Disney Won’t Allow Russians To See ‘Turning Red’ As Punishment For Invading Ukraine

The Walt Disney Company announced today that it will withhold Pixar’s Turning Red from release in Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

A Disney spokesperson offered the following statement on the company’s decision to pause theatrical releases in Russia:

Given the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming Turning Red from Pixar. We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation. In the meantime, given the scale of the emerging refugee crisis, we are working with our NGO partners to provide urgent aid and other humanitarian assistance to refugees.

Disney became the first U.S. studio to pause its theatrical releases in Russia, but Warner Bros. and Sony quickly followed suit this evening and announced that they would halt the Russian releases of The Batman and Morbius, respectively.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Since then, the U.S., Canada, and European countries have enacted severe economic penalties on Russia, including bank sanctions, closing airspace to Russian aircraft, and suspending certification of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

Turning Red will release straight-to-streaming on March 11 in the United States.

UPDATE (March 1, 3:40pm ET) Paramount Pictures has paused the release of its films in Russia, including the hybrid Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A studio spokesperson said in a statement:

As we witness the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine, we have decided to pause the theatrical release of our upcoming films in Russia, including The Lost City and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. We stand by all those impacted by the humanitarian crisis across Ukraine, Russia, and our international markets and will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds.

UPDATE (March 1, 9:45pm ET) Universal has joined Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, and Paramount in pausing its releases in Russia. This will affect Dreamworks Animation’s The Bad Guys, which had been scheduled for release March 24 in Russia.