Swans

Swans would be a 2025 American computer-animated road comedy-drama film written and directed by Chris Buck, with Clark Spencer producing. The film would be a follow-up to the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Ugly Duckling, and would star the voices of Jeremy Suarez, Michelle Yeoh, Will.i.am, Tayler Jackson Williams, and Alan Tudyk. The film's score and songs would be written by Hans Zimmer and Will.i.am, with Will.i.am also performing the songs.

Development for the film would start in 2022, with Buck being set to write and direct the film. Suarez would sign-up for the project in late 2023, with the rest of the cast joining during early 2024. The film would be set after Andersen's tale because Buck would consider the story's ending unsuitable for modern audiences. The animation team would also investigate on swan and duck's behavior in order to animate the characters in a realistic way.

Swans would be released on November 8, 2025, and would meet a positive critical and commercial reception. The film would earn 998 million dollars worldwide against a budget of 189 millions, becoming the 10th hightest-grossing animated film of all time. The film would be praised for its screenplay, voice acting, direction, animation, musical score, songs, and visuals. The film would earn two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Songs, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Synopsis
It's been two years since Thomas, the Ugly Duckling, managed to find a home with a group of swans. However, he dosen't really feel like home, specially due to the treatment the other swans, specially their leader Selvisk, give to other animals. One day, the flock finds the ducks that adopted Thomas, just as a hunter arrives. With the swans now unable to go back to their home, they force the ducks to take them to another hidden place that shall protect them for most of the hunter's stay. While traveling, Thomas gets to know better both his former and current families, discovering that not every animal is not what it seems to be. Torn between his species and his heart, Thomas must face the questions that had haunted him all of his life: Who is he? Where he belongs?

Cast

 * Jeremy Suarez as Thomas, a swan who was born and lived his childhood with a flock of ducks who discriminated him for his looks before finding a flock of swans who seemingly accept him, only to find himself again wondering his place after meeting the ducks again.
 * Michelle Yeoh as Mor, the mother of the ducklings, and Thomas adoptive mother, who is forced by her adoptive son's new flock to help them evade a hunter.
 * Will.i.am as Selvisk, the shallow and egotistical leader of Thomas' swan flock, who seems himself and all swans above every other bird in the forest.
 * Tayler Jackson Williams as Bølle, the oldest of the ducks, who was Thomas' main bully as a kid.
 * Alan Tudyk as Zweite, Selvisk's second-in-command.

Additionally, Jim Cummings would voice Al, an alligator and the leader of the forest's animals. Jeff Bennet would voice Ian, a hunter who finds himself targeting the duck and swan flocks as they are the only animals around. Bill Farmer and Tony Anselmo would Ian's hound dogs. Tress MacNeille, Corey Burton, Grey DeLisle, and Bret Iwan would voice the miscealouns swans in Selvisk's flock, while Stephen J. Anderson, director Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Melissa Villaseñor, and Jennifer Hale would voice the ducks in Mor's flock. Fred Tatatsciore, Frank Welker, and Dee Bradley Baker would provide the voices for miscellaneous animals througth the forest.

Music
Hans Zimmer and Will.i.am would compose the film's score. Will.i.am would say that tgehe two would aim to create "a simple score that amplifies the film's heart". Will.i.am and Zimmer would create a theme for Thomas that would feel "wondering, as if reacting to a question whose answer he dosen't know, yet also lonely", while Selvisk's theme would be "pompus but elegant and royalty-like" to fit the character's personality and social position, throught it would become more bombastic and malevolent as his true evil nature surfaces. Will.i.am would say that Mor's theme would have to "cover a lot of places" due to the character's growth and development in the film.

Will.i.am would also perform songs for the film, which would be written by him and Zimmer. According to Will.i.am, the songs for the film would be "very simple and Disney-like, but also have a very pop feeling", and would descrine working on a Disney film as "amazing beyond belief". Will.i.am and Zimmer would draw inspiration from their work on Dreamworks Animation's Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, for the film's soundtrack. Two singles for the soundtrack, "I Belong" and "Fly Together", would be released on July 5, 2025.

Trivia

 * This would be Chris Buck's first time directing a film without a co-director.
 * The film would be Jeremy Suarez's third Disney film, after Brother Bear (2003), and Brother Bear 2 (2008).
 * Buck would say that Disney's Tarzan (1999), which he co-directed, was a big influence on the film's story, particularly with the relationship between Thomas and the ducks, as well as in Mor's character arc.
 * This is the third time Disney adapted The Ugly Duckling, following two Silly Symphony shorts released in 1931 and 1939, respectively.

Easter eggs and allusions

 * Two homages to the original Ugly Duckling shorts are featured:
 * The film is set in 1931, the year the first short was released.
 * One of the ducks in Mor's flock is named Jack, a nod to the 1939 short's director, Jack Cutting. At one point, Thomas can be heard saying "Jack, cut it".
 * Among the animals in the forest are Baloo, Vixey, Timon, Pumbaa, Max, Cri-Kee, Ray, Tiana as a frog, Mittens, Flit, Kenai and Nita as bears, and Koda. The latter's cameo is also a nod to Thomas' voice actor Jeremy Suarez, who voiced Koda.
 * Selvisk's death is an homage to the Evil Queen's own demise at the end of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.