Disney Joins Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground on Music-Driven Animated Fantasy Series ‘Journey’ for Disney+

Disney said it is partnering with Higher Ground, the production company of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, on an original animated fantasy series for Disney+. The project, titled Journey, is being described by the companies as a music-driven animated series, bringing the Higher Ground brand into Disney’s expanding animation slate for Disney+.

The announcement also marks a turning point for Higher Ground’s production pipeline, according to the report. In April, Obama said the company was winding down its eight-year first-look deal with Netflix, a relationship that had shaped Higher Ground’s development and production output over the last several years.

Deadline reported that the Disney partnership is expected to serve as the first major production partnership announcement for Higher Ground since the April announcement about ending the Netflix arrangement. The new deal places Higher Ground’s development team on a different distribution platform, with Disney+ set as the exclusive home for the new animated series at launch.

Disney did not provide, in the reported coverage, specific production dates, episode counts, or casting details tied to Journey. The companies have characterized the series concept as an animated fantasy built around music, positioning it within a broader stream of family-oriented animated content that relies on song and musical storytelling.

Higher Ground’s shift away from Netflix to other partners comes as both companies manage multi-year content strategies and first-look frameworks that determine how studios and platforms acquire new projects. For audiences, the change means that projects in the pipeline that were previously steered through the Netflix model may now move through other studios and production structures.

The announcement adds another title to Disney+’s roster of original animated programming. Journey, as described in the report, joins Disney’s ongoing efforts to compete for viewers in streaming’s family and youth categories, where original animation and music-forward formats are often used to differentiate libraries.

For Higher Ground, the Disney+ partnership represents continued activity for the company in post-Netflix dealmaking. The report frames it as the next step in its slate, after publicly indicating earlier in the year that it would end its prior first-look arrangement with Netflix and restructure its development pipeline.

The next material milestones for the project will include any additional series details that Disney and Higher Ground choose to release, such as creative leadership, production start timing, and distribution plans within Disney+’s release schedule.