By John Corrado

Disney’s biannual convention D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event is currently taking place in Anaheim, California, where the Mouse House has unveiled new looks at a variety of their upcoming projects. This includes the first trailer for Disney’s Snow White, new trailers for Mufasa: The Lion King and Moana 2, as well as a teaser for Pixar’s first long-form animated series Win or Lose.

Disney’s Snow White

This teaser gives us our first look at Rachel Zegler singing in the lead role and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. We also get a glimpse at the CGI seven dwarves, which are falling into the uncanny valley. The film got delayed by a year due to online pushback over PC updates to the story, and some controversial comments from Zegler that suggested she didn’t have much reverence for the original animated film. It has since undergone reshoots. I’m still pretty mixed on this considering the legacy of the 1937 film as the first full-length animated feature, but will reserve some judgement. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are doing original songs. Opens in theatres on March 21st, 2025.

Mufasa: The Lion King

The reason I’m so curious about this sequel/prequel to Disney’s 2019 “live action” remake of The Lion King (itself a somewhat needless retread of the 1994 animated classic) is because it’s directed by Barry Jenkins, his first movie since If Beale Street Could Talk and the Oscar-winning Moonlight. Many will view this as Jenkins “selling out,” but I also think he is capable of doing something more interesting with the IP. We shall see. The visuals look somewhat brighter than the 2019 film, and it features original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Opens in theatres on December 20th, 2024.

Moana 2

This animated sequel to the 2016 musical appears to be another colourful Ocean-bound adventure featuring the return of Moana (Auli‘i Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson), as she receives a call from her ancestors. Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear are taking over from Lin-Manuel Miranda as songwriters, and the sequel was reportedly first being developed as a series before being turned into a feature film. I’m sure it will do well with fans of the first one. Opens in theatres on November 27th, 2024.

Pixar’s Win or Lose

Pixar’s first long-form animated series is set around a kids softball team, that tells its story from the different perspectives of eight different characters. The character designs are slightly more cartoony than Pixar’s usual style, and I’m intrigued by the ambitious multi-character premise, which lends itself well to an episodic series. Premieres on Disney+ on December 6th.

Feel free to comment your thoughts below if you have watched any of these trailers!