‘Hexed’ has star-studded world premiere in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES — The stars of Disney’s latest animated adventure “Hexed” were in Hollywood for its world premiere on Thursday night.

In “Hexed,” Hailee Steinfeld plays Billie Doe, a teenager who discovers she has magical powers, and that sets her off on an adventure into another realm.

She befriends a three-eyed cat and learns a lot about her mother, voiced by Rashida Jones.

“She knows there’s this world out there that is so much greater and that’s where she belongs, and I love that she just stops at nothing to find her place in this world,” Steinfeld said.

“It’s so nice to see that in animation to have mother-daughter relationships be highlighted like this,” Jones said.

There’s another mother-daughter story here, too, with Jodie Foster as Queen Celeste, the sinister mom and grandma to the other two.

“I loved her diabolic quality and that she was kind of snooty and that she’s a big liar and hypocrite,” Foster said.

“This felt like a challenge I hadn’t done before,” Foster added.

Co-director Jason Hand said Foster brought “so much incredible evilness” to the role.

“She really loved it,” Hand added.

The movie took years to complete.

“There’s a lot of things we’re doing in this movie that we really haven’t done in a Disney animated film before, and I think we’re going to surprise people,” said Dana Ledoux Miller, a writer on the film.

Special attention went into Billie’s eyes.

“If you look at the reflections in her eyes, her eyes always have a crescent moon in the reflection. So if you watch the movie through, our lighters went through it and every single shot she has crescent highlights in her eyes,” said Jared Bush, a writer on “Hexed” and Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer.

And adding to her Disney repertoire is Yvette Nicole Brown, who voices a character called Scared Tea Cup.

“I don’t care if I got one line or 500, I’m going to do the press tour. I’m going to hit that press tour and talk about that film that I believe in,” Brown said.

“Hexed” is rated PG. You can see it in theaters the day before Thanksgiving.