Look, Disney is never exactly an underdog, but you have to admit that for a long stretch of time where Disney Animation Studios was absolutely clobbered by their "competition," Pixar. (It's a Disney subsidiary, but still.) Yet, over the last couple of years, they've been knocking it out of the park. Starting with Tangled in 2010, which grossed almost $600 million worldwide, Disney has firmly planted itself back in the game, delivering hit after hit with Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6, and, of course, Frozen. That trend looks to continue shooting upward in 2016, starting with Zootopia, which is being described as an "action buddy comedy" focusing on a version of New York City entirely populated with talking animals that have real people jobs. (For instance, the Zootopia Police Department has a buffalo as its chief.) It may not be the most original concept, but it does have the requisite number of hip voice actors to get adults into it. (Idris Elba is the aforementioned buffalo chief, Jason Bateman a con artist red fox.) More exciting, however, is the second feature film to be released by the studio this year, Moana, a seafaring adventure film set in the South Pacific that will feature the voice of Dwayne Johnson in a primary role. So not only will we get some potentially dazzling new landscapes for the animators to toy with, but we'll get to hear The Rock sing a heartwarming song about being true to yourself. Probably.
