• Toy Story 5 had to cut an entire character backstory from the film, though Pixar says it may surface in another form later
• The film ventures into new animation territory with an imaginative playtime sequence unlike anything in the franchise before
• A classic Disney/Pixar character speaks on screen for the first time in Toy Story 5
• Tickets are now on sale ahead of the June 19 theatrical release
• Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack all return; Conan O’Brien joins as Smarty Pants

Pixar had more Toy Story 5 than could fit in Toy Story 5.

In a new exclusive with SlashFilm, the filmmakers revealed that one character’s full backstory had to be cut from the final film — though they were careful to add that it hasn’t disappeared entirely. “You’ll see some of it eventually,” they teased, suggesting the material may resurface in a short, a special, or a future project. No character was named.

The same creative team also spoke about a new animated playtime sequence in the film that pushes the franchise into visual territory it’s never explored before. Since 1995, each Toy Story film has found a way to stretch what Pixar’s animation can do — and by the sound of it, this one is no different.

A First for the Franchise

Perhaps the most intriguing detail: a classic Disney/Pixar character will speak on screen for the very first time in Toy Story 5. The franchise has always kept certain toys in the background — present but silent — and now, apparently, one of them finally has something to say. Casting for the role has been described as “perfect.”

Meanwhile, a beloved character is getting what ComicBook called a “weird update” — some kind of change or reveal that comes after three movies of consistency. Given that the film already features a visibly aged Woody with a bald spot and a red poncho, clearly nothing is off-limits.

What’s Coming June 19

The final trailer is out, advanced tickets are on sale, and the full cast is locked in: Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz, Joan Cusack as Jessie, and Conan O’Brien as Smarty Pants — a toilet training tech toy, because of course. Toy Story 5 opens June 19.

The post Toy Story 5 Cut a Character’s Full Backstory — But Pixar Says You’ll See It Eventually appeared first on Cream.

• Sony Pictures Classics acquired Iron Boy out of Cannes, picking up rights for North America, Latin America, India, and Southeast Asian TV.
• The hand-drawn animated film is the solo directorial debut of Louis Clichy, a former Pixar animator who worked on WALL-E and Up.
• The film premiered in Cannes’ prestigious Un Certain Regard sidebar and drew strong reviews from international press.
• Clichy drew from his own rural French upbringing — and his real experience wearing a corrective corset — to shape the story.
• His own son, Gary Clichy, voices the 11-year-old lead character.

Louis Clichy spent years helping bring Pixar’s most beloved films to life. Now he’s stepping out on his own — and the world is paying attention. The French director’s hand-drawn debut feature Iron Boy has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics following its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, with SPC landing rights across North America, Latin America, India, and Southeast Asian TV.

The deal was brokered by Playtime co-CEO Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, who made clear just how well the film landed on the Croisette. “Coming into Cannes, we knew the film would be well received, but its success exceeded even our expectations both in terms of sales and reviews from the international press,” he said. “It feels only natural that Iron Boy has found a home in the U.S. with SPC. Over the years, we built a strong working relationship with Tom, Michael, and Dylan. They are not only exceptional distributors, admittedly among the very best in the industry, but also people of great sensitivity and taste. They will take this film very far.”

Variety called it “both visually dazzling and deeply personal” — and that’s not just critical shorthand. This one comes from somewhere real.

A Story Rooted in the Director’s Own Childhood

Iron Boy — known in French as Le Corset — follows Christophe, an 11-year-old boy growing up on a farm in rural France with a strict, emotionally distant father. Without explanation, Christophe begins to lean sideways and topple over, landing him in a metal brace that runs from his torso up to his chin. Unable to work the farm, he finds an unlikely escape through the enormous pipe organ at his local church, and through the quiet mentorship of an elderly organist who shows him more kindness than most people in his life ever have.

Clichy didn’t have to imagine much of it. “I come from an agricultural background, but I moved to the city when I was 11 and my parents divorced,” he told Variety. “I didn’t want to tell my own story — I just borrowed some things that were important to me.” That includes the corset itself, which the director wore as a child. “The corset is a metaphor for adolescence,” he said. “When you’re that age, you don’t feel comfortable; you want to cover up your body. It exaggerates this whole idea of not being happy with what’s going on. Also, in a way, you have to be very ‘straight’ to survive on a farm. And he’s different.”

He was also careful not to let the film’s emotional weight tip into caricature. “I didn’t want anyone here to feel like a stereotype,” Clichy said. “Christophe’s father doesn’t like to express his feelings — he’s from that generation of men — but he loves sentimental pop songs and that already tells you a lot.”

The organist character, Michel, is played by Alexandre Astier — Clichy’s former co-directing partner on the two Astérix films. The casting is fitting: Clichy describes the relationship between Christophe and Michel as something deeper than a music lesson. “He finds another father figure in that church organist. Christophe needs someone to take care of him. I’m not sure if this boy is actually a good musician. I didn’t want him to play in a big concert or win a competition à la Billy Elliot. He’s not Mozart, you know. He just likes this teacher and appreciates their time together.”

Hand-Painted, Frame by Frame

After years at Pixar and two CGI-heavy Astérix features, Clichy made a deliberate choice to go back to basics. He calls Iron Boy “traditional animation” — developed frame by frame, rendered in what the film’s Variety review describes as Chinese inkbrush paintings that “make straight lines feel fluid, like memories.”

“CGI and 3D have become so fashionable, but after Astérix I wanted to go back to something much simpler,” Clichy said. “That’s exactly what I’ve done.” The roughness of the style was a feature, not a bug. “I liked the fact that everything was a bit… rough. It allowed me to be spontaneous, and fast and furious. It can be tough because you still want to communicate so much, and all you have is one line. It forced me to be precise.”

He also took an unconventional approach to voice recording, placing actors on actual farms rather than in sterile studio booths — a choice that gives the film a naturalistic texture that critics noticed immediately. The voice cast includes Gary Clichy (the director’s own son as Christophe), Rod Paradot, Brune Moulin, Dimitri Colas, Aurélie Vassort, and Jean-Pascal Zadi, with animation by Chloë Aubert. The screenplay was co-written by Clichy and Franck Salomé.

The film was produced by Céline Vanlint and Nicolas de Rosanbo for Eddy Cinéma, in co-production with Fabrice Delville and Christophe Toulemonde for Beside Production, and Agathe Sofer and Alexandre Astier for Regular Production, along with France 3 Cinéma, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, and RTBF.

The smaller budget, Clichy said, ultimately freed him. “With animation, people either go very commercial or very arty, and then many viewers go: ‘This is not for me.’ I wanted to take a little bit of everything. There are animated films like that — it’s enough to look at Miyazaki, who often paints a realistic picture of the state of the world. I was really inspired by that.”

A New Voice in Animation — and Cannes Noticed

Clichy was candid about what it feels like to show up at Cannes as an animator. “For us animators, Cannes is a foreign world. There’s way more ego around. Also, there are still all these stereotypes about what animation is, like it being ‘over the top’ or just for children. But we can do subtle stuff too, because animators are really good actors.” He paused, then added: “Animation is expensive, so many people don’t want to take risks. But that’s our responsibility!”

The critical response suggests he made the right call. Reviewer Chase Hutchinson described Iron Boy as “a bittersweet, gorgeously animated family film that looks like a watercolor painting come to life” — a solo debut whose “sense of imagination is matched only by its sharp craft and the passionate care of its storytelling.” He went further: “Drawing from much of the director’s own life and proving all the more vibrant because of its specificity, it’s the type of film that already feels like it could become a new classic for animation lovers new and old.”

With Sony Pictures Classics now behind it, that new classic has a path to American audiences. No U.S. release date has been announced yet — but given SPC’s track record with prestige international cinema, Iron Boy is exactly the kind of film they’ll know how to bring home.

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• Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath, directors of the Super Mario Bros. movies, have signed an exclusive overall deal with Netflix
• The pair will develop animated series and films for the streamer, with Netflix also getting first-look rights on live-action projects
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie logged 240 million views on Netflix; Teen Titans Go! seasons 1–5 combined for 80 million views
• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has grossed $966.5 million since its April 1 release — and is expected to land on Netflix soon
• A third Nintendo/Illumination movie is already scheduled for 2028, though it’s unclear if this deal affects their involvement

Netflix has landed the duo behind the biggest animated franchise on the planet. Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath — the directors of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie — have signed an exclusive creative partnership with the streaming giant, the company announced Tuesday. Under the deal, they’ll develop animated series and films specifically for Netflix, with the streamer also holding first-look rights on any live-action projects the pair pursue.

It’s a significant get for Netflix. Together, the two Super Mario films have grossed more than $2.3 billion at the global box office for Universal and Illumination — and their performance on Netflix has been just as remarkable. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which opened to $146.3 million domestically in 2023 before finishing its theatrical run at $1.36 billion, spent 24 weeks in the Netflix global top 10 and racked up over 240 million views from December 2023 through the end of 2025. The sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, is already at $966.5 million since opening April 1 — and its Netflix run is still ahead of it.

Before Mario, Jelenic and Horvath made their names with Teen Titans Go!, the long-running Cartoon Network series based on DC Comics characters that they created and produced. Nine seasons in (and counting), the show has been a reliable performer on Netflix too — seasons 1 through 5 and the 2018 theatrical spinoff Teen Titans Go! To the Movies combined for more than 80 million views on the platform between 2023 and 2025.

“Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath are visionary creators who remind us why we fell in love with animation,” said John Derderian, Netflix’s Vice President of Animation Series and Kids & Family TV. “After the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. movies and Teen Titans Go! on our service, it’s clear our global audience craves their unique brand of storytelling. We are thrilled to embark on this partnership and can’t wait to see what they dream up next for Netflix members.”

Jelenic and Horvath were equally enthusiastic. “We are thrilled to partner with Netflix to create captivating and immersive series and films over the coming years,” the two said in a joint statement. “We are grateful for the opportunity and look forward to entertaining the world’s largest audience!”

What’s Next — and What’s Still Up in the Air

Both directors came up through Warner Bros. Animation. Jelenic wrote on The Batman and produced ThunderCats before landing on Teen Titans Go! — and he also co-wrote “Peaches,” the Jack Black Bowser song that became an unlikely breakout hit from the first Mario movie. Horvath directed and oversaw animation on Teen Titans Go! and developed Cartoon Network’s Unikitty before the pair made the jump to feature films.

The big question now: does this Netflix deal mean Jelenic and Horvath are done with Mario? Nintendo and Illumination already have a third animated project scheduled for 2028, but no official details have been announced — and it’s not yet clear whether the new Netflix arrangement would prevent the directors from returning to the franchise that made them household names in animation.

What is clear is that Netflix isn’t slowing down on animation. The streamer has had a string of recent wins in the space, including the global hit KPop Demon Hunters and the newly released Swapped, both of which broke records for the platform. Adding Jelenic and Horvath to its creative roster suggests Netflix is serious about owning this space — and betting that whatever these two build next will find the same massive audience that’s already shown up for everything else they’ve made.

The post Super Mario Movie Directors Sign Netflix Deal appeared first on Cream.

• Keanu Reeves will voice the title role in Hidari, a Japanese stop-motion action feature from director Masashi Kawamura.
• The film expands Kawamura’s viral 2023 proof-of-concept short, which has nearly 5 million YouTube views.
• Set in Japan’s Edo period, it follows a master carpenter who loses his arm and seeks revenge with lethal mechanical prosthetics.
• The announcement was made Sunday at the Annecy Animation Showcase in Cannes.
• Reeves previously voiced characters in Toy Story 4 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Keanu Reeves is heading to feudal Japan. The actor has signed on to lead the voice cast of Hidari, director Masashi Kawamura’s stop-motion samurai feature, with the news breaking Sunday morning at the Annecy Animation Showcase in Cannes.

The film is a full feature expansion of Kawamura’s viral 2023 proof-of-concept short of the same name — a stunning piece of stop-motion work that has racked up close to 5 million views on YouTube since its release. Reeves will voice Jingoro Hidari, a near-mythic master carpenter from Japan’s Edo period whose story is equal parts tragedy and revenge thriller.

The official synopsis lays it out: betrayed by those desperate to bury the secrets of Edo Castle’s reconstruction, Jingoro loses everything — his father figure, his fiancée, and even his right arm. Rather than break, he channels that grief into vengeance, wielding a series of lethal mechanical prosthetic arms of his own design. At his side throughout: his loyal wooden companion, the Sleeping Cat.

It’s the kind of role that feels almost written for Reeves — a stoic, skilled warrior driven by loss who fights his way toward something resembling justice. Sound familiar?

“I’m thrilled by the vision behind Hidari,” Reeves said in a statement. “From the proof of concept to the developed script, the team has created something truly extraordinary. It has all the makings of an exceptional film — one I’m excited to see and eager to be part of. I believe this project has the potential to bring something very special to audiences worldwide.”

For Kawamura, getting that call from Reeves was a genuine pinch-yourself moment. “When someone with his experience and creative vision watches your proof of concept and says ‘I want to be part of this,’ it’s an incredible feeling,” the director said. “He’s not just lending his voice to Hidari — he’s helping us shape and expand this world, and I can’t wait to see where we take it together.”

A Director With a Résumé Like No Other

Kawamura isn’t your typical animation filmmaker. The Tokyo-based director’s work spans commercials, music videos, TV, and large-scale public installations — including designing the largest pavilion at Osaka Expo 2025 and creating the dancing clones for Lady Gaga’s stage performances. His projects have earned a Cristal at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, an International Emmy nomination, and top honors at the One Show and Clio Awards. He also wrote the screenplay for Hidari.

The film is produced by Noriko Matsumoto under her Japanese animation house Dwarf Studios, which has made a name for itself by bridging Japanese animation and global platforms. The studio partnered with Netflix on the beloved Rilakkuma series, and Matsumoto’s recent short Bottle George was shortlisted for the 2025 Academy Awards. Hidari is a co-production between Dwarf Studios, Tokyo creative agency Whatever, and animation house TECARAT, with financing from Questry Co.’s Tomonobu Ibe, one of Japan’s leading entertainment finance specialists.

Reeves Is No Stranger to the Voice Booth

This isn’t Reeves’ first time stepping away from live-action to lend his voice to an animated world. He voiced the scene-stealing Duke Caboom in Pixar’s Toy Story 4 in 2019, and more recently played Shadow the Hedgehog in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 2024. He’s also been deeply involved in animation-adjacent work through his BRZRKR comic book and Netflix project.

No release date has been set for Hidari yet, but given the pedigree behind it — and the internet’s already established love for that original short — this one is going to be worth the wait.

The post Keanu Reeves to Voice Lead in Stop-Motion Samurai Film ‘Hidari’ appeared first on Cream.

• The 2026 Cannes Film Festival runs May 12–23 and features a small but remarkably diverse slate of animated films.
• French 2D feature Fallen, from Pixar alum Louis Clichy, is the early frontrunner for awards attention among the animated offerings.
• Directors’ Fortnight opens with an animated film for the first time ever — In Waves from director Phuong Mai Nguyen.
• Midnight screening Jim Queen and the Quest for Chloroqueer is shaping up to be the festival’s most daring animated entry.
• Several films are expected to continue on to Annecy in June, following the same path that led Flow to its surprise Oscar win.

Cannes has never been the most reliable home for animation — some years the Croisette delivers, some years it doesn’t — but lately the French Riviera has quietly become one of the most important launching pads for animated films with Oscar ambitions. In 2024, the tiny Latvian indie Flow premiered in Un Certain Regard, built a head of steam through the year on the back of rave reviews, and ended up winning Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Last year, Arco and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain — both Cannes premieres — made it all the way to nominations.

The 79th Cannes Film Festival, which opens May 12 and closes May 23, doesn’t have a massive animated lineup in 2026. But what it does have is genuinely interesting: a wide range of styles, tones, and ambitions that spans prestige drama, family adventure, queer midnight cinema, and everything in between.

The One to Watch for Awards Season

The animated film most likely to follow in Flow‘s footsteps is Fallen, a French 2D feature from director Louis Clichy. If that name sounds familiar to animation fans, it should — Clichy is a Pixar alum who worked on WALL-E and Up before returning to France to direct two Asterix films. This is his third feature, and it marks a shift: a sketchbook-style 2D aesthetic that looks genuinely charming, wrapped around the story of a young boy who wears an iron corset to stand upright and escapes his strict farm life to find a love of music. It’s the kind of warm, emotionally accessible story that tends to resonate with audiences and awards voters alike. If the reviews hold up, Fallen could be the one to circle on your Oscar ballot as early as May.

The Films Heading to Annecy Next

Two Cannes Special Screenings are also expected to compete at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June — the same route Arco and Little Amélie traveled last year on their way to Oscar nominations.

Tangles is the debut feature from Canadian director Leah Nelson, adapted from Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir about a daughter who comes home to care for her mother after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. It’s a deeply personal source story, and the kind of subject matter that tends to land hard when animation gets it right. The other is Lucy Lost from Oliver Clert, a more family-friendly adventure set in 1915 Sicily, following a young orphan who sets out to uncover the truth behind her mysterious visions. Two very different films, but both carrying real potential.

The Wildcard Everyone Should Know About

The most exciting — and least predictable — animated entry at this year’s festival is playing as a Midnight screening, which tells you everything you need to know about its energy. Jim Queen and the Quest for Chloroqueer is a retro 2D indie from debut directors Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané, and its premise is exactly as audacious as the title suggests: a hunky gay influencer and a twink team up to find a cure for a disease that turns gay men straight. It sounds unabashedly camp, visually gorgeous, and unlike anything that has ever gotten serious awards traction in the animation space. Whether it finds that traction is almost beside the point — this is exactly the kind of film festivals exist to surface.

Beyond the Main Festival

Cannes extends well beyond its main competition, and the parallel sections this year have some genuinely notable animated entries too. Directors’ Fortnight — which runs alongside the main festival on the Croisette — is opening with In Waves, a French animated feature from director Phuong Mai Nguyen about a romance between a surfer and a skateboarder. It’s the first animated film ever to open Fortnight, and it will screen in both English and French. That’s a milestone worth paying attention to.

The Fortnight will also close with Le vertige, from French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux — the deadpan provocateur behind Rubber and Smoking Causes Coughing — about a man who discovers his entire world is a simulation, rendered in animation that deliberately looks like a PS2 game. Very on brand. Other selections in the mix include the Japanese rotoscope film We Are Aliens and Viva Carmen!, an adaptation of the famous opera from Chicken for Linda! director Sébastien Laudenbach.

Not all of these films will be great. Some may not even find U.S. distribution. But that’s always been the deal with Cannes — you show up, the lights go down, and something you’ve never heard of might just change the way you think about what animation can be. A few of these could be that film. We’ll find out starting May 12.

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