The Pokemon Company has signed an exclusive deal with Disney to stream Pokemon Tales worldwide starting next year. The stop-motion series comes from Aardman, the British studio behind Wallace and Gromit. It pairs the sharp-suited Sirfetch’d with the ever-eager Pichu for a run of adventures set in the Galar region.
The Pokemon Company announced the deal during a live panel at this weekend’s Pokemon XP event. Pokemon Tales will land on Disney Plus and the Disney XD channel, though no premiere date has been set yet. The panel included a new teaser trailer showing off Aardman’s clay-animation take on the franchise.
What Pokemon Tales is about
The full title is Pokemon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu. It follows the two Pokemon as they try to protect Galar, even though their missions rarely go as planned. “Join our unlikely heroes, Sirfetch’d and Pichu, in their gallant quest to protect Pokemon across Galar,” the trailer’s description reads. “Peril, alliances, rivalries, extraordinary Pokemon, and endless laughs await them.”
Galar first appeared as a region in Pokemon Sword and Shield. Its design draws heavily on the British countryside, a natural fit for a studio built on the same aesthetic that produced Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.
Ash’s original anime run joins the deal
The Disney agreement is not limited to the new stop-motion show. It also covers Ash and Pikachu‘s first classic anime run, Pokemon the Series: The Beginning. That series is now streaming on Disney Plus and Disney XD in the United States, and in select other regions.
Disney executive Ayo Davis framed the deal as an effort to reach both longtime fans and newer audiences. “Pokemon has that rare ability to mean something to longtime fans while continuing to feel completely relevant to young audiences today,” Davis said, per Deadline. She added that Pokemon Tales “brings Aardman’s signature stop-motion artistry with a bold, playful new perspective to this beloved world.”
An earlier partnership, now with a release plan
Aardman and the Pokemon Company first confirmed they were working on a stop-motion project years before this weekend’s reveal. Details stayed scarce until the Pokemon XP panel. The studio built its reputation on projects such as Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep, and its style differs sharply from the cel animation used in the mainline Pokemon anime.
A worldwide Disney Plus release is now attached to Pokemon Tales, but no date is locked in yet. Disney and the Pokemon Company have not said whether further stop-motion projects will follow this one. Until a firm release window arrives, the teaser trailer and the classic anime already streaming on Disney Plus are the only pieces of the deal fans can watch today.