Pixar’s ‘Gatto’ Trailer Turns Venice Into a Living Painting for Its Unlucky Black Cat
Pixar is going back to Italy, and this time the star is a black cat that no one in Venice wants to cross paths with. ‘Gatto’, the studio’s next original film, comes from ‘Luca’ director Enrico Casarosa and has been one of Pixar’s most intriguing upcoming projects since it was first announced. The cat-run underworld of Venice now has a full trailer.
The film has been building for a while. Disney-Pixar announced the project just 3 months after a small indie film about a black cat won the Oscar for best animated feature. A first teaser trailer and poster followed in June 2026, taking viewers into the feline-run underbelly of Venice, Italy.
Now Disney and Pixar have released the first full trailer for ‘Gatto’, and it’s a big step up from that brief tease. The 2:15 footage gives the clearest look yet at its world, and the story follows a music-loving black cat who is rejected by locals because of old superstitions. The film opens in theaters on March 5, 2027.
At the center of it all is Nero, voiced by Mark Ruffalo. According to the official synopsis, after years of maneuvering the canal-ridden, superstitious city of Venice, Italy, Nero begins to question whether he’s lived the right lives.
this cat’s on his last life see the new trailer for Disney & Pixar’s #Gatto, arriving in theaters March 5, 2027 https://t.co/7SstmhGV9p
— Pixar (@Pixar) November 12, 2026
He also has a debt problem. Indebted to Rocco, voiced by Laurence Fishburne, the ruthless local feline mob boss, Nero finds himself in a quandary and is forced to forge a truly unexpected friendship that may finally lead him to his purpose, unless Venice gets the better of him first.
The new footage also shows Nero facing his own mortality. A trip to a dreamlike afterlife, guided by a crow, forces him to face how many lives he has already used up. Then he crosses paths with an unexpected human friend, a young street artist. Pixar first revealed more about her at Annecy, where it shared that Nero dislikes water and likes music, and that he befriends a street artist named Maya.
have you made good use of your whiskers? the new poster for Disney & Pixar’s #Gatto has arrived. see the film only in theaters March 5, 2027 https://t.co/aPoOyi3yS2
— Pixar (@Pixar) November 12, 2026
The biggest talking point is how the film looks. ‘Gatto’ is Pixar’s first film to blend CGI animation with a traditional hand-painted “living painting” style to capture the charming streets of Venice. The studio builds the Venetian environments in 3 dimensions to preserve depth, then layers hand-painted textures, visible brushstrokes and illustrative details over them.
That painterly look isn’t just a marketing trick. Pixar’s art director, Gastón Ugarte, reported in May 2026 that a widely shared promotional image of Nero in the Venetian canals was not concept art but the final look the film would have. The approach follows a trend set by other recent CG features like the ‘Spider-Verse’ franchise and ‘The Wild Robot’.
‘Gatto’ brings back a familiar creative team. The film reunites director Enrico Casarosa and producer Andrea Warren, the filmmaking team behind Pixar’s Oscar-nominated 2021 feature, ‘Luca’. Casarosa also voices a character himself.
New images from Pixar’s next film ‘GATTO’. The film uses a new hand-painted & CG combined style of animation with details done through hand-drawn brush & watercolor elements. https://t.co/Bg9LbTdZW3
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 12, 2026
Music looks set to play a big part, which suits a cat who loves it. The score comes from Academy Award winner Dario Marianelli. Earlier, the June teaser had leaned into the mob angle, with flourishes of Nino Rota’s “The Godfather Waltz,” the theme music from the classic mafia drama ‘The Godfather’.
Audiences who see it on opening weekend will get a bonus. A brand new Pixar short called ‘Loving Dory’ will play before the movie. The film has not yet been rated by the Motion Picture Association.
The early reaction suggests Pixar has a lot to work with. The original teaser immediately lit up social media with comparisons to ‘Ratatouille,’ ‘The Godfather,’ and the Oscar-winning ‘Flow.’ With a full trailer that adds an afterlife journey, a human friendship and a whole new visual style, ‘Gatto’ could become one of the studio’s most distinctive original films in years.
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