MVP of the Summer: Animated Snails?

Are snails the penguins of 2013?

For a while, penguins were the adorable go-to, in movies from “Madagascar” to “Surf’s Up” to the record-breaking documentary “March of the Penguins.”  But this summer, the cutest creatures in animated movies seem to be…snails.  The trailers for “Epic,” “Monsters University,” and “Turbo” feature snail characters.  Indeed, in “Turbo,” the lead is a racing snail voiced by Ryan Reynolds.  And Chris O’Dowd’s snail and his slug sidekick voiced by Aziz Ansari are the comic highlight of the film.