In a museum dedicated to the history of the moving image, a tour guide leads visitors past statues of Orson Welles and Humphrey Bogart. Inside a glass case, a living exhibit — George Lucas — pleads to be let out, his request for a telephone denied by the guide, who fears he will use it to summon help. The cameo, brief and self-mocking, anchors the new Minions film in a knowing Hollywood mythology. Producer Chris Meledandri later recounted that Lucas, a fan of Illumination’s work, agreed almost instantly to play himself, and has already begun pitching a role for the next instalment.

Set in the 1920s, decades before the events of the first Minions spin-off, the picture follows the yellow henchmen as they rise to stardom in silent cinema, only to stumble when the talkies arrive. Their solution is to make a monster movie, a plot that allows the filmmakers to lace the screen with homages: a Minion recreates the breakfast-table scene from Citizen Kane, a poster parodies The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and the physical comedy channels Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. The voice cast includes Allison Janney, Jeff Bridges, and Trey Parker, while Latin American dubs feature actor Carlos Vallarta and sports journalist Alberto Lati. In Indonesia, the film opened on 30 June; Mexican audiences are catching it as the World Cup’s knockout phase keeps other releases at bay.

Half a world away, Disney is steering a different kind of revival. The live-action Moana, shot on location in Oceania with Catherine Laga’aia in the title role and Dwayne Johnson as the tattooed demigod Maui, reaches cinemas on 9 July, with previews a day earlier in Mexico. During a promotional stop in Rio de Janeiro, Johnson told reporters that a third animated Moana film is already in early development, with writers Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller attached. “We’ve talked about Moana 3, yes,” he said, before catching himself: “But first, Moana in live-action, let’s let that come out first.” The unguarded remark, carried by outlets across Latin America, confirmed what box-office analysts had suspected: the franchise that sailed past a billion dollars with its second instalment is charting a long course.

The nostalgia wave extends to the small screen. Disney+ announced that Camp Rock 3, reuniting the Jonas Brothers fifteen years after the last television film, will premiere on Disney Channel on 13 August 2026 and stream the following day. Demi Lovato serves as executive producer but does not appear on screen; a new generation of campers, led by Liamani Segura, competes for a spot on a Connect 3 tour. The first single, “One Beat Away,” is already circulating on streaming platforms. From a glass-encased Lucas to a Polynesian demigod’s unscripted revelation, the season’s offerings share a common thread: an industry reaching into its own past, betting that audiences will line up to see what they already know — and perhaps, like Lucas, ask for a little more.