Prada’s Drawing Prada holiday campaign pairs Sadie Sink and Maya Hawke with hand-drawn critters from John Pomeroy, the animator behind Pocahontas and The Secret of NIMH.
Somewhere, a mouse is stealing Sadie Sink’s shoes. And it was drawn with a pencil.
Prada‘s 2026 holiday campaign, “Drawing Prada: Animated by Hand,” mixes live action with old-school 2D animation, and the man leading the animation is John Pomeroy. If that name rings a bell, it’s because he’s worked on some of the most beloved cartoons of the last 50 years, from Disney to Don Bluth.
The campaign launched Tuesday, Oct. 27, according to WWD, which had the first look. Prada’s official video is already up on YouTube:
Who stars in the Prada holiday 2026 campaign?
The live-action side features Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Chen Haoyu, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Luther Ford, per WWD and Fashion Times. Sink and Hawke are both Stranger Things alumni, and Harrison Jr. has a Disney credit of his own as the voice of Taka, the future Scar, in Mufasa: The Lion King.
Glen Luchford photographed the campaign and directed the live action. Cartoon Brew says he matched his lighting and camera angles to the illustrated settings so the actors and the drawings feel like they share a room.
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons are Prada’s creative directors. Ferdinando Verderi served as the campaign’s creative director, per Cartoon Brew and The Impression.
What happens in the Drawing Prada films?
A lot of furry mischief. WWD describes a “cynical fox, little mice, a snow lynx, rabbits, and bats” sharing winter scenes with the stars.
The mice go after Sink’s Prada shoes. The lynx stalks Chen’s Prada bag, and the rabbits and bats get into Ford’s leather accessories, according to WWD.
DesignRush adds that a drawn snowball smacks into a nylon backpack worn by Harrison Jr. It’s basically a Prada ad where the woodland creatures from Snow White got very into fashion.
Who is John Pomeroy?
Pomeroy started at Disney in 1973, working on Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too under legendary animator Frank Thomas, per Cartoon Brew. He also worked on Pete’s Dragon.
He later co-founded Don Bluth Productions with Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, Cartoon Brew reports. That studio’s films include The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail and The Land Before Time, according to Collater.al.
Pomeroy eventually came back to Disney. He supervised the animation of John Smith in Pocahontas and worked on Fantasia 2000, per Cartoon Brew and WWD.
What did John Pomeroy say about the Prada campaign?
He sounded thrilled. “It was an absolute honor to have Prada ask me to direct this series of 2D animated films for their 2026 holiday campaign,” Pomeroy told WWD.
“The merging of our two art forms took our combined creativity to the next level,” he added. In the behind-the-scenes film, he gets more personal: “I learned my craft with pencil and paper.”
He also said, per WWD, “There’s a very distinct and purposeful reason to do hand-drawn animation.” Lead animator Tom Bancroft told Cartoon Brew that Pomeroy “called the band back together.”
Why is hand-drawn animation a big deal right now?
Because there isn’t much of it left at the big studios. Disney’s own feature films have been computer-animated for years, and hand-drawn work mostly lives in shorts, indie films and the occasional ad.
That’s what makes this one fun for animation fans. It’s a luxury brand paying a team of 2D veterans to do things the slow way, frame by frame, with real pencils.
There’s also a behind-the-scenes film showing the artists at work, per WWD and Cartoon Brew. If you’ve ever wanted to watch a fox get drawn one line at a time, that’s your holiday viewing.
What Prada products are in the holiday ads?
Prada didn’t publish a full product list, but the outlets spotted plenty. DesignRush says the lynx eyes a Mini Avoir handbag and the mice inspect black-and-white dotted shoes.
The wider holiday collection includes technical outerwear, candy-striped pieces and knitwear for dressing up, per DesignRush. Fashion Times notes Hawke wears a red dress with a black Prada handbag.
None of it is cheap, of course. But the cartoon fox is free to look at.
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.
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Hat Tips:
WWD (Oct. 27), first look, cast, creatures, products and Pomeroy quotes
Cartoon Brew (Oct. 28), animation team, Pomeroy career and Bancroft quote
Fashion Times (Oct. 27), cast and wardrobe details
The Impression (Oct. 27), creative credits
Collater.al (Oct. 27), Bluth studio filmography
DesignRush (Oct. 28), product and scene details
Prada (Oct. 27), official campaign video
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