Live-action remakes of animated movies have been a big trend this year, but one of the pillars of animation, Pixar, has a new movie — Elio — and we’ve got all the info you need to know on how to watch the animated family movie right now.

Pixar, which is celebrating the 30th anniversary since its first feature-length movie (Toy Story), has its 29th movie with Elio. The movie comes from some of the screenwriters of Soul, Luca and Turning Red, as well as co-directors on Coco and Turning Red. The buzz around Elio suggests that it’s another strong entry from the animation powerhouse.

Read on for everything on where, when and how to watch Elio.

How to watch Elio in movie theaters

Elio is now playing exclusively in movie theaters in the US, UK and in most movie theaters around the world.

To find out exactly when and where Elio is playing near you, check out Fandango. Available online as a website and as an app, Fandango has all of the locations where Elio is playing in your area and what showtimes are available. You can also purchase your Elio tickets ahead of time through Fandango.

Another option to not only get Elio showtime information but also potentially save some money on an Elio movie ticket is with movie theater subscriptions and memberships. Available through many US and UK movie theater chains, these programs offer moviegoers free, discounted and monthly allotment of tickets, as well as deals on concessions and other perks.

Is Elio streaming?

No, Elio is not available to stream right now.

For the time being, Elio is enjoying its exclusive run in movie theaters, but when that comes to an end, we presume that the animated movie will first be made available to watch at home via digital on-demand platforms, where people can buy or rent the movie. After that, Elio will make its eventual streaming debut on Disney Plus, where all Pixar movies are streaming.

There are no details on Elio’s at-home plans at this time, but we’ll update this post when any new information about that becomes available.

What else to know about Elio

Here is the official synopsis for Elio:

“The cosmic misadventure introduces Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession. So, when he’s beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide, Elio’s all in for the epic undertaking. Mistakenly identified as Earth’s leader, Elio must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who and where he is truly meant to be.”

The voice cast for Elio includes Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil and Shirley Henderson, with Yonas Kibreab voicing Elio and Remy Edgerly voicing his alien friend Glordon.

Elio’s co-directors are Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina, while the script was co-written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones.

As of publication, Elio has a “Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Get a preview of the movie by watching the Elio trailer directly below:

Another Pixar movie is coming to the big screen this year, as the heralded animation studio has Elio as its 2025 new movie, a space adventure with, as usual, a star-studded voice cast.

Thirty years ago Pixar made history with the first fully computer animated feature-length movie, Toy Story. To this day the studio remains among the pinnacle of animation in Hollywood. In that time the studio has made countless animation classics and box office hits, including 2024’s Inside Out 2. Elio will look to add to that legacy.

Find everything you need to know about Elio directly below.

Elio how to watch

Elio is now playing. Here's everything you need to know on how to watch Elio.

Elio cast

Pixar has put together an impressive voice cast of familiar actors, including recent Oscar-winner Zoe Saldana, who voices Aunt Olga. She’s joined by Pixar alum Brad Garrett (Finding Nemo, Ratatouille) as Lord Grigon, Jameela Jamil (The Good Place) as Ambassador Questa and Shirley Henderson (Bridge Jones: Mad About the Boy) as OOOOO.

There are also a couple of young rising stars providing the key voices of Elio and the alien Glordon. First is Yonas Kibreab (Sweet Tooth) as Elio and Remy Edgerly (Sing 2) as Glordon.

Elio plot

Here is the official synopsis for Elio:

“For centuries, people have called out to the universe looking for answers — in Disney and Pixar’s all-new feature film Elio, the universe calls back! The cosmic misadventure introduces Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession. So, when he’s beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide, Elio’s all in for the epic undertaking. Mistakenly identified as Earth’s leader, Elio must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions, and somehow discover who and where he is truly meant to be.”

Elio was written by Adrian Molina, who previously wrote the Pixar hit Coco.

Elio trailer

Watch the trailer for Elio right here:

A second trailer for Elio is now available online as well:

Elio reviews

Elio is officially "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.

Elio directors

In addition to writing the screenplay, Adrian Molina is one of the co-directors of Elio, along with Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi. Molina was a co-director on Coco, while Shi was the director of Pixar’s Turning Red. This is the first Pixar movie that Sharafian is co-directing, though she earned an Oscar nomination for the short film Burrow and previously worked on Coco and Turning Red as part of the art department.

Elio behind the scenes

Elio is produced by Mary Alice Drumm, with Pete Docter on board as an executive producer.

When we think of Super Bowl commercials we’re often thinking about funny ads promoting a product, but in recent years the breaks in between the game action have also become a place for movies to grab audiences’ attention of what’s coming soon to their local movie theater (or streamer). That will continue this year, as we are expecting a number of Super Bowl movie trailers to be shown on Sunday, February 9, for big upcoming movies like Jurassic World Rebirth, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and other 2025 new movies.

Deadline reported that Disney, Paramount and Universal Pictures have purchased 30-second spots for Super Bowl LIX. While there’s no official word on what movies from these studios are going to be previewed during the game, we can make some strong educated guesses.

Here’s a rundown of the most likely Super Bowl movie trailers you’re going to see:

Elio

The next movie from heralded animation studio Pixar, Elio is the story of a young boy who finds himself on an adventure of intergalactic proportions when he is abducted by a group of aliens. Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil and Shirley Henderson are among the voice cast for the movie. The first trailer for Elio premiered a couple of months ago, so it will be interesting to see if a Super Bowl spot will showcase any new footage ahead of the movie’s June 13 release date.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Premiering its first teaser trailer just days ahead of the big game, it seems like a pretty good bet that Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Step is going to be among the movie trailers shown on Super Bowl Sunday. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach star as the family of superheroes that are making their official Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. I wouldn’t expect anything too different than what we got in the initial teaser, though Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer was surprisingly absent in the official tease, so it would be fun if she made her debut.

How to Train Your Dragon

Many probably didn’t think we needed a How to Train Your Dragon live action movie, but the first trailer released two months ago certainly got a lot of people excited for the movie. Set to be one of Universal’s big summer movies (releasing on June 13), it wouldn’t be a surprise to see some new footage to ratchet that excitement up some more.

Jurassic World Rebirth

Dinosaurs are likely also on the table for Super Bowl movie trailers, as Jurassic World Rebirth debuted its first trailer this past week and should feature a tease at some point during the game broadcast. Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali star in this continuation of the long-running franchise that picks up a few years after Jurassic World Dominion and with a whole swath of new characters.

Lilo & Stitch

Lilo & Stitch could be another Disney title to get a quick preview during the game. Seeing as Stitch is such a trouble maker, it could be fun to see what kind of mayhem Stitch could cause related to the Super Bowl, which would be reminiscent of the original animated movie’s trailer that saw Stitch pop up in other classic Disney movies.

M3GAN 2.0

Having already shown up during the 2025 Grammy Awards, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the dancing android M3GAN make a stop at the Super Bowl as well. Whether or not it would be the same teaser that was shown during the Grammys or if we’d get a peek at some additional footage is unknown, but after being a breakout hit in 2023, M3GAN 2.0 wants to build off that success, and Super Bowl-sized platform is a good place to start.

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

The last two Mission: Impossible movies — Fallout and Dead Reckoning — premiered trailers during the Super Bowls ahead of their release, so there’s every expectation that tradition will continue with Super Bowl LIX ahead of the eighth franchise entry, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, premiering on May 23. What better way to get people excited for what could be Cruise’s final mission than by previewing the next big stunt he’s going to pull off.

Novocaine

A lot of these movies are already well-established brands, but should Novocaine get a Super Bowl trailer it could really lift the movie's profile. The action comedy stars Jack Quaid as a bank employee who has a medical condition that causes him not to feel pain. That’s a bonus as he goes to great lengths to rescue the girl he’s been dating. With a March 14 release date, a trailer could have a lot of viewers add Novocaine to their must-see list.

Smurfs

The Smurfs may be small, but their latest movie seems poised to get a big debut with a teaser trailer during the Super Bowl. This adaptation of the classic cartoon series features Rihanna, Hannah Waddingham, Natasha Lyonne, Dan Levy, Kurt Russell, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll and more as part of the cast. With a teaser premiering just days ahead of the game, all signs point to the Smurfs popping up once again on Sunday.

Snow White

Rounding out the animated classics getting a live action remake in 2025, Snow White also seems poised to make an appearance during the Super Bowl. Rachel Zegler stars as the titular princess while Gal Gadot stars as the evil queen. With a March 21 release date, Disney is going to want to drum up some more attention for the remake of its first-ever animated movie.

Thunderbolts

According to the Deadline report, Disney is planning to spotlight two of its three 2025 Marvel movies during the Super Bowl. It would make a lot of sense for Captain America: Brave New World to be one of the two as a final push ahead of the movie’s February 14 release date, most audiences are probably pretty aware of that one. Instead this could be a chance to get them excited for what’s next, Thunderbolts, which stars Florence Pugh and other Marvel “villains” getting to be the stars of their own movie.

Watch Super Bowl LIX (and likely these movie trailers) on Sunday, February 9, on Fox starting at 6:30 pm ET/3:30 pm PT. All trailers should be available online ahead of or after their airing during the game.

Pixar's list of memorable characters is a long one, and they are adding to it with their most recent movie, Elemental, as they have lined up a number of talented performers as part of the Elemental cast to bring these new characters to life.

Elemental takes place in Elemental City, where fire, water, land and air residents live out their daily lives. For the fiery Ember, she has lived her life believing that elements do not mix. But when she meets the sappy, go-with-the-flow Wade, can seeing a different side of the world open her up to a new viewpoint?

Whether you still need to watch Elemental and want to know who you'll be hearing or have already seen the movie and are looking for who voiced your favorite characters, here is a breakdown of the Elemental cast.

Leah Lewis as Ember

Ember is a strong-willed and passionate individual, though sometimes she can run a little hot. She has spent her whole life in Fire Town, expected to take over the family business and being told that elements do not mix. But is that going to change when she meets Wade?

Leah Lewis has been acting for most of her life, appearing in shows like The Good Doctor, Station 19 and Charmed. However, she is best known for her starring role in the Netflix original movie The Half of It and on The CW series Nancy Drew.

Mamoudou Athie as Wade

Wade is more of a softie compared to Ember, and it's not just because he is made entirely of water. But there is something about Ember that draws him in and wants to help her and show a side of Element City that she hasn't seen before.

Voicing Wade is Mamoudou Athie, who earned an Emmy nomination for the short-form series Oh Jerome, No, but whose other credits include Archive 81, Uncorked, Jurassic World: Dominion, Underwater and Sorry for Your Loss.

Ronnie del Carmen as Bernie Lumen

Bernie Lumen is Ember's father. He runs the family business, which he is hoping to pass off to his daughter as he eyes retirement. He is not overly welcoming to Wade when he starts hanging around Ember.

Ronnie del Carmen is a Pixar veteran, but more so in the art and animation department, working on many of the studio's movies. However, he has lent his voice to previous Pixar movies, including Inside Out and Soul.

Shila Ommi as Cinder Lumen

Ember's mother Cinder is also not a fan of mixing elements, which she reminds her daughter of throughout the story. But will her stance change? Shila Ommi voices Cinder, and her most recent credits include the Apple TV Plus series Tehran and Little America. 

Catherine O'Hara as Brook Ripple 

Brook is Wade's mom, who is very welcoming to Ember as she gets to know more about Wade and his family. Catherine O'Hara, beloved comedic actress of Schitt's Creek, Beetlejuice (and Beetlejuice 2) and Home Alone fame, is making her Pixar debut with Elemental. 

Matt Yang King as Alan Ripple

Voice acting veteran Matt Yang King is credited as voicing multiple characters in Elemental, but most prominently Alan Ripple, Wade's father; his other credited characters are Lutz and Earth Pruner. You've likely heard King's work before on Love, Death & Robots and American Dad, as well as video games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Mortal Kombat 11. 

Wendi McLendon-Covey as Gale 

Wade's boss Gale is voiced by well known TV star Wendi McLendon-Covey, she of The Goldbergs, Reno 911, Rules of Engagement and more. Among her big-screen credits are Bridesmaids, Blended, Sylvie's Love, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and, most recently, Paint. 

Mason Wertheimer as Clod

Clod is a young Earth kid who has eyes for Ember and enough self confidence to give it a try despite their age difference. Elemental is the first movie for Mason Wertheimer, whose only credit before this, per IMDb, was providing additional voices for the podcast series Past My Bedtime. 

Joe Pera as Fern Grouchwood

Fern lives up to his name, as a co-worker of Wade's who seems maligned with his job. Joe Pera is best known as a stand up comedian, though had his own TV series, Joe Pera Talks With You, that aired for three seasons. 

Pixar remains a gold standard for animated movies and has a brand new one in Elemental. The highly anticipated summer movie should be the perfect movie to take kids to, but if Pixar's track record is any indication, it should also have plenty for adults to enjoy as well.

Elemental is set in Element City, where fire, water, land and air residents live together. The story focuses on Ember, a quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with fun, sappy Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in. Elemental is the 27th feature-length Pixar movie.

Here is all the information on when, where and how you can watch Elemental right now.

How to watch Elemental in movie theaters

Elemental is now playing exclusively in movie theaters worldwide. You can find Elemental showtimes near you by checking out your local movie theater's website and seeing if and when it is playing there, or expand your options through Fandango, which shares with you all the theaters and times that Elemental is playing in your area. You can also purchase your tickets directly online through these platforms.

If you enjoy going to the movies but are looking for ways to make the experience more affordable, you should check out our guide for movie theater subscription and membership programs. These offerings, from many US and UK movie theater chains, offer movie lovers discounts on tickets (including the occasional free ticket) or a set amount of movies per month for a single fee. Deals on concessions and other moviegoing treats are also available.

Is Elemental streaming?

Though many Pixar movies were made immediately available to stream on Disney Plus over the last few years, that is not the case with Elemental. The movie is getting an exclusive run in movie theaters before it makes its way online.

When it does head to streaming, it will do so on Disney Plus. So if you want to be ready to stream the movie as soon as possible, you can sign up for Disney Plus either as a standalone streaming service or as part of the Disney Bundle. While you wait for Elemental, you can enjoy all of the other Pixar movies currently on Disney Plus.

We'll also update this page when Elemental becomes available to rent on digital on-demand.

What else to know about Elemental

The Elemental cast features the voice talents of Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie Del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Catherine O'Hara, Wendi McLendon-Covey and more. The movie is directed by Peter Sohn, who previously directed Pixar's The Good Dinosaur.

Critics have been pretty positive about Elemental (if not as laudatory as some previous Pixar entries). As of June 15, Elemental has a "Fresh" rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Watch the Elemental trailer right here to get a preview of the movie.

To paraphrase the great Billy Joel, summer means "cold beers, hot nights" and blockbuster movies.

Though the start of summer isn't until June 21, the summer movie season starts in earnest in May and runs through August. With the slate of 2023 movies coming out over the summer months, there are plenty of options for multiple visits to the movie theaters this summer.

We at What to Watch have plenty that we're excited to see over the next four months, from big action movies to alternative indie movies playing both in theaters and streaming at home. But for the purposes of this preview post, we're sticking with the big tentpole movies that give blockbusters their name.

Read on to see what movie we have ranked as our most anticipated blockbuster movie of the summer.

12. The Little Mermaid (May 26)

The Little Mermaid is absolutely something that we are looking forward to this summer. Featuring Grown-ish star Halle Bailey as Ariel and Bridesmaids funny lady Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, the movie places is the latest live-action adaptation on a Disney classic. Not only is there some long-built-up anticipation to listen to retooled versions of the hit songs "Part of Your World" and "Under the Sea," but we hear that Ursula is getting a different backstory this go around, which should prove interesting for those of us that have seen the animated movie one or 20 times. — Terrell Smith

11. No Hard Feelings (June 23)

It wouldn't be summer without a broad comedy. Throw in Jennifer Lawrence and you have our attention. In No Hard Feelings, the Oscar-winning actress stars as a down-on-her-luck delivery driver who gets the opportunity for some much needed cash if she helps bring a painfully awkward teenager out of his shell before he heads off to college. Director Gene Stupnitsky was behind the hilarious 2019 hit comedy, Good Boys, can he do it again? We've got a good feeling about this one. — Michael Balderston 

10. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (August 11)

Horror movies can no longer just be contained to Halloween season, as a number of horror movies are coming out as part of the summer blockbuster season. But the one that we're most looking forward tells a different version of a classic movie monster, Dracula.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is based on a single chapter from Bram Stoker's original novel about Dracula's journey to London, where the entire crew of the Demeter vanishes without a trace. But how does that happen? This movie will hopefully tell us in fantastically gory detail. — Michael Balderston

9. Elemental (June 16 US, July 7 UK)

This summer, Disney and Pixar are whisking us away to Element City, where citizens of all four elements — air, earth, fire and water —live and work. The golden rule seems to be that they cannot mix, which is precisely what happens when Wade (Mamoudou Athie) splashes down in Firetown after a plumbing incident gone wrong and meets Ember (Leah Lewis). 

Elemental looks every bit as creative and visually impressive as you want a new Disney/Pixar adventure to be, packed full of color and life. I'm excited to go on this next journey with our new young heroes. — Martin Shore 

8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (now playing)

It's the end of the road for Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot and Mantis. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promises to be one of the biggest hits of the summer as the Guardians face the music one last time. Speaking of music, we're excited to get another killer soundtrack from James Gunn, loaded with retro Top-40 hits as well as B-side gems. It's also Gunn's Marvel Studios swan song as he focused on his work at DC. All in all, GOTG Vol. 3 should deliver action, adventure and plenty of nostalgia as the Guardians fly off into the sunset. — Sarabeth Pollock

Read What to Watch's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 review right here, as welll as get all the info you need on how to watch the sequel.

7. Fast X (May 19)

When I think of a summer blockbuster, I think of all-out action and explosions aplenty. And this summer, we're being reunited once again with Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel) and the family in Fast X as they do battle with drugs kingpin Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), who's seeking revenge after Dom and Co. took out his father way back in Fast Five. 

Everything we've seen so far suggests we're getting all the best parts of the Fast franchise. Expect even more bombastic action and souped-up supercars as Dom and his crew take on their most terrifying foe yet. — Martin Shore 

6. Barbie (July 21)

The hype around Barbie has been huge, largely due to the fact that it's got such an intriguing ensemble cast. Stars like Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Helen Mirren, Simu Liu, Michael Cera, Kate McKinnon, John Cena, Alexandra Ship, Emerald Fennell and Emma Mackey are all part of the big line-up. 

With Little Women's Greta Gerwig at the helm, we certainly have a lot of faith that she will deliver one of the biggest summer movies, transporting us to the colorful, whimsical world of Barbieland and beyond. There's still a bit of mystery surrounding the movie and we can't wait to see what happens. — Lucy Buglass

5. The Flash (June 16)

The Flash is one of the greatest Hollywood mysteries we've seen in a long time. Its behind the scenes drama of multiple directors, release dates, complications with Ezra Miller and the new direction of DC movies is fascinating. Then there's Tom Cruise, who hasn't made a movie with Warner Bros. since Edge of Tomorrow so has no real reason to lie, raving about the movie. Amid all the changes at Warner Bros. Discovery, The Flash has stayed afloat. Does it truly have the goods to back all that up? We can't wait to find out. — Michael Balderston

4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (June 2)

We've seen plenty of Spider-Man movies before, but we had never seen anything like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse when it hit screens in 2018. Five years is a long time to wait, but we are finally getting to continue Miles Morales' story with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is set to feature more alternate dimension Spider-Men and Women than you can sling a web at. Even in a summer with the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie and the much hyped The Flash, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is our most anticipated superhero movie of the season. — Michael Balderston 

3. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30 US, June 28 UK)

Now, this is seriously exciting! Harrison Ford is swashbuckling his way onto the screen for a final glorious time as Indiana. The buzz around the movie, set in the middle of the Space Race, suggests this is going to be a corker and hopefully get near the heights of the first movie, Raiders of the Lost Arc. Obviously, there are some Nazis thrown in — "Nazis. I hate these guys" — with Mads Mikkelsen starring as the chief villain. Plus Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins the party as Indiana's goddaughter Helena and the legendary John Williams is providing the score. — David Hollingsworth

2. Oppenheimer (July 21)

I'll be the first to admit how disappointed I was with Christopher Nolan's last movie, Tenet, but that does not damper the excitement over Oppenheimer one bit. This star-studded movie (Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Gary Oldman and more) is not your typical blockbuster fare — focusing on the "father" of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer — but Christopher Nolan does not do small, so we can only expect he is going to tell an epic story. Oh, and he reportedly recreated a nuclear explosion without CGI, and that we've got to see on the big screen. — Michael Balderston 

1. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (July 14)

Can Tom Cruise have the biggest summer blockbuster two years in a row? That's TBD, but at the very least Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is our most anticipated summer blockbuster of 2023. The Mission: Impossible franchise has been on an absolute tear with its last few movies, and Dead Reckoning is the first of the planned two part conclusion for the franchise and features what is being described as Tom Cruise's biggest stunt yet. Tom Cruise putting life and limb on the line again for our entertainment? Count us in. — Michael Balderston 

Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase may be "to infinity and beyond," but many Pixar fans are upset that it also appears to be the strategy from Disney for the Toy Story franchise. On February 8, it was announced that Disney is working on Toy Story 5. Turns out that's not what some people wanted to hear, with a slew of people nearly begging Disney to leave the beloved franchise alone.

The return to the original Toy Story franchise comes after 2022's Lightyear bombed at the box office. The idea was that it would have been the movie that a young Andy saw that made him a Buzz Lightyear fan. Rather than being focused on the toy, it was about a real space ranger named Buzz and his adventures. The movie actually received solid reviews — "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with a 74%, and even 84% positive from audiences — but it didn't get big audiences to come and see it. It also replaced Tim Allen, who has voiced Buzz in all of the Toy Story movies, with Chris Evans.

Toy Story 5 may be a reaction to return to form, which is set to include Allen once again voicing Buzz. Allen confirmed the news in a tweet. Though he references Woody, there is no word yet on whether or not Tom Hanks is set to reprise his role in the franchise. In Toy Story 4, Woody and Buzz go their separate ways, seemingly bringing an end to one of the greatest on-screen friendships.

That actually seems to be one of the biggest things that fans are upset about with the decision to make Toy Story 5 — that Disney can't leave this franchise alone even though they had two perfect opportunities to conclude it.

The first was with Toy Story 3, which saw Andy grown up and heading off to college and passing the toys on to a new owner, a young girl named Bonnie. Then, with Toy Story 4 (which some fans already think was unnecessary), Woody realizes his time as a child's toy is up and finds a new purpose in life, saying goodbye to his long-time friends.

Toy Story wasn't the only franchise Disney announced was getting a sequel recently, as new movies in the Frozen and Zootopia universes are on the way as well. Zootopia just got some new content recently with Zootopia Plus in 2022.

While fans absolutely have a point that Disney and Pixar seem to just keep returning to Toy Story whenever they have a misstep, we do have to acknowledge that they have yet to really make a bad Toy Story movie. Toy Story 4 has the lowest Rotten Tomato critic score, but it still earned a 97%.

Still, fans seem worried that the luck will run out. Here are some of the reactions to the announcement:

You can stream all of the Toy Story movies on Disney Plus right now. 

Come in Star Command. The new Buzz Lightyear inspired movie, aptly titled Lightyear, has landed. The latest movie from Pixar and one of the biggest family summer blockbusters of the 2022 movie slate is now playing worldwide, so fans are probably wondering about their best viewing options for this new take on a beloved Toy Story character. Well, we’ve got you covered on that.

Here is everything that you need to know about how to watch Lightyear.

How to watch Lightyear in movie theaters

Lightyear is still playing exclusively in movie theaters around the world.

To find showtimes for Lightyear near you, check your local movie theater’s websites or Fandango.

If you’re excited about Lightyear but not the movie theater ticket price, a way to get a discount or save on trips to the movies is through a movie theater subscription or membership deals. These offerings from theater chains in the US and the UK allow for participants to get a certain number of movies a month for a flat fee and/or provide discounts for tickets and concessions, as well as additional movie experience perks.

Is Lightyear streaming?

Lightyear may not be available to stream right this minute, it's arrival to digital platform is quickly approaching, including a streaming debut this August.

Disney Plus has announced that Lightyear is going to debut on the streaming platform on August 3.

Lightyear is actually the first movie since lockdowns began in 2020 to get a movie theater run before being available to stream. Soul, Luca and Turning Red all premiered exclusively on Disney Plus, but they are soon going to be joined by the latest Pixar entry.

If you're interested in subscribing to Disney Plus to watch Lightyear or any of the other movies and TV shows the streaming service has, you can do so by signing up for the streaming service by itself, as part of the Disney Bundle with Hulu and ESPN Plus or with Hulu with Live TV, where Disney Plus is a standard feature.

It is not clear when Lightyear is going to be made available for digital on-demand purchases for non Disney Plus subscribers, but we’ll update this page when info is available.

What else you need to know about Lightyear

Though it’s based on Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear, Lightyear isn’t a space adventure following the toy. Instead, director Angus MacLane has described Lightyear as the movie that would have inspired the toy Buzz Lightyear. Check out the trailer for Lightyear right here:

Chris Evans jumps into the Space Ranger suit in place of Toy Story’s Tim Allen, who has voiced Buzz Lightyear from the beginning. Evans is joined in the voice cast by Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, Peter Sohn, Uzo Aduba, Bill Hader and James Brolin. 

Pixar isn’t heading back to movie theaters just yet, as Turning Red, the animation studio’s next movie, will skip theaters and premiere exclusively on Disney Plus instead. Turning Red will be available to all Disney Plus subscribers on March 11.

Turning Red is about Mei Lee, a confident, dorky 13-year-old torn between staying her mother’s dutiful daughter and the chaos of adolescence. Her protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming, is never far from her daughter—an unfortunate reality for the teenager. And as if changes to her interests, relationships and body weren’t enough, whenever she gets too excited, she “poofs” into a giant red panda! Watch the trailer below. 

Turning Red features the voice work of Rosalie Chiang as Mei Lee and Sandra Oh as her mother Ming. Other members of the voice cast include Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, James Hong, Orion Lee, Ava Morse and Wai Ching Ho. The movie is directed by Domee Shi, who directed the Oscar-winning animated short Bao.

If you want to be able to watch Disney Plus, you will need to be a subscriber. The streaming service costs $7.99 per month ($79.99 for a full year) as a standalone service, or it can be bundled with ESPN Plus and Hulu for a single monthly fee of $13.99. Disney Plus is also now included as part of the Hulu with Live TV streaming service, which starts at $69.99 per month. In international markets where Disney Plus is not available, Turning Red will still play in theaters.

Disney announced the news on Jan. 7, as the U.S. and other countries around the world continue to deal with a surge of COVID cases as a result of the omicron variant. In its announcement, Disney specifically mentions delayed box-office recovery, particularly for family films as the reason for the switch from a theatrical to streaming release for Turning Red — they do not specifically mention the omicron variant.

This is the third straight Pixar movie to be released exclusively on Disney Plus in most countries, following Soul and Luca, which came out in December 2020 and June 2021. However, Pixar still has Lightyear on its 2022 docket and that is currently expected to play in movie theaters worldwide.

Pixar has crafted its own version of the Incredible Hulk with its new film Turning Red, which just dropped a teaser trailer. Even if you have a soft spot for the big green guy, it’s hard to argue that this transformation results in something much cuter. 

Turning Red is written and directed by Domee Shi, the Oscar-winning filmmaker of the Pixar short Bao; she has also previously worked as part of the animation team for Pixar’s Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4. No cast has been announced for Turning Red as of yet.

This new film centers on a 13-year-old girl, which is awkward enough, but she also has to deal with the fact that whenever she gets too excited she turns into a giant red panda.

The teaser showcases this transformation as our hero is getting ready to take a test in school when she notices that her overbearing mom has gone full helicopter parent and is spying on her from outside the window. This draws the attention of the class and in her embarrassment she transforms. Using the Backstreet Boys song “Larger Than Life,” makes for a fun preview. Check out the full teaser below.

Turning Red is the next film on Pixar’s docket, scheduled for a March 11, 2022, release date.

Pixar’s most recent film was the well-received Luca, which debuted on the Disney Plus streaming service for free. The release of major titles for free on Disney Plus or for a $30 fee as premium access, like Black Widow, has been a strategy for the Mouse House during the pandemic. It will be interesting to see how they balance theater and streaming once theaters are back operating at full capacity, as most believe they will be when Turning Red is released.

At the very least, we know that Turning Red will find its way to Disney Plus at some point, as it is the home of all things Disney, which includes Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. Disney Plus is priced at $7.99 as a stand-alone service, but consumers can also opt for a bundle that includes ESPN Plus and Hulu for a total of $13.99.

This article contains extensive spoilers for Luca and minor spoilers for ParaNorman, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

Luca is, for all intents and purposes, a good film. It’s a cute, relatively low-stakes affair that isn’t as showy or even necessarily as inventive as Pixar’s best attempts, but it’s an enjoyable coming-of-age film nonetheless. What makes it stand out among Disney’s animated catalog, though, is that it is a pretty obvious attempt at tackling queer themes in a family-oriented film, which should be a laudable step forward for one of the largest entertainment companies in the world in recognizing and validating a sizeable percentage of their overall underrepresented audience.

Too bad Luca also aggressively pushes its queer themes into subtextual depths, preventing them from breaking surface even as they drive the entirety of the film’s emotional current.

If you didn’t catch this subtext upon first watching Luca, allow me to recap the plot, but keep in the back of your mind that Luca and Alberto’s status as sea monsters and adventurous personalities functions as a loose analog for queer identity. The film opens on Luca, an adolescent sea monster who wonders if there’s more to life than the cloistered role as a shepherd that his family foists upon him. After meeting another adolescent sea monster named Alberto, Luca breaks his family’s taboo and ventures onto the land, adopting human appearance and developing a close bond with Alberto as they endeavor to build the perfect Vespa together. Upon discovering Luca’s exploration beyond the confines of their safe home, Luca’s mother threatens to send Luca away with his deep-sea dweller uncle, hoping that the experience will convert Luca to a less adventurous disposition.

So Luca and Alberto run away to the nearby human-populated town, where they become embroiled in an annual racing competition with the goal of using the prize money to buy a Vespa of their own so that they may travel together. They attempt to assimilate into broader human society in spite of the town’s fear and revulsion toward sea monsters, even though there's an ever-present risk that touching water will reveal their true forms. They befriend fellow racer Giulia, and as she and Luca grow closer over their mutual love of learning, Alberto becomes jealous for reasons that he cannot fully articulate. Giulia’s father is an avowed sea monster hunter, though he unwittingly comes to love the boys whom he does not suspect are the objects of his ire. The town bully, Ercole, despises the outsiders as a threat to his role as the dominant masculine figure among the town’s children, even though he can’t pinpoint what about Luca and Alberto he finds so threatening.

In the end, as the boys finish the race at the cost of their anonymity, they find themselves face to face with the town-turned-mob. However, in contrast to Ercole’s feelings of vindication for having sussed out something off about Luca and Alberto, Giulia’s father lowers his weapon and points out that the boys have won the race, a tacit reevaluation of his prejudices against sea monsters. Following his lead, the town celebrates and embraces the victory. A pair of old ladies in the crowd even reveal themselves to be sea monsters, implying that they had been present all along without most people even realizing it. In one of the film’s closing scenes, Luca’s grandmother rather bluntly lays out the moral of the story to Luca’s overprotective parents: The world at large may never fully accept Luca as he truly is, but he is more than capable of finding his own friends and making community for himself in spite of others’ hatred. He’ll be just fine as he explores the world and finds himself in the process.

There are other minor points that reinforce its broader themes, but it’s fairly obvious even from this truncated outline that Luca is a story about coming-of-age, hiding one’s true self, hoping to assimilate into broader culture for fear of others' violent prejudices, and ultimately finding acceptance, not from everyone, but from enough people who matter that you can stand up to that prejudice. This is about as blatantly metaphorical of common queer experiences as mainstream filmmaking gets, to the point where it’s hard to believe it’s anything but intentional. I will not speculate as to the sexualities of any of the filmmakers, but this feels like a very purposeful translation of lived experiences into allegory, if not those of the writers, then of people to whom the writers listened and understood.

So why, exactly, aren’t Luca and Alberto gay characters?

The film as a whole is largely aromantic, which is not in itself a bad choice for a film marketed to children. The fact that there is no sense of attraction between Luca and Giulia is a refreshing change to a character archetype that another version of this film would assume is the default love interest as the only prominent female character the same age as the lead. But when considering the sheer scope of the queer subtext on display here, it seems weird that no romantic energy is on display in the intense friendship between Luca and Alberto, especially when Alberto starts to see Giulia’s friendship with Luca as a threat to their plans to run away together. In fact, the film goes out of its way to ensure that Luca and Alberto were temporary influences on one another, contriving their separation in a finale that, while satisfying in resolving their respective character arcs, reinforces the idea that there was nothing more between them than an intense period of self-discovery through the lens of their friendship.

So it’s a little strange that this tale with obvious queer themes does not bring its allegory into focus with obvious queer characters, but that in itself is not so strange in the history of film. After all, the horror genre has a long history of queer creators inserting their experiences through allegorical parallels into films that would not otherwise have been made for mass consumption. Allegory is often the refuge for queer creatives and audiences when the relatively brief history of the medium has largely coincided with puritanical rejection of anything openly not cisheteronormative.

But with regards to Luca, those defenses break down in a couple of key respects. First and foremost, Luca would not even be a forerunner in family animation to explicitly recognize the queer sexuality of its characters. ParaNorman, the first American theatrical animated film to have a canonically gay character, is nearly a decade old by now. The Mitchells vs. The Machines, a film that isn’t even specifically about queer identity, has a queer protagonist. In television, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power spent multiple seasons developing romantic tension between hero Adora and antagonist Catra, only for the two young women to end up together by the end and for the cast to be littered with openly queer characters along the way. There are numerous other examples, so Luca acknowledging its own queerness would be nothing new to the medium or to the film’s target demographic.

However, we’re also dealing with The Walt Disney Company, which is where the excuse truly breaks down. Disney absolutely loves to talk out both sides of its mouth when it comes to queer representation in its properties. From embracing decades of queercoding in its villains as a sort of camp sub-brand marketed to the gays who identified with them growing up, to the decade-long cycle of breathless news stories about how Disney has finally included a gay character in one of their films—only to have a single effeminate man receive a blink-and-you-miss-it confirmation that they might have a male partner—Disney loves to play to a queer audience with the conviction that we will be satisfied with scraps of subtlety. 

They quite notably did this with the early marketing for Luca, which did not even advertise the sea monster fantasy of the premise, whereas the film opens with the existence of sea monsters as a given fact of the setting. The originally released logline only shared that it was a story of two boys coming of age and growing close in an Italian seaside town, inviting immediate and obvious comparisons to modern queer staple Call Me By Your Name. Luca even shares a first name with Call Me By Your Name’s director, Luca Guadagnino. To think crafting this first impression with the public was unintentionally queerbaiting assumes a pretty large amount of naiveté on Disney’s part, which history shows they do not have.

The obvious reason why they would continue to play games with their queer audience is economic. Disney risks tarnishing their family-friendly brand with the Evangelical audience, not to mention the possibility of losing the ability to show the film internationally in markets that forbid homosexual content, so abandoning their ability to plausibly deny the queerness of their properties is a strategy meant to ensure that they lose as few potential customers as possible while still ostensibly "making strides" for a generally more accepting culture. But Disney, being the corporate entertainment monolith that it is, has much more power over the market than any queer auteur had in sneaking queer themes into their otherwise commercial work. If any company has the power to stand for LGBTQ+ equality in spite of the potential economic consequences, it’s the one that has made a point of buying up competing brands and studios to the point of market domination. 

Luca didn't even end up being a theatrical release, going straight to Disney+ in a bid to draw people to the platform as theaters still recover from the past year. Though Disney frames this as a cautious way to beneficently allow families access to their latest animated feature without risking their safety in theaters, it's just as likely that the company was nervous that the film had gone too far in its queer subtext and that it was safer to lose the film in the sea of its other content without having to face the backlash that a larger marketing push would have provoked. That is pure speculation, but given Disney's track record for avoiding conservative alienation in the name of "family friendliness," it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

If you like Luca, the point I’m making is not that you should dislike the film. I enjoyed it myself for the slight adventuresome romp that it was, frustrations with its cultural cowardice notwithstanding. Alas, it would do us no favors to ignore how Disney, Pixar, and the creative talents behind Luca have little in common with allegorical auteurs of less accepting times. Allegory has traditionally been a sword to cut through cultural prejudices to tell a story to an audience otherwise hostile to hearing it. Disney uses allegory as a shield to avoid having to address the prejudices of a shrinking percentage of its audience. Luca is simply the furthest Disney has ever dared to push its own arbitrarily imposed envelope, but it’s still not nearly far enough.

At heart, just about every Pixar film is about the value and necessity of friendship. From the rivalry-turned-bro-down of Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear to the strange connection between Carl Fredricksen and an eight-year old Wilderness Explorer, Pixar films have explored friendship in vastly different ways through over 25 years of films. So in some ways, their latest original film Luca sets out to walk a very familiar path with its core relationships. But this film is surprisingly tender and sweet, an endearingly low-stakes story that's all the more real and keenly felt in spite of two of its lead characters being walking, talking, swimming sea monsters living off the coast of Italy.

Luca is the name of our lead, a shy but curious young sea monster voiced by Jacob Tremblay. Luca and his family are, like the “land monsters” they’re sometimes terrified of, Italian. His family's proud of living underwater. But Luca is in desperate need of a true friend and the opportunity to do anything new, and when he encounters the outwardly confident Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer of It) floating around in a deep-sea diving suit, he’s compelled to follow his new pal above the surface of the water. There, he’s surprised to learn that he, and any sea monster like him, transforms into a human...as long as he’s not wet. Luca and Alberto both share a dream of traveling beyond their underwater homes, and their growing friendship becomes the foundation for a summertime-set exploration of the human world.

Pixar films don’t often have world-ending stakes -- it’s not like Marvel movies where every human life is often at stake in one way or another. But something about the mission on which Luca and Alberto embark -- wherein they team up with a human girl to win the Portorosso Cup, a triathlon in the small village overlooking their watery home, in hopes of winning a Vespa -- is charming in exactly how minimalistic it feels. The story, credited to Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones, feels as small-stakes as that of the 2011 short La Luna, whose director Enrico Casarosa has now made his feature debut with this film. Luca isn’t about anything more than two friends testing the boundaries of their relationship and growing stronger in the process, which is both extremely relatable and a welcome shift from films that seem steeped in death, such as Soul and Onward.

But Luca doesn’t need to be about anything else. As a coming-of-age story, it stands out far more than some other recent Pixar entries, and has the distinct sense of having been inspired by Casarosa’s own childhood. Fans of La Luna may also recognize some similarities in the Aardman Animations-inspired character design -- Luca, when he’s human, looks much like a slightly older version of that short’s lead, and a gruff one-armed fisherman in the village of Portorosso has the same bushy-eyebrowed look of the father from the same short. Luca wears its cultural inspirations on its sleeve, but without ever feeling like a cut-rate ripoff. Some of the inspirations are obvious enough for anyone with a healthy enough awareness of animation -- Portorosso is no doubt named in homage to Hayao Miyazaki’s excellent animated film Porco Rosso (itself set in Italy), and a good deal of the human/sea monster connection recalls Miyazaki’s Ponyo. 

The magic of this movie is that it transcends formula. The ingredients of a Pixar animated feature are all quite evident here, yet Luca is fresher, more vibrant, and more heartfelt than recent stories from the studio that either dredge up unnecessary sequels to excellent early films in the studio’s history or seem to be marking off boxes from a checklist. And unlike Soul, a heady entry that failed to effectively grapple with the race of its lead character, Luca is distinctly a film the whole family can enjoy, with a greater emphasis on the younger set. 

In the early advertisements, much was made online about how the relationship between Luca and Alberto was reminiscent of a gay romance such as Call Me By Your Name. (This film’s lead sharing a first name with the director of that romance only helped the connections.) Though Casarosa has been quick to clarify that the friendship is intended to be platonic, it’s equally easy to see subtextual allusions to the way each of them needs the other being deeper and more profound than simple friends. The same goes for a key moment near the end when a local bully decries Luca and Alberto, simply for being different. On the surface, that comment is simply about Luca and Alberto being sea monsters. But if you’re looking for something beneath the surface, it’s there in the film, not just the marketing.

Romantic or not, Luca is a lovely ode to the power of friendship. Luca and Alberto do fit the mismatched-buddy archetype now standard in Pixar’s films, but they break out of those same molds thanks not only to the great voice work from both Tremblay and Grazer, but because the script and direction treat them as truly three-dimensionally emotional characters. Luca is, putting it simply, the best film Pixar Animation Studios has made since Coco, if not surpassing that one as well. It’s a genuine shame that such a beautifully animated and richly emotional film won’t be available to see on the big screen. The good news is that it’s going straight to Disney+ without a premium upcharge. But frankly? Luca would be worth the upcharge. It’s a perfect summer story.

Back in January, on an earnings call, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, reaffirmed the streamer’s commitment to becoming an animation powerhouse. Specifically, he said, Netflix had its sights set on Disney: “We're very fired up about catching them in family animation, maybe eventually passing them, we'll see. A long way to go just to catch them." At the time, Netflix had released only three original animated features to date, but just a few months earlier, in an interview with Variety, Netflix Co-CEO Reed Hastings set out an oversized goal. “Our animation ambition right now is not just to step up and be as big as someone who’s doing it today,” Hastings told the trade. “We’re on a path to be releasing six animated features a year, which no major studio has ever done, on top of the very healthy slate of animated series.” This is indeed ambitious; most major animation studios are lucky to get one or two original animated features out the door per year. This output would be unprecedented. But it’s also completely within reach. Here’s how: 

Savvy Partnerships

The Mitchells vs. the Machines, an imaginative, highly original animated comedy debuted on Netflix and was pretty much all anybody was talking about on Twitte. But the movie isn’t a Netflix original. Instead, it was produced by Sony Pictures Animation and had been tentatively earmarked for a theatrical release last fall. That didn’t happen for obvious reasons, and instead Sony forged an alliance with Netflix. And it’s not a one-off either – later this summer, Netflix will debut Wish Dragon, a Chinese co-production (it was released in the Middle Kingdom earlier this year); and Vivo, directed by The Croods filmmaker Kirk DeMicco and featuring new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda (who also stars as a singing kinkajou). Sony also has Hotel Transylvania: Transformania opening this summer, which still has a July theatrical release date (for now). But if the winds change, it’s easy to envision the fourth and final entry in the lucrative Hotel Transylvania franchise making its debut on the streamer.

And the partnership with Sony Pictures Animation is one of a number of alliances with top tier animation studios around the world that Netflix has forged in recent years. In the next few months, new projects will be unveiled from studios like Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon (creators of the Oscar-nominated Wolfwalkers) and the venerated British studio Aardman Animation (creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep). And last fall, Netflix announced a strategic partnership with a number of high-profile Japanese animation studios to produce top-tier anime (including Studio Mir and Mappa, the studio responsible for the recent series Yasuke), broadening the scope of what Netflix Animation means while diversifying the kind of stories they could tell. Thinking internationally will serve Netflix well as it jockeys for animation dominance.

It’s also worth noting that they have teamed, in smaller partnerships, with renowned animation studios like Titmouse (who did the animation for the recent feature Arlo the Alligator Boy), Mercury Filmworks, Bones.inc and Chinese studio Pearl (formerly DreamWorks Oriental). And while their team-up with DreamWorks Animation on a bevy of animated television series is coming to a close (with DreamWorks shifting focus to Peacock, owned by their same corporate overlords Universal/Comcast), the already-created content should stay on Netflix.

A Keen Investment in Top Tier Talent

One of the things Netflix is very at is paying top dollar for the very best talent. This ethos extends to its animation division, and it has wooed some of the most groundbreaking and dependable talent in animation to the company. Klaus, the first Netflix animated feature, was directed by Sergio Pablos, a former Disney animator who had become a multifaceted figure responsible for the ideas that would become the Despicable Me franchise (for Universal) and Smallfoot (for Warner Bros). Once upon a time Oscar-winning Disney animator Glen Keane wanted to direct the story of Rapunzel for Disney; eventually Tangled was released largely free of his involvement. He finally made his directorial debut with Over the Moon for Netflix last year and netted himself an Oscar nomination.

Like its live-action film division, Netflix Animation has become a place where creators who have had long-standing passion projects can finally get them made. Later this year, Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio will finally be released via Netflix (the streamer will also release the feature-length finale to his Trollhunters TV series this summer), and there will also be a new stop-motion movie by the wizardly Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas whose last film was Coraline back in 2009. And Richard Linklater, whose experimental animated features are always a joy, is prepping Apollo 10 ½ after a live-action version of the project fell apart.

And time and time again, Netflix has been able to woo contemporary talent away from the very biggest studios. Alex Hirsch, who created Disney’s influential animated series Gravity Falls, now has a deal at the studio (he also helped out on The Mitchells vs. the Machines), where he is slated to create original series and feature films. Chris Williams, a longtime Disney filmmaker who began working with the studio in the later 1990s, and whose directorial credits include Bolt and Big Hero 6, is working on a project with the studio for 2022. Ditto Mark Osborne, whose Kung Fu Panda spawned a franchise for DreamWorks. And the big gets keep coming – recently it was announced that Ronnie del Carmen, the Oscar-winning co-director of Pixar’s Inside Out, was headed to Netflix. Darla K. Anderson, a Pixar producer who won the Oscar for Coco, headed to Netflix shortly after she picked up her trophy.

It’s easy to see why so many creative people are headed to Netflix – they are given healthy budgets with very little creative oversight (one person I talked to on background referenced how these projects aren’t “noted” to death). Since the consumer products side is relatively light, there aren’t the demands being made by toymakers or theme park divisions. While making Over the Moon, Keane didn’t have an eye towards interactive experiences or McDonald’s toys; he just had to make the best movie he could. And Netflix supports the projects once they are done, with heavy marketing pushes and awards campaigns.

Also, while I’m focusing on the movie side of things, there is just as much awesome stuff being done on the serialized side of Netflix Animation. Two of the year’s best series, full stop, are Netflix Animated series – City of Ghosts from Adventure Time vet Elizabeth Ito and Kid Cosmic, from Powerpuff Girls and Wander Over Yonder creator Craig McCracken. These are brilliant, bewildering works of insane genius and they should be treasured appropriately. And one of the biggest, most anticipated pieces of animation coming this year is a limited series on Netflix – Maya and the Three, from Book of Life filmmaker Jorge Gutierrez. Part of the fun of these Netflix projects is watching animators you admire have full reign over their projects and seeing these come to life is nothing short of thrilling.

An Eye Towards IP

Just as Pixar and Walt Disney Animation have effortlessly toggled between original features and more sturdy sequels (for every Soul there’s another Toy Story or Cars installment) and DreamWorks built its brand on the back of cultivating franchises that produced endless entries (please pause to consider there are four Madagascar films including a spin-off and five Shrek films including a spin-off), Netflix understands that the key to its continued success is branded content that is easily recognizable and translates easily to television series and movies.

Already they’ve produced animated material based on properties like Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Jurassic World and the video game series Castlevania. And they purchased Millarworld, the standalone comic book company founded by Kick-Ass and Kingsman creator Mark Millar while also forging a partnership with comic book publisher Dark Horse. And the future is filled with a diverse number of animated films and television series based on beloved preexisting properties, including but not limited to card game Magic the Gathering, Skull Island (based on Legendary’s “Monsterverse” movies), The Terminator, Brian Jacques’ fantasy book series Redwall, and videogame series Tomb Raider and Cuphead. (There’s also a Kevin Smith-produced reboot of Masters of the Universe coming very soon.) Netflix is tapping into a cornucopia of well-known, well-liked and improperly exploited properties. Clearly, their emphasis is on original material and empowering visionary, underserved artists, but they know that they need to make sure the bottom line is taken care of too. These projects are just as exciting since many of them have never been translated to animation (or any medium, really) and knowing Netflix Animation’s verve and panache, these will be very special indeed.

And that’s how Netflix has transformed from an outside player into one the most exciting, electric animation studio on the planet. And instead of attempting to compete with more well-established animation studios, they’re having to up their game just to compete. That means more innovation, experimentation and technological boundary-pushing in the years ahead. We might just be entering another golden age. How about that?

The teaser trailer for the upcoming Disney-Pixar feature film Luca was released today, along with a poster. Luca is directed by Academy Award nominee Enrico Casarosa and produced by Andrea Warren, who was involved with another Disney-Pixar feature film, Cars 3. Luca is set to arrive in theaters this summer, June 2021.

Luca follows two boys during an unforgettable summer in Italy as they grow in their friendship and comes to terms with their identities. However, this is not your standard Disney-Pixar team-up because the movie's protagonists are actually sea monsters. The teaser trailer shows Luca and his new friend, Alberto, hiding their secret from everyone else in their seaside Italian town. In this town, the fish aren’t friends; they're food. 

Disney and Pixar describe Luca as a “fun and heartwarming story about friendships, stepping out of your comfort zone and two teenage sea monsters who experience a life-changing summer.” 

It’s a teaser trailer, so there isn’t much to go off of, but the full synopsis reads as the following: 

“Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Disney and Pixar’s original feature film Luca is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta, and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.”

Luca's cast and characters 

• Jacob Tremblay is Luca Paguro, a bright and inventive 13-year-old sea monster with endless curiosity—especially when it comes to the mysterious world above the sea
• Jack Dylan Grazer is Alberto Scorfano, an independent, free-spirited teenage sea monster with unbridled enthusiasm for the human world
• Emma Berman is Giulia, an outgoing and charming adventurer who befriends Luca and Alberto
• Maya Rudolph is Daniela, Luca’s mother
• Marco Barricelli as Massimo, Giulia’s father
• Jim Gaffigan is Lorenzo, Luca’s father

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Soul exists at a strange junction of the Pixar canon. As unfair a comparison as it may be, it shares its most significant DNA with Inside Out, another film directed by Pete Docter, but is at once trying for something very different than the psychoanalysis of that film while being locked into the stylistic trappings that make the superficial similarities between the two films impossible to ignore. Soul does not live up to the raw power of Inside Out — few films could — but it has moments of classic Pixar transcendence, beats that resonate so strongly that it makes the ways in which the film doesn’t quite gel ultimately insignificant. In many ways, Soul is itself like a jazz composition, encouraging you to meditate on the spaces found between plot and structure to find peace.

Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a struggling jazz musician who teaches middle school band to pay the bills but feels his purpose in life is to make it big on the jazz club stage. After getting his big break in a jazz quartet, Joe suddenly dies, finding himself on the cusp of the Great Beyond. Feeling that his life has just begun, he flees the light at the end of the tunnel, stumbling into the Great Before, an existential nursery school for unborn souls. Through a series of misunderstandings, Joe is assigned as a mentor to the unruly Soul 22 (Tina Fey), who has resisted every mentor previous to Joe so that she can comfortably stay in pre-life limbo. Seeing 22’s redemption as his path back to Earth, Joe tries everything he can think of to get 22 to embrace the life he so desperately wants to return to.

The plot gets surprisingly more complicated than that, but the direction of that plot feels somewhat at odds with the world-building metaphysics the film is premised upon in the first act. The walking tour of the spiritual realm is certainly colorful and entertaining in its own right, but it feels divorced from the Earthbound meat of the film, where the complications of Joe’s life carry the emotional heft. Maybe it’s a design issue, where the rounded, bouncy spirits and the line-drawing higher beings of the world feel eminently more marketable than the more realistically proportioned humans of the film’s New York City, so the film feels split into two vastly different aesthetic and tonal entities that never quite emotionally reconcile. This is where Inside Out achieved a similar split so much better, since the emotional throughline of the story was both inside and out, as it were. Soul’s spirit realm is little more than high-concept first act world-building for the much stronger film to follow.

But once that second act starts, you really do start to feel what screenwriters Docter, Mike Jones, and Kemp Powers are shooting for with this story. Strip away all the expository set-up, and this is a story about a man who is looking for purpose in a world where he feels like that purpose has been denied him. The remarkable thing about Soul is that it’s somehow a frantic race against a ticking clock that has its most impactful moments when it finds the space to breathe and absorb the details of the world. Not the fantasy world it concocts, but in the real world it replicates. It provides an ethos for existence that is at once obviously simple but deeply profound, a meaning of life that appeals to the artistic soul in each of us and undercuts the idea that we are meant for any one life’s goal we’re meant to achieve. Achievement is all well and good, but that’s not what life is, or at the very least not the primary reason for living. There is some immense gravity to that message which should resonate with anyone who has had their goals diverge from their life’s path.

On a nuts-and-bolts level, Soul retains the kind of polish and entertainment value one comes to expect from Pixar’s non-franchise outings. Foxx and Fey have great comic chemistry together, and dialogue is riddled with hilarious gags and single lines that hold more emotional weight than they rightly should. The animation is intricate and detailed, and the moments where the film overlaps its material and spiritual sensibilities are really interesting for how they merge style with substance. The jazz score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is easily one of the best musical compositions to come out this year. For how disjointed as it can sometimes feel, Soul is still a great film that is far more meditative than most family-oriented entertainment and more philosophical than even the majority of Pixar’s stable. It may wrongly feel it needs to lure you in with a more exaggerated aesthetic, but when it allows you to sit with your feelings, it loses the need for such gimmickry and becomes a free-associative masterpiece.

Soul premieres on Disney+ on Dec. 25, 2020.

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Pixar's Soul — from Pete Docter, the legend behind Inside Out and Up — will make its debut on Dec. 25, 2020, on Disney+, the companies announced today. That makes it yet another major movie to skip theaters and instead premiere on Disney's streaming service instead.

The movie was previously scheduled to hit theaters on Nov. 20.

"We are thrilled to share Pixar’s spectacular and moving Soul with audiences direct to Disney+ in December," Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, said in a press release."“A new original Pixar film is always a special occasion, and this truly heartwarming and humorous story about human connection and finding one’s place in the world will be a treat for families to enjoy together this holiday season."

Earlier this year, Disney's live-action remake of Mulan also skipped theaters and launched on Disney+ instead. But Mulan was the first (and, to date, only) film to be a part of Disney's "Premier Access" program, which requires an additional fee to watch the movie, on top of the usual monthly subscription to the streaming service. Soul instead will be available for everyone on Disney+.

Soul stars Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Phylicia Rashad, Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Angela Bassett and Daveed Diggs. The original jazz score is from Jon Batiste, and the theatrical score is from Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of industrial music's Nine Inch Nails. (They also scored The Social Network.)

The film takes a look at what happens when music teacher Joe Gardner meets an untimely death and ends up "the great before, where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth."

"The world can be an exhausting and frustrating place — but it’s also full of unexpected joys, even in seemingly mundane things," said Docter, director of Soul and Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios. "Soul investigates what’s really important in our lives, a question we’re all asking these days. I hope it will bring some humor and fun to people at a time when everyone can surely use that."

Disney+ runs $6.99 a month, or $69.99 a year and is available on most every major streaming platform. Soul also will be available as part of the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle, which gets you all three of those services for just $12.99 a month.

Our full Soul review is available now.

• Everything you need to know about Disney+
• All about the Disney+ Premier Access program
• Disney+ price: What it costs where you live
• The best movies on Disney+

Pixar films rarely go on sale, and when they do, you should definitely take advantage of the moment. Thanks to last week's release of Toy Story 4 , that moment is right now. Various digital retailers from Vudu to iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon are offering a sale on all of the beloved films that have come out of the Pixar studios in the past few decades, including Toy Story 1 through 3.

Vudu is the best place to shop this weekend, as it includes every single Pixar movie on sale for only $9.99 each , other than Toy Story 4 of course. If you're not usually a Vudu user, you can connect that account to Movies Anywhere and have the movies ported over to your other connected digital libraries on sites like iTunes and Google Play.

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A collection of Disney's best animated features are on sale at digital retailers like iTunes and Vudu for a limited time. This is your chance to add movies like Aladdin, Cinderella, Pocahontas, and Moana to your collection at $10 off the usual cost.

Select Pixar films are on sale at Google Play for $8.99 each , so you could save $1 by buying there, but half of the films are more expensive at Google Play than they are at Vudu. However, $8.99 options like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles shouldn't be overlooked. Plus, it's compatible with Movies Anywhere too, allowing you to watch these films on your preferred linked account instead.

Films like Up!, Cars, Coco, Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life, and even more can be found for as low as $10 via iTunes too, as well as Amazon .