Pixar is heading back to Italy. The studio that gave us Luca, Enrico Casarosa’s sun-drenched story of friendship and transformation on the Italian Riviera, is returning to the country with a new film that promises to be something entirely different. Gatto, announced at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2025, is set in Venice—a city of canals, superstitions, and shadows. And it stars a black cat named Nero who’s about to learn that the life he’s been living might not be the one he was meant for.
The project was unveiled with significant fanfare, and for good reason. Casarosa is back in the director’s chair, bringing the same sensitivity that made Luca such a quiet triumph. But Gatto is aiming for something more ambitious visually. Early previews have suggested a new animation style for the studio—one that combines digital techniques with hand-painted textures to create a look that’s vibrant, almost painterly. It’s the kind of creative risk Pixar used to take regularly, and the fact that they’re taking it now, on a project this personal, is an encouraging sign.
Pixar’s Gatto: The Plot
Nero is a solitary black cat who’s spent his life navigating the canals and rooftops of Venice. He loves music. He can’t swim. And he’s in trouble. Specifically, he’s in debt to Rocco, the mafia boss of the feline underworld—a cat who runs his operation with the kind of menace that would make a human crime lord nervous.
When Nero’s situation becomes untenable, he’s forced to flee. He’s taken in, against his will, by Maya, a young street artist who sees something in the cat that Nero can’t see in himself. What follows is an unlikely friendship, a journey through a city that’s as dangerous as it is beautiful, and a reckoning with the question that’s been haunting Nero for years: has he been living the right life?
The official synopsis puts it simply: “After years spent navigating the canals and superstitions of Venice, Italy, Nero is beginning to wonder if he lived the right life. Indebted to Rocco, the mafia boss of cats, Nero finds himself in a complicated situation and is forced to form a completely unexpected friendship that could finally help him find his purpose in life… assuming Venice doesn’t get the better of him first.”
That last line matters. Venice isn’t just a setting here. It’s a threat. The city’s beauty masks its dangers—the water that can swallow you, the alleys that can trap you, the history that presses down on everything. Nero’s journey isn’t just about paying off a debt. It’s about surviving a place that has a way of consuming the people who live there.
The Visual Style
The most talked-about aspect of Gatto before anyone has even seen a full trailer is the animation itself. Pixar CCO Pete Docter presented early footage at Annecy, and the reaction was immediate. The film is using a new approach—digital animation combined with hand-painted textures—that gives the images a tactile, almost tangible quality. It’s a departure from the polished, hyper-realistic style that’s become Pixar‘s default, and it’s designed to capture the specific feel of Venice: the water, the stone, the way light plays across ancient surfaces.
The teaser trailer, released in June, gave audiences their first glimpse. A gang of cats gathers on a rooftop. One snaps his claws like a mafioso. The scene moves inside a shadowed room where Nero and Rocco are interrogating another cat about missing cans of tuna. The interrogation falls apart immediately—the cats are distracted by a dangling light bulb and a string, and they start playing with it like, well, cats. It’s funny and menacing at the same time, and it establishes the film’s tone: dangerous, but never too self-serious.
At D23 2026, attendees saw more exclusive footage, though it hasn’t been released publicly. Pixar did share new concept art, including an image introducing a friend of Nero’s—a character who’ll presumably play a role in his redemption arc.
The Cast
Mark Ruffalo leads the project as Nero. It’s an interesting choice. Ruffalo has a warmth and vulnerability that should serve the character well—Nero isn’t a hero, at least not at first. He’s a survivor, a loner, someone who’s learned to keep people at a distance because trusting them only leads to trouble. Ruffalo’s voice has a lived-in quality that should make Nero’s gradual opening up feel earned.
Laurence Fishburne plays Rocco, the feline mafia boss. If Ruffalo brings warmth, Fishburne brings menace. His voice—deep, measured, capable of shifting from charm to threat without warning—is perfectly suited to a character who rules through fear but understands the value of appearances. The dynamic between the two actors should be electric.
More cast members will presumably be announced in the coming months, both for the original English version and for the various international dubs.
The Release
Gatto arrives in theaters on March 5, 2027. Italian audiences get it a day earlier, on March 4. The timing is notable: the film follows Toy Story 5 and lands almost exactly a year after Pixar‘s last new release, positioning it as one of the studio’s flagship titles for the year.
As for streaming, nothing official has been announced. But Pixar‘s recent pattern suggests Gatto will hit Disney+ roughly three months after its theatrical run. If that holds, audiences could be watching from home by summer 2027.
Why This Matters
Pixar has been in a strange position for the past few years. The studio that once defined animated storytelling has been leaning heavily on sequels—Inside Out 2, Toy Story 5, Zootopia 2—and while those films have been successful, they haven’t always felt essential. Gatto is different. It’s an original story from a director with a proven track record, built around a setting that’s never been fully explored in animation, and rendered in a visual style that could genuinely expand what Pixar is capable of.
Casarosa’s Luca was one of the studio’s quieter successes—a film that didn’t make as much noise as some of its peers but connected deeply with audiences who appreciated its gentleness and its specificity. Gatto looks like it could be another step in that direction: personal, atmospheric, and willing to take risks.
The cat is the perfect avatar for this story. Cats are independent, self-contained, difficult to read. They navigate the world on their own terms. Nero’s journey—from solitude to connection, from survival to something like purpose—is a cat’s story, but it’s also a human one. Venice, with its beauty and its danger, is the perfect setting. And Pixar, when it’s at its best, is the perfect studio to tell it.
March 2027 can’t come soon enough.