Disney Kids & Family Brought a Global Slate to Annecy 2026

Orion Ross, Vice President of International Animation for Disney Kids & Family, and Shamik Majumdar, Director of Development and Current International Animation for the division, took the stage at Annecy on Wednesday to give an overview of what the London-based team has been working on and what’s coming next. For those unfamiliar, Disney Kids & Family recently rebranded from Disney Branded Television, a name change Ross noted “actually describes what we do” — producing series, shorts, specials, and event TV movies for kids and family audiences from preschool through older kids.

Among the most exciting updates for older-skewing animation were two newly announced series. Journey, described as a “big epic adventure,” was teased as a major upcoming serialized series. Also, Disney Kids & Family has acquired the rights to Warrior Cats, an adaptation of the massively popular book series. No further details were shared at the panel.

On the Disney Junior front, Ross highlighted Magicampers, an original series produced with OuiDo! Productions in France. The show, about hybrid creatures with magical abilities living on a lush tropical island, launched in March, with new episodes continuing to roll out. A fresh batch of episodes drops July 1st on Disney+.

Also coming from Disney Junior this holiday season is Dasher, a 44-minute special that tells the origin story of Santa’s first, and fastest, reindeer, based on the New York Times bestselling children’s book by Matt Tavares. The special is a co-production with Trustbridge, and Ross said it is “looking really beautiful.”

Dragon Striker, the original epic fantasy sports series now streaming on Disney+, got some love at the panel, including a behind-the-scenes look at how it came to be. Ross recalled first meeting the show’s creator, Sylvain Dos Santos from La Chouette Compagnie, years ago, when he was pitching an entirely different show: a magic rugby series. Disney passed on rugby as a global sport, but the conversation continued. The concept evolved through several iterations, including an early version called “Goal Force” and another called “Soccer Spell,” before eventually landing on its current form, combining soccer with original epic fantasy world-building and a unique system of magical abilities used on the field. Ross held up the Dragon Striker development process as a prime example of how iterative, relationship-driven pitching works at the studio and encouraged creators in the audience not to get discouraged if a first idea doesn’t land. With 11 half-hour episodes of Dragon Striker now streaming on Disney+, Ross and Majumdar encouraged anyone who hasn’t checked it out to do so.

On the acquisitions front, Ross spoke proudly about Miraculous Ladybug, noting that Disney Kids & Family’s London team was an early creative partner on the very first season. Season 6 is currently rolling out, with Season 7 already in production. The franchise is also expanding with Miraculous Stellar Force, an all-new 2D anime-style spinoff set in Tokyo featuring new characters, a Disney exclusive. Chibi shorts are also rolling out across YouTube and other platforms. 

Next summer, Disney Kids & Family will debut Messi and the Giants, a collaboration with Sony Pictures Kids & Family, Sony Music, and Spanish animation studio Atlantis. The series follows Leo, an ordinary 12-year-old boy from Rosario who is suddenly transported to a fantastical world ruled by giants, where he must build a team and master a new game to find his way home. The show is loosely inspired by Leo Messi’s childhood experience as the smallest kid on the team, but takes that premise into full sci-fi adventure territory, complete with comedy and, as Ross put it, “some really amazing giants.”

Wrapping up the presentation was The Doomies, a spooky comedy series created by Andrés Fernandez, Henry Gifford, and French graphic artist Rémi "Pozla" Zaarour, produced by Xilam Animation in Paris. The show has been selected for the official competition at this year’s Annecy festival. Best friends Bobby and Remy live in a sleepy seaside town in Brittany, where they accidentally unleash monsters on their town through a portal to the underworld hidden in one of Brittany’s famous ancient stones. Ross said the show is made by people who genuinely love horror movies, with each episode playing with classic horror tropes, “always age-appropriate, always played for laughs.” There’s also an overarching mystery that builds across the whole season. The Doomies premieres this Friday on Disney+.

The panel also covered Disney Kids & Family’s broader development philosophy. Ross and Majumdar emphasized that their London team is not producing regional content; they’re looking for ideas from studios across Europe, Africa, and beyond that can become global Disney animated hits. They accept pitches at all stages, from early concepts to nearly finished animatics, and describe the development process as iterative and relationship-driven. Their advice to creators: start a conversation before sending materials, don’t cold-submit, and don’t be shy about following up.

For the many creators and producers in the room, the message from Ross and Majumdar was consistent throughout: great ideas come from everywhere, relationships matter more than cold submissions, and if the first pitch doesn’t land, keep the conversation going. As Dragon Striker proves, the best stories sometimes take the longest roads.

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