After breaking the bank with over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales for Toy Story 5, Pixar is finally ready to give original storytelling another shot with Gatto, a brand-new animated adventure from Luca director Enrico Casarosa, hitting theaters on March 5, 2027. The studio dropped a full trailer for the anticipated project today, showcasing Mark Ruffalo and Laurence Fishburne as two unruly cats stirring up trouble along the cobblestone streets of Venice until an unlikely friendship proves there’s more to life than running scams.
Navigating the winding, superstition-soaked canals of Venice, Italy, the story centers on Nero (Ruffalo), a street-smart black stray who hates getting his paws wet, has a soul for music, and starts wondering if he’s burned through his nine lives on all the wrong things. After racking up a dangerous debt with a local feline crime boss named Rocco (Fishburne), because what’s an Italian street caper without a mob boss? Nero is reluctantly dragged into an unlikely partnership with Maya, a human street artist who claims him as her own, nudging the cynical stray toward his real purpose.
Interestingly, Gatto marks Pixar’s first feature to blend traditional 3D hand-painted textures with modern CGI. Production designer Daniela Strijleva gives the film a tactile, painterly aesthetic that feels like a much-needed breath of fresh air after so many recent Pixar releases have settled into a comfortable, overly familiar house style. With rival studios like Sony and DreamWorks aggressively pushing visual boundaries on projects like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Forgotten Island, Pixar is long overdue for some genuine artistic experimentation.
Between the gorgeous, brushstroke-heavy animation, Casarosa’s unmistakable fondness for Italian coastal charm, and Ruffalo and Fishburne trading verbal jabs as alley cats, Gatto already has plenty of personality to spare. Hopefully, audiences show up to support original animation when it matters most, because Pixar clearly isn’t afraid to take a few creative swings here.
Are you excited to see Pixar try something new with Gatto, or are you holding out for more Toy Story? Let us know in the comments section below!