An animated movie you never knew existed is a hit on Netflix

Netflix has been making an aggressive expansion into animated territory throughout 2021, acquiring a number of titles from other studios while also developing its own, and the results have been pretty mixed so far.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines received widespread acclaim from critics and spent weeks lodged in the Top 10 most-watched list, but the same can’t be said for Wish Dragon. Similarly, Vivo proved massively popular among subscribers, but the R-rated and raucous revisionist tale America: The Motion Picture was a brief flash in the pan.

Having originally premiered theatrically in Russia this past February, Extinct was then rolled out in the United Kingdom by Sky Cinema in August, before Netflix stepped in to distribute the movie worldwide. The family-friendly adventure was added to the streamer’s library on Friday, where it’s already managed to ascend to fifteenth position on the viewership rankings, as per FlixPatrol.

Co-directed by The Simpsons veterans David Silverman and Raymond S. Persi, Extinct follows two rabbit-like creatures called Flummels, who find themselves in modern day Shanghai having been transported from 1835. A Rotten Tomatoes score of 50% paints a decidedly average picture, but it’s clearly proven entertaining enough to keep younger viewers occupied over the weekend given its placing on the charts.