Walt Disney Studios have updated their upcoming release calendar, announcing that this summer’s Pixar original Elio has been pushed back one week and will now be released June 20 instead of June 13. The move breaks tradition with Pixar’s typical Father’s Day Weekend release window, and avoids going head-to-head with Universal’s live-action reimagining of the DreamWorks hit How to Train Your Dragon (directed by franchise helmer Dean DeBlois).
The studio also removed or moved a few “Untitled Disney” slot reservations.
The shift for Elio will also expand the window for Disney’s own live-action revamp, Lilo & Stitch, which opens May 23 and is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Dean Fleisher Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On). Elio is the only fully-animated major studio release between The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (March 14; Ketchup Ent.) and Smurfs (July 18; Paramount).
The Mouse House seems to know what it’s doing, coming off of 2024, when Disney titles secured the top three global box-office spots (Pixar’s Inside Out 2, Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine and Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana 2).
Directed by Madeline Sharafian (Burrow SparkShort), Domee Shi (Bao short, Turning Red) and Adrian Molina (co-screenwriter/co-director of Coco), and produced by Mary Alice Drumm (associate producer of Coco), Elio centers on an alien-obsessed kid who is mistaken for the leader of Earth and transported to the interplanetary “Communiverse,” where he forges extraterrestrial friendships and helps avert an interplanetary crisis.
Disney’s upcoming animation and related films include:
- Snow White (live action) – March 21
- Lilo & Stitch (live action) – May 23
- Elio (Pixar) – June 20
- Zootopia 2 (Disney) – November 26
- Hoppers (Pixar) – March 6, 2026
- Toy Story 5 (Pixar) – June 19, 2026
- Moana (live action) – July 10, 2026
- Ice Age 6 (20th Century Animation) – December 18, 2026
- Frozen III (Disney) – November 24, 2027
[Source: Deadline]
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