Ryan Reynolds leads a colorful brigade of imaginary creatures in IF trailer

Ryan Reynolds, who perfected the whole “guy talking to little animated creatures” thing in Detective Pikachu, is back at it again in the new trailer for IF. At last year’s CinemaCon, Reynolds teased that he and writer-director John Krasinski have been formulating the idea of IF for years, and compared it to the likes of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. Audiences can decide for themselves if this movie reaches that high bar when the film premieres on May 17, though the trailer is leaning more generic kids’ movie than timeless classic.

IF is about a young girl named Bea (Cailey Fleming) who, after going through a difficult time, gains the ability to see everyone’s imaginary friends (or IFs). She connects with Ryan Reynolds’ character, the only other person with this ability, and the pair set out on a mission to match abandoned IFs with new kids before the IFs disappear. Of course, wacky cartoonish hijinks and signature Reynolds quips ensue. The IFs are voiced by various A-listers including Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Bradley Cooper, Maya Rudolph, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina, Louis Gossett Jr., Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Reynolds’ and Krasinksi’s wives Blake Lively and Emily Blunt.

If you are of a certain age and certain demographic, your brain may be screaming, “This is just a worse Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends!!!” The film’s concept is extremely similar to that Cartoon Network series, and the main IF Blue (voiced by Steve Carrell) shares a name and vague resemblance to two different imaginary friends on the show. But Krasinski told Entertainment Weekly that he came up with IF because he wanted to make a more accessible movie for his kids (his previous directorial efforts being horror films) and was inspired by their active imaginations.

“It’s the first time my kids have been a part of the process,” the director explained. “So I got to talk to them very openly about, ‘I’m doing this because I see you guys having tea parties with no one, and it seems like you’re having a blast — who’s at that tea party and where is my invite?’ And they loved it. It was a really beautiful experience to get to do this alongside them. Both their imaginary friends are in the movie, which is really fun.”