Disney’s push-pull of figuring out how to franchise its older works continues. Once again, it’s about The Princess & the Frog, its 2009 musical comedy. This summer, we learned Colman Domingo’s aiming to do something with it in live-action, now Disney Animation is spinning something up for animation and ready to start teasing it.

In a recent Collider interview, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ CCO Jared Bush said the studio was “really moving” on a special set within the film’s world. While hesitant to give specifics, he made clear this was in “active production,” and that it’s a “full story” that’d see the original cast return and give them new songs to sing.

Disney previously announced an animated series starring its lead Tiana set after the film, which would end up canceled after a troubled production. Whatever stage this project is in, Bush said this wouldn’t be the first of its kind: other projects in “similar veins” exist, which he thinks is a “great way for us to experiment with some things and also to revisit worlds that I think people want to see.”

Bush’s last comment suggests Disney’s new strategy for its IP. Nostalgia will always sell, but not all of them have the juice to warrant a live-action remake. Theoretically, animated specials are a happy middle ground: audiences get to see what these characters have been up to since we last saw them, and putting them on Disney+ reduces the risk of a loser to report on. And with Princess & the Frog turning the big 20 in a few years, the special will hit at just the right moment, maybe even be a bonus for a theatrical re-release.

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