It may have taken The Simpsons nearly twenty years to finally release a movie, but the folks at Bob's Burgers are hoping to cut that time in half with their own feature-film; in fact, the BOB'S BURGERS movie was originally slated to hit theaters on July 17, 2020, but given the state of the world right now, its release was pushed back to April 9, 2021. Whether there are actually theaters open to screen the movie at that point in time remains to be seen, but series creator Loren Bouchard told Entertainment Weekly that he still hopes the film will debut in theaters rather than streaming, even if it has to be delayed further.
We talked about [streaming] as it pertains to the movie and we decided we really want the movie to come out in theaters because Bob’s is already on TV. Of course, we want everyone to be able to safely see it in movie theaters. We don’t want anyone to put themselves at risk. But assuming there’s a point at which everyone can go back to theaters safely, we’re excited about Bob's the movie being seen in the theater, in the dark with other people, because that’s something we’ve never been able to do before. That’s the main course that we’re delivering to people, in this case.
Loren Bouchard described BOB'S BURGERS: THE MOVIE as "a unique beast unto itself in a lot of ways," but that it will tie in with the TV series. "One kind of waters the other," Bouchard said. "There's a scenario where every little thing that drips off of the Bob's Burgers movie ends up in the show." There are definitely challenges to crafting a feature-film of a TV show that's still airing however, as Bouchard said that they're always "trying to avoid things [on the show] that you will do in the future. You really have to thread the needle in terms of the episodes you're breaking. At any moment, you not only have to not repeat past episodes but you have to not step on this future movie."
When BOB'S BURGERS: THE MOVIE does finally debut, it seems that we'll be in for a much richer animated experience. Bob's Burgers' supervising producer Janelle Momary said that they now have the time to add quite a bit of polish to the animation on the film.
The writers on the series have a limited time to do their story, outline, get it in, and get it into production. Even with our production and rewrites for TV, it is a very tight schedule. [We're] able to go back and polish, refine every word and every frame [on the film]. We have the time and we have the resources because we’re able to see it in a different space and we’re able to see in a theater and see those pixels and you don’t want those to go by, either. I think TV has set us up to make the film in a very cost-effective and efficient way, and the film has set us up to take a look at the series with a different set of creative lenses and how they can make more out of each moment.
BOB'S BURGERS: THE MOVIE is expected to hit theaters on April 9, 2021, and the eleventh season of the series is currently airing.