Considering Disney has been so proactive in delivering new sequels, spin-offs, and even more exclusive content for Disney+, it’s remarkable that this particular project has taken so long to get off the ground. But worry not, dear fans, because the gumbo and the beignets are on their way back as one of Disney’s most underrated movies is finally getting a second chance in the spotlight, despite a shock cancellation last year.
Speaking exclusively with Collider’s Steve Weintraub at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush has officially confirmed that The Princess and the Frog will be returning in the form of a brand new project, featuring new songs and members of the original cast. It’ll be a complete story, rather than an ongoing television series, with Bush describing it as something closer to a television special. Asked about Disney’s reduced output of original programming for Disney+, Bush revealed:
“Well, there is something we’ve actually been working on. It is a special set in the world of The Princess and the Frog. We are really moving on that right now. So, that’s actually in active production. That will be out to people soon. New songs. Original cast. It is pretty spectacular.”
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
Disney’s ‘Princess and the Frog’ Special Is Finally Moving Forward
It’s a huge revelation because Disney has had trouble with Tiana over the past few years. Originally, there was the musical series, Tiana, set to debut on Disney+, with Anika Noni Rose reprising her role as the beloved princess. However, in March 2025, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Disney had shelved the project as part of a wider corporate decision to move away from producing long-form animation for streaming. At the time, Disney was already developing a separate special inspired by The Princess and the Frog, but we didn’t know much about it — until now, that is, as Bush has confirmed that a full musical story is actively being produced, rather than a collection of animated shorts. Additionally, Bush was guarded when it came to confirming when exactly we could expect to see it and how long it would be. He told Collider:
“I’m hesitant to give you the specifics. I’d say it probably will feel more like a special to people. So, it’s not shorts. It’s a full story with a lot of songs as part of it. We have not announced a specific timing of that yet. I’ll get back to you on that. But there are other projects in similar veins, and I think that that’s a great way for us to experiment with some things and also to revisit worlds that I think people want to see.”
For fans who’ve spent years waiting for Tiana’s next adventure, the news is certainly encouraging. While Disney has yet to reveal which original cast members are returning, the story, or when the special will premiere, Bush’s comments confirm that the world of The Princess and the Frog is finally getting another musical adventure.
The original The Princess and the Frog is streaming now on Disney+. The new animated special is in active production, with a release date yet to be announced. Stay tuned at Collider for more.
