Documentary
Teletubbies — Netflix Family
Arriving Nov. 15
Deon Cole: Charleen’s Boy — Netflix Comedy
Johanna Nordström: Call the Police — Netflix Comedy
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure — Netflix Family
Run for the Money — Netflix Series
Arriving Nov. 16
In Her Hands — Netflix Documentary
The Lost Lotteries — Netflix Film
Mind Your Manners — NETFLIX SERIES
Off Track — Netflix Film
Racionais MC’s: From the Streets of São Paulo — Netflix Documentary
The Wonder — Netflix Film
Arriving Nov. 17
1899 — Netflix Series
Bantú Mama
Christmas With You — Netflix Film
Dead to Me: Season 3 — Netflix Series
I Am Vanessa Guillen — Netflix Documentary
Pepsi, Where’s My Jet? — Netflix Documentary
Arriving Nov. 18
The Cuphead Show!: Part 3 — Netflix Family
Elite: Season 6 — Netflix Series
The Great British Baking Show: Holidays: Season 5 — Netflix Series
Inside Job: Part 2 — Netflix Series
Reign Supreme — Netflix Series
Slumberland — Netflix Film
Somebody — Netflix Series
The Violence Action — Netflix Film
Arriving Nov. 21
My Little Pony: Winter Wishday — Netflix Family
StoryBots: Answer Time — Netflix Family
Arriving Nov. 22
LEGO: City Adventures: Season 4
Trevor Noah: I Wish You Would — Netflix Comedy
Arriving Nov. 23
The Boxtrolls
Blood, Sex & Royalty — Netflix Documentary
Christmas on Mistletoe Farm — Netflix Film
Lesson Plan — Netflix Film
The Swimmers — Netflix Film
Taco Chronicles: Cross the Border — Netflix Documentary
The Unbroken Voice — Netflix Series
Wednesday — Netflix Series
Who’s a Good Boy? — Netflix Film
Arriving Nov. 24
First Love — Netflix Series
The Noel Diary — Netflix Film
Southpaw
The Vanishing
Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor
Arriving Nov. 25
Blood & Water: Season 3 — Netflix Series
Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich — Netflix Documentary
Arriving Nov. 28
The Action Pack Saves Christmas — Netflix Family
Arriving Nov. 29
The Creature Cases: Season 2 — Netflix Family
Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields — Netflix Documentary
Romesh Ranganathan: The Cynic — Netflix Comedy
Arriving Nov. 30
A Man of Action — Netflix Film
My Name Is Vendetta — Netflix Film
The Lost Patient — Netflix Film
Snack vs. Chef — Netflix Series
Take Your Pills: Xanax — Netflix Documentary
What’s leaving Netflix in November 2022
Leaving Nov. 1
From Dusk Till Dawn: Seasons 1-3
Mossad 101: Seasons 1-2
Leaving Nov. 11
If Anything Happens I Love You
Leaving Nov. 13
Scary Movie 5
Leaving Nov. 14
America’s Next Top Model: Seasons 21-22
Survivor: Season 16: Micronesia
Survivor: Season 37: David vs. Goliath
Leaving Nov. 15
Suffragette
The Green Inferno
Leaving Nov. 18
Donald Glover: Weirdo
Goosebumps: Seasons 1-4
Goosebumps: Specials
Leaving Nov. 30
Bridget Jones’s Baby
Clueless
The Color Purple
Hancock
He’s Just Not That Into You
Ink Master: Seasons 3-4
Knight Rider 2000
Knight Rider: Seasons 1-4
Stargate SG-1: Seasons 1-10