Disney’s Hexed brings a teenager and her overprotective mother into a world of witches
Hailee Steinfeld and Rashida Jones voice a daughter discovering her magic and the mother who kept it hidden in Disney Animation’s Hexed.
The short answer: Hailee Steinfeld and Rashida Jones voice a daughter discovering her magic and the mother who kept it hidden in Disney Animation’s Hexed.
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Alice has suppressed her daughter’s magical abilities since childhood. When 16-year-old Billie discovers her powers and is swept into a world of witches, her mother follows. That is the central conflict of Disney Animation’s Hexed: escaping the rules does not mean escaping the person who made them.
Hailee Steinfeld voices Billie Doe, an impulsive teenager who struggles to understand her mother’s protectiveness. Rashida Jones plays Alice, whose choices become part of the mystery the pair must unravel in the magical realm of Hexe. Their journey reveals buried family secrets with consequences for the world of witches, while giving mother and daughter a chance to understand each other.
Seeing things from Billie’s side
The filmmakers took time to decide whose perspective should lead the story. Director Fawn Veerasunthorn said she and fellow director Jason Hand often found themselves siding with Alice as parents. To focus on Billie, they drew on their own teenage experiences rather than letting a mother’s concerns shape the story.
That tension has a familiar basis. In an interview published by Laughing Place on 12 October 2026, Veerasunthorn recalled considering her 10-year-old daughter’s wish to walk to school alone. Hand described worrying about giving his son the car keys to drive alone once he gets his licence, remembering his own teenage driving. Both examples point to the dilemma behind Alice’s restrictions: giving a child more freedom means accepting that a parent cannot control everything.
Co-writer Dana Ledoux Miller brought another perspective. She told Laughing Place that she remembered feeling out of place in the close-knit community where she grew up, while becoming a mother helped her understand the urge to protect. That makes the relationship more complicated than a rebellious child facing an unreasonable adult.
They love each other so much, but they don't realise that they're kind of holding each other back from becoming the best versions of themselves. Dana Ledoux Miller, speaking to Laughing Place
Co-writer Jared Bush hopes parents will recognise both their relationships with their children and their own memories of being young. He called the bond between Alice and Billie “our North Star”, explaining that exploring their communication problems helped the team develop their dynamic.
Bush and Ledoux Miller previously worked together on the live-action Moana. In the Laughing Place interview, Bush described writing for animation as collaborative and iterative, while Ledoux Miller said their trust allows them to challenge each other’s dialogue. For Hexed, that process meant creating a relationship that felt believable, not merely a plot that fitted together.
Magic shaped by its maker
The magic in Hexe gives the characters’ struggle over their potential a physical form. Developed with influences from nature, it comes from within each witch or wizard. Hand said the team gave individual characters distinct magical colours and expressions, making personality part of how a spell looks.
The effects are designed to feel tangible, too. Hand described sparks bursting from Billie’s hands, landing on a desk and fizzling out. Veerasunthorn links those abilities to personal potential: what matters is how someone chooses to use what is inside them. Billie learns the rules alongside the audience, bringing expectations about witches from the contemporary human world that Hexe can overturn.
Even the framing reflects Billie’s predicament. Speaking to Slashfilm, Hand said the film’s early, centred compositions deliberately suggest that Billie is boxed in. The visual approach changes when she reaches Hexe, linking her arrival in the witches’ realm to a release from those constraints.
A queen with something to lose
Billie’s discovery also draws the attention of Queen Celeste. Voiced by Jodie Foster, Celeste sees the teenager as a possible key to preserving her rule over Hexe. Hand describes Celeste as the only other flying witch in that world, making Billie’s emerging ability both a source of competition and a reason to target her.
Help arrives in less formal fashion. Walton Goggins voices Beef Roger Crummchuk, a reclusive, three-eyed cat who reluctantly allies himself with Billie and Alice. Bucket, an enchanted cauldron who cannot speak, becomes Billie’s loyal companion. At Hexe’s entrance, she also meets Quill, a feather pen voiced by Tracey Ullman, and Quire, a magical journal voiced by Stephen Fry.
The enchanted objects prompted producer Roy Conli to remark, “It’s like being in Beauty and the Beast again.” He described such touches as brief pleasures for viewers before the story moves on. The comparison nods to Disney’s past, while Billie and Alice’s relationship remains the focus of this adventure.
Hexed is directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand, co-directed by Josie Trinidad, and written by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller. Roy Conli and Yvett Merino produce. The film is scheduled to open exclusively in cinemas on 25 November 2026; the announcement does not specify which territories the date covers.