Disney Animation's creative chief says Clay "won't be stop-motion." It's computer animation built to look handmade, and it opens Nov. 22, 2028.
Disney Animation's Clay will look handmade. It won't be.
"It won't be stop-motion," Jared Bush told Collider's Steven Weintraub at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. "It will be CG animation." Bush, chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, said it "will look unlike anything we've ever done." Collider published the interview Friday, Nov. 6.
Weintraub asked about reports that the movie would have a claymation look. "Someone told you right," Bush said.
He called Clay "the first time that we've really taken a big swing" on a new art style at the studio.
That lines up with what Bush told Fandango in October. He called the style "CG animation, but as close to the look of claymation as we've ever gotten," MickeyBlog reported.
So, computer animation dressed up to look like somebody squished it with their thumbs. Bold.
What's the difference between claymation and CG?
Claymation is a kind of stop-motion. Animators pose clay figures by hand, shoot one frame, nudge the figures a tiny bit and shoot again, over and over. Think Wallace & Gromit.
CG, or computer-generated animation, is built in a computer. That's how Disney Animation makes its movies today, from Frozen to Zootopia.
Clay's plan is to borrow the look of the first with the tools of the second. After Disney revealed Clay at D23, some fans online wished the studio had teamed up with a real stop-motion studio like Aardman instead, Creative Bloq noted.
When does Clay come out?
Nov. 22, 2028, in theaters. That's a little more than two years away.
What is Clay about?
Disney announced Clay at D23 in August. Kieran Culkin voices Flip, who gets picked against his will in a yearly ritual to mentor a young, impressionable ball of clay named Mushy, according to the official synopsis TheWrap published. The two get swept into an adventure in an enchanted forest.
Bush pitched it on stage with a simple question: "What if that mentor was really lousy?"
The idea is to flip the old Disney tradition of the wise, all-knowing mentor, Creative Bloq reported. Less Rafiki, more a guy who'd rather be anywhere else.
TheWrap's Drew Taylor called the production art Disney showed "striking and extremely bizarre." The art shows a bright, fuzzy forest packed with pink and orange puffball plants.
Who is directing Clay?
Fawn Veerasunthorn is directing, and Peter Del Vecho is producing.
Veerasunthorn co-directed Wish with Chris Buck and was a storyboard artist on Frozen, Moana and Zootopia, Creative Bloq noted.
She's also co-directing Hexed with Jason Hand, so she's juggling a witch movie and a clay movie at the same time.
Here's the trailer for Hexed, Veerasunthorn's current movie:
What else has Jared Bush said this week?
A lot. Bush did a run of interviews from Savannah. One of them, about wanting Jordan Peele to make a Disney Animation movie, we covered Nov. 1.
In separate studio news, we reported Friday that Big Hero 6 director Don Hall is back at Disney Animation after a stint at Skydance, working on a project Disney hasn't announced.
What's coming from Disney Animation before Clay?
Here's Disney Animation's dated lineup, and every one of them lands the day before Thanksgiving:
Hexed (Nov. 25, 2026): Veerasunthorn and Hand's Thanksgiving movie, about a teen named Billie who accidentally unleashes magic powers and gets pulled into a hidden world of witches.
Frozen 3 (Nov. 24, 2027): Anna, Elsa and the gang return the day before Thanksgiving.
Clay (Nov. 22, 2028): an original, and Disney's 67th animated feature, Creative Bloq noted.
Three straight years of turkey-week openings. Disney Animation knows exactly when families are looking for something to do.
Article compiled and written by Kambrea Pratt (editor-in-chief), Derek Gibbs (beat editor) and the Pirates & Princesses newsroom. Pirates & Princesses is part of WebReef Media.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
Collider (Nov. 6, 2026), Jared Bush's comments on Clay's look, the release date and the director
TheWrap (Aug. 14, 2026), the D23 announcement, synopsis, producer and Bush's mentor line
Creative Bloq (Aug. 18, 2026), the enchanted forest, the mentor idea, Veerasunthorn's background and fan reaction
MickeyBlog (Oct. 14, 2026), Bush's claymation comment to Fandango
Disney UK Press (June 16, 2026), Hexed's directors and premise
Collider (Nov. 2, 2026), the Frozen 3 release date, via our earlier coverage
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