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Ally ©2026 V8 Pistons Pictures.

Bong Joon-ho confronted class conflict head-on in "Parasite," the 2019 film that swept four Academy Awards. With his first feature-length animated film, "Ally," the director's gaze is now widening from human society to humanity's relationship with the natural world. Italian dailies La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera each published interviews with Bong on August 21 examining this shift, coverage that arrives just weeks before the director receives the Stella della Mole ("Star of the Mole") award at Turin's National Museum of Cinema on September 23.

"Ally" marks Bong's first feature as an animation director, with a screenplay he wrote himself alongside Jason Yu ("Sleep") as co-writer. Producer Seo Woo-sik, who previously worked with Bong on "Mother" and "Okja," oversees the project, marking their third collaboration. The film follows Ally, a young piglet squid living in the depths of the South Pacific who dreams of seeing the sun and becoming the star of a wildlife documentary — until a mysterious aircraft crashes into the ocean, throwing her world into danger and sending her on an extraordinary journey toward the surface alongside an unlikely group of companions. In development since 2019, the film is slated for release in 2027.

In his interview with Corriere della Sera, Bong pointed to fellow auteurs who have ventured into animation, such as Wes Anderson with "Fantastic Mr. Fox," explaining that animation was the right form for a story centered on a small creature living in the deep sea. He also spoke of the accumulating anxieties of the present moment — environmental degradation, social polarization, and the unpredictability of artificial intelligence — suggesting that for an artist, honestly acknowledging an inability to solve these problems is more truthful than offering easy answers.

The human-nature relationship at the heart of "Ally" marks a departure from the class dynamics that drove "Parasite," yet it remains consistent with Bong's broader, critically engaged view of society and the world. La Repubblica's framing of the new film as a flicker of hope amid an unsettling future speaks to that same sensibility.

That two major Italian outlets published interviews with Bong in the same week underscores his continued standing in Europe well after "Parasite." The Stella della Mole ceremony and masterclass on September 23, followed by a special screening of "Parasite" that Bong himself will introduce, suggest that this relationship is deepening further as his new film approaches release.

"Ally" is expected to complete production in the first half of 2027 and open in theaters worldwide later that year. How the director best known for live-action social drama carries his preoccupations into animation — and how that experiment lands with international audiences, in Europe and beyond — will be worth watching.

Sources

• La Repubblica, "Bong Joon-ho and 'Ally': A Ray of Hope Even as the Future Feels Frightening", 2026.08.21

• Corriere della Sera, "Bong Joon-ho: In My First Animated Film 'Ally', the Relationship Between Man and Nature", 2026.08.21

• Animation Magazine, "Bong Joon Ho's Animated Feature 'Ally' Closes Major Sales through Pathé", 2026.07.20