Image via Walt Disney AnimationPublished Nov 6, 2026, 12:20 PM EST
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Disney has spent generations establishing an animation style that audiences can recognize before a character even says a word. That history also makes every departure interesting, especially when a new movie offers the studio an opportunity to experiment. Its upcoming original feature, Clay, has an especially fitting premise for exploring a different look.
Directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn, the movie follows Flip, a reluctant mentor voiced by Kieran Culkin, whose assignment to guide a young ball of clay named Mushy sends them into an unexpected adventure. Disney announced the project at D23, with a theatrical release planned for 2028. The story takes place in a magical forest, giving its filmmakers an entirely new world to build.
Speaking with Collider’s Steve Weintraub at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush addressed reports that Clay resembles claymation. “Yeah. Someone told you right,” he confirmed. “I'd say Clay is, I think, going to be the first time that we've really taken a big swing in terms of a new art style. Something that we talk about a lot in our films is, 'Should we change the look of our movies, and why does it make sense? Is it something that will add to the story?'” Bush continued with an explanation of the movie's world and its visual approach:
“Clay is set in a world where, in this community, you are born as a ball of clay, and you are shaped by a parental figure and mentor into who you're supposed to be. So the fact that this is going to feel tactile, it's going to feel like claymation in terms of making it feel like this very real, touchable place is important to us. It won't be stop-motion. It will be CG animation, but it will look unlike anything we've ever done.”
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Pop Anthem Describes Your Life? Journey · Survivor · ABBA · Springsteen
Eight honest questions about how you actually are: what you put on alone in the car, how you start a bad day, what a good win feels like, what you daydream about. Answer them and we will tell you which song has been describing your life this whole time. Four of the biggest anthems ever recorded are in play, and each one is about a completely different way of getting through it.
🎤Don't Stop Believin'(Journey)
🥊Eye of the Tiger(Survivor)
🪩Dancing Queen(ABBA)
🛣️Born to Run(Springsteen)
FIND YOUR ANTHEM →
01
What do you put on in the car when you are alone? Nobody is watching, so be honest.
ASomething I have loved since I was fifteen. BSomething with a beat that gets me going. CWhatever makes me sing badly and loudly. DSomething that makes me want to keep driving.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
How do you start a difficult day? Everybody has one move, and they use it every time.
AHead down, one thing at a time. BI wind myself up on purpose. CI find a way to make it fun. DI imagine being somewhere else entirely.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What does a good win actually feel like? The feeling matters more than the trophy.
AQuiet relief, after a very long time. BProving somebody completely wrong. CEverybody celebrating in one room. DFinally being free to go.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Where are you at a wedding? Your friends could answer this one for you.
AIn a corner, in one long conversation. BSomehow making the speeches competitive. CFirst onto the dance floor, last off it. DOutside, with everybody who snuck out.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What do you do after something knocks you back? Every anthem on this list is really about this moment.
AKeep going, quieter than before. BTrain, plan, and come back for it. CGo out and shake it off with friends. DStart seriously thinking about leaving.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What do you actually daydream about? Pick the one you go back to most often.
AThe thing I have wanted for years finally landing. BThe exact moment I pull it off. COne genuinely perfect night out. DA different city and a fresh start.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What is your favourite photo of yourself? Think of the one you would actually frame.
AAn ordinary day that turned out to matter. BRight after finishing something hard. CMid-laugh, with everybody I love in shot. DSomewhere far from home, on my own.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What should the song over your closing credits do? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your anthem.
AMake it feel like the long haul was worth it. BMake it clear I earned every bit of it. CGet the whole cinema up and dancing. DMake it feel like something is only starting.
REVEAL MY ANTHEM →
Cue The Track Your Anthem Is…
Four songs, four completely different theories about how a life is supposed to go. Here is the one that has been playing under yours, what it says about you, and where you have heard it doing the same job on screen.
Don't Stop Believin'
Your life sounds like the most stubbornly hopeful song ever written. It is about ordinary people on an ordinary night who have not given up on the thing they are quietly working towards, which is a description of most people and almost nobody admits it.
- You are playing a long game, and you would rather get there slowly than make a scene about it.
- The song famously cut to black on the last scene of The Sopranos, which is the single most argued about needle drop in television history.
- Glee then made it a phenomenon all over again, and a 1981 album track became one of the most streamed songs of the last century.
- The reason it works on you is the same reason it works on everybody, which is that it never once promises the thing will actually happen.
Eye of the Tiger
Your life sounds like a training montage, and you are completely fine with that. This is the song for people who need a bit of friction to function, and who get noticeably better the moment somebody suggests they cannot do it.
- You are driven by the comeback rather than the win, which is why the second attempt at anything is always your best one.
- Sylvester Stallone commissioned it for Rocky III after he could not get the rights to another track, and it went on to define the whole genre.
- That guitar intro has been doing the work of an entire pep talk for more than forty years.
- The risk in this one is real, since a person who needs an opponent will eventually go looking for one.
Dancing Queen
Your life sounds like the happiest song ever recorded, and the clever thing about it is that it is quietly a bit sad underneath. You are the person who makes an evening happen, and the room is measurably worse when you are not in it.
- You treat joy as something you build rather than something you wait for, which is a genuine skill and an exhausting one.
- Mamma Mia turned ABBA into a second career for a whole new audience, and this is the song everybody waits for.
- There is a melancholy buried in it about a night that will not last, and that is precisely why it lands harder every year.
- Your friends would describe you as the reason they still go out, which is a bigger compliment than it sounds.
Born to Run
Your life sounds like a song about getting out. Springsteen wrote the definitive account of being young somewhere small and knowing, absolutely, that the real thing is happening somewhere else.
- You are restless in a way that is not unhappiness, and you have never fully unpacked anywhere.
- This is the most cinematic song on the list, which is why it has soundtracked roughly every film about leaving a town behind.
- The record nearly did not happen at all, since Springsteen spent six months on the title track alone and almost scrapped it.
- What saves it from being simple escapism is that he is not running alone, and neither, if you are honest, are you.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
What Convinced Jared Bush To Move Forward With ‘Clay’?
Asked what earned the project its place on Disney’s schedule, Bush pointed to its director. “It is the passion of Fawn Veerasunthorn,” he said. “She is one of the directors of Hexed. She's actually one of the directors of the Lilo & Scratch short that's on the front of Hexed.” He then discussed Veerasunthorn’s pitch and its connection to her life:
“She pitched me this very original world that’s centered on this parental mentor dynamic, with a character that doesn't want to be a role model to anybody. She really based that off of her own life, becoming a mother and worrying, ‘How am I going to parent a kid? Do I believe in myself enough that I could be of value to this person's life?’ And it’s something that I think a lot of us struggle with, whether that's as a new parent or in a work environment — can I help those around me?
It was the emotion of that story that, to me, grabbed me the most, and then the way that she applied that very universal struggle to this world and made the entire world revolve around that concept. So, I think in terms of how do movies come to be, especially new art styles, to me it's a perfect example of why this movie has to look different, why it will be better than that, but at its heart, it'll be this universal human story that everyone can relate to.”
Speaking about what we can expect from Clay, Bush referenced Hexed as a good example of the endless possibilities ahead with Clay. "It is not currently a musical. But I’d say Hexed is a good example. Hexed is not a musical, but I think for the first time, we have six needle drops in it. We don't ever do that. So, I'd say that the approach to Clay could be many things," explained Bush. With the release still ahead, Weintraub also asked where the production currently stands. “Right now, we are actually about to have a screening, which is exciting,” Bush revealed. “Building characters, building out the world, but still very much experimenting.” He continued:
“I think that something that I came to understand, one of the real special parts about Disney Animation, is early on, you're just exploring. You're not trying to hone the perfect movie. You're actually trying a lot of different paths. You have this luxury of taking big swings, which is, I think, what Fawn’s been able to do.”
Clay is scheduled to premiere in theaters in 2028. Stay tuned to Collider for more.
Release Date November 22, 2028
Director Fawn Veerasunthorn
Producers Peter Del Vecho
