Pixar dropped the first full trailer for “Gatto” on Thursday, sending a mobster cat named Nero prowling through a feline-run Venice that feels lived-in down to the last cobblestone. The studio’s next original feature opens in theaters March 5, 2027.
The Scene on the Canals
The trailer opens on Nero, a scruffy black cat voiced by Mark Ruffalo, navigating the canal-ridden underbelly of Venice. He answers to Rocco, a local feline mob boss voiced by Laurence Fishburne, and the dynamic feels immediate: debts owed, hierarchies observed, a “Tuna Tuesday” heist gone sideways. Residents describe a city that is superstitious and canal-ridden, a place where the cats have built their own shadow economy beneath the human one. The animation renders the light on the water and the texture of the alleyways with a tactile weight.
A Literal Nine Lives
The central mechanic lands with a thud. Nero dies in the trailer — really dies, plunging into water during a chase — and wakes in a purgatory populated by strange, mysterious animals. They tell him he has used one of his nine lives. Eight remain. “Eight more lives? This is amazing!” Nero says, before he is immediately flung back to the land of the living. The stakes shift in that moment: every subsequent risk burns a finite, visible resource.
The Luca Team Returns
Director Enrico Casarosa and producer Andrea Warren reunite after “Luca,” their Oscar-nominated 2021 feature. Casarosa, an Italian filmmaker, moves the setting from the Ligurian coast to Venice, trading human coming-of-age for a fable about a cat questioning whether he has made “good use of your whiskers.” The voice cast runs deep: Bianca Babaşa as Maja, a street musician who forces an unexpected friendship; Sherry Cola as Regina; John Turturro as Capitano Briganti; Isabella Rossellini as Contessa; Natasia Demetriou as Charon; Jamie Demetriou as Plague Doctor; Jason Schwartzman as Vivaldi; Jason Mantzoukas as Rico; Tracey Ullman as Luisa; and a bench of character actors filling out the colony.
Soundtrack and Short Film
Academy Award winner Dario Marianelli composed the original score, with violin pieces co-written and performed by Slovak violinist Barbora Botošová. A “Finding Nemo” short titled “Loving Dory” will play before “Gatto” in theaters, bringing Ellen DeGeneres back as the forgetful blue tang. The short, written and directed by Lou Hamou-Lhadj, finds Dory in a hapless meet-cute with a plastic bag she mistakes for a jellyfish — a romance that escalates from clingy to toxic.
Box Office Context
“Gatto” follows “Hoppers,” Pixar’s previous original film, which grossed $389 million worldwide and earned strong reviews. The studio then hit massive commercial success with “Toy Story 5,” which crossed $1 billion and ranked as the third highest-grossing film of its year behind “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey.” With “Incredibles 3” and “Coco 2” slated for 2028 and 2029, and “Ghost Market” in development for March 2028, “Gatto” arrives as a test of whether Pixar’s original storytelling momentum can hold alongside its franchise tentpoles.
Sources
- ‘Gatto’ Trailer: A Mobster Cat Is on His Last Life in Pixar’s New Animated Movie
- Mark Ruffalo voices a cat with nine lives in trailer for new Pixar film 'Gatto'
- Mark Ruffalo’s Gangster Cat Must Choose What To Do With His Last Life In Pixar’s New 2027 Original
- First Full Trailer for Pixar's 'Gatto' Movie About a Black Cat in Venice | FirstShowing.net
- Gatto: New Official Trailer Asks How You Would Live If You Got 9 Lives
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (CC BY-SA 2.0)
