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All The Animated Titles Presented At Disney’s Investor Day

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In the wake of Disney’s four-hour Investor Day presentation, two things are immediately clear. The company is not following Warner Bros. in smashing the theatrical window for all its 2021 releases. On the other hand, it is injecting some serious content into its streaming pipeline, realizing the aims of its recent restructuring.

Disney presented a hundred movies and shows across all its major brands, four fifths of which are heading to Disney+. The company is promising a theatrical release for some tentpoles, such as Pixar’s features. However, it is also exploring a version of the day-and-date model embraced by Warner Bros.: Raya and the Last Dragon, the latest from Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), will come out simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ (but for a premium, unlike Warner Bros.’s titles).

For context: Disney now has 137 million subscribers across all its streaming platforms, including 86.8 million on Disney+ (although 30% of those are Disney+ Hotstar subscribers). The House of Mouse gave a taster of its long-term strategy by announcing price hikes for Disney+, which in March will go from $6.99 to $7.99 in the U.S. and from €6.99 to €8.99 in Europe.

Below is a list of all the animated and hybrid titles, as well as remakes of classic animated features, presented at the Investor Day. For the complete list of all titles, explore Disney’s Twitter thread.

Films
  • Raya and the Last Dragon, WDAS’s next feature, will now get a simultaneous Disney+ and theatrical launch on March 5, 2021. Disney+ customers will have to pay a premium, as they did for the live-action Mulan.
  • We got a first look at Encanto, the following feature from WDAS. The film is directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush, and co-directed and co-written by Charise Castro Smith. Music is by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

  • Pixar unveiled forthcoming features. Turning Red is an original film directed by Domee Shi (Bao), the first solo woman director of a feature at the studio. The film is about a girl named Mei who transforms into a giant red panda whenever she gets excited. It comes out March 11, 2022, following Pixar’s next feature Luca (June 2021).

    "Turning Red"

  • Buzz Lightyear is getting an origin story: Chris Evans will voice the character in Lightyear, which will hit theaters on June 17, 2022. Longtime Pixar animator Angus MacLane directs.

    "Lightyear"

  • Pixar Popcorn, a collection of short films starring established Pixar characters, will hit Disney+ in January 2021.
  • The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, the first Ice Age film since 2016, will come out on Disney+ in early 2022. There was no mention of Blue Sky Studios, which produced the previous films in the franchise, and was acquired by Disney as part of the 21st Century Fox deal.
  • Another Fox franchise, Night at the Museum, is getting an animated installment, to be released on Disney+ in 2021. Shawn Levy returns as director.
  • The Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise is getting its first fully animated feature, which will come to Disney+ in 2021.

    Diary of a Wimpy Kid

  • The hybrid Disney+ film Chip ‘N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers will bring the chipmunk duo back for a new adventure. Akiva Schaffer directs; John Mulaney and Andy Samberg star.
  • Disney gave updates on the slate of remakes of its classic animated features. There were sneak peeks of Pinocchio, a hybrid live-action/animation film starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis, and Peter Pan & Wendy, starring Yara Shahidi and Jude Law and directed by David Lowery. Both are bound for Disney+.

  • Barry Jenkins’ upcoming prequel to The Lion King (2019) and the remake of The Little Mermaid were mentioned; there’s no word that those two are going straight to streaming.
Series
  • Both Pixar and WDAS are expanding to series work. Pixar’s initial slate includes Dug Days!, an Up spin-off due in fall 2021, and a series in the Cars franchise following in fall 2022. Both will be released on Disney+.
  • Then there’s Pixar’s first original series, Win or Lose, which follows a middle school softball team in the week leading up to their championship game. Each episode is told from the perspective of a different character. The series, which launches on Disney+ in fall 2023, is created by story artists Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates.

    Win or Lose

  • Four WDAS series were unveiled. Baymax! is set for early 2022. Zootopia+ and Tiana will follow later in the year, with a series based on Moana coming out in 2023. All are for Disney+.

    WDAS series

  • WDAS is collaborating with pan-African entertainment company Kugali on Iwájú, a science fiction series coming to Disney+ in 2022. WDAS’s chief creative officer Jennifer Lee discovered the studio’s work in a BBC video. Check out some concept art from the project:

    "Iwájú"

  • Star Wars Visions, a series of ten animated shorts by Japanese anime creators, will come out on Disney+ in 2021. Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an animated original series from Lucasfilm Animation, will also come to the streamer.

  • Lucasfilm Animation and Industrial Light & Magic will be collaborating on a Disney+ special: A Droid Story. The story will introduce “a new hero guided by R2-D2 and C-3PO.”

    "A Droid Story"

  • Marvel unveiled a trailer for its animated series What If…?, which presents alternative histories for the beloved superheroes. The show comes out on Disney+ in summer 2021.

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