Toy Story 5 Release Date

Disney and Pixar enthusiasts are in for an exciting treat with the confirmation of the official release date for Toy Story 5. Pixar's creative head announced last summer that beloved characters Woody and Buzz Lightyear would be making a return for the fifth installment of the Toy Story series. Scheduled for a 2026 release, Toy Story 5 comes almost seven years after its predecessor, Toy Story 4, which premiered in 2019. 

 

While plot details have been kept under wraps, Tom Hanks is set to reprise his role as Woody, and Tim Allen will return as Buzz Lightyear. Disney's calendar for 2026 is packed, with the announcement of Lucasfilm's next Star Wars installment, directed by Jon Favreau, titled The Mandalorian & Grogu, slated to hit theaters on May 22, 2026. Additionally, Dwayne Johnson's Moana is set for release on July 10, 2026, and Tron: Ares will debut on October 10, 2025. Over the next couple of years, Pixar has plans for two sequels to grace the silver screen. Inside Out 2 is set to premiere this summer, featuring returning voice talents Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and Lewis Black as Joy, Sadness, and Anger, respectively. The sequel also introduces new cast members, including Tony Hale as Fear, Liza Lapira as Disgust, Maya Hawke as Anxiety, Ayo Edebiri as Envy, Adèle Exarchopoulos as Ennui, and Paul Walter Hauser as Embarrassment. Mark your calendars for June 19, 2026, as Toy Story 5 promises to bring back the beloved characters for another thrilling adventure. 

Trivia

• Buzz Lightyear Almost Had a Different Name:  Our favorite space ranger wasn't always Buzz Lightyear!  His name went through many revisions, including Tempête from Morph and Lunar Larry.  You can even spot a leftover "LL" insignia on some of his early concept art.
• Toy Story Was Originally a TV Special:  Believe it or not, the story of Woody and Buzz wasn't always destined for the big screen.  After the success of their short film Tin Toy, Pixar initially planned a Toy Story TV special.  However, with Disney's backing, they set their sights on a full-length feature film.
• Andy's Last Name is a Mystery:  Though we know plenty about Andy, his last name is never revealed in the movies.  This isn't uncommon in animation, but it does add a little extra mystery to our main character.
• Woody Wasn't Always the Hero:  Early drafts of Toy Story had Woody in a much less friendly role.  He was originally conceived as a jerk, threatened by the arrival of the new favorite toy.  Thankfully, the character we know and love eventually emerged.
• Pixar Put a Lot of Work into Making the Toys Move Realistically:  The animators behind Toy Story went above and beyond to capture realistic movement for their characters.  For instance, to perfect the way the toy soldiers marched, they nailed a pair of sneakers to a board and practiced walking around!

Watch The First Trailer Released for Disney's Animated Movie Encanto

A magical house, filled with equally magical people. This one has super strength, that one can shapeshift, and another makes gorgeous flowers bloom wherever she goes. It seems like everyone in Encanto’s family has a special gift. Well, with one exception.

Disney has released the first teaser trailer for Encanto today. It’s an animated musical about the magical, charmed Casa Madrigal in Colombia where every member of the Madrigal family has a unique magical talent save Mirabel (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz), a 15-year-old girl wearing glasses that put The Mitchells vs. the Machines’ Katie Mitchell to shame. Mirabel appears to be the only one in her family without a magical gift. However, as you can see in the teaser, she’s not about to let that slow her down. “Mirabel is a really funny, loving character who also deeply yearns for something more,” Beatriz said in a statement. “She’s also not afraid to stand up for what she knows is right something I love and relate to very much. Encanto is helmed by Zootopia’s Jared Bush and Byron Howard, alongside Charise Castro Smith and Lin-Manuel Miranda. This marks Miranda’s first start-to-finish collaboration with a Disney animated project, as he was brought in to write the songs for Moana after the project was already well underway. In a previous interview with io9, the composer shared how he was excited for this film because of how much it stands out from other typical Disney animated musicals. Even though Mirabel is the protagonist, this movie is very much about the family working together and sticking by each other.  

 “One of the things that we really kind of all talked about all the creators, Charise and Byron and Jared and I we were like, ‘We really want to tell a family, an intergenerational family story with all the complexity that brings,’” Miranda said. “So often when you get into story mode, it turns into the hero and the quest and you lose characters, then you lose complexity because everything becomes the quest. And I think what’s been thrilling about this is, since that’s been our mission statement, it’s been really fun to sort of write, you know, musical family dynamics in a really fun and complicated way. I’m really excited for the world to finally see it.” 

What do you think of the first trailer for Disney's Encanto? Are you excited for the film's new music? Let us know in the comments!

Disney+ heats up competition in the Latin American SVoD market

Amid strong expectation, Disney launched its OTT video service platform, Disney+, in Latin America and the Caribbean on 17 November, as part of its ambitious global expansion plan.

The SVoD platform, which arrives to the region after a successful reception in the US, Western Europe and Southeast Asia-Pacific, is available at US$5.99 per month, although clients can also access the platform for an annual discounted fee of US$59.99.

As part of its distribution strategy, Disney is setting up partnerships with a number of telecom operators, pay-TV and media service providers across the region, such as Telecom Argentina/Cablevision, Izzi (Televisa), Globoplay in Brazil, America Movil (Claro) and Telefonica among others. These agreements will allow operators to offer the service with monthly subscription discounts and/or extended trial periods.

GlobalData estimates that SVoD unique subscription household penetration in Latin America will reach 23.6% at year-end 2020, expanding to 33.3% by 2024. Growth will be mainly driven by the increasing uptake of broadband services; viewers changing habits, from time-scheduled to on-demand content; and the emergence of new platforms featuring locally relevant content.

Global players such as Netflix and Amazon Video, for instance, have been investing on the production of local content over the last several years, while Disney+ includes Disney’s existing catalog of locally produced series and is working on several local productions.

Disney Confirmed to Host Investor's Day in October

Even though the past week has already been chock-full of news for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it looks like the news cycle might be picking up even over the course of the next few weeks. As many have noticed Saturday, Disney confirmed it's hosting a virtual Investor's Day on October 7th. Though 2020's been a disastrous year for many — Disney certainly included — the company will largely focus on the brightest spots of the past several months, including the booming popularity of Disney+ and the performance of Mulan's PVOD release in lieu of a traditional theatrical release.

 

While it won't be an event dedicated solely to Marvel Cinematic Universe — there's much more to Disney than Marvel, after all — it's fully expected the studio will at least have a slight presence at the event. That involvement isn't something that will likely be revealed until the event itself is underway. In fact, it could end up being something as little as Bob Chapek revealing production updates now that Shang-Chi and the LEgend of the Ten Rings, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki are all now back in principal photography.

Then there are questions surrounding the success of Mulan as a Disney+ Premier Access offering. Despite the live-action remake being pulled from theaters due to the ongoing global pandemic, the latest reports suggest an on-demand haul around $260 million for the House of Mouse. While those numbers came from a streaming analytics firm, it stands to reason Disney may unveil official numbers for its first major on-demand offering, especially as tensions rise in Hollywood with studios refusing to share such data in a post-coronavirus world.

The company will also likely reveal the plans on reopening Disneyland and it's company-wide procedures to ensure adequate safety for employees and visitors alike at their theme parks around the world. Disneyland was just one of a handful of parks lobbying California Governor Gavin Newsom this week to allow the reopening of amusement locations across the state.

“Over those six months, parks crafted detailed plans to reopen — they include capacity reductions, face covering requirements, robust health and safety protocols for both guests and employees, and significant modifications to support physical distancing,” California Attractions and Parks Association director Erin Guerrero said in a statement earlier this month. “These practices will promote health and safety in ways that many activities Californians are currently engaging in won’t. However, in order to reopen, parks require guidance from the state and that guidance has not been forthcoming.”

Pixar And Disney Ornaments For This Christmas Are Out Now!

July is unofficially said to be the warmup month for Christmas. Indeed a whole bunch of new and latest decorations for the upcoming season of holidays go live during this time. Well, there is a similar case with Disney, it has released a ton of latest ornaments which features some of the fan-favorites Pixar and Disney characters and stories. The wave of Disney of the ornaments for the Christmas 2020 is a big one, with over fifteen designs up for the order at the time of writing. These include ornaments for the fans of Beauty and The Beast, The Little Mermaid, Wall-E, Mulan, Fantasia, and a lot more.

Here is a display of the ornaments from which you can choose your favourite characters.

If you are interested in buying any of your Disney’s or Pixar’s favourite character’s ornament, then you can shop the entire collection of the new ornaments by Disney here. The price range of these exciting products is from $19.99 to $24.99. Given below is the full breakdown of the links that will redirect you to the new collection of Disney Christmas ornaments for Chrismas 2020.

Netflix's Plan to Combat Films Like Hamilton on Disney+ is Bombard You With Hits

When asked during their second quarter 2020 earnings call how he felt about Netflix's current outlook on balancing original content versus acquisition titles, Co-CEO Reed Hastings had a grand answer. The streaming service apparently is happy with their current ratio of originals versus acquired titles and uses their sheet amount of hits to keep viewers eyes glued to their platform, and seemingly make viewers consider them their "best friend." That's their whole strategy, even when you may stray to watch Hamilton on Disney+, you know that you can go back to Netflix for more hits than you'll find there.

"We want to have so many hits that when you come to Netflix, you can just go from hit to hit to hit and never have to think about any of those other services, right?" Hastings said. "We want to be like your primary, your best friend, the one you turn to. And of course, occasionally, there's Hamilton and you're going to go to someone else's service for an extraordinary film. But for the most part, we want to be the one that just always please you with the convenience, simple and easy choice."

Hastings also teased new projects in the works for Netflix, and though he didn't outright say what these plans entail he seemed to think that they'll maintain the streaming service's position as your best friend.

"I feel excellent about the number of big bets that Ted has coming up," Hastings added. "I'm privy to stuff that we're doing now that will come out in 2 or 3 years. And it's a little -- amazing, I mean. And some of it will turn out truly great and I'll be so proud of it. So I'm excited that we're taking those risks."

Some of those big bets that Netflix is planning are no doubt their major acquisitions from the comic book world. Back in 2017 they acquired Mark Millar's Millarworld publishing line, giving them the rights to make many of his titles into films and television shows in addition to developing brand new projects with the comic scribe. A number of titles from the writer's library are already in the works as films, live-action television, and animated series.

Recent feature film hits like The Old Guard and Extraction also seem to be the kind of films they intend to exploit as their "hits." Both films originate from popular talent, The Old Guard stars Academy Award winner Charlize Theron while Extraction hails from Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo and star Chris Hemsworth; and both are are on track to be among their most popular original titles. The formula for Netflix to win your friendship is clear, spend money on the things audiences would want to see in a theater and then give it to them at home.

‘Kingdom Hearts 4’ development plot: A Disney+ show could be underway featuring Sora

Right now, fans of the universe where classic and modern Disney franchises collide with Square Enix’s “Final Fantasy” are likely on the lookout for any update on “Kingdom Hearts 4.” It could take a while for the next game to enter full production. It appears, however, that there is something else they should look forward to – something in the form of a TV project for the Disney+ streaming platform.

‘Kingdom Hearts 4’ and TV adaptation in the pipeline?

The “Kingdom Hearts” series has been one of the most popular story-driven RPG titles over the years, thanks to the abundant Disney and “Final Fantasy” materials. However, it would be remiss not to acknowledge that “Kingdom Hearts” also became successful because of its original story focused on the journey of its main protagonist Sora.

While fans are all eyes on “Kingdom Hearts 4,” it has been reported that a potential TV adaptation of the video game series could also enter development in the near future. We Got This Covered reported that a TV series based on the RPG franchise is in the works to be released on Disney+. The publication expressed confidence in the information as it came from the same insiders who revealed the “She-Hulk” series for the streaming platform.

The “Kingdom Hearts” show is likely in the very early stages of development. The main premise would be much like in the video games with Sora, Goofy, and Donald visiting different locations. In the games, the campaigns are divided into different worlds named and designed after popular Disney IPs like “Frozen” and “Toy Story,” among others.

‘Kingdom Hearts 4’ gameplay, plot: What to expect

The same report implied that it was not decided yet how the video game narrative will be adapted into a TV series. But considering that “Kingdom Hearts 4” marks the start of a new saga, it would not be a bad idea to have the rumored Disney+ offer a fresh take on Sora’s earlier adventures throughout the Dark Seeker Saga, aka Xehanort Saga.

This way, the planned TV series have a lesser tendency of altering the franchise’s gameplay plot so much. If the show became as successful as the games, it could also explore the yet to be dissected backstory of Yozora, the newest main character in the video game series. Yozora appeared in the final moments of the “ReMind,” and all signs point to having him as a key player in the new saga to be tackled in “Kingdom Hearts 4.”