Pixar’s First Hand-Painted Film Celebrates Art — and Tells a New Tale of the Black Cat
From CGI to brushstrokes, the studio reinvents itself.
After more than a decade of creative zigzags and safe bets, Pixar seems ready to colour outside the lines — literally. The studio unveiled Gatto, a new animated feature from Luca director Enrico Casarosa, set for a summer 2027 release. What makes this announcement more than just another entry in the Pixar catalogue is the technique: Gatto will be the studio’s first-ever hand-painted film.
Breaking away from the glossy digital aesthetic Pixar pioneered, Gatto ventures into tactile, painterly territory. The film follows a black cat in Venice who harbours a love for music but faces rejection from the locals, bound by age-old superstitions. Yes, black cats are having a moment on screen — Oscar-winner Flow made sure of that — but Gatto promises a very different kind of feline folklore, one seen through the swirling, expressive textures of brush and canvas.
The artistic gamble comes at a time when Pixar could use a spark. While Inside Out 2 may be thriving at the box office, the studio’s creative peak is widely considered to have ended with the original Inside Out in 2015. Soul came close in 2020, but its release on Disney+ during the pandemic dimmed its spotlight. And Elio, after multiple delays and reworks, lands in cinemas next week to a muted buzz.
So, Gatto isn’t just another animated film about an outsider animal with feelings — it’s a signal. After more than thirty years at the frontier of computer-generated storytelling, Pixar appears to be reaching for something older, more analogue, and perhaps more soulful. If Loving Vincent showed us the cinematic power of paint, Gatto may just bring that spirit to the mainstream — with a little music, a black cat, and a touch of Venetian magic.
