This is a list of unmade and/or unreleased animated projects by The Walt Disney Company. These include feature films, short films, and television series/specials, stemming from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Disney Television Animation, and other animation studios owned by The Walt Disney Company. Some of these projects stem from simply Walt Disney Pictures.
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Alice in Wonderland | The first attempt to produce an animated film adaptation of the classic novel of the same name written by Lewis Carroll. The film would be the first theatrical animated feature-length film of Disney. It was planned to be a combination of animation with live-action. Mary Pickford was attached to star as Alice.[1] However, the project was scrapped in favor of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
In 1939, there was a second attempt to produce the animated film. Following the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney purchased the film rights to Carroll's book with Sir John Tenniel's illustrations.[2] A script and some storyboards were made by David Hall, as well as a Leica reel, but the project never materialized due to World War II. Twelve years later, a film based on the novel was released by Disney. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | "Hillbilly" "Mickey the Hillbilly" "Hillbilly Mickey" |
Pete the moonshiner mistakes Mickey for a revenue agent, and Minnie Mouse appears as a hillbilly girl.[3] |
| "Station Agent" | Mickey works at a train station, where he encounters a troublesome kangaroo. During the development of the cartoon, the kangaroo was dropped in favor of an ostrich. At one time, Mickey was supposed to help Donald with the ostrich, before he was omitted from the plot altogether in favor of the duck. The original kangaroo elements ended up in "Mickey's Kangaroo," which was released in 1935, minus the train station. Probably at the same time as Mickey was dropped from the cartoon, the film (now starring Donald Duck) was renamed "Donald's Ostrich," which was released in 1937.[4] | |
| Pluto | "The Good Samaritan" | Pluto rescues a baby puppy that wrecks the house of his black mistress. A short with this plot was made for House of Mouse.[5] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | "Mickey's Vaudeville Show" | Mickey is a magician with a hat. Donald and Pluto are his helpers. Donald is frustrated and wants to expose Mickey's act. The magic act is followed by a grand opera, featuring Mickey, Donald, Clara Cluck, and Pluto, and exposing the hat again. During the development, this was split into two cartoons, since the plot was considered too thick for a standard short, and it became "Mickey's Magic Hat". During the development of the former short, Donald was downgraded from Mickey's helper to a frustrated spectator role. It was released in 1937 as "Magician Mickey". Somewhere during the development after the split, "Mickey's Grand Opera" was produced first and kept most of the original elements, and it was released in 1936.[4] |
| "The Sea Monster" "Mickey's Sea Monster" |
Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are pitted against a comic sea serpent.[6][4] | |
| Silly Symphonies | "The Emperor's New Clothes" | A proposed Silly Symphony based on Hans Christian Andersen's story about two weavers who promise an emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent.[7] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | "Davy Jones' Locker" "Pearl Divers" |
Mickey goes undersea treasure hunting.[8] |
| "The Deer Hunt" | Mickey sets out to hunt deer in a story that was supposed to feature all of the same plot elements as in the released cartoon The Pointer in 1939.[4] | |
| "Desert Prospectors" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy discover a ledge of 19-karat gold in the desert with the aid of an automatic gold-finder, which has been constructed by Goofy. However, the machine goes berserk when it gets too close to Donald's gold belt buckle, attacking the duck and ultimately exploding a stick of dynamite. The trio of prospectors are left in tattered disarray.[9] | |
| "The Emperor's New Clothes" | When the Silly Symphony failed to materialize, Mickey Mouse was brought into the story and the concept was developed as either a short or featurette. At one point, Donald and Goofy were also considered for inclusion in the plot.[10] | |
| "The Love Nest" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are interior designers who set up a honeymoon cottage for Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow.[9] | |
| "Mickey's Bakery" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy bake an enormous cake for Mrs. Vandersnoot's reception.[11] | |
| "Mickey's Sunken Treasure" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy go treasure hunting and end up on a desert island.[8] | |
| "Mickey's Treasure Hunt" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy go treasure hunting on a shipwreck.[8] | |
| "Navy Mickey" also known as "Mickey in the Navy" | Mickey joins the Navy, where he encounters a bulldog admiral.[12] | |
| "North West Mounted" "Royal Mounted Police" "Mickey of the Mounted" "Mickey Gets His Man" "Mickey the Mountie" |
Black Pete kidnaps Minnie Mouse and tries to force her to disclose the location of her secret gold mine. Intrepid mountie Mickey gives chase, but is hampered in his search by the antics of his gluttonous horse Tanglefoot.[9] | |
| Silly Symphonies | "Snowbabies" | A proposed Silly Symphony, a sequel to "Water Babies," and a sequel/prequel to "Merbabies". The babies are now playing in the snow instead of water.[13] |
| "Struebel Peter" "Slovenly Peter" |
A proposed Silly Symphony featuring Peter, an unruly boy who delights in tormenting animals. The animals, in the end, take their revenge. | |
| Silly Symphonies Mickey, Donald & Goofy |
"The Three Bears" "Goldie Locks and Three Bears" |
(Version 1:) A proposed Silly Symphony of the well-known children's story. Model sheets prove that Goldilocks was planned to resemble and possibly be voiced by Shirley Temple. Papa Bear was modeled after W.C. Fields.[14] (Version 2:) When the proposed Silly Symphony short failed to materialize, Donald was cast as Goldilocks while Pete, Goofy, and Mickey were cast in the roles of the Three Bears.[14] |
| Silly Symphonies | "Timid Elmer" "Elmer's Light o Love" |
A proposed sequel to the Elmer Elephant Silly Symphony. Elmer has to watch helplessly as Tillie Tiger's ballet arts of Granville inspires Goat. When trouble comes, Goat runs away and Elmer has to save Tillie.[4][9] |
| Feature film | Peter Rabbit | A proposed animated film based on the Peter Rabbit books written by Beatrix Potter. However, she refused Walt Disney's offer to make the film. 82 years later, Columbia Pictures produced a live-action/CGI film adaptation version.[15] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "Interior Decorators" | Donald and his assistant Gus Goose are entrusted with the renovation of a villa. Donald encounters a throbbing cuckoo clock. Had this film been completed, it would have been the debut of Gus Goose.[4][9] |
| "Lumberjack Donald" | Donald gives the orphans a how-to lesson on how to cut down a tree. A different lumberjack Donald Duck cartoon was eventually titled Timber and released in 1941.[4] | |
| "Nightwatchman Donald" | Donald is a night watchman in a store, in which he has to deal with a playful monkey.[9] | |
| Mickey, Donald & Goofy | "Clock Tower" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy open a shop to fix clocks. They are tricked by Pete into fixing Big Beth. All of these elements were dropped in favor of cleaning Big Beth. The Big Beth element was kept and released in 1937 as "Clock Cleaners".[4] |
| Mickey Mouse | "The Dog Show" | Dropped elements from a released cartoon titled "Society Dog Show", including the original title. Pete was originally considered for the role of the judge. The Good Housekeeping page suggested that Donald helps Mickey prepare Pluto for the show, but the studio record did not match the Good Housekeeping page.[4] |
| Mickey, Donald & Goofy | "The Janitors" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy work in a store, cleaning it overnight.[16] |
| "Jungle Mickey" | (Version 1:) Mickey is a solo newsreel photographer in darkest Africa.[17] (Version 2:) Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are newsreel photographers in darkest Africa.[17] | |
| "The Legionaires" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy join the French Foreign Legion.[11] | |
| Mickey Mouse | "Mickey's Follies" | (Not be confused with the 1929 short of same name) a large and ambitious projected short featuring nearly all of the original Disney characters, including Mickey and the gang, as well as some of the more popular Silly Symphonies characters, in a grand musical revue.[12] This eventually formed the basis of the Mickey Mouse Revue show at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. |
| "Sargasso Sea" | Mickey Mouse visits Atlantis.[8] | |
| Silly Symphonies | "Japanese Symphony" | (Version 1:) Originally planned as a story, set in Japan, featuring a moth rescued from a bat.[18] (Version 2:) A romantic story about two Japanese children, which was stalled in production.[18] |
| "Minnehaha" | A proposed sequel to "Little Hiawatha", featuring Hiawatha's female counterpart, a little Indian girl named Minnehaha. Little seems to be known about the actual plot.[19] | |
| Feature film | Reynard the Fox The Romance of Reynard |
Walt Disney originally considered producing an animated film featuring Reynard the Fox, but the project was cancelled because he felt that Reynard might be an unsuitable choice for a hero.[20] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "The Delivery Boy" | Donald has to deliver a mechanical doll to a doll museum, and another package to another destination. Pluto was considered at one point to be included to help Donald with his job.[4] |
| "Donald Munchausen" | Donald tells his nephews a tall tale a la Baron Munchausen, about his adventures as a National Geographic photographer in Africa. He claims to have discovered a lost world of prehistoric creatures, and to have beaten King Kong in feats of strength.[9] | |
| "Donald's Shooting Gallery" | Donald attracts his nephews to the shooting range, by offering a box of chocolates as a prize. This proposed Donald Duck short was, in theory, an alternative story to the finished 1947 cartoon "Straight Shooters".[9] | |
| "Lost Prospectors" | Donald and Gus Goose are prospectors lost in Death Valley. Tortured by heat and thirst, they trek across the barren terrain in search of water. They encounter various mirages, including a group of Lorelei ducks lounging by a swimming pool. One of the girls sips a cool drink and beckons to them. While Donald investigates, Gus, with the aid of his lucky derby hat, discovers a strange capricious laughing spring and is able to quench his thirst. Donald tries to trap the elusive water, but is unable to get a drop.[4][9] | |
| Mickey Mouse | "Mickey's Beach Picnic" | Mickey, Goofy, and Pluto have a rough day at the beach.[4] |
| Donald Duck | "The Rubber Hunter" | Donald travels to South America in order to obtain a particularly rare species of raw rubber for new tires for his car.[9] |
| Mickey Mouse Donald Duck |
"Yukon Mickey" "Yukon Donald" |
(Version 1:) Mickey discovers that a mischievous baby walrus has been stealing food from his cache. Chasing the little thief, he runs afoul of the walrus' giant father. When Mickey tries to placate papa walrus with a fish, the baby walrus steals it.[21] (Version 2:) Donald discovers that a mischievous baby walrus has been stealing food from his cache. Chasing the little thief, he runs afoul of the walrus' giant father. When Donald tries to placate papa walrus with a fish, the baby walrus steals it.[21] |
| "Mickey's Nephews" | A Christmas story, in which Mickey would have played Santa for the orphans.[22] | |
| "Mickey's Toothache" | Mickey inhales laughing gas and enters a nightmare world where he is threatened by dental equipment. As part of the nightmare Pete appears and attacks Mickey.[17] | |
| "Movie Makers" | Mickey is an amateur filmmaker in Hollywood, and Donald and Pluto set out to help him make films.[4] | |
| "Pilgrim Mickey" | Mickey is a pilgrim setting out to hunt a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.[23] | |
| "The Salvagers" | (Version 1:) Mickey and Donald go treasure hunting in the deep blue sea.[8] (Version 2:) Mickey and Pluto go treasure hunting in the deep blue sea. This version of the film's plot came about when the Mickey and Donald story failed to materialize.[8] | |
| "Spring Cleaning" | An attempt to bring back Bobo the Elephant from "Mickey's Elephant". Mickey is a servant, where he and Pluto clean Minnie Mouse's garden.[24] | |
| "Tanglefoot" | Mickey goes to the race track, where he encounters a horse with Allergic rhinitis.[25] | |
| "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" | Mickey plays Captain Nemo in an undersea adventure.[8] | |
| Pluto | "Pluto's Robot Twin" | Mickey builds a robot dog to keep Pluto company, but the robot goes out of control. Pluto has to fight the robot to regain control of the household.[26] |
| Silly Symphony Featurette | "Snow White Returns" | A sequel featurette to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).[27] |
| Feature film | Penguin Island | This proposed feature was about a fictitious island of great auks that exists off the northern coast of Europe. The story begins when a wayward Christian missionary monk accidentally lands on the island and sees the great auks as a sort of Greek pre-Christian pagan society. Partially blind, he mistakes the animals for people and baptizes them. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "The Beaver Hunters" | Donald and Pluto go hunting for beavers, but the wily rodents foil them, even though Donald disguises himself as a tree and uses ingenious weapons, such as a rifle that fires a plumber's helper.[9] |
| "Donald's Elephant" | Bobo becomes Donald's pet.[4] | |
| "Donald's Outboard Motor" | Donald has trouble with a boat motor. The plot was considered too thin, as it was one of two cartoons to be merged into the released cartoon "Put-Put Troubles".[4] | |
| "Donald's Stratosphere Flight" | Donald has problems repairing and launching his hot air balloon.[9] | |
| "Haunted Castle" | Donald camps outside a spooky castle but, when a strong wind blows his tent up into the air, Donald lands inside.[4] | |
| "Museum Keeper" "Old Masters" "Donald and the Old Masters" |
Donald is a museum keeper guarding a priceless collection of paintings. Some of the "paintings" in this unmade short feature Donald in various classic artworks.[28] | |
| "Tree Surgeon" | (Version 1:) Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are tree surgeons.[29] (Version 2:) Donald and Goofy are tree surgeons. Goofy asks for his doctor's tools as he bandages an unseen "patient"... really a tree. Donald and Goofy struggle to dope trees with laughing gas while various forest animals fight back. Eventually, Donald and Goofy inhale the laughing gas themselves, leading to a dizzy ballet around the woods and a bad fall for Donald into some poison ivy. Donald needs the next round of Goofy's bandages.[29] | |
| Mickey Mouse | "Balloon Race" | Mickey, Minnie, Horace, and Clarabelle participate in a balloon race against Black Pete.[9] |
| "The Band Concert" | a remake of an earlier short of the same name.[4] | |
| "Ice Antics" | a remake of On Ice.[4] | |
| "Mickey's Man Friday" | a remake of an earlier short of the same name.[4] | |
| "Mickey's Revival Party" | An umbrella name for a project to revisit and remake several older Disney shorts.[4] | |
| "Miracle Master" | Mickey becomes master of a magic lamp. The genie of the lamp continually shocks Mickey and his friends in the real world.[4] | |
| "Morgan's Ghost" "Pieces of Eight" "Three Buccaneers" |
Mickey, Donald, and Goofy find a treasure map and try to follow it to the end, while at the same time trying to evade Pete. At one point, story was considered for upgrading to a feature film project. Elements of this unmade project were saved for the Donald Duck comic book story Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold.[30] | |
| "Mountain Carvers" | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as artisans attempting to carve out their own version of Mount Rushmore.[31] | |
| Pluto | "Pluto and the Springs" | Pluto has trouble with a worm at the springs. The plot was considered too thin, as it was one of two cartoons to be merged into the released cartoon "Put-Put Troubles".[4] |
| "Pluto's Pal Bobo" | Pluto and Bobo are rivals for Mickey's attention, which is focused on a howdah that he built.[4] | |
| Silly Symphonies | "The Flying Mouse" | a remake of an earlier short of the same name.[4] |
| "Grasshopper and the Ants" | A remake of an earlier short of the same name.[4] | |
| "Lullaby Land" | A remake of an earlier short of the same name.[4] | |
| "Santa's Workshop" | A remake of an earlier short of the same name.[4] | |
| Short film | Abdul Abulbul Amir | The story of two valiant heroes, a Russian, Ivan Skavinsky Skavar, and one of the Shah's mamelukes, Abdul Abulbul Amir, who, because of their pride, end up in a fight and kill each other.[7] |
| Jabberwocky | The nonsense world of Lewis Carroll is brought to life in this short.[7] | |
| Feature film | The Wizard of Oz | Originally, this was meant to be Walt Disney's second film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but the film rights were lost to Samuel Goldwyn, who originally intended to produce it as a standard musical comedy, with Eddie Cantor as his star. However, Goldwyn sold the rights to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1937 and two years later, the studio released their own version of The Wizard of Oz. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "Traveling Salesman Donald" | Donald is a traveling salesman who cons bartender Pete into buying a phony pearl, then becomes the victim of Pete's energetic revenge. The tables are turned when Pete accidentally knocks down a pillar supporting the second story of his saloon and must hold up a heavy safe to keep from being crushed. |
| Mickey Mouse | "Men in Uniform" | Mickey is a milkman who is foiled by a small kitten.[32] |
| Short film | Penelope and the Twelve Months | A proposed short film featuring a young girl who travels through time with the aid of a magic grandfather clock.[33] |
| Fantasia | Fantasia segments | After the release of Fantasia, Walt Disney originally planned to have the film in continual release, but with new segments with replacing the older ones. However, the idea was scrapped after Fantasia failed at the box office and the idea was never revisited for the remainder of Disney's lifetime, although he produced spiritual successors such as Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time(1948).[34] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "Calling Dr. Duck" | Donald is a tree surgeon. The plot is very similar to the earlier "Tree Surgeon".[29] |
| Donald & Goofy | "Ditch Diggers" | Donald and Goofy work in construction for Pete.[35] |
| Donald Duck | "Sculptor Donald" | Donald enters a contest for the best wax sculpture, but his nephews sabotage his statue with a blow torch.[9] |
| Health for America | "Public Enemy No. 1" | An unproduced Health for America educational short about how flies spread disease. The plot of this film is very similar to "The Winged Scourge".[36] |
| Mickey Mouse | "Mickey's Elopement" | Mickey tries to help Minnie escape her stern Uncle Mortimer's house so he can get her to a quickie wedding chapel.[29] |
| Feature film | Chanticleer | A rooster believes his crowing makes the sun rise.[37] |
| Don Quixote | A man named Alonso Quixano (or Quijano), a retired country gentleman nearing 50 years old, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind from little sleep and food, and so much reading. He decides to become a knight-errant, and with his fat, food-loving, squire Sancho Panza, sets out on an hilarious misadventure.[38] | |
| The Hound of Florence Inspector Bones |
Based on the novel by Felix Salten (who was also the author of Bambi, a Life in the Woods), the story is about a detective who turns into a dog. The dog detective in "Inspector Bones" was a direct parody of Basil Rathbone's role in the Sherlock Holmes films, which were very popular in the 1940s. Inspector Bones and Dr. Beagle are pitted against either Professor Mongrel ("The Mad Dog of London") or Sir Cyril Sealyham. The story would have featured Tex Avery-style self-referential jokes. The project later inspired the 1959 live-action comedy The Shaggy Dog.[39] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "Donald's Tank" | While cleaning an armored tank, Donald accidentally explodes some grenades near his sergeant, Black Pete. To escape Pete's wrath, he takes off in the tank, crashing through the officer's mess and separating a general from his T-bone steak. Donald's problems are compounded when an experimental television monitor inside the tank is activated, and he confuses its telecast for scenes of the passing terrain. Straying across the French line, he spoils a surprise attack on Adolf Hitler's Panzer division.[9] |
| "Guerilla Duck" | A continuation of Donald's wartime exploits has him trying to intercept a Japanese troop carrier.[40] | |
| "Madame XX" | On a mission to deliver secret plans to the war office, private Donald Duck is waylaid by a Garboesque foreign spy Madame XX. She steals the plans and escapes in a motorboat, but Donald pursues her and ultimately recovers the stolen plans.[41] | |
| "A Brazilian Symphony: Caxangá" | Donald, José Carioca (the parrot from Saludos Amigos), and Goofy attempt to play "caxangá", or the Brazilian matchbox game; Donald is constantly driven to the point of madness in his attempt to master this complex, nerve-wracking game. | |
| Goofy | "How to Be a Cowboy" | A projected "how-to' short featuring Goofy as the chief cowboy on a dude ranch. A similar concept would be used for the short Two-Gun Goofy.[42] |
| Wartime | "Army Psycho-Therapy" | An unproduced army training film dealing with stress, the adrenal glands, and the importance of discipline.[43] |
| Short film | The Blue Orchid | Based on Venezuelan folklore about animals and spirits in the jungle who repel their vision of man.[44] |
| Chichicastenango | A surreal visual tour of Chichicastenango.[44] | |
| A House Divided | A proposed wartime short about rationing, pitting the Big Bad Wolf as a black marketeer against the Three Little Pigs, who have to be taught not to waste resources.[45] | |
| The Lady with the Rad Pomom | A Tauchan Bird encounters an Aracuan Bird, and they fight over the lady with the Rad Pomom.[44] | |
| Lima Story | Adventurous Lima finds himself in the South American Lake Titicaca. Elements of this story ended up in Saludos Amigos.[44] | |
| Goofy | Lumberjack Goofy | Goofy chops down a tree that fails on him, and he gets stuck on the band of the power saw.[4] |
| Short film | The Near-Sighted Overbird | The hero of the story is nearsighted, which continuously causes him trouble. He mistakes a wineskin for his home.[44] |
| Feature film | The Ostrich Who Laid the Golden Egg | In a tale told by the Ostrich People of Prax when asked "Where did you come from?", there seems to be nothing conclusive about the tale.[citation needed] |
Note: Disney studios produced an animated sequence for Samuel Goldwyn's film Up in Arms, which was unused in the final version of the film.[46]
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Goofy | "Army Story" | In the Army, Goofy becomes romantically involved with a pretty WAC.[47] |
| "How to Be a Commando" | A proposed Goofy World War II short wherein Goofy dreams of going up against Adolf Hitler and goes through commando training camps to achieve his goal.[41] | |
| Mickey Mouse | "Chicken Little" | The sky is falling on Donald, Goofy and Mickey. This story was supposed to be either a featurette or short. It also starred Jiminy Cricket and Daisy.[citation needed] |
| Pluto | "The Good Samaritan" | Pluto rescues a cute little puppy from the snow, who subsequently begins to tear the house apart, and Pluto has to rescue him again.[5] |
| Private Snafu | "Snafu" | One proposed Private Snafu short was planned by Disney, but was turned down by Frank Capra when Disney demanded commercial rights to the character and a high production cost. It consisted mostly of gags where the worst soldier in the army constantly fouls things up.[4] |
| Wartime | Ajax the Stool Pigeon Roland XIII |
A short that was to feature a bird performing as a military carrier pigeon, despite having a fear of heights.[48] |
| Democracy | A proposed wartime short comparing American democracy with the society of Nazi Germany through the trials of an immigrant family, the Joneses.[49] | |
| Melting Pot | An unmade propaganda short with a Nazi lecturer extolling the virtues of the German way. This might be an alternate version of "Education for Death".[49] | |
| The Square World | This proposed wartime short satires the conformist society of Nazi Germany. This was considered to be extended into a feature film project at one point.[50] | |
| Bambi | Bambi's Children | A sequel to the original Bambi film, dealing with Bambi's adult life.[4] |
| Feature film | The Gremlins | (Version 1:) A feature film based on the novel by Roald Dahl of the same name about Gremlins that wreck airplanes.[51] (Version 2:) A short film based on the novel by Roald Dahl of the same name about Gremlins that wreck airplanes. The short was proposed after plans for a feature film adaptation fell apart. Warner Bros. eventually released the Bugs Bunny short Falling Hare and Russian Rhapsody using the same premise.[51] |
| The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen | The film was intended to be a co-production with Samuel Goldwyn, who also wanted to produce a film based on Andersen's life. It was decided at some point that part of the film would be shot in live action, with animated segments depicting some of Andersen's tales. These included The Emperor's New Clothes, The Emperor's Nightingale, Through the Picture Frame, The Little Fir-Tree, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and The Little Mermaid.[52] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "La Loca Mariposa" | Donald is a butterfly collector visiting the country of Venezuela.[44] |
| Mickey Mouse | "Intros and Outros" | Mickey presents the CIAA Health for America series. Note: These intros would have gone by the name of the actual CIAA films.[44] |
| Pluto | "Pluto and the Anteater" | Pluto encounters an aardvark in South America in a very strange manner.[44] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Chanticleer and Reynard | The stories of Chanticleer the rooster and Reynard the fox are featured in the same film after plans fail in each of the earlier attempts to bring them separately to the screen.[53] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "Caxanga" | (Version 1:) Donald's heart is captured by a female parrot after his frustration over the South American game caxanga.[54] (Version 2:) Donald and Goofy are introduced by Joe to the game of caxanga. Frustrated over the game, Donald throws a tantrum. The next night, he cannot get the game out of his head.[44] |
| "Share and Share Alike" | Donald and his three nephews fight over an apple. Pencil tests for this proposed short still exist.[55] | |
| "Trouble Shooters" | Donald Duck is a telephone and power linesman who has some trouble with the same woodpecker that once destroyed his camera.[56] | |
| (n/a) | Don Quixote: Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character for Large Orchestra | This proposed short is another take on the Don Quixote tale. This time, the Disney animators set it around Richard Strauss' tone poem.[38] |
| Fiesta of the Flowers | Depicts the botanical action of the flowers on South America.[44] | |
| On the Trail | Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite is brought to life, set in the light and color of southern desert.[57] | |
| Feature film | Carnival Surprise Package Cuban Carnival |
A proposed third South of the Border Disney feature film.[58] The segments would have included: "Brazilian Rhapsody", an extended version of what would later become "Blame it on the Samba", released as part of Melody Time in 1948; "The Laughing Gauchito" featuring the character first seen in "The Three Caballeros," who learns he has the ability to shatter glass with his laugh. He becomes a star, but his fame ends when his voice deepens as he becomes a man; "San Blas Boy" is about a boy named Chico and his dog Kiki, who are lost in a storm. "Cape Dance" was a surreal colourful fantasy; "Rancho in the Sky", and four others featuring Donald Duck, José Carioca, Panchito Pistoles, and a newly introduced small rooster from Cuba; Miguelito Maracas.[57] |
| (n/a) | Sonja Henie Fantasy | A proposed Fantasia short would have been either animated or a live action/animation mix featuring the famed ice skater.[33] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck Goofy |
"Cowpoke Donald" "Old Geronimo" |
Version 1: Donald sets out to capture the roughest, toughest steer in the whole state of Texas.[59] Version 2: Goofy sets out to capture the roughest, toughest steer in the whole state of Texas.[59] |
| Goofy | "How to Train a Dog" | Goofy tries to teach Pluto some new tricks.[42] |
| Mickey Mouse | "Mickey and Claudius the Bee" | Mickey is shrunk to the size of a bee and is given a tour of the hive by Claudius.[60] |
| Short Film | Trees with Faces | A one-shot animated short that was supposed to be about the life of Native Americans, featuring animated bits about the raven's mischief.[61] |
Note: Fun and Fancy Free, released in 1947, was originally planned to be two separate feature films.
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pluto | "Pluto's White Elephant" | Pluto encounters Bobo in the last attempt to bring Bobo back onto the screen. Little is known about the plot.[4] |
| "Scrambled Eggs" | Pluto encounters the Ugly Duckling. This story was dropped from production for unknown reasons.[4] | |
| Feature film | Tintin | In 1948, Hergé wrote to Walt Disney hoping he would adapt the Adventures of Tintin comic strip into a potential animated feature. Gil Souto, a publicity director for Disney, turned down the proposal as Disney was occupied with Cinderella at this time,[62] though Hergé did receive a Mickey Mouse trophy and a picture showing Tintin and Mickey shaking hands decades later. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Currier and Ives | Planned for release sometime in the late 1940s, it was to be a "combination film" (live action mixed with animation). It was eventually dropped because the cost involved would have been too high. At the time, there had been a slate of combination pictures with the box office, each being less than its predecessor.[63] |
| Hiawatha | Hiawatha was a follower of The Great Peacemaker, a prophet and spiritual leader, who proposed the unification of the Iroquois people. This proposed feature was considered to be taken in a similar direction as Fantasia: artistic but contradictory. It would feature a single story line.[64] |
Note: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, released in 1949, was originally planned to be two separate feature films.
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | "Plight of the Bumble Bee" | Mickey produces a stage musical number with Hector the Bee.[65] |
| "The Talking Dog" | Pluto gets roped into becoming a ventriloquist's dummy in a circus sideshow. When Mickey figures out that his dog is missing, he starts looking for him and finds him in the hands of Pete. Mickey battles Pete to get Pluto back. Some animation that was done on this short was dropped. It was animated for a pencil test.[24] | |
| Feature film | Don Quixote | A second attempt for this proposed feature film had the same basic plot as the 1940 take on the Don Quixote story, but the animation would have had a similar style as seen in UPA animated shorts and features of the time.[66] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Duck | "Money-sorting Machine" "Donald-Scrooge Opus" |
Donald works at Scrooge's Money Bin, operating a money-sorting machine that runs by power. When Donald is away at lunch, the radio announces a plague of rats is loose in the city. Scrooge closes and shutters all of his windows and bolts the door. He sits down, terrified, to eat his cheese sandwich but, before he can begin, he is besieged by a determined rat who has smelled the cheese from afar. The rat threatens to destroy a $10,000-dollar bill if Scrooge does not order the most expensive cheese in the world.[9] |
| Feature film | Babes in Toyland | Walt Disney announced the film in 1955 as an animated feature.[67] In 1956, he said he wanted to make it the following year, and assigned Bill Walsh to produce and Sidney Miller to direct.[68] Filming was delayed, then the project was reactivated as the live-action 1961 movie of the same name. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| (n/a) | Prairie Rhythm Pretty Red Wing |
A planned satire of the classic Western film stereotypes about an Indian girl and a white trapper.[69] |
| Short film | Barefoot Boy | This proposed short film was to be an adaptation of the John Greenleaf Whittier poem set in Norman Rockwell's "Never Land."[69] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | The Emperor's Nightingale | This proposed film would have used paper cut-out animation to tell the traditional tale, but with a much finer and more delicate Asian style than the earlier 1959 short Noah's Ark. At one point, Mickey Mouse was considered to be included in the plot.[70] |
| Chanticleer | Having just completed One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Ken Anderson and Marc Davis were looking for new ideas for the studio's next feature in which they located earlier conceptual artwork from the 1940s and attempted to adapt the story into an animated film. However, it was ruled that only one film would go into production at the time, and Chanticleer was turned down once again when the studio decided to go for Bill Peet's adaptation of The Sword in the Stone.[71] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Goldilocks and the Three Bears | This proposed feature was to be an adaptation of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", involving a little girl who breaks into the bears' house.[72][page needed] |
| Feature film | Little Red Riding Hood | This proposed feature was to be an adaptation of the Charles Perrault's tale "Little Red Riding Hood", involving a little girl who tries to travel to her grandmother, but she is pursued by a wolf.[72][page needed] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Hansel and Gretel | This proposed feature was to be an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm's tale "Hansel and Gretel", involving a brother and a sister threatened by a cannibalistic witch living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and gingerbread.[73] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | The Bremen Town Musicians | The story about a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster, all past their prime years in life and usefulness on their respective farms, who are soon to be discarded or mistreated by their masters. One by one they leave their homes and set out together. They decide to go to Bremen, known for its freedom, to live without owners and become musicians.[74] |
| Hootsie the Owl Wise Little Owl |
A second attempt of this proposed feature about a misfit owl who sleeps at night and is awake during the day because he hatched during the day. He is an embarrassment to his parents and hasn't any friends. This is basically the same plot as the "Hootsie the Owl" short proposed in 1940, but with the addition of a snake character, similar to Kaa in The Jungle Book.[75] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Scruffy | An adaptation of Paul Gallico's novel which centered on the barbary macaques of Gibraltar with its honorary leader named Scruffy, and the apes would be threatened by the Nazi Party's attempt to capture them from the British Empire during World War II. When the time had come to green-light the project, the studio leaders decided to approve The Rescuers for production.[76][77][self-published source][78] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | The Hero from Otherwhere | Based on the book by Jay Williams, it was conceived as a live action/animated film about two schoolboys with different attributes who are transported to a strange planet whose black leader persuades them to help destroy the wolf Fenris that has been ravaging the land.[79][80] |
| Spacecraft One | The story was to tell about a mile-long spaceship in its search for life on other planets.[80] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Musicana | An early version of what eventually became Fantasia 2000. Some segments of the planned film were to be titled "Finlandia", involving a fight between the Ice God and Sun Goddess; an African segment about a curious monkey and a Rain God, including many hippos, lions and elephants; "The Emperor's Nightingale", based on the Andersen story, which would have starred Mickey Mouse as the keeper of the nightingale; a southern jazz story titled "By the Bayou", which included many frogs, including caricatures of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong; a segment set in the Andes with a beautiful girl/bird; and a version of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", featuring tropical birds. It was cut due to financial issues in favor of The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron.[81] |
| The Little Broomstick | A few months after Mary Stewart's novel of the same name was published in 1971, Walt Disney Productions acquired the film rights. In 1980, director Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman decided to adapt it into an animated feature following the release of The Fox and the Hound, but studio management felt the project was too similar to Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Also, they wanted the animation department to produce more ambitious films such as The Black Cauldron. In 2017, the book was adapted into the Japanese animated film Mary and the Witch's Flower by Studio Ponoc as their first film.[82] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Catfish Bend | Based on the book series by Ben Lucien Burman, it follows the journey of several animal residents in Catfish Bend. Following several treatments, it was never greenlit for production, and Disney dropped its option on the books.[83] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | The Three Musketeers | Storyboard artists Steve Hulett and Pete Young developed the project with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and José Carioca as the Musketeers, but it fell into development hell. However, in 2004, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers was released, but it was unrelated to the earlier project.[83][84] |
| Feature film | Where the Wild Things Are | This was to be a film adaptation of the children's picture book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Animators Glen Keane and John Lasseter (who later moved on to Pixar) completed a test film blending traditionally animated characters with computer-generated settings, but the project proceeded no further.[85] However, a live-action film adaptation, distributed by Warner Bros. and directed by Spike Jonze was released twenty-six years later. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Mistress Masham's Repose | Before the release of The Black Cauldron, producer Joe Hale and his production team were working on an adaptation of the T. H. White novel. While Roy E. Disney supported the project, Jeffrey Katzenberg disliked it. Eventually, Hale and most of the team were fired, and the project languished.[86] |
| Feature film | Monkey | When Pixar was still a part of Lucasfilm in 1985, Edwin Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith began developing a computer-animated film titled Monkey, which was adapted from the Chinese novel Journey to the West. After they were spun off as an independent company in 1986, they partnered with the Japanese company Shogakukan, owners of the publishing company Shueisha. However, the project was discontinued when it was apparent the CGI would be too expensive to produce and Shogakukan backed out.[87] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Dufus | Then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner proposed that Disney Feature Animation should develop an animated adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye, since Eisner was a fan of the original book. However, knowing that J. D. Salinger would refuse to sell the film rights, Eisner then suggested to do an animated film that dealt with similar topics from the book, but with German shepherds as the characters. The film was briefly mentioned in the Disney+ film Howard; where in 1986, lyricist Howard Ashman was sent a letter from then-Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg in regards to collaborating with the studio on one of their films. Dufus was listed, alongside a sequel to Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid.[88] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Army Ants | Disney considered producing an animated feature film that centered on a pacifist ant living in a militaristic colony. However, the idea never fully materialized.[89] This idea, however, was reincarnated ten years later into DreamWorks' Antz and the unrelated Pixar's A Bug's Life. |
| Winnie the Pooh | Untitled Winnie the Pooh film | When one of her novels came to the attention of a Disney executive, Linda Woolverton was hired to work on several animated projects, including one involving Winnie the Pooh. However, it was later shelved once The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh had aired.[90] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | Swabbies | The story found Mickey, Donald, and Goofy out of work, out of luck, and in need of a job. They enlist in the Navy and go to boot camp with Pete as their exasperated drill instructor. They meet their feminine counterparts—Minnie, Daisy and Clarabelle—who are all WAVES. After they put to sea, they encounter a submarine full of the Beagle Boys, who all speak a Russian-sounding gibberish. The entire film was storyboarded and recorded, and an animatic was created. Complete model sheets of all of the characters were printed, and layouts and some animation had begun before the project came to an abrupt halt.[91] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Roger Rabbit | Who Discovered Roger Rabbit | The shelved proposed prequel to the 1988 Disney/Amblin film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film, which previously went by the working title, Roger Rabbit Two: The Toon Platoon, was set in 1941 during World War II, and would have had Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman going on a journey through the perils of the war in search of Roger's birth parents in the Americas. It would have been a direct-to-video musical film.[92][93] |
| Goofy | Goofy of the Apes | A spoof of Tarzan of the Apes starring Goofy.[94][95] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Humphrey the Whale | An animated adaptation of the children's book Humphrey the Lost Whale by Richard Hall and Wendy Tokuda.[96] |
| Puss in Boots | A film version of the tale.[97] It is unrelated to the released DreamWorks Animation film of the same title, especially since this one was more connected to the original fairy tale. | |
| Tiny the Alligator[96] | It was described as a "growing up story" of a resident of New York City who happens to be the size of an 18-wheeler.[98] | |
| Short film | A Tin Toy Christmas | A half-hour television sequel to the short Tin Toy was considered, but Pixar felt convinced they could produce a feature film.[99] The project later became Toy Story. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mickey Mouse | Mickey Columbus | Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were cast as the captains of the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, and Minnie stands in for Queen Isabella. The film's writers could not decide what to do about the Native Americans that Columbus would encounter in the New World.[100] |
| Mickey's Arabian Nights | A featurette starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy, set around the entire One Thousand and One Nights anthology.[100] | |
| Tourist Trap | Based on an idea for a scrapped Roger Rabbit short, Mickey and Donald are heading on a vacation, with Donald attempting to kill Mickey.[101] | |
| Feature film | Homer's Odyssey | A feature film set around the odyssey of Odysseus.[102] The project was scrapped when it failed to translate into animation comedy.[103] |
| Sinbad the Sailor | This proposed feature film, itself based on the Arabian Nights tale of the same name, was scrapped after Aladdin was released.[102] | |
| Song of the Sea | Lyricists Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens had pitched the project as a re-telling of the mythological story of Orpheus and Eurydice, but with humpback whales.[102][104] In March 1992, The New York Times had reported that both had signed on to compose songs for the project.[105] Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise were to direct, but the project was dropped when they were recruited to work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame.[104] | |
| Swan Lake | The project was dropped because former Disney animation director Richard Rich was developing The Swan Princess.[106] | |
| Silly Hillbillies on Mars | Based on the idea of feuding hillbillies from outer space, it was inspired by a Disney storyman who saw the title of a Disney short, "The Martins and The Coys", mistaking it for "The Martians and The Cows".[102][107] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | The Man Who Would Be King | An adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling short story.[108] |
| A Princess of Mars | During the 1990s, Jeffrey Katzenberg attempted to produce an animated adaptation of the novel.[109] After he had disapproved of Ron Clements and John Musker's pitch for Treasure Planet, Katzenberg instead offered them to direct A Princess of Mars. However, the directors were uninterested,[110] and Disney relinquished the film rights to Paramount Pictures in 2002.[111] By 2008, Paramount's film rights had expired and the project, now directed by WALL-E and Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton, entered production under Disney once again.[112] The finished project, titled John Carter, was released 19 years later on March 1, 2012, to mixed reviews.[113][114] The film became one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time. Stanton initially conceived John Carter as the first in a trilogy of sequels, which were all cancelled due to the film's diminishing box-office returns.[115][116] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Roger Rabbit | Hare in My Soup | A fourth Roger Rabbit cartoon short based on Who Framed Roger Rabbit was planned for release in 1995, to coincide with the release of Toy Story, preceding that proposed feature film in the process. It was canceled after pre-production ended and before production could begin, and was replaced in the gap with a reissue of Rollercoaster Rabbit.[117] This cartoon was supposed to be followed by three more Roger Rabbit shorts, also starring Baby Herman; Clean and Oppressed, Beach Blanket Bay and Bronco Bustin' Bunny.[118] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Toots and the Upside Down House | Based on the book by Carol Hughes, it tells of a young girl who creates a fantasy world of goblins, fairies, sprites, and an evil Jack Frost.[119][120] The film's production was canceled when Disney shut the film's animation production company Skellington Productions after the box office failure of James and the Giant Peach. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| (n/a) | Totally Twisted Fairy Tales | Conceived as a direct-to-video project of four featurettes developed by Walt Disney Television Animation, it included Jack and the Beanstalk, Redux Riding Hood, a remake of 1933's Three Little Pigs, and a fourth cartoon that was never finalized. Jack and the Beanstalk was written by Peter Tolan and George Carlin was cast in an unspecified role, but it never went pass post-production.[121] "Three Little Pigs" was written and directed by Frank Conniff and Darrell Rooney respectively, starred Harvey Fierstein as the wolf, and was completed but never released.[122] Redux Riding Hood itself was nominated for Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 70th Academy Awards.[123] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Bitsy | The story focused on the eponymous elephant who leaves India to try to make it in Hollywood, and ends up working in a used-car lot and falling in love. Veteran story artists Joe Grant and Burny Mattinson developed the first act through storyboards, but following a twenty-minute pitch meeting, the executives were reluctant to approve the pitch.[124] |
| Wild Life | Loosely based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion,[125] the movie was to tell the story of an elephant who becomes a sensation on the New York club circuit. In the fall of 2000, Roy E. Disney watched a work-in-progress screening and was so appalled by the film's adult humor that he immediately ordered production to be shut down.[126] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Atlantis | Atlantis II | Prior to the release of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise were in development of a theatrical sequel to the film. The plot was to have been about a masked villain who attempts to re-take Atlantis, only to be revealed as Helga Sinclair. However the project was cancelled and eventually a 2003 sequel titled Atlantis: Milo's Return was released.[127] |
| Feature film | Don Quixote | A third attempt to adapt the novel that was under development by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi who aimed for a more adult take, but the project was never approved.[128] |
| Dumbo | Dumbo II | Disney planned a proposed direct-to-video sequel to Dumbo. The plot was to follow Dumbo and his circus friends who navigate through a large city after being left behind by their traveling circus and trying to find their way home. It was also supposed to explain what happened to Dumbo's father. The trailer was included on the Dumbo: 60th Anniversary Edition DVD. In 2002, the project was placed on hold after Joe Grant found the computer-animated test footage for the film to be lackluster. In 2005, the project was placed back into production, but was cancelled by John Lasseter a year later after being named Creative Officer.[129] Also, a third Dumbo film was planned.[130] |
| Hercules | Hercules II: The Trojan War | Disney planned a proposed direct-to-video sequel to Hercules. Hercules is now living in Athens with Megara and their daughter, Hebe. However, when an old friend named Helen is captured by the evil Paris of Troy, Hercules joins the united Greek army as they head out to war. However, this war will create revelations, and Hercules finds an old friend who eventually goes missing.[131][132] |
| Feature film | Stoneflight | Based on the children's book by Georgess McHargue, the story follows a lonely girl seeking refuge from her parents who befriends a lonely gargoyle at the roof of her Manhattan brownstone. The gargoyle then transports her to Central Park where other gargoyles have convened with other children from troubled families.[133] |
| The Frog Prince | A satirical adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Frog Prince. It was developed by Eric Goldberg and his wife, Sue, and it was pitched to then-Feature Animation president Thomas Schumacher who rejected it feeling a satirical animated feature would not be popular with audiences.[134] Disney eventually revived The Frog Prince project which became The Princess and the Frog. | |
| The Nightmare Before Christmas | The Nightmare Before Christmas 2 | Disney planned to make a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but instead of using stop motion, Disney wanted to use computer animation.[135] However, Tim Burton convinced Disney to drop the idea. |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Antonius | The project follows the story of a leopard in ancient Egypt who becomes a freedom fighter.[136] |
| The Emperor and the Nightingale | Emperor Wu has a nightingale whose beautiful songs bring him much joy. One day, the emperor receives a mechanical bird that can sing and dance, and he devotes his attention to the toy bird. Neglected and ignored, the nightingale flies away. Some time passes and the mechanical bird breaks down. The emperor, never realizing the treasure he had in his nightingale, pines for the melodious songs of the nightingale. One day, the nightingale returns to the palace and the emperor promises to never neglect it again.[129] | |
| The Fool's Errand | The story is said to center on a court jester who goes on a mythical journey to return peace to his kingdom.[137] | |
| Mickey Mouse | The Search for Mickey Mouse | In honor of Mickey Mouse's 75th anniversary, the project was about Mickey who gets "mousenapped" by unknown forces, forcing Minnie Mouse to enlist Basil of Baker Street to investigate his disappearance, and later encounters one character from Disney's animated film canon such as Alice, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, and Aladdin.[138] However, the project suffered script problems with the multiple cameos being thought to be too gimmicky. The project was later replaced by Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers.[139] |
| Treasure Planet | Treasure Planet II | The cancelled direct-to-video sequel to the original film. In the sequel, Jim Hawkins and Kate, his love interest and classmate at the Royal Interstellar Academy, must team with Long John Silver to stop the villainous Ironbeard from freeing the inmates of Botany Bay Prison Asteroid. Willem Dafoe was set to voice Ironbeard. The sequel was canceled after Treasure Planet bombed at the box office.[140] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | My Peoples | While being produced at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, this proposed feature film was to be about two young lovers named Elgin Harper and Rose McGee. They are both from two rival families in Appalachia during the late 1940s. A group of mountain spirits inhabiting folk art dolls do what they can to bring the two of them together. Mixing traditional and computer-generated animation, it went through a number of title changes, including: A Few Good Ghosts, Angel and Her No Good Sister, Elgin's People, and Once in a Blue Moon, and would have been directed by Barry Cook, the co-director of Mulan. Set to a bluegrass score, its voice cast included Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, Hal Holbrook, and Charles Durning.
Despite the well-received test screenings, on November 14, 2003, David Stainton announced in a company email that production on A Few Good Ghosts had been cancelled.[141] Months later, Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida closed its doors on March 19, 2004.[142] |
| Tam Lin | An adaptation of the Scottish fairy tale that Roger Allers had developed, but it was rejected after it was pitched to Michael Eisner, who was in a corporate struggle with Roy E. Disney, once he recognized the project was Disney's "baby".[143] In May 2003, Sony Pictures Animation announced the project was being directed by Allers and Brenda Chapman,[144] but one year later, he was later moved to co-direct SPA's first film Open Season while Chapman moved to Pixar.[145] | |
| The Prince and the Pig | The project was described as a fairy tale centering on the grand adventure of a boy and his pig as they set off against all odds to try to steal the moon.[146] | |
| The Three Pigs | An adaptation based on David Wiesner's book The Three Pigs. In May 2002, it was reported that the book was optioned to Walt Disney Feature Animation,[147] and its development was announced in December 2003 as a 2D/3D animated hybrid film.[148] | |
| Uncle Stiltskin | The story begins where the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale Rumplestiltskin leaves off. In Uncle Stiltskin, the fabled aspiring babynapper Rumplestiltskin again tries to fulfill his dream of being a father but, this time, he discovers the true meaning of family.[149][150] | |
| Which Witch? | Based on the children's novel of the same name by Eva Ibbotson, the project tells of a fantasy adventure in which a magical wizard realizes that before he retires, he must find a wife. He holds a contest in which all the world's witches compete by performing their most outrageous spells.[151] In October 2014, it was announced that the project is in development again at the Jim Henson Company with Billy Crystal serving as a writer, producer and star.[152] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | One for Sorrow, Two for Joy | Based on the Clive Woodall novel of the same name, it is set in an imaginary kingdom of Birddom and follows the plight of a plucky robin tasked with saving the world from evil magpies. In 2004, Disney entered negotiations with Woodall to acquire the film rights in hopes of producing an animated adaptation.[153] |
| Recess | Recess: The First Day of School | This would have been a direct-to-video film to be released in August 2004, the fourth direct-to-video film, and the fifth film in the Recess franchise. The plot revolved on T.J. and his gang (except Gus, who wouldn't have moved to town yet) adjusting to fourth grade, making it a prequel to the events of the series. It was scrapped shortly after Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade and Recess: All Growed Down were released at the end of 2003.[citation needed] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Winnie the Pooh | Disney Learning Adventures | Originally, Disney was to release more Learning Adventures installments, such as Winnie the Pooh: Good Day Good Night and Winnie the Pooh: Time to Rhyme. However, plans to release both titles on DVD were ultimately scrapped after big update for DisneyToon Studios, and the original trailer for them can be found on several Disney DVDs and on YouTube.[154] |
| Feature film | The Abandoned | Based on the children's book by Paul Gallico, the story focused on a young boy who transforms into a cat.[155][156] |
| Fraidy Cat | This proposed feature film was to have chronicled a frightened cat, who had already lost three of his nine lives, that finds himself trapped in a Hitchcock-esque plot. The project originated with Piet Kroon, but was inherited by Ron Clements and John Musker. However, David Stainton, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, refused to green-light the project.[157] | |
| Mr. Popper's Penguins | Based on the novel of the same name, the project was developed by Joe Grant where Eisner and Stainton wanted the project to be set in contemporary New York, to which Grant contested.[155] The project was later moved to 20th Century Fox (now owned by Disney) and was released on June 17, 2011. It starred Jim Carrey and Carla Gugino in the lead roles and received mixed reviews from critics but was a box office success. | |
| Winnie the Pooh | Untitled Winnie the Pooh film | Screenwriter Robert Reece wrote a treatment for a Winnie the Pooh feature film. It was to center on a dilemma for one of Pooh's friends, but it was never pitched.[129] |
| Aladdin | Aladdin 4 | In 2005, screenwriter Robert Reece pitched a fourth Aladdin feature to Disneytoon executives, although it never came to fruition.[129] |
| Toy Story | Toy Story 3[158] | This original version of the 2010 film of the same name by Disney's Circle Seven Animation was to focus on Andy's mother shipping a malfunctioning Buzz to Taiwan, where he was built, as the other toys believe that he will be fixed there. After Buzz has been shipped, they find out the company has issued a massive recall. Fearing Buzz's destruction, a group of Andy's toys (Woody, Rex, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, Jessie, and Bullseye) venture out to rescue Buzz.
At the same time, Buzz meets other toys from around the world that have been recalled, including several Transformers toys.[159] After Disney bought Pixar in 2006, Circle Seven was shut down and their version of Toy Story 3 was cancelled. In 2010, Pixar produced their own version of Toy Story 3. |
| Monsters, Inc. | Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise | In 2005, Circle Seven Animation screenwriters Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir wrote a film treatment for a sequel of Monsters, Inc.[160] The film would have focused on Mike and Sulley visiting the human world to give Boo a birthday present, only to find that she had moved. After getting trapped in the human world, Mike and Sulley split up after disagreeing on what to do.[161] However, it was cancelled following the shutdown of Circle 7.[162] In 2013, Pixar produced a prequel, Monsters University. |
| Finding Nemo | Finding Nemo 2 | In 2005, Disney was going to make a sequel to Finding Nemo without Pixar's involvement by the now-defunct Circle Seven Animation.[158][162] Although it never went into production, a script for the Circle Seven version was uploaded to the official Raindance Film Festival website in 2018.[163] It would have focused on Nemo reuniting with Remy, his long lost brother. Marlin later gets captured and sent to an aquarium so Nemo, Remy, and Dory venture to save him. After Disney bought Pixar in 2006, Circle Seven was shut down and their version of Finding Nemo 2 was cancelled. In 2016, Pixar produced their own sequel, Finding Dory. |
| Tron | Untitled Tron TV series | In 2005, animation director Ciro Nieli was given the opportunity to develop an animated TV series based on Tron. Nieli, who is best known for 2012's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, had previously created the series Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! for Disney. However, plans for the Tron series ultimately fell through. According to Nieli, the pitch for the Tron series was reworked from a previous original concept of his known as "Powercade", featuring two kids who inherit electrical powers, accompanied by a creature named "Glitch".[164] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fantasia | Fantasia 2006 | Also known as Fantasia III, this would have been the third film installment in the Fantasia series. The plans were eventually dropped altogether, and proposed segments from that abandoned film were instead produced and released as individual stand-alone Disney animated shorts. One of them was the 2004 short film One by One which was added to the special edition release of The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, and the 2006 short film The Little Matchgirl which was added to the special edition release of The Little Mermaid.[165] |
| Mulan | Mulan III | In 2002, a third Mulan film was announced to be in production.[166] Like the first sequel, this proposed second sequel to Mulan would have ultimately gone direct-to-DVD, but the production was eventually canceled before Mulan II came out.[167] |
| The Brave Little Toaster | Untitled fourth The Brave Little Toaster film | In 2006, the official website of Hyperion Pictures posted an image of a possible fourth The Brave Little Toaster film which was supposed to use computer-animation instead of hand-drawn animation, but it was never pitched. The website has been inactive since then but was recently updated in 2019.[168] |
In June 2007, Disneytoon Studios president Sharon Morrill stepped down, and the animation studio units under the Walt Disney Company underwent corporate restructuring as the Pixar leadership assumed more control. Thus, most sequels, plus a prequel series, out of DisneyToon Studios were cancelled.[169][170]
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Jungle Book | The Jungle Book 3 | In 2003, a third installment to The Jungle Book was planned. It would have been about Baloo and Shere Khan being captured and sold off to a Russian circus, and Mowgli, Shanti, Ranjan, and Bagheera deciding to save them both. Over the course of the film, Shere Khan regrets his hatred against humanity because of his capture, and eventually reforms,[171] but the project never materialized.[129] |
| The Aristocats | The Aristocats II | The direct-to-video sequel to the original 1970 film.[170] The story was to have concerned Marie, Duchess's daughter, who becomes smitten by another kitten aboard a luxury cruise ship. However, she and her family must soon take on a jewel thief on the open seas.[129] |
| Chicken Little | Chicken Little: The Ugly Duckling Story | The canceled direct-to-DVD sequel to Chicken Little. The plot would have centered around Abby Mallard competing with a new schoolgirl for Chicken Little's affection.[170][172] |
| Meet the Robinsons | Meet the Robinsons: First Date | The canceled direct-to-DVD sequel to Meet the Robinsons.[170] |
| Pet Project | A 6-minute short intended to be included on the film's DVD release, entailing the story of how Bowler Hat Guy was able to retrieve, raise and train a giant dinosaur to ravage against Lewis.[173] Progress was slightly swindled when Ed Catmull said that he didn't want the studio to devote any more time with creating extra shorts for DVD releases because they "don't pay for themselves",[174] and was eventually cancelled after the second draft animatic was completed.[175] | |
| Snow White | The Seven Dwarfs | At one point, Disney was developing a The Lord of the Rings-like franchise series of direct-to-DVD films which would chronicle the adventures of the Seven Dwarfs before they met Snow White. The proposed project didn't go through, and the planned series was ultimately canceled.[170] However, the concept was revived into a television series titled The 7D which aired on Disney XD from 2014 to 2016.[130] |
| Pinocchio | Pinocchio II | The canceled direct-to-video sequel to the original 1940 film. According to Robert Reece, who wrote a script for it, Pinocchio would have gone on a quest to find out why life is so unfair sometimes.[129] |
| Disney Princess | Disney Princess Enchanted Tales | Initially, after the release of the direct-to-video film Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, there was to be an entire series of Enchanted Tales direct-to-video film installments.[170] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Newt | This proposed project from Pixar would have concerned the exploits of two blue-footed newts, one male and one female, trying to find each other and bonding. They eventually found each other and prevented the extinction of their newt race. The film was planned to be released in 2011; it later was delayed to 2012, but it was finally cancelled by early 2010. In a March 2014 interview, Pixar president Edwin Catmull stated that Newt was an idea that was not working in pre-production. When the project was passed to Pete Docter, he pitched an idea that Pixar thought was better, and that concept became Inside Out.[176][177][178] |
| ShadeMaker | In 2010, Henry Selick formed a joint venture with Pixar called Cinderbiter Productions, which was to exclusively produce stop-motion films.[179] Its first project under the deal, a film titled ShadeMaker was set to be released on October 4, 2013,[180] but was canceled in August 2012 due to creative differences.[180][181] Selick was given the option to shop ShadeMaker (now titled The Shadow King) to other studios.[182] Selick later stated in interviews that the film suffered from interference from John Lasseter who Selick claimed came in and constantly changed elements of the script and production that ended up ballooning the budget that would lead to its cancelation.[183] | |
| Calling All Robots | On March 26, 2008, Michael Dougherty was set to direct the animated sci-fi adventure film Calling All Robots with Zemeckis producing the film through ImageMovers Digital for Walt Disney Pictures.[184] | |
| The Nutcracker | On November 26, 2009, Zemeckis had signed on to produce and direct the motion capture animated film adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker through ImageMovers Digital for Walt Disney Pictures.[185] On July 21, 2016, Universal Pictures revived the adaptation, which may or may not use motion capture, with Zemeckis only set to produce the film and Evan Spiliotopoulos was hired to write the script.[186] There has been no information since. | |
| Untitled Lee Unkrich Pixar film | Before Lee Unkrich directed Toy Story 3, he was developing an untitled film that "had similar elements with The Secret Life of Pets".[187] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Mort | This proposed traditionally animated film would have been based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel of the same name. It would have been directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, the directors of the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog. Disney could not afford the rights to the film so it was scrapped.[188] Clements and Musker moved on to direct Moana. |
| Mickey Mouse | Untitled Mickey Mouse film | In 2011, Disney story veteran Burny Mattinson revealed in one interview that he was developing a "Mickey, Donald, Goofy feature film idea",[189] but he had not pitched the idea.[190] |
| Phineas And Ferb | Untitled Phineas And Ferb theatrical film | In January 2011, Gary Marsh, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide announced that early development on a theatrical feature film adaptation of Phineas and Ferb had commenced. Sean Bailey, head of production at Walt Disney Pictures, led the development, which would combine live-action and animation. By July, Povenmire and Marsh were in the early stages of writing the film's script; Michael Arndt, the writer of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3, was hired to write a further draft of the screenplay. The film was to be produced by Mandeville Films, and was originally scheduled for release on July 26, 2013. In October 2012, Disney moved the release date to 2014, and in August 2013, the film was removed from its schedule.[191][192][193][194][195][196][197] |
| Feature film | Yellow Submarine | This motion capture remake of the 1968 Beatles film was developed by Robert Zemeckis. Disney canceled the project due to the box office failure of the Zemeckis-produced motion capture film Mars Needs Moms and aesthetic concerns about the technology.[198] After its cancellation at Disney, Zemeckis then tried to pitch the film to other studios, before eventually losing interest in the project.[199] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | King of the Elves | Based on the short story by Philip K. Dick, it was originally directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker, and scheduled for a Christmas 2012 release.[200] However, the project was cancelled in December 2009,[201] though it returned development in 2011 with Chris Williams as the director.[202] Ultimately, Williams left the project in 2012 to work on Big Hero 6.[203] |
| The Graveyard Book | In April 2012, Walt Disney Pictures acquired the rights and hired Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the film adaptation of Gaiman's novel Coraline, to direct The Graveyard Book.[204] The film was moved to Pixar as a stop-motion production, which would have been the company's first adapted work.[205] After the studio and Selick parted ways over scheduling and development, it was announced in January 2013 that Ron Howard would direct the film.[206] In July 2022, it was announced that Marc Forster would be directing a live-action feature film adaptation with Renée Wolfe, Gil Netter and Ben Brown set to produce, and David Magee writing the script.[207] Later that year, Neil Gaiman stated that he has no involvement with the film.[208] | |
| Cars | Trucks | At one point, Disney wanted to do a film that was a Cars spin-off that featured trucks.[209] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Toy Story | Toy Story Toons: Mythic Rock | In 2013, it was revealed a fourth short of Toy Story Toons was in the works, entitled Mythic Rock.[210] However, it was never released. |
| Cars | Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs: To Protect and Serve | At the 2013 Disney D23 Expo, it was announced that a fifth episode of Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs, entitled To Protect and Serve, was in production.[211][212] However, it was never released. |
| Prep & Landing | Prep & Landing 4 | In a 2011 interview promoting the third entry in the series of Christmas specials, Naughty vs. Nice, creators Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton stated that there were plans for a fourth entry in the series, but that they could not reveal any more about the project.[213] The project ultimately never made it to broadcast, and the two were instead assigned to a different Christmas short, Olaf's Frozen Adventure, in 2016; by this point, the two spoke of the series in the past tense.[214] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tinker Bell | Tinker Bell: Tinker Academy | In addition to the six feature-length Tinker Bell films, DisneyToon Studios also had plans for a seventh film.[215] In April 2014, The Hollywood Reporter stated that the film was cancelled due to storyline problems.[216] The story would've centered around Tinker Bell going to the titular school and meeting a new group of fairies called City Tinkers, with the most prominent one being a fairy named Ember.[217][218] |
| Tink Meets Peter | Stephen Anderson stated on Twitter about working on an eighth Tinker Bell film in late 2014. The working title was Tink Meets Peter and was intended to be the final installment in the franchise and a direct prequel to the 1953 Peter Pan film. The storyline would show how Peter came to Neverland, and the genesis of Peter and Tink's relationship. The film was under production during the time home video marketing was plummeting and DisneyToon Studios' closure.[219] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Feature film | Gigantic | Based on the English folk tale "Jack and the Beanstalk", the story was set in Spain, in which Jack befriends a female giant. Originally titled Giants,[220] the film would have been directed by Nathan Greno and Meg LeFauve,[221] co-written by LeFauve,[221] produced by Dorothy McKim,[221] executive-produced by John Lasseter,[222] and included songs written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.[221] However, the project faced multiple delays, having been previously scheduled for release on November 23, 2016,[223] March 9, 2018,[221] November 21, 2018,[221] and November 25, 2020.[220] On October 10, 2017, Walt Disney Animation Studios President Ed Catmull announced that the film had been shelved and Raya and the Last Dragon took up its original release date.[224][225] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cars | Beyond the Sky[226] | In July 2017 at the D23 Expo, John Lasseter announced that a spin-off film in the Planes series would explore the future of aviation in outer space. The film had a release date of April 12, 2019.[227] On March 1, 2018, it was removed from the release schedule.[228] On June 28, 2018, DisneyToon Studios was shut down, ending development on the film.[229] |
| Metro | Another spin-off after Planes set in the Cars universe about trains.[230][231] |
| Series | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Oswald the Lucky Rabbit | Untitled Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series | A series centered on Oswald was in development, with the project announced in 2019 for a potential release on Disney+.[232][233] Disney Television Animation veteran Matt Danner revealed that a series was in development as a follow up for the team behind Legend of the Three Caballeros, but that they "got broken up and scattered to the wind".[234] He expressed hope that the series could still be revived in the future and further hinted that another team would develop it, as Disney was still heavily invested in wanting to revive the character.[235][236] |