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Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Hexed” is nearly here. And we finally have some details.
The 65th animated feature from the beloved studio has been mostly shrouded in mystery, save for a few casting announcements and a teaser trailer that was recently attached to Pixar’s “Toy Story 5.” But today at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, directors Fawn Veerasunthorn (“Wish”) and Jason Hand (“Moana 2”) were on hand to show off some footage from the movie and let us in on the witchy new animated world.
If you want to go into “Hexed” completely spoiler-free, you might want to turn back and stay in the drab land of the mortals. But if you want to know exclusive details about this incredible-looking new film, please read on.
“Hexed” starts with a flashback – 15 years ago, young Billie (voiced, as a teen, by Hailee Steinfeld) is just a baby when she starts to levitate out of her crib. She seemingly opens a portal to another world. (This was less a clip and more a bit of test footage, like the shots of baby Moana that were so cute they had to put them into the actual movie.
As Veerasunthorn and Hand explained it, this incident frightens her overprotective mother Alice (Rashida Jones), who gives her a bracelet with a small gem on it. That gem, shaped like a crescent moon, does much to dampen her magical powers. It would turn Dr. Strange into Mr. Strange.
Cut to 15 years later and Billie is a rebellious teen who has gotten in trouble for stealing her school’s mascot, an owl. She’s sent to the principal’s office with video evidence of her theft captured on the principal’s computer. Panicked, she steals the computer and heads into the bathroom to try and dispose of the evidence, cracking open the back of the computer and pulling out the hard-drive. But in trying to destroy the hard-drive, her bracelet falls off and she begins to control things in the bathroom, the water faucets turn on and off, soap spills out of the containers, things start to levitate.
Earlier in the presentation, they had cited Milt Kahl, one of the classic Disney animators from Walt’s era, as inspiration for the animation of the characters – with pushed, exaggerated movements. But the sequence in the bathroom reminded us of the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” section of Walt’s masterpiece “Fantasia.” The only thing missing was dancing brooms.
The second clip that they showed was Billie at home after the bathroom incident. You see her delicately take off her bracelet and attempt to conjure her powers in her bedroom, while we also cut to Alice, who is digging up something from underneath the floorboards that looks an awful lot like a cape and a broom and some magic points, which called to mind the sequence in the first “John Wick” when he digs up his basement to retrieve his old assassin accoutrement.
Soon enough, Billie’s magic is working and she opens a portal to another world. At first she walks around what looks like a dusty old museum, with a witch’s hand hanging in a display case and lots and lots of dust. At one point Billie looks up at a wall, which has a painting that depicts witches from the witch trial era being ushered away from prosecution and into a magical land where they can be themselves. Billie is intrigued. So were we.
Billie finally encounters two enchanted objects – a magical book (voiced by Stephen Fry) and a talking quill (voiced by Tracey Ullman). They ask her questions until they decide that, yes, she is where she is supposed to be, and they show her through a gateway into Hexe, “a world of witches” (according to the talking book). She walks through the doorway into the world, which is full of black cats and other witches, zooming around.
After that, Veerasunthorn and Hand explained more of the story – that Alice, concerned for Billie’s wellbeing, eventually travels to Hexe to look for her; that Billie befriends an anthropomorphic cauldron named Bucket (which is also the name of Johnny Knoxville’s dog, just as an aside); and that eventually Billie has to call upon the help of a three-eyed cat named Beef Roger Crummtruck. He’s an old, crusty cat with multiple limbs and the ability to stretch out and take off his head. One animation test showed him removing his head, where he had secreted a martini glass in his neck.
Together, they tackle an “expansive realm of magic.” One evocative piece of concept art had a giant bat tethered to an old, crumbling castle, its wings fixed and bound by iron shackles and massive chains. There are also some not-so-nice witches, who appear first as a flock (murder) of crows.
The final clip showed Billie being pursued up a winding tower by these bad witches. Eventually Billie casts a spell that blows apart the tower, but then she sees a whole sky full of crows. And then the clip ended.
In terms of the thematics of “Hexed,” it seemed like the most analogous example would be “Back to the Future.” Over the course of the movie, it looks like Billie will realize there is more to her mom than being uptight and working in the most boring office known to mankind. There’s a real spirit and spark to Alice, that Billie will finally see. And Billie, after years of being bullied and ignored, can finally come into her own, free of judgement or prosecution. It’s a great metaphor for anyone who feels like their truth is being unduly shushed by society. In the magical world of Hexe, Billie can finally find out what she’s truly capable of, if ony more people believed in her.
We can’t wait to see the rest of the movie – and find out where else “Hexed” goes, when it opens in theaters on November 25, with a new “Lilo & Stitch” short attached too.
The post We’ve Seen the First Footage from Disney’s Magical New Movie ‘Hexed’ appeared first on TheWrap.