“Moana 2”, in theaters November 27th, will be the first of several new sequels coming from Walt Disney Animation Studios. “Zootopia 2” opens in in Nov. 2025 and “Frozen III” will arrive in Nov. 2027. (“Frozen IV” doesn’t have a release date confirmed yet.)
Disney Animation has had an interesting relationship with sequels. There have been many direct to DVD and/or threatrical sequels to all-time classics, like “Cinderella”, “The Lion King”, “Lady and the Tramp”, “The Jungle Book”, “Peter Pan”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Fox and the Hound”, “The Little Mermaid” and even “Bambi”. Same with 2000s films “The Emperor’s New Groove”, “Atlantis”, “Lilo & Stitch” and “Brother Bear”. But they weren’t technically Walt Disney Animation Studios movies. They were made by other facets under the Disney umbrella.
WDAS first went on a second voyage with the same group of characters in 1990’s “The Rescuers Down Under”, the Australia-set sequel to 1977’s “The Rescuers”. “Fantasia 2000” arrived 60 years after its 1940 predecessor. And 2011’s “Winnie the Pooh” was a standalone adventure for the Hundred Acre Wood gang, though a WDAS return following 1977’s “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”. (Pooh films that opened in 2000, 2003 and 2005 were from DisneyToon Studios.)
The next true sequel was 2018’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet”, a superior “Wreck-It Ralph” franchise installment. That was followed by 2019’s “Frozen II”.
I always thought a “Bolt” sequel would’ve been nice, or maybe “Tangled” (though at least we got a “Tangled Ever After” short). More with the highly underrated “Chicken Little” gang would’ve been cool too. Maybe there’s still time. Hollywood loves a long-awaited sequel. For now, Disney’s betting big on “Moana 2”, with Bob Iger taking this from TV series development to the big screen — and as was the case with Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” this summer — I think The Mouse House is looking at another mega success.