Disney's Clay: When the Mentor Is Totally All Wrong

What if the character who’s supposed to teach you everything is the one who needs the lesson? Disney’s latest original from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Clay, flips that familiar setup on its head.

Revealed at D23 by Jared Bush, the project instantly turned heads. Kieran Culkin — the actor whose dry humor and nervous energy have become his signature — lends his voice to Flip, a mentor figure chosen against his will. Flip’s assignment? Guide a young, impressionable lump of clay named Mashi through a rite-of-passage ceremony. Chaos, laughs, and unexpected heart follow.

Disney has a long history of memorable mentors: Merlin’s eccentricity, the grizzled charm of Phil. Clay asks a sharper question: what if the sage is a mess? The idea is deliciously subversive, and the tone on display promises something offbeat and deeply human rather than another straightforward fairy-tale lesson.

The visuals shown onstage were striking — strange in the best possible way. Jared Bush and the creative team presented concept art that feels like a new folktale sprung from a sketchbook: broad, expressive shapes and a textured fantasy world that brought to mind the comic energy of Jeff Smith’s Bone without copying it. This Clay-world looks handmade, tactile, and eager to surprise.

At the helm is Fawn Veerasunthorn, a filmmaker whose name is popping up more and more inside Disney Animation. She helped steer Wish alongside veteran director Chris Buck and served as story lead on Raya and the Last Dragon. Her involvement signals a filmmaker comfortable with both intimate character beats and big, mythic canvases. Producing is Peter Del Vecho, a steady hand behind several of the studio’s boldest moves.

And yes, there’s more: Veerasunthorn is also connected with other upcoming projects, which makes the sight of two features from her in a short span feel like a deliberate push to the front of Disney’s new generation of storytellers.

Clay arrives in theaters November 22, 2028.

The premise is small but elastic — one reluctant mentor and one eager pupil — and that simplicity is the point. It gives room for weird detours, visual invention, and emotional reversals. Expect the kind of comedy that catches you off guard and the kind of warmth that sticks around after the credits roll.

Disney’s Clay looks like a gamble: familiar studio DNA reshaped into something idiosyncratic. Will Flip grow into the job? Will Mashi teach him more than the ceremony ever could? Keep watching D23 teases and concept drops; this one might become the surprise everyone talks about next fall.