Aardman Is Making a Stop-Motion Pokemon Series for Disney+, and the Classic Show Is Already There
Disney+ has greenlit Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd & Pichu, a stop-motion series from Aardman, as part of a new global distribution deal with The Pokémon Company International. It lands on Disney XD and Disney+ in 2027.
The deal was announced Friday at Pokémon XP, and the stop-motion series is the headline — but the part you can watch tonight is the other half of it.
What the deal includes
- Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd & Pichu — created by Aardman, debuting on Disney XD and streaming exclusively on Disney+ in 2027. Sirfetch'd and Pichu journey through the Galar region on a quest to help and protect other Pokémon.
- Pokémon the Series: The Beginning — the classic run with Ash and Pikachu. It is the first title to launch under the agreement, airing on Disney XD and streaming on Disney+ now.
- Aardman is the studio behind Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, and has never done anything like this with a Japanese franchise before.
Why this is a bigger deal than a greenlight
Pokémon has spent most of the streaming era scattered across services and regions, with the classic episodes especially hard to find in one place. Putting The Beginning on Disney+ under a global agreement is the first time in a while that the answer to "where do I start Pokémon" has a single link.
Aardman doing Pokémon in clay is either the best idea anyone has had with this franchise in a decade or a category error. There is no third outcome.
Tonight: the classic series on Disney+. In 2027: Sirfetch'd and Pichu, in stop-motion, in Galar.