It’s a good time to love kaiju stories. Now, with the latest Disney news, we’re going to get more of these towering fights on the silver screen, as Turning Red returns to theaters, accompanied by Luca and Soul!
At the start of the ongoing pandemic, some studios decided to release films directly to streaming rather than to near empty theaters or add to the list of delayed films—or, worst of all, be blamed for creating global super spreader events before a vaccine was available. Under these conditions and after a delay, Disney released the live-action Mulan remake with a fee. However, the company released all three Disney Pixar movies with a then-affordable Disney+ subscription.
While I benefited from this having seen and loved Turning Red, it was kind of disrespectful to the animators. There’s prestige and tangible benefits to the creative’s career to have a feature film make it to theaters. Many felt disappointed that Disney chose to let big franchise films get the theatrical release (Lightyear), but not original stories. Also, at the time, Disney+ wasn’t available in all countries. Now, Disney’s announced that these films will get a theater release next year!
Early-pandemic Pixar films coming to theaters
The company announced via trailer that Soul, Luca, and Turning Red would come to theaters for a staggered limited run. Additionally, as Pixar films, they’ll also include the accompanying shorts! First comes Soul with Burrow on January 12. Then, Turning Red will arrive on February 9 with Kitbull—one of my favorite Pixar animated shorts ever. Finally, Luca hits theaters March 22 with the short film For The Birds. If Luca’s short seems familiar, that’s because it’s the short that accompanied Monsters, Inc. back in 2001.
Aside from seeing Mei and the gang on the big screen, I’m super excited to see Luca. I still haven’t seen it yet and now can just wait to see it as the artists intended. As someone who’s still masking up, I really hope that these are prolonged theater runs so I can wait and avoid the crowds. I’m talking more than a month. There’s lots of special stuff like this and anniversary rereleases that I miss because they’re packed.
Variety noted that this theatrical debut might be because Disney feels like it “trained” audiences to just wait for Disney+. While I’ve seen several Disney productions in theaters since 2021, I understand this concern. It’s also a lot better than CEO Bob Iger’s recent comments about why some movies are failing.
Tickets will go on sale on January 2, so save those theater gift cards you collect over the holidays!
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
