Leo is a 2023 animated musical comedy film directed by Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel and David Wachtenheim, written by Smigel, Adam Sandler, and Paul Sado, and produced by Sandler and Mireille Soria. The second animated feature from Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions, coming 21 years after Eight Crazy Nights (2002), it stars Sandler, Bill Burr, Cecily Strong, and Jason Alexander. The film tells the story of a tuatara longing for the wild and worried about dying who is taken home by different students per the assignment of a strict substitute teacher, but gets himself caught up in the troubles of each student and offers life advice to each of them.
Netflix release poster
Robert Smigel is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote the first two Hotel Transylvania films, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Leo, all starring Adam Sandler.
Smigel in 2008 with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Doug Dale on the laptop
Robert Smigel (right) performing his puppet character, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, at 2008 Republican National Convention with Associated Press production assistant (left)