2026 will be here in two shakes of a cat’s tail. As China’s record-breaking blockbuster Ne Zha 2 takes the top spot as the biggest animated movie ever with $2.2 billion at the global box office, Hollywood studios are getting their houses in order for next year. Sony Pictures Animation’s basketball-themed Goat will hoop it up in February, followed by Disney-Pixar original movie Hoppers in March and the Ryan Reynolds and Jason Momoa-voiced adult animated comedy Animal Friends in May. But there are also a number of animated sequels on the calendar, including The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2, Minions 3, Toy Story 5, and Ice Age 6.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Universal and DreamWorks’ Shrek 5 was scheduled for July and then December 2026, but was recently delayed again to June 2027 (where it will compete with another anticipated sequel, Sony’s Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse). The IP release shuffle continues, as Warner Bros. has postponed its animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat by nine months to Nov. 6, 2026.
The Bill Hader-voiced Cat was previously scheduled to open in theaters on Feb. 27, 2026, a little over a week before Pixar’s talking animal comedy Hoppers on March 6. The Warner Bros. Pictures Animation movie will now arrive almost a month after the Paramount and Nickelodeon Avatar sequel The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender on Oct. 9, and will be the only kid-friendly fare until an Untitled Disney Animation Studios movie opens over the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 25.
According to Deadline, the reason for the nine-month delay is because Warner Bros. “prefers the pre-holiday corridor for global playability.” Disney has opened animated blockbusters such as Moana 2, Frozen and Frozen II, Big Hero 6, Wreck-It Ralph, Coco, Monsters, Inc., and The Incredibles in November, while Warner Bros. has slotted several of its Harry Potter movies in the month.
The last theatrically released Dr. Seuss adaptation was Universal and Illumination’s The Grinch, which stole away with $540 million at the worldwide box office when it opened in November 2018. Universal previously released the live-action Cat in the Hat (starring Mike Myers as the frazzled feline) in November 2003 following the Jim Carrey-fronted How the Grinch Stole Christmas in November 2000.
In the new Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s first full-length feature film, the Cat “spreads joy to kids in his hilarious, signature and singularly irreverent way, transporting them and audiences on a fantastical journey through a world they’ve never seen before.”
“Our hero takes on his toughest assignment yet for the I.I.I.I. — Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, LLC — to cheer Gabby and Sebastian, a pair of siblings struggling with their move to a new town,” the official synopsis reads. “Known for taking things too far, this could be this agent of chaos’s last chance to prove himself…or lose his magical hat!”
The cast includes Bill Hader (Barry), Xochitl Gomez (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Matt Berry (A Minecraft Movie), Quinta Brunson (Zootopia 2), and Paula Pell (Big Mouth), and features Tiago Martinez (Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado), Giancarlo Esposito (Captain America: Brave New World), America Ferrera (Barbie), Bowen Yang (Wicked), and Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
The Cat in the Hat hits theaters Nov. 6, 2026.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Crunchyroll -
Image Courtesy of Disney+
