"Onward" will be released to home viewers on April 3.

"Onward" will be released to home viewers on April 3. Credit: Pixar/Disney/Pixar

Disney-Pixar’s animated adventure “Onward,” which was released to theaters on March 13, will be available for home viewing April 3, the latest move from a major studio to make its content available earlier to homebound audiences during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Onward,” featuring the voices of Tom Holland and Chris Pratt as teenage elves, will debut on the Disney+ service and the streaming service Movies Anywhere, and will also be available for digital purchase. 

“While we’re looking forward to audiences enjoying our films on the big screen again soon, given the current circumstances, we are pleased to release this fun, adventurous film to digital platforms early,” director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae said in a Disney news release.

“Onward” joins a short but growing list of recent theatrical releases that are migrating to home viewing during a nationwide state of emergency. With movie theaters around the country temporarily shuttered and Americans being encouraged to stay home, Hollywood is strategizing over which titles to put on video and which to save for the eventuality that theaters reopen. Two Warner Bros. films, “The Way Back,” a sports drama starring Ben Affleck, and “Birds of Prey,” a DC Comics movie starring Margot Robbie, will move to video on demand Mar. 24. Lionsgate’s “I Still Believe,” based on the life of Christian singer Jeremy Camp, will go to VOD on Mar. 27.

Universal Pictures plans to release an upcoming film, the animated “Trolls World Tour,” simultaneously in theaters and on VOD on Apr. 10.

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