Pixar announced Loving Dory at Annecy in June, its first theatrical short in years. The studio has not run one before a feature since Bao in 2018.
Pixar is bringing back the theatrical short.
At the Annecy International Animation Festival in June, the studio announced Loving Dory, a new short set in the world of Finding Nemo, directed by Lou Hamou-Lhadj.
That is the first one in years. Pixar last attached a short to a feature in 2018, when Bao ran ahead of Incredibles 2.
A 20-year tradition that quietly stopped
Pixar started pairing shorts with features in 1998, when Geri’s Game preceded A Bug’s Life.
It became a signature. For two decades, a Pixar ticket meant five minutes of something small and usually excellent before the movie started. Several of those shorts won Oscars.
Then it stopped. Bao in 2018 was the last, and the studio has released features without them ever since.
Pixar has not confirmed which feature Loving Dory will accompany. The announcement came alongside finished footage from Gatto, which is the studio’s next original, but that doesn’t mean it will run with it.
What is Gatto about?
A black cat in Venice who owes money to a cat.
Nero, voiced by Mark Ruffalo, has spent years working the canals of a superstitious city and has started wondering whether he has used his nine lives well. He is indebted to Rocco, the local feline mob boss, voiced by Laurence Fishburne.
The teaser is built around an interrogation scene between the two, which goes exactly as well as an interrogation between two cats would. One of them gets distracted by a dangling object.
Nero is afraid of water, which in Venice is a structural problem.
Pixar changed how the movie looks
Gatto blends hand-painted textures with Pixar’s computer animation, which the studio has described as its first feature to work this way. Director Enrico Casarosa has called the result a very immersive, painterly look.
For a studio that built a 30-year identity on glossy CGI, that is a real departure, and the teaser shows how far it goes.
Who is making Gatto?
The Luca team.
Casarosa directs and Andrea Warren produces, the same pairing behind Pixar’s Oscar-nominated 2021 film. Luca went straight to Disney+ during the pandemic, so Gatto is Casarosa’s first proper theatrical release for the studio.
It is Pixar’s 32nd feature.
When does Gatto come out?
March 5, 2027 in the United States. Italy gets it a day earlier, on March 4.
That slots it between Toy Story 5 and The Incredibles 3 on Pixar’s calendar, which is a tough place for an original film to sit. Sequels have been carrying the studio’s box office for years.
Why a black cat in a superstitious city?
Because the two ideas collide on purpose.
Venice’s relationship with black cats and bad luck is baked into the premise, and the film ties that to Nero’s questions about belonging. Casarosa has also teased a significant musical component, with reporting that Nero’s tail is partial to jazz.
Make of that what you will until more footage arrives.
There is one more bit of context that gives Gatto an odd shadow. Last year, Flow, a Latvian animated film about a cat made entirely in the free open-source program Blender, beat both Pixar and DreamWorks at the Oscars.
Now Pixar is releasing its own black cat movie, hand-painted, from the director of its most beloved recent original. Coincidence, probably. Good timing regardless.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Deadline (June 26, 2026), the Loving Dory announcement and the Annecy presentation
Cineworld (July 2026), the short-film tradition history including Bao and Geri’s Game and the Casarosa comments on the painterly look
Cartoon Brew (June 11, 2026), the aesthetic departure analysis and the teaser breakdown
Empire (June 2026), the official synopsis, the musical component tease and the Flow comparison
TheWrap (June 11, 2026), the 32nd-feature count
Gizmodo and ABC7, the cast details and release date
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