Disney Celebrates Lunar New Year With Chinese Posters For 'Avengers: Endgame,' 'Toy Story 4,' And More
Disney must count itself lucky that one of its characters from one of its most anticipated 2019 feature films is a pig. Because today is Lunar New Year and it rings in the Year of the Pig — which means that Hamm is front and center of the Chinese-inspired Toy Story 4 poster. The Toy Story sequel is one of the seven Disney Lunar New Year posters released by the House of Mouse to honor the holiday celebrated by China and many East and Southeast Asian countries.
The seven posters for Disney's upcoming 2019 releases are Chinese-inspired spins on Captain Marvel (March 8), Dumbo (March 29), Aladdin (May 24), Avengers: Endgame (April 26), Toy Story 4 (June 21), The Lion King (July 19) and Frozen 2 (November 22). You can see the posters below.
Disney Lunar New Year Posters
These Disney Lunar New Year posters are released on the heels of new TV spots for Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, and Toy Story 4 released during the Super Bowl this weekend. Disney continues to knock it out of the park with timely marketing, as well as appeal to its growing audience in China. The country's moviegoing audience continues to grow in influence and box office clout — plenty has been written about Chinese characters being inserted into blockbusters to appeal to mainland audiences — so it only irks me a little bit that these posters have been advertised as "Chinese New Year" posters when plenty of other countries celebrate the holiday.
But these posters are beautifully designed, drawn in calligraphy and wood block-inspired art. I quite like the Aladdin poster because of its simplicity and recognizable iconography — and perhaps because the original "Aladdin" tale in One Thousand and One Nights is actually set in China. The exception to the common design is the Toy Story 4 poster, but I get that they couldn't pass up a Year of the Pig joke with Hamm.