Disney’s Hexed doesn’t hit theaters until November 25, 2026 but it’s already in the running for being one of the most polarizing, controversial animated films of 2026. Complaints range from the art style being repetitive, the female protagonist is seemingly yet another adorkable outcast who doesn’t fit in, to accusations of plagiarizing a canceled Disney Channel show. It’s hard to find someone on the internet to name something they actually like about Hexed. How can an unreleased film that has very little info about it or clips cause this much controversy?
What is Hexed about?
The story revolves around Billie Doe, who’s described as being an impulsive, and unconventional teenage girl. She doesn’t have the best relationship with her more cautious mother Alice and getting expelled from school doesn’t help.
But everything changes when Billie discovers she has magical abilities that send her straight out of suburbia and into the hidden witch realm Hexe. Billie has to work with her mom as the duo uncover family secrets that could influence the world of witches.
The fantasy comedy film boasts an all-star cast with Hailee Steinfeld voicing Billie while Alice is voiced by Rashida Jones. Jodie Foster will play the film’s main villain, Queen Celeste with fellow actors Walton Walton Goggins, Tracey Ullman and Sir Stephen Fry joining the supporting cast. Scheduled for release the day before Thanksgiving, Hexed has all the makings to be the next holiday blockbuster for Walt Disney Animation Studios just like Moana 2 and Zootopia 2. Right?
The controversies surrounding Hexed
Ever since Disney did a showcase for Hexed during their CinemaCon presentation this April, the past six months has been a pile-up of different grievances from the cartoon community.
When it was first announced, it was originally a story about an awkward teenage boy and his Type A mom. Nobody knows why Disney decided to pivot and make Billie female. Male leads stopped a common sight in Disney films during the 2010s and the studio’s last feature to have a boy as the main focus, Elio, tanked at the box office. The sole exceptions to this rule are usually part of a duo (Nick and Judy from Zootopia, Ralph and Vanellope from Wreck-It Ralph) or they share the spotlight with an ensemble cast (Big Hero 6, Encanto).
When a fan asked about it at D23, they were just told it was an internal studio choice. Disappointment morphed into wild theories accusing Disney of scrubbing male characters from the concept art, even though outlets like Creative Bloq pointed out that it’s normal for characters to change during pre-production.
Soon, the cartoon community started to complain about Billie’s personality. Based on what we know, she’s supposed to be a reckless, feisty, awkward rebel who is not like the other teens at school, or in town. It’s an archetype that’s synonymous with the “quirky millennial” tropes that have earned the ire of many on the internet.
When the final character designs were revealed, people complained Billie was suffering from “same-face syndrome” and how she looked no different from other Disney characters like Elsa from Frozen. There was also speculation Hexed was AI-generated, though directors Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand explained in an interview with Cartoon Brew they wanted the film to have a “sharper” and “weirder” vibe. They even cues from the anime Chainsaw Man to give Billie unique crescent moon-inspired eye highlights to subtly hint towards her witchy nature.
In mid-June, allegations were made that Hexed was framed right in the center so it could be easily cropped into a 9:16 vertical format for TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Hand dismissed the idea as being “bizarre and not true,” while Veerasunthorn focused on the work their cinematography team was putting in. “We put so much intention into every frame when it comes to where the characters stand and what surrounds them. We’re asking, ‘Does she feel free at this moment? Is she restricted?’ There’s a lot of thought put into that,” Veerasunthorn told Cartoon Brew.
Arguably one the biggest controversies involving Hexed is the claim that the film is a ripoff of the horror comedy series The Owl House. Billie has a lot in common with Luz Noceda: both are impulsive, weird teenage girls where their relationship with their mother influences much of the plot. To make a long story short, the show’s cancellation was due to its serialized nature and plot-driven storytelling didn’t fit with Disney Channel’s preference for episodic, stand-alone adventures. Some believe Disney wanted a “sanitized” version of the beloved show, while other Owl House fans push back against the comparisons by arguing the “human transported to a magical world” is a cornerstone of the isekai genre.
So yeah, as you can see this film has given a lot of people something to complain about. Personally, I see all this drama as a sign of two things….
One: media literacy is dying a slow, painful death
My biggest gripe with the Hexed controversies is how people talk about the film. At the end of the day, this movie isn’t even out yet! We only have a trailer and a handful of previews to go on!
Valid arguments like “so little about Hexed’s plot has been revealed, I’m worried about the quality of the writing” or “I’m not a fan of the art style because it lacks the heart and creativity of past Disney films” are swept under the rug. A lot of people and content creators prefer to push wild conspiracy theories without the facts to back them up. Outrage gets more engagement on social media while constructive criticism doesn’t spread as far. As a result, the nuance that can enhance our perspective on what we consume gets lost in the process.
Two: animation fans are sick of Disney
Over the years, Disney has burned through its the decades worth of goodwill with the company had built among animation fans. Disney-owned Pixar laid off about 175 people, around 14% of its workforce in 2024 under the leadership of former Disney CEO Bob Iger. In April 2026, the new CEO Josh D’Amaro eliminated around 1,000 jobs across the entire company, followed by another round of layoffs affecting hundreds of jobs in September with artists and visual designers among those cut.
And let’s not forget about that deal with OpenAI. Back in December 2025, Disney announced they were investing over $1 billion in OpenAI along with licensing over 200 characters to be used in videos made by the Sora app. The deal didn’t last long as OpenAI shut down the Sora app shortly after the announcement was made.
Add on the stubborn refusal to take creative risks with their storytelling or art styles, and a growing list of “meh” films like Wish, people are just exhausted. Disney has made so many questionable decisions lately, if something doesn’t feel right for whatever reason, the benefit of the doubt isn’t there anymore. Yes, the massive box office success of Zootopia 2 and Toy Story 5 proves that general audiences are still there, but fandoms are a different story. And Disney needs the latter if they expect to make a profit from Hexed in the long and short-term.
