Is Disney's Hexed Worth Seeing? Tickets Are on Sale for the Nov. 25 Witch Movie, It's the Studio's First Original Since Wish Lost an Estimated $131 Million, and I Think the Darker Edge Is the Right Gamble

Here's the stat that stuck with me this week. The last time Walt Disney Animation Studios released a movie that wasn't a sequel, it was Wish, over Thanksgiving 2023, and it went on to become one of that year's costliest disappointments. Since then the studio has given us Moana 2 and Zootopia 2, which made $1.05 billion and $1.87 billion worldwide, according to TheWrap. Two giant hits. Zero new stories.

That's why a movie about a teenage witch, a three-eyed cat and a villain voiced by Jodie Foster feels bigger than a normal November release. Tickets for Hexed went on sale Oct. 20, and it opens Wednesday, Nov. 25, exactly 30 days from today. I haven't seen it and no reviews are out, so I'm not going to pretend to review it. What I can do is sort what's confirmed from what's chatter, and tell you honestly where I land.

When does Hexed come out, what is it rated, and how do you get tickets?

Tickets went live on Oct. 20, alongside a new trailer and new posters, according to Laughing Place. The formats are Real D 3D, 4DX and Dolby Cinema. The U.K. gets the film two days after the U.S., on Nov. 27.

The rating is the detail I'd hold loosely. Theater listings, including one from Celebration Cinema, show Hexed as PG, but I couldn't find the MPA's reason line, and I didn't find an official runtime anywhere. Bush, who is Disney Animation's chief creative officer and a writer on the film, spoke about the movie's 90 minutes on screen when he talked with TheWrap. That hints at a tight picture, but it's an offhand figure, not a listing.

There's a nice extra, too. A new animated short called Lilo & Scratch is attached to the Nov. 25 release, TheWrap reported from the Annecy festival in June. Chris Sanders returns to voice Stitch, and Maia Kealoha returns as Lilo. The team tried to recreate the hand-drawn, watercolor look of the 2002 original using a mix of traditional animation and computer techniques, and TheWrap's reporter, who saw about two minutes of it, said you couldn't tell which backgrounds were real watercolor.

If you like the collectible side of a movie night, Laughing Place says Regal, Cinemark, Marcus, AMC and Alamo Drafthouse are preparing themed merchandise. Marcus will have a cauldron-shaped popcorn bucket and a character bucket, and Regal's collection starts Nov. 24, the day before opening. Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood is holding a fan event at 7 p.m. that same night.

What is Hexed about, and who is in the voice cast?

Disney describes Billie Doe as an impulsive, unconventional teenager whose secret magical abilities, once unleashed, pull her out of suburbia and into Hexe, a world of witches, secrets and a powerful queen determined to keep her grip. Billie's cautious mother, Alice, turns out to have deeper ties to that world than Billie knows. And it's set in the present day. Bush told TheWrap that's something the studio rarely does for a story that feels like a fairy tale. Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia are its other modern-world movies.

• Hailee SteinfeldBillie Doe, the teenager
• Rashida JonesAlice Doe, Billie's cautious mother
• Jodie FosterQueen Celeste, the villainous witch queen
• Walton GogginsBeef Roger Crummchuk, a three-eyed magical cat
• Tracey UllmanMs. Quill, an enchanted feather quill pen
• Stephen FryElias Quire, a magical journal

Disney's own site also lists Henry Winkler and Dan Stevens in the voice cast. Foster's role is her Disney Animation voice debut, per Disney, and the score is by Kris Bowers, according to Film Music Reporter and Laughing Place.

1. The prologueThe footage opens with a short prologue in a traditional 2D style. Baby Billie is targeted by crows and fights back, and one bursts into purple goo, which TheWrap called PG-appropriate.
2. The braceletAlice gives baby Billie a bracelet with a magical stone that dampens her powers, and Billie wears it until she's a teen.
3. The school messTeen Billie is in trouble for rescuing her school's owl mascot. In the chaos she loses the bracelet and things start floating around a bathroom, a moment TheWrap says you've probably seen in the trailer.
4. The portalAt home she accidentally opens a portal to Hexe. Her first trip there is set to a reorchestrated version of Dua Lipa's “Levitating,” with a nod to the Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of Fantasia.
5. The catBillie enlists Beef Roger Crummchuk, whom TheWrap likens to a Yoda-style advisor with a sugary Alabama drawl, as she races to stop Queen Celeste from finishing a ritual that could affect both worlds.

TheWrap's overall read is that Hexed has more edge than most Disney animated movies, and that it's a bit darker in tone. Co-director Jason Hand said the studio, under Bush, wants to go places it may have shied away from before. Producer Roy Conli, whose credits include The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tangled, said the team took some big swings, and that the heart of it is a truthful relationship between a parent and a teenager.

How does Hexed compare with Wish, Disney Animation's last original?

I'm not trying to jinx anything by bringing up Wish. I just don't think you can talk about Hexed's chances without it, because the studio certainly can't. Here's the side-by-side I put together from the reporting.

One thing I want to be fair about: Wish made nearly $255 million, a number plenty of studios would celebrate. It lost money because of what it cost, not because nobody showed up. That's the strange math of Disney animation. The yardstick is the budget, not the market.

And here's my honest opinion on the difference. Wish had to be a celebration. Hexed gets to be a story. I find it far easier to root for a girl who accidentally wrecks a school bathroom and opens a portal than for a film built around a 100-year anniversary. A clear, slightly chaotic hook is half the battle, and Hexed's fits in one sentence.

Is Hexed based on The Owl House, and what else are people arguing about?

Before the movie has opened, a corner of the internet has decided what it is. I'd rather sort the claims than pick a side, so here's each one with its status.

My view, and it's only my view: online arguments are not the same as ticket buyers. The Owl House conversation is real, and I understand why fans of that show feel protective. But the person buying four tickets for Thanksgiving week is probably thinking about the cast, the trailer and whether the kids will sit still. Whether Hexed feels fresh will be decided in the theater, not in the comments.

How confident am I in Hexed? My six-part meter

This is my gut, not data. Each score is how good I feel about that piece of the bet before seeing the movie, and I've written down why.

Why I think the darker edge is the right gamble for Disney Animation

Here's what I keep coming back to. The studio's two latest wins are sequels to stories that already worked. That's smart business, and I'm not knocking it. But a studio that only makes sequels slowly runs out of new characters to love. Hexed is Disney Animation reaching for something new, and doing it with a slightly sharper heroine than the one we're used to.

I also like that it's set in the present. School mascots, a bathroom, mom's car. There's something comforting about a fairy tale that starts in the same kind of place you do. If the emotional core lands the way Conli says it does, I think this could be the kind of movie parents quietly tear up at while their kids are busy staring at a three-eyed cat.

And yes, I'm worried too. A studio fresh off a $1.87 billion sequel now has to carry a brand-new idea through a loud online argument. But I'd rather watch Disney take that risk than stay safe. Rooting for it feels like the right default, even if I keep my receipts for the reviews.

Who should see Hexed on opening week, and who should wait?

This is my own sorting, based on the reporting and not on having seen the film. Find the card that sounds like you.

One more thing, about the photo at the top. It's a real stock photo of a black witch hat resting on fallen autumn leaves, chosen because Hexed is about a teenager who discovers she's a witch. It isn't a still from the movie, and it doesn't show anyone from the cast.

Hexed movie: questions, answered fast