Disney+ announced a global distribution deal with The Pokémon Company International, headlined by a stop-motion series from Aardman, the studio behind Wallace & Gromit. It premieres on Disney XD and Disney+ in 2027, told entirely from the Pokémon’s point of view.
The studio that made Wallace & Gromit is making a Pokémon show for Disney.
Disney+ announced a global distribution deal with The Pokémon Company International on Friday at Pokémon XP in San Francisco, headlined by a new stop-motion series called Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu.
It comes from Aardman, the British studio behind Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Morph. The series debuts on Disney XD and streams exclusively on Disney+ in 2027.
A teaser trailer premiered during the panel.
No human trainer this time
The series is “told from the perspective of Pokémon,” according to Phil Rynda, The Pokémon Company’s director of original animation. Sirfetch’d and Pichu are the protagonists. There is no Ash, no trainer, no kid with a backpack.
What the show is about
Sirfetch’d and Pichu set out across the Galar Region, the setting introduced in Pokémon Sword and Shield, on a quest to help and protect other Pokémon.
Their missions rarely go according to plan. Disney’s description promises peril, alliances, rivalries, and what it calls endless laughs, with the friendship between the two forming through the wreckage of their own attempts to do good.
That premise suits Aardman well after five decades of creating well-meaning characters making things worse.
Rynda praised the studio’s work on the setting. “Aardman has brought Galar to life in a way that makes you feel like you can smell the air, touch the tree bark, and want to adventure alongside our series heroes,” he said.
The creative team
The series was produced by The Pokémon Company International with Aardman handling the animation.
The Aardman team includes director Tom Parkinson, creative director for IP development Nat McKay, and model making creative lead James Young. All three appeared on the Pokémon XP panel alongside Rynda.
Aardman is turning 50 this year
2026 marks Aardman’s 50th anniversary, and the company has been marking it with events highlighting its history in stop-motion. A new film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, arrives this autumn.
A Pokémon series is an unusual addition to a catalog built on Wallace’s cheese obsession and a flock of sheep, though the studio’s habit of building comedy out of physical character work translates reasonably well to a franchise where nobody talks in complete sentences anyway.
The original series is already on Disney+
The stop-motion show is not the first piece of this deal to land.
Pokémon the Series: The Beginning, the late-1990s series following Ash and Pikachu, began airing on Disney XD earlier this month and is now streaming on Disney+ in the United States and select international markets.
That was the first title to launch under the agreement, which means the deal had been operating quietly for weeks before Friday’s announcement.
Ayo Davis, president of Disney Kids and Family, framed the appeal around the franchise’s reach across ages. “Pokémon has that rare ability to mean something to longtime fans while continuing to feel completely relevant to young audiences today,” she said.
Why Disney wants this
Pokémon brings something Disney does not own and cannot make: one of the largest children’s franchises on the planet, with a fanbase that has aged into its thirties and forties without leaving.
For families, it means the classic series and a new one land in the same app as everything else.
It could also tie to Universal likely getting Pokémon attractions, and Disney wants a way in too.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Disney+ Press (August 28, 2026), the official announcement, the Aardman credits, the 2027 window, the Aardman 50th anniversary details, and the panel participants
Variety (August 28, 2026), the Pokémon XP announcement at the Moscone Center and the Ayo Davis quote
Laughing Place (August 28, 2026), Mike Celestino’s report including the Phil Rynda quote on the Pokémon perspective and the Galar environments
Deadline and TheWrap (August 28, 2026), the greenlight details and the Pokémon the Series: The Beginning rollout as the first title under the agreement