Disney Animation Chief Jared Bush Confirms Clay’s New CG Art Style Will Look Unlike Any Disney Movie Before It
Disney has spent close to a century building an animation house style that audiences can recognize before a single character says a word. That history is exactly what makes a departure from it stand out, and Walt Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush has now confirmed that its upcoming original movie, Clay, is set to be the studio’s biggest visual swing in years, built around a brand-new CG art style designed to feel like real, touchable claymation.
A Ball of Clay, a Reluctant Mentor, and a Magical Forest
Clay is directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn and produced by Peter Del Vecho, with Academy Award winner Kieran Culkin voicing the lead role of Flip, a rebellious misfit who gets unwillingly chosen during a yearly ritual to mentor Mushy, a young and impressionable ball of clay. The original adventure is set in a magical forest full of fantastical creatures, where community members are born as literal balls of clay and shaped by a parental mentor figure into who they are ultimately meant to become. Disney first revealed the project, then under a working title, at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event this past August, with a theatrical release locked in for November 22, 2028.
Bush Confirms the Claymation Resemblance, but Rules Out Stop-Motion
Speaking at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Bush was asked directly whether Clay resembles claymation in its visual approach. “Yeah. Someone told you right,” he confirmed. According to Bush, Clay marks the first time the studio has taken such a deliberate swing at a new art style, something he says only makes sense when it genuinely serves the story being told. Because the film’s community is literally made of clay, he wants the world to feel tactile and real, like something you could reach out and touch, but the final result will not be stop-motion. Instead, Clay is being built entirely in CG animation engineered to look and feel unlike anything Walt Disney Animation Studios has produced before.
Why Fawn Veerasunthorn’s Pitch Won the Studio Over
Bush credited the project’s greenlight largely to its director, calling it the product of Fawn Veerasunthorn’s passion. Veerasunthorn previously co-directed Disney’s Hexed, including its bundled Lilo & Scratch short, and Bush explained that her pitch for Clay grew directly out of her own life, drawing on her experience becoming a mother and wrestling with whether she was equipped to guide and shape a child. He described that underlying worry as something many people recognize, whether as a new parent or simply someone trying to support others around them at work, and said it was that universal emotional core, paired with a fully original world built to reflect it, that ultimately convinced him the story needed its own distinct look.
Where Production Stands Right Now
Bush was careful to note that Clay is not currently planned as a musical, though he pointed to Hexed, which features several needle-drop music moments despite also not being a musical, as a sign of how flexible the studio’s approach to music could still end up being. As for where the film actually stands, Bush said the team is currently building out characters and the world itself while preparing for an upcoming internal screening, adding that production remains very much in an experimental phase. With a 2028 release still two years out, Walt Disney Animation Studios has plenty of runway left to keep refining Clay’s look before it reaches theaters.
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Picture Source: Walt Disney Animation Studios
