>>94223357I think it stems from Roger Rabbit, which is the earliest "fictional characters hanging out with real people" movie I can recall.
There was also Space Jam, Thomas and the Magic Railroad in and the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie back in 2000, and then again with Looney Tunes: Back in Action in 2003. The genre kind of went dead for a while until Disney made a hit out of nowhere with Enchanted in 2007. Sony's entire creative process is basically "do what other animated studios did, but with established characters and modern pop culture references".
It's a lot easier than actually knowing the source material and making a creative, nuanced story with them. You get the cheap "fish out of water" story, exaggerate the characters' most recognizable traits, and then have them hang out with a popular actor/actress and have the movie revolve around THEM instead, just sort of reacting to the fictional characters.
