Julián Trailer: Cartoon Saloon’s Hand-Drawn Mermaid Story Gets a March 2027 U.S. Release From GKIDS

The studio behind Wolfwalkers and Song of the Sea has a new film on the way. GKIDS has acquired all U.S. rights to Julián, Cartoon Saloon’s hand-drawn adaptation of Jessica Love’s bestselling picture book Julián Is a Mermaid, and will release it in U.S. theaters beginning March 26, 2027. The deal arrived alongside the film’s first official trailer, released on Cartoon Saloon’s YouTube channel.

Watch the Julián trailer

The 83-second trailer leans into the warm, textured look Cartoon Saloon is known for, introducing Julián, his grandmother’s treasure-filled apartment and the lively Brooklyn neighborhood around them.

What is Julián about?

Wide-eyed Julián is about to spend a summer with a grandmother he barely knows. He discovers her apartment, his own Caribbean heritage and the Brooklyn community he is surrounded by. Most surprising of all, he discovers that he is, in fact, a mermaid. When he learns about the city’s Mermaid Parade, he dreams of marching in it, and his joyful certainty about who he is sets him and his abuela on a path toward greater understanding.

Director Louise Bagnall has said the film adds fantastical elements to the book, including an encounter with a mermaid goddess, while keeping the story grounded in the relationship between a boy and his grandmother.

Julián cast and crew

• Director: Louise Bagnall (Oscar-nominated short Late Afternoon), in her feature debut
• Co-directors: Guillaume Lorin and Mark Mullery
• Screenplay: Juliany Taveras, from the book by Jessica Love
• Voice cast: Knyght Darius Jack, Milcania Diaz-Rojas, Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz
• Executive producer: Zoe Saldaña, among others
• Studios: Cartoon Saloon with Melusine Productions, Aircraft Pictures and Sun Creature

Julián release date

GKIDS opens the film in U.S. theaters starting March 26, 2027. According to GKIDS, it will be released day-and-date in Canada by Elevation Pictures and in the U.K. by Anime Ltd, while New Europe Film Sales has closed deals in Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland and other territories.

Festival buzz so far

Julián premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June and has since played Toronto. Early reviews have been largely warm, with DiscussingFilm calling it a reminder that there is no replacement for something handcrafted with love, while a minority of critics found it more heavy-handed than the book. Variety reports the film was animated by more than 150 artists across Ireland, Luxembourg, Denmark and Canada at 12 frames per second.

Why GKIDS and Cartoon Saloon fit

The pairing is familiar. GKIDS released Wolfwalkers in the U.S. and has been Cartoon Saloon’s long-running American partner, and it is on a roll after Godzilla Minus Zero gave the distributor its biggest opening ever. A spring release also positions Julián well ahead of next year’s awards season, where Cartoon Saloon has earned multiple Oscar nominations for animated feature.

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Sources: GKIDS, Variety, Cartoon Saloon (YouTube), FirstShowing, DiscussingFilm.