Pokémon Tales: Aardman's Sirfetch'd & Pichu Stop-Motion Series Locks Disney+ as Worldwide Home in 2027

The Pokémon Company International used a "Behind the Scenes with Aardman" panel at Pokémon XP in San Francisco on August 28, 2026, to lock in the next two years of Pokémon animation distribution: Aardman's stop-motion series Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd & Pichu will stream exclusively on Disney+ worldwide when it debuts in 2027, and the original Pokémon the Series: The Beginning is now streaming on Disney+ in the United States and select international markets as the first title to launch under the new deal.

The announcement was made on the opening day of Pokémon XP, the franchise's first official fan convention, which is running alongside the 2026 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco. The Pokémon Company International's Director of Original Animation, Phil Rynda, was joined on stage by the Aardman creative team — director Tom Parkinson, Creative Director of IP Development Natalie "Nat" McKay, and Model Making Creative Lead James Young — to walk fans through the production of the stop-motion series and debut a new teaser trailer showing Sirfetch'd and Pichu trekking across the Galar region.

The story, set in the United Kingdom-inspired Galar region first explored in Pokémon Sword and Shield, follows a knightly Sirfetch'd and a much smaller Pichu as they "embark on a gallant quest to help and protect Pokémon across the region," per the official synopsis posted on Pokémon.com. Aardman frames Sirfetch'd as the straight-man "knight" and Pichu as the chaos-driven "squire," with all of the storytelling told from the perspective of Pokémon rather than human trainers.

The Disney distribution is notable for where it lands. Netflix was widely assumed to be the destination for the Aardman project because it currently holds U.S. streaming rights to the long-running Pokémon anime and was the home of The Pokémon Company's first stop-motion series, Pokémon Concierge. Instead, the new deal routes Aardman's series — and the classic Pokémon the Series: The Beginning — through Disney's platforms alongside Disney XD, which has begun airing the original Ash and Pikachu series earlier this month.

For Disney, the addition extends a recent push into Pokémon content. Ayo Davis, president of Disney Kids & Family, framed the partnership around reach: "Pokémon has that rare ability to mean something to longtime fans while continuing to feel completely relevant to young audiences today." The new stop-motion series is described as a 2027 launch, with no narrower release window announced.

The Aardman project has been in motion for nearly two years. The Pokémon Company International and Aardman first announced the collaboration in December 2024 with a 2027 release target, then shared a first look and confirmed the Galar setting during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2026. The Pokémon XP panel added production-side detail, including the team's note that Aardman's stop-motion process yields roughly 13 seconds of finished animation per week per scene — a pace that helps explain why the project took the time it did to reach this stage.

The exclusive details — worldwide streaming home, the simultaneous Disney XD linear airing, and the inclusion of the original Pokémon anime under the same deal — all come directly from The Pokémon Company International's Pokémon.com newsroom and press release. A new teaser trailer is now embedded on the official Pokémon.com article for the announcement.