Credit: Disney/PixarWalt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios have been creating movies for decades, and that will continue next year with the release of Elio (2024).
What is going on with Pixar?
What movies were sent directly to Disney+?
A box office powerhouse, Pixar — like every other movie studio worldwide — had to reassess and rethink its distribution strategy when the pandemic shut down much of the entertainment industry. As such, following the theatrical release of Onward (2020) in the months prior to global lockdowns, Disney and Pixar shifted their focus to The Walt Disney Company’s streaming platform, Disney+.
A total of three Pixar films were widely distributed on Disney+. The first was Soul (2020), then Luca (2021), and finally Turning Red (2022). The direct at-home release pattern was broken by Lightyear (2022), which bombed at the box office. Disney and Pixar’s decision to send movies direct to Disney+ caused ire among Pixar creators, especially as audiences started to return to the movie theater in late 2021.
Related: Disney Pixar Admits Uncertainty: “We Won’t Make These Movies Anymore”
What is happening at the box office?
Pixar’s latest movie, Elemental (2023), has underperformed at the box office. Peter Sohn’s coming-of-age tale about two opposite elements in the world of Elemental City has failed to capture audiences as Pixar has in the past. The movie grossed $43 million in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend, making for a total worldwide gross of $59 million when adding in international territories. However, the movie is not yet released in the United Kingdom.
Reasons for Elemental‘s underperformance can be cited as opening the same weekend as Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ The Flash (2023), as well as consumer expectations of waiting for Pixar films to hit Disney+ and marketing issues. Next, Pixar’s 28th feature film, Elio, will head to the big screen.
Disney Pixar’s Elio
What is Elio about?
“For centuries, people have called out to the universe looking for answers—in Disney and Pixar’s all-new movie ‘Elio,’ the universe calls back,” The official synopsis reads (via IGN). “The original feature film introduces Elio, an underdog with an active imagination who finds himself inadvertently beamed up to the Communiverse, an interplanetary organization with representatives from galaxies far and wide. Mistakenly identified as Earth’s ambassador to the rest of the universe and completely unprepared for that kind of pressure, Elio must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms, survive a series of formidable trials and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be. ”
Related: Pixar Failure Is Due to Original Stories, Says Disney Exec
Who is in Elio?
So far, only four cast members have been announced for Disney Pixar’s Elio. The voice cast includes Sweet Tooth‘s Yonas Kibreab as the title character of Elio Solis, Ugly Betty and Superstore star America Ferrera as Elio’s mother, Major Olga Solis, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law actor Jameela Jamil as Ambassador Questa, and Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond fame as Ambassador Grigon. Adrian Molina is the director and screenplay writer for the upcoming film.
When is Elio being released?
The animated film is scheduled to be released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on March 1, 2024.
Is there a trailer for Elio?
Yes! The Elio teaser trailer, featuring Elio‘s first shot at being the intergalactic ambassador for Planet Earth, can be watched here:
Upcoming Disney Pixar Movies
What is Pixar releasing after Elio?
Following the March 2024 release of Elio, Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios will team up on Inside Out 2 (2024). Also announced at the D23 Expo 2022 in Anaheim, Southern California, Inside Out 2 will return to the world of Riley, except this time, she’s a teenager. Amy Poehler is back as Joy as is Sadness, presumably with The Office star Phyllis Smith reprising her role as the gloomy emotion.
Following Inside Out 2, Pixar has three release date slots yet to be taken by movies. Those are June 13, 2025, March 6, 2026, and June 19, 2026.
Are you looking forward to seeing Elio? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!