New films “Toy Story”, “Frozen” and “Zootopia” are on the way

LOS ANGELES — Disney is working on sequels to Toy Story, Frozen and Zootopia, three big hits, as the entertainment center tries to find its footing under recently returned CEO Bob Iger.

Walt Disney Co. is undergoing a “strategic transformation,” Iger said Wednesday. This includes 7,000 job cuts announced this week and a new focus on major brands and franchises.

Iger, who returned as CEO in November after a difficult two-year tenure as his chosen successor Bob Chapek, announced plans for new films during Disney’s first-quarter earnings announcement on Wednesday.

Disney owns Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar. His latest Marvel film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania, hits theaters on February 17th.

The Burbank, California-based company said it wants content executives to have a say in what movies, TV shows or other content it produces, and in the marketing and distribution of those products.

Toy Story is a long-standing Disney franchise. The original film, which was Pixar Animation Studios’ first feature-length computer-animated feature film, was released in 1995. It received the Academy Award for Special Achievement in 1996 as there was no Best Animated Feature category at the time. .

The most recent sequel, Toy Story 4, released in 2019, won two Oscars for Animated Feature in 2020, becoming the first franchise to do so. Toy Story 3’s predecessor won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2011.

A prequel film called “Lightyear” was shown in theaters last year.

The original film Frozen, released in 2013, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2014. The sequel to Frozen 2 was shown in theaters in 2019.

Disney’s worldwide box office in 2019 was about $13 billion, helped by a large number of films, including Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, Avengers: Endgame, and more.

Unlike Toy Story and Frozen, Zootopia doesn’t have a sequel yet. The original film was released in 2016 and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2017.