Pokémon Finds a New Global Home With Disney+ and Aardman’s “Pokémon Tales”

For nearly 30 years, Pokémon has been everywhere.

Games. Cards. Toys. Movies. Television. Stores filled with enough Pikachu merchandise to probably build an entire second Pikachu.

Now, one of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world is finding a major new home.

Disney+ and The Pokémon Company International have entered into a new global distribution agreement that will bring Pokémon programming to Disney+ and Disney XD, beginning with the franchise’s original animated adventures and expanding into something completely different.

Something involving a lot of clay.

Aardman is bringing its unmistakable stop-motion style into the Pokémon world with “Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu,” a new series set to debut globally on Disney XD and exclusively stream on Disney+ in 2027.

The first teaser for the series was revealed during Pokémon XP, giving fans their first proper glimpse at what happens when the studio behind “Wallace & Gromit” and “Shaun the Sheep” gets its hands on the Galar Region.

And this certainly isn’t the Pokémon animation we grew up watching.

“Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu” follows the unlikely duo of Sirfetch’d and Pichu as they travel across Galar on a rather noble mission to help and protect other Pokémon.

There is only one small problem.

Things rarely go according to plan.

 

 

Their adventures will send the pair into danger, introduce new friends and rivals and, naturally, put them face-to-face with plenty of other Pokémon. Through all the chaos, their attempts at heroism slowly forge a friendship between the two.

While Pokémon has experimented with numerous animation styles throughout its history, Aardman’s involvement gives this newest project an identity unlike almost anything the franchise has attempted before.

The studio’s handcrafted approach is being used to physically build the world of Pokémon, bringing characters and environments to life through models, sets and traditional stop-motion filmmaking.

Members of the Aardman creative team joined Pokémon’s director of original animation Phil Rynda at Pokémon XP to offer fans a look behind that process, including director Tom Parkinson, Creative Director – IP Development Nat McKay and Model Making Creative Lead James Young.

Yet Sirfetch’d and Pichu are only part of this announcement.

The larger Disney and Pokémon partnership is already underway.

“Pokémon the Series: The Beginning” began airing on Disney XD earlier this month and is now available through Disney+ in the United States and select international markets.

The classic series takes things all the way back to where the animated journey began, following Ash and Pikachu as they set out into the Pokémon world together.

That makes this new agreement an interesting meeting of Pokémon’s past and future.

On one side, Disney is giving audiences access to the adventures that introduced generations of kids to Ash, Pikachu and the larger Pokémon world.

On the other, it is becoming the home of a completely new interpretation of that world, one where Pokémon themselves take center stage without a human Trainer necessarily driving the story.

It also places two enormous names in family entertainment considerably closer together.

Disney+ has steadily built its catalog around globally recognizable family franchises, while Pokémon has spent decades proving that its appeal can stretch across countries, generations and nearly every form of entertainment imaginable.

Bringing Pokémon programming to Disney XD and Disney+ gives that already massive franchise another significant platform for reaching younger viewers while giving longtime fans something familiar — and something entirely new.

Because somehow, after nearly three decades, Pokémon continues finding new ways to evolve.

No Evolution Stone required.

“Pokémon the Series: The Beginning” is now streaming on Disney+ in the U.S. and select international markets and airing on Disney XD.

“Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu” will make its global debut on Disney XD and Disney+ in 2027.