Inside ‘Disney’s Hexed,’ a Mother-Daughter Adventure in a World of Witches

Inside ‘Disney’s Hexed,’ a Mother-Daughter Adventure in a World of Witches Entertainment October 12, 2026 8 min. read In the all-new feature film Disney’s Hexed from Walt Disney Animation Studios, an unexpected journey to world of witches sparks a connection between a mother and daughter. Voiced by Hailee Steinfeld , 16-year-old Billie Doe is impulsive, misunderstood, and unconventional. She’s never been able to fully understand why her mother, Alice (voiced by Rashida Jones ), is so overprotective — or why there are so many rules. One day, Billie discovers she has secret magical abilities. Before long, she is transported from the mundane suburbs to the magical realm of Hexe. As if that weren’t enough of a surprise, Alice — who had suppressed Billie’s abilities since childhood — follows her there. As Billie and Alice’s wild journey through Hexe unfolds, they uncover long-buried family mysteries that threaten to upend the world of witches. And what begins as a disconnected relationship evolves into something neither expected: a magical opportunity to see each other, clearly, for the first time. Directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand ; co-directed by Josie Trinidad ; produced by Academy Award ® winners Roy Conli and Yvett Merino ; and written by Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Oscar ® -winning Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller , Hexed will open in theaters on Wednesday, November 25. Unable to load video. Keeping It in the Family Throughout the yearslong development process, Bush said the filmmakers came to understand that the animated feature “wanted to be a mother-daughter story.” The goal, he explained, was “making sure that their relationship was actually the star of the film.” Bush said he hopes the story will land with audiences on both sides of the relationship. “We hope parents watch this and say, ‘Oh, man! This feels like me and my child,’” Bush said. “Maybe they’ll feel like, ‘When I grew up, I felt like Billie did, but now that I’m a parent, I’m understanding what my parents were going through.’” Getting there took relentless questioning. “Does this feel true to life? Is this as emotional as it could be? And, as you’re watching it, do you believe it?” Bush said. He admitted that even a well-built story can fall short: “Sometimes the story math checks. You’re like, ‘Oh, that story is correct. Did I feel that? Not yet. Let’s try again.” Billie Doe (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) Queen Celeste (voiced by Jodie Foster) The answer, he continued, lay in the bond between the leads. “That lock-in between Alice and Billie, to me, was our North Star,” Bush said. “Once we really dug in on why they had their issues and where their communication lines were not as clear as they could be, that became fun for us as we were trying to figure out their dynamic.” While Hexed is comedic and fantastical, it’s grounded in genuine emotion — a delicate combination that Ledoux Miller said was central to the writing process. “We’re here to create Disney magic, where people are going to laugh and they’re going to feel something,” she said. “As long as we’re tracking that, then that’s our North Star. We’re having fun together, and that’s where the great writing comes in.” Billie, by design, is a character who refuses to stay inside the lines. “Billie is the type of character that keeps pushing against the limitation,” said Veerasunthorn. “We want to present that as aspirational. We wish we could be her.” Yet, in the early days, the filmmakers found themselves rooting for Alice. “Because we’re both parents, we found ourselves siding with Alice quite a bit,” Veerasunthorn said. “’Maybe this is her story instead of Billie’s.’” Ultimately, they decided to tell the story from Billie’s perspective, which meant remembering how they felt as teenagers so that audiences would be able to “understand Billie deeply.” Still, Hand said the filmmakers drew on their own experiences as parents to tell Billie’s story. “As you grow up, the experiences you have in your own life influence the way that you teach your children,” he said. “There are reasons. For Billie to discover what those reasons are, why Alice chose the things she chose, is really fascinating. It’s something we can all relate to in our own lives — finding out something about your parents you maybe didn’t know, like what they wanted to do but never chase. And that makes this a very human story in a very fantastical world.” Walton Goggins, Hailee Steinfeld, Jodie Foster, and Jared Bush appear at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event on August 14, 2026. Casting Spellbinding Voice Talent Once the story took shape, Steinfeld and Jones brought the characters to life. Conli said Jones was the first person cast, and “she brought something to [her role] immediately.” He added, “You could tell, ‘This is a great mom. She’s really amazing.’” Steinfeld was cast later. “Their performances are so beautiful, and there’s such a symbiosis between them,” Conli said. “It really has been a joy working with them.” Delving into “a teen going through teen problems,” Conli continued, is “delightful for the audience.” And, as a result, “Parent and child will really, really love this film.” Designing a Bewitching Domain Because Disney Animation has been transporting audiences to magical worlds for over a century, Hexe needed to feel wholly unique — both emotionally and visually. So, artists from nearly every department took extra care and time to develop a system of tactile magic largely influenced by nature, set within a vast, colorful realm. Audiences will discover Hexe’s idiosyncrasies through Billie’s eyes. “We’re unfolding the understanding of magic in real time with our character, Billie,” Veerasunthorn explained. “She knows all about witches and magic from our human, contemporary world. So, we decided, ‘Let’s lean into that — and then let’s twist her expectations.’” Hand said the team pushed to “really heighten the tactile nature” of Billie’s magic: “When she’s got her hands up on the desk, the little pop sparks — which is her innate magic bursting out of her — land on the top of the desk and they fizzle out.” That’s because magic in Hexe originates from within, meaning a key component of every spell is the witch or wizard themselves. Once that guardrail was in place, Hand said they gave each character “an individuality to their magic, from the color to how it’s represented, and that’s because just like every one of us, they have a personality.” To do that, Merino said, the filmmakers had to clearly “identify what the magic looks like for Billie, what it looks like for Alice, and what it looks like for Celeste.” (Queen Celeste is voiced by Academy Award winner Jodie Foster .) Merino credited the “amazing artists and our effects team, who were able to make it unique to this film.” Nods to Disney Animation’s past appear too, such as the enchanted feather quill pen Quill (voiced by Tracey Ullman ) and the magical journal Quire (voiced by Stephen Fry ), who greet Billie at the entry to Hexe. “It’s like being in Beauty and the Beast again,” Conli said. However, he noted, the little references are purely meant for fun, “so that somebody can smile for a second and then move on with the story.” The idea that every witch and wizard has a unique spark also serves as an important metaphor. The real magic of the film, Veerasunthorn said, “is your potential. It’s up to you how you manifest it, what you choose to do with it, whether it’s for good or evil.” “It’s a nice metaphor,” Hand added. “We all hope that we have this incredible thing about ourselves we can make the most out of.” And, for Billie, this is just the start: “She’s going to follow that journey all the way through and see where it takes her.” Billie Doe (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and Beef Roger Crummchuk (voiced by Walton Goggins) Fleshing Out the World Along the way, Billie and Alice meet a host of magical characters. Beef Roger Crummchuk, voiced by Walton Goggins , is a reclusive, three-eyed cat who forges an uneasy alliance with the mother-daughter duo and reluctantly agrees to help. Hand said Goggins’ performance makes clear “that this cat has lived a life — a lot of life.” Billie also gains a loyal companion in Bucket, an enchanted cauldron who does not speak. And then there’s Queen Celeste, who anchors the realm’s darker edges. She quickly recognizes that Billie could hold the key to retaining her power over Hexe. “She’s the only other flying witch in this world,” Hand teased of the calculating Queen Celeste. “That creates a real competition and a real target on Billie’s back.” See the magic unfold when Disney’s Hexed opens exclusively in theaters on November 25, 2026. Related Articles Disney Movies Coming to Theaters Fall 2026 News September 3, 2026 Jared Bush on ‘Zootopia 2’ and the Future of Disney Animation News December 1, 2025 Related Tags Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Studios Follow Us LinkedIn Facebook YouTube The post Inside ‘Disney’s Hexed,’ a Mother-Daughter Adventure in a World of Witches appeared first on The Walt Disney Company . — Company newsroom — sourced from The Walt Disney Company. Matter furnished by the company. Not a Notice Nearby paid placement. This page reprints matter furnished by the company from its official newsroom. Notice Nearby did not write this release. 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