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Tag: Walt Disney Animation Studios

  • Zootopia 2 Early Box Office Tracking Predicts Massive Opening Weekend

    Zootopia 2 is going to be a huge hit at the box office.

    Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia 2 will arrive in United States theaters next month. Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, the Zootopia sequel will see Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman reprise their respective vocal roles as Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.

    How much is Zootopia 2 predicted to make during its opening weekend?

    According to Box Office Theory, Zootopia 2 is now predicted to make somewhere between $115 to $130 million during its opening weekend.

    Given that the movie is still a few weeks away from release, the numbers will likely fluctuate to some level, especially when the reviews start rolling in. Zootopia 2 will, however, be the first major studio animated release since August’s The Bad Guys 2, meaning it’s opening is almost certainly going to be big.

    In comparison, the first Zootopia movie made approximately $75.1 million in the United States and Canada during its opening weekend when it was released in 2016. It went on to rake in $1.025 billion globally.

    The official synopsis reads, “In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia 2, detectives Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) find themselves on the twisting trail of a mysterious reptile who arrives in Zootopia and turns the mammal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before.”

    The voice cast also includes Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Idris Elba, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Nate Torrence, Jenny Slate, Alan Tudyk, Maurice LaMarche, Leah Latham, Josh Dallas, Tommy Chong, Mark Rhino Smith, and Raymond Persi. Bush wrote the screenplay.

    Zootopia 2 will be released on November 26, 2025. The first movie, meanwhile, is currently available to stream on Disney+.

    Brandon Schreur

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  • Disney Gives New Looks at ‘Toy Story 5,’ ‘Zootopia 2,’ and More

    Originality is still alive at Disney, and it’s taking the form of 2026’s Hexed.

    Unveiled during the studio’s Destination 23 event, the Walt Disney Animation Studios film from Zootopia and Raya and the Last Dragon artist Josie Trinidad and Moana 2 co-director Jason Hand centers on “an awkward teenage boy and his Type – A mom,” per the logline. When they discover his oddness is actually magic powers manifesting, they learn of a secret world of magic that’ll forever transform their lives. (A premise Disney’s familiar with, as it’s similar to its Disney Channel series The Owl House.) Look for Hexed to hit the big screen in November 2026.

    Separate from Hexed, Disney also announced Blue Sky’s Ice Age franchise will return with its sixth main installment, Burning Point. Developed by 20th Century Animation, the new film will see the cast of the previous films return in their respective roles for “a dinosaur-and-lava-filled madcap adventure that takes Manny, Sid, Diego, Ellie, Scrat and the rest of the herd to visit never-before-seen corners of the treacherous Lost World.” Burning Point is set to release February 5, 2027.

    In the more immediate future, Disney showed the audience scenes from Zootopia 2, Toy Story 5, and Hoppers. Toy Story and Zootopia featured new cast members—Conan O’Brien as Smarty Pants for the former; Patrick Warburton and Yvette Nicole Brown as Mayor Winddancer and the Bearoness for the latter—and Hoppers got three clips to show off. Zootopia 2 is due out November 26, followed by Hoppers on March 5, 2026 and Toy Story 5 on June 19, 2026.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

    Justin Carter

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  • ‘Moana 2’ Debuts First 30 Minutes as Sequel’s Team Promises “Epic Scale”

    ‘Moana 2’ Debuts First 30 Minutes as Sequel’s Team Promises “Epic Scale”

    The team behind Moana 2 is ready to welcome viewers back into the powerful world of the title characters and her fellow islanders.

    During a press event held Monday at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, Calif., the filmmakers debuted the first 30 minutes from the sequel to the 2016 animated feature. After screening the footage, co-directors David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller and co-writer Jared Bush took the stage to tease the new adventures for Moana that take place three years after the first movie.

    Hitting theaters Nov. 27, Disney’s Moana 2 will include five new original songs written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, and the first 30 minutes of the film features two of the musical numbers. Reprising their voice roles from the original Moana are Auli’i Cravalho as the lead character and Dwayne Johnson as demigod Maui.

    “The opening song was really meant to be the biggest welcome back into the world of Moana,” Hand explained. “We really wanted to nail that energy. Obviously, the sound of the music is reminiscent from the first film, but also bringing us up to speed as to where Moana is at in her life now and where her island is at as well.”

    Moana 2

    Courtesy of Disney

    The sequel’s story focuses on Moana answering a call from her ancestors and assembling a small crew to set out on a treacherous ocean voyage to find a mysterious island. A later scene was also screened, showing Moana and her friends facing off against the dangerous but diminutive Kakamora tribe.

    “We really thought a lot about what it means to grow as a leader,” said Ledoux Miller. “As you mature, you learn that there are consequences to your actions. The things that you do, the choices you make, affect the people around you, and we really wanted to put Moana through her paces as a leader and have to see who she would have to be on the water when she had people with her.”

    That said, there is also time for playfulness on the journey. “We wanted to have fun, and what’s more fun than a bunch of people who don’t know how to be on the ocean, having to go up against the biggest tests possible?” Ledoux Miller added.

    The project was initially planned as a Disney+ streaming series until Disney chief Bob Iger announced that Moana 2 had instead evolved to become a feature film. The team discussed how the project changed over the course of its path to the theatrical release.

    “The main core characters and the main themes are the themes that we were setting up to tell with the series,” said Derrick. “But then we had to rightsize it in a very dramatic way to make sure it was servicing a feature format. So there were some things that didn’t exactly fit from the series to the feature. But for me, one of the things I love is that everything blends through Moana and her personal growth.”

    Bush agreed and added, “All of us felt like, it’s this unbelievable opportunity to tell this story on a very epic scale, which, in the world of Moana, is exactly what you want. The series version also had that epic quality, but knowing this version is going to be shown on the biggest screens in the world, it really allowed us to go all in on all of that.”

    The film’s team debuted the latest trailer last month at D23, where Cravalho and Johnson were involved in a musical presentation. Before that, Disney shared Moana 2 footage and behind-the-scenes stories during a presentation at the Annecy Animation Festival in France in June.

    “Maui is singing again — singing in keys that don’t exist,” Johnson told the D23 crowd. “And my hair looks fantastic in Moana 2.”

    Also returning from the original Moana voice cast are Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger and Alan Tudyk. Christina Chen and Yvett Merino serve as producers.

    Ryan Gajewski

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