Animation (film)

Animation would be a 2025 live-action/animation drama film directed by Ryan Coogler from an screenplay co-written with Sev Ohanian. Coogler would also produce the film alongside Michael B. Jordan and Letita Wright. A collaboration between Outlier Society Productions Pixar Animation Studios, and Walt Disney Pictures, the film would be Pixar's first live-action/animated hybrid film, and would center on the struggles of a group of hand-drawn animated characters following the rise of computer-animation. It would star the voices of Wright, Anika Noni Rose, Florence Kasumba, and John Ratzenberger, while Angela Bassett would star in a live-action role as the film's main antagonist. Kris Bowers would compose the film's score.

Development on a Coogler-helmed live-action/animated film would begin at Pixar in early 2021, with Coogler attached to also write the script. Ohanian would join the film as co-writer and co-producer alongside Coogler in late 2021. Wright and Rose would join the film in mid-2021 as the stars, with Wright also joining as a producer, while Kasumab would join as co-star in late 2021, and Bassett would join in early 2022. Filming would begin in mid-2022. Coogler would describe the film as "more philosophycal and timely" than other live-action/animation hybrids, describing it as "a story about two different generations learning to co-exist, that also works as a story about how it is important for different cultures to live in peace".

Animation would be released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in August 23, 2025, and would become a critical and commercial success. Critics would praise the film as "a well-written exploration of diversity and progress", praising its screenplay, direction, performances, animation, visual effects, and score. The film would earn 1.2 billion dollars at the worldwide box-office. Animation would earn four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Visual Effects.

Synopsis
In the 1990s, animation saw a big resurgence, with animated characters getting more job than they had in years. Animated character and rising star Anne couldn't be happier about everything. But, in 1995, all changed. Toy Story was release, and computer-animation began to raise, putting behind hand-drawn animation and causing hand-drawn characters to be reduced to work on TV. In the present, hand-drawn characters are seen as a second-level art animation. Fed-up with this discrimination, Anabelle does the only thing left to do: Go to Sidney Animation Studios and continuosly ask for a new movie. The studio's owner, Sidney, initally refuses, believing hand-drawn animation to be a lost cause, but eventually relents when Anabelle insists too much, thougth under the condition of computer-animated character Jennifer handling the project. She agrees reclutantly, in spite of harboring a deep hate for computer-animated characters for overshadowing her people. Jennifer herself is of no help, seeing hand-drawn characters as inferior. However, the two slowly begin to see eye-to-eye, realizing that they can't overshadow the other, and that Sidney may not have the best intentions on approving the project.

Cast

 * Angela Bassett as Sidney, the owner of Sidney Animation Studios, who agrees to approve a hand-drawn animated film, secretly plotting to sabotage the project so hand-drawn animated films are completly forgotten. Bassett would describe her as "an incarnation of the evil side of Hollywood". He name would be an anagram of "Disney".

Voice cast

 * Letita Wright as Anabelle, a hand-drawn animated character with a prejudice towards CG characters, who tries to prove that hand-drawn animation is not over yet, Wright would describe her as "a kind character who is also desesperate and with prejudices to overcome".
 * Cree Summer as a young Anabelle
 * Anika Noni Rose as Jennifer, a self-centered CGI character with a low opinion on hand-drawn characters, who is hired as the director of hand-drawn animated film, believing it can help her reach an "old man demographic". Rose would describe the character as "somebody too unlikable, that somehow you end up liking her".
 * Florence Kasumba as Edith, a hand-drawn animated character and Anabelle's partner, who tries to help her while working on their new movie.
 * John Ratzenberger as Albert, a CGI character and Sidney's assistant.
 * Michael B. Jordan as Dr. Kevin, a hand-drawn character and Anabelle's late father, who worked as a doctor. His name would be a reference to voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson.
 * Lupita Nyong'o as Elizabeth, a hand-drawn character and Anabelle's mother.

Trivia

 * This would be Pixar's first live-action/animated hybrid film, since Wall-E (2008), while did featuring some live-action footage, was done primarly througth computer-animation.
 * This would also be the second Pixar film to feature a promenient live-action character.
 * It would also be Pixar's first film to feature promenient live-action footage and settings.
 * According to director Ryan Coogler, the filmmakers would make "very clear very early" that animated characters are actors to avoid accusations of glorifying slavery in the film. In order to accomplish this, the flashback featured at the start of the movie would feature Annabelle's family having several jobs unrelated to the animation industry. Additionally, they would write the scene as "basically, every moment of the life of a child wanting to be an actor".
 * Several of the film's cast and crew members would have worked with Coogler on previous films: Michael B. Jordan is a recurrent collaborator of Coogler's; Wright, Kasumba, Nyong'o, and Bassett previously worked with Coogler on Black Panther (2018); and Sev Ohanian and Lawrance Gan previously worked with Coogler on Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021),
 * According to Coogler, the CGI characters wouldn't be designed as realistic because "[t]hey are meant to be actors on computer-animated films, so they can't look realistic, becuase not every computer-animated film is like The Lion King remake".