It's only natural that the greatest footballer of all time should inspire art. There's already a Messi font along with portraits and statues around the world that take varying degrees of artistic licence. Now Disney's gearing up to release a Lionel Messi cartoon, and it takes the Argentine footballer into true fantasy territory.
As you might guess from the name, Messi and the Giants is not an animated biopic charting the young Messi's journey from Rosario to Barcelona, through his treatment for growth hormone deficiency and on to La Liga and then World Cup glory. All the same, few people expected it to be quite as wild as the RPG-inspired story revealed in the trailer below.
Set to stream globally on Disney+ in summer 2027, Messi and the Giants appears to have little to do with Messi beyond its use of his name, vague likeness and ability to kick spherical objects.
A 12-year-old Leo finds himself trapped in an alternate reality ruled by giants. To get home, he must compete in football-like battles using powerful “orbs”. He must also try to reunite the fractured realms of Iko.
Unlike his opponents in these battles, Leo can’t use the world's "code powers" to boost his game. Instead, he has to rely on skill, teamwork and pure grit. That makes the series sound a bit like it could be a human versus AI parable, which could be interesting.
The trailer was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con Málaga by executive producers Lacey Stanton and Bryan Korn of Sony Pictures Television, director Dan Creteur of Atlantis Animation and Sony Music Vision executive producer Sergi Reitg.
Disney announced its acquisition and distribution of the animated series back in December 2024. Messi himself is listed as an executive producer along with his later father alongside various Sony execs.
Atlantis, a studio based in the Canary Islands that previously worked on Miraculous Ladybug, is doing the animation. The Argentine actor Milo Burgess-Webb provides the voice of Leo, and there's an original theme song from Argentine singer Luck Ra called Vamos, Vamos, Vamos.
The video game concept, action sequences, polished 3D animation style and fantasy aesthetic with glowing powers and anime-influenced action sequences, along with the underdog story angle, could make the series appeal to children who aren't football fans. For now, it seems to have avoided the backlash that often greets celebrity-driven projects. Perhaps celebrity animation works best when it stops being a celebrity cartoon.
