Pixar showed up to the Annecy International Animation Festival with the goods. The animation studio announced a new film slated for the summer of 2027, an original film called “Gatto” from “Luca” director Enrico Casarosa.
Pixar announced the film from the Annecy stage on Friday and showed some concept art from the film, which you can see above. “Gatto” returns Casarosa to Italy, but this time to Venice, and follows a black cat named Nero who, after years of maneuvering the canal-ridden, superstitious city, begins to question whether he’s lived the right lives. Indebted to a local feline mob boss, Nero finds himself in a quandary and is forced to forge a truly unexpected friendship that may finally lead him to his purpose — unless Venice gets the better of him first.
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Casarosa is directing the film, his follow-up to 2021’s Italian Riviera-set “Luca,” and producer Andrea Warren is also re-teaming with Casarosa on the feature. “Luca” was previously released directly to Disney+, so this should be a chance for Casarosa to stretch his legs in theaters.
Pixar also had some other announcements as part of its Annecy presentation. It showed first-look footage at another original film called “Hoppers,” which is releasing in March 2026 and is an adventure about an animal lover who creates a robotic beaver and places her consciousness inside it in order to live within the animal world. The film has Jon Hamm leading the voice cast and is directed by Daniel Chong.
Pixar chief Pete Docter also showed some sneak peek footage and released a concept art image from “Toy Story 5” and additionally confirmed that Joan Cusack would return to the franchise as Jessie. Tim Allen recently teased that Jessie was a big part of the plot of the new film, which also involves the toys competing for attention with screens and video games. And lastly, Pixar screened 27 minutes of its upcoming feature “Elio,” which opens in theaters later this month.
Before Pixar took the stage, Disney was also on hand at Annecy with its own footage from “Zootopia 2,” which confirmed that French actor Jean Reno was also making a cameo appearance in the sequel as an officer with the Zootopia Police Department. Other new characters in “Zootopia 2” include Gary De’Snake (voice of Ke Huy Quan), Nibbles (Fortune Feimster), and Dr. Fuzzby (voice of Quinta Brunson). Finally, Disney Animation chief creative officer Jared Bush announced that legendary director Ron Clements would return to Disney in a special advisory role.
