Taking home a statue or two from the Oscars builds up excitement around a filmmaker’s next moves—and there’s no good reason why kids content shouldn’t be a part of the conversation.

South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho has officially taken his first step into animation as the director and co-writer of a new family feature called Ally (pictured). Bong, who earned four Oscars for his 2019 film Parasite, is aging down with this marine-inspired project about a piglet squid who dreams of starring in her own wildlife documentary until an aircraft sinks into her ocean home, putting her in danger.

Ally sees Bong collaborating with creatives and crews from the kids industry, including animation supervisor Jae Hyung Kim (Toy Story 4, Inside Out), supervising producer David Lipman (Shrek) and production designer Marcin Jakubowski (Klaus). Bringing more experience to the project is DNEG, which has worked on films like The Angry Birds Movie 3, Coyote vs. Acme and The Cat in the Hat. CJ ENM, Penture Invest and Pathé are overseeing financing and distribution for the film, which is expected to deliver sometime in the first half of 2027 for a global theatrical release. 

Ryan Coogler, meanwhile, who earned his first Academy Award (Best Original Screenplay) last month, also seems to be turning to the kids demo as he maps out his post-Sinners slate. 

The US filmmaker has come on board to produce the upcoming Animorphs TV adaptation through his Proximity Media banner. You may remember Scholastic’s Caitlin Friedman teasing this live-action take on the publisher’s best-selling popular book series when she spoke to Kidscreen earlier this year. She’s among the EPs, along with The Summer I Turned Pretty writer Bayan Wolcott, who will also pen the screenplay.

Spawning more than 50 books and a ’90s Nickelodeon series, the Animorphs franchise follows a group of teens who gain the ability to take over the form of animals they touch. The new Disney+ series is likely angling for a young crowd, given that the books were marketed to middle-grade readers. The streamer has made a consistent kidlit push since it launched, with Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Goosebumps and Eragon, to name a few.

It’s an interesting move for Coogler, whose projects have mostly skewed adult and four-quadrant (with the exception of producing Space Jam: A New Legacy). He has an ongoing relationship with Disney, having helmed the Black Panther franchise under Marvel Studios, with credits on TV spinoffs like Eyes of Wakanda and Ironheart. Proximity Media entered a five-year exclusive TV deal with the Mouse House back in 2021.