There are many (and many more) films released by Disney that are not just beloved by people, but are important to them. Films that remind them of a time when they were younger, or they simply have always enjoyed no matter what. They have an endless list of films to watch and relax with if you may be feeling down or stressed or like life may be a bit too much at the moment, or if you are just in the mood. They are responsible for so much for so many generations.
     But what of those films that ended up not getting made? Making films is a long and expensive process where multiple things could go awry at any given time, or you may simply just have to come to the realization that something isn’t working. In more recent memory, we have Pixar’s Newt, Gigantic (which was supposed to be released in 2020 and just recently got canceled) and Kingdom of the Sun, which eventually morphed into The Emperor’s New Groove (and is a subject worthy of its own article).
     Those are ones that may be, in one way or another, more well-known to individuals at hand, but there were more; much more. Were there some that seem like it was a mistake, in the long run, to cancel? Would they have, if given the chance or if things went smoother in production, joined the echelon of films that rank high in Disney’s own filmography? We’ll never know, but, like with individual directors films, it’s fun (and slightly sad) to theorize about them. So let’s take a look at what could have been with ten unmade films by Disney that I wish we had gotten.

10) The Gremlins

     The first children’s book written by Roald Dahl, The Gremlins was published in 1943 and conceived for Walt Disney Productions specifically as a means to promote the feature-length film they had in development.
     The Gremlins of the title came from the explanation for any sort of trouble in a plane, as stated by the pilots of the Royal Air Force. Even today, Gremlins seem to be blamed very unfairly for a variety of mechanical mishaps all over. The story would revolve around said Gremlins sabotaging planes as a means of revenge, as the building of a factory to make the aircrafts led to the destruction of their forest home.
     Eventually, in the midst of pre-production, the project had to be cancelled. There are a few reasons attributed to why this might have been, from the story hitting a snag in them not being quite sure how to make the Gremlins completely sympathetic to the audience, copyrights problems, Dahl insisting on final script approval and the involvement of the British Air Ministry and how that may restrict the work in some way. But it wasn’t all a complete loss, as the characters of the Gremlins have since shown up since in a few Disney related productions.

09) Reynard The Fox/Chanticleer

     If I could have my choice between these two, I would have gone with a singular Reynard the Fox story, but then things get a tad, shall we say, complicated. Complicated to the point where we even, kind of, sort of, if-you-squint, got it anyway.
     Reynard the Fox comes from stories circulating in the Middle Ages about a trickster, anthropomorphic fox that would deceive many other animals. The one who fell to his tricks and deceiving was the wolf Ysengrimus who—it’s a long story, incredibly interesting, worth looking up, and the only reason I’m skipping past it is because if I start writing about it I’ll have a way longer, off-topic article than I intended.
     The idea was bounced around for a while of adapting it into a feature, but how exactly? The main problem was always the fact that Reynard, with his tales of deceiving and trickery, couldn’t be made into a good enough protagonist. How do we solve this problem and still have the character?
     Enter another stalled project! Chanticleer, also originating from Reynard stories, is the rooster that believes his crowing in the morning is what raises the sun. Disney had worked at making a feature about the rooster himself but also hit some issues, so eventually the idea was made to combine them; Reynard would be the villain in Chanticleer’s story.
     Chanticleer lives on a farm and is vain, since he believes (and tells the other animals) about his crowing waking the sun. Reynard, along with other animals that prowl at night, move onto the property under the guise of a travelling circus to get themselves some dinner. Chanticleer was to fall in love, learn the error of his vanity once he realizes that the sun rises on its own, and fight off Reynard and his Spanish rooster henchmen, Polo Loco, for a happy ending. The entire story was worked out.
     Then the same thing happened to Chanticleer as Reynard’s standalone film; they couldn’t really find a proper way to make the character completely relatable or likable as a protagonist. That and the fact that the film was revisited during the building of a certain theme park, and it was chosen as the film cancelled to make up for any extra costs towards it.
     While the film failed, and it would have been neat to see what they would have been able to pull together, in the end we did sort of, kind of, get touches of Reynard in another Disney film I love, as an absolutely lovable and charming character.

08) The Emperor’s Nightingale

     Based on the tale by Hans Christian Anderson, The Emperor’s Nightingale was explored as a possible feature in the 1960s. The film would have been made with paper cut-out animation and with an Asian art style. After a while, Mickey himself was thought to be placed into the story. The feature film seems to have fallen apart by the 70s, as the story was to be included in Musicana. More than anything, I would have loved to have seen Disney’s approach to using a more fine Asian design in their animation and how well they would have been able to stay true to it. But I will take this moment, talking about a paper cut-out animated movie to tell you to read about Lotte Reiniger, as she is amazing and should be better known.

07) Hiawatha

     Disney had made a Silly Symphony short named Little Hiawatha in 1937, and it was decided in the 40’s that a feature based on Longfellow’s ‘Song of Hiawatha’, following an adult Hiawatha, would be a good next feature. Intended to have an impressionistic art style that was more akin to Fantasia in look but with a single story, the production hit a wall when it was decided that, like Fantasia, it would end up being too ‘highbrow’ to appeal to a mass audience. It’s unfortunate, as some beautiful concept art was produced, though how close the film would follow the style and feel of it is unknown.
     The idea of the poem being adapted and the artistic ideas conveyed make it incredibly sad to see it fall to the wayside, and it would have ranked incredibly higher if not for one fact; this was the late 40’s. Now, I’m sure they would have been incredibly respectful to the source material and depiction of Native Americans at such a large scale, but you still can’t shake the feeling of things not necessarily turning out as great as they could. Pocahontas was released in the mid-90s and, well, that has its own issues that show that sometimes time doesn’t mean things turn out the way it was intended. Disney is making proper steps towards fixing issues like that, slowly, and I would be happy to see them possibly attempt the idea once again in the future, though my preference would be to see this done in classic 2D animation.

06) The Tale of a Mouse

     1936 saw the release of The Country Mouse, based on The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, one of Aesop’s Fables. The short would go on to win the Academy Award for Animated Short. After Walt Disney’s death, the studio was very careful in what they would do, feeling lost, and decided to stay with what they knew, which led them to looking back at previously cancelled or abandoned projects (one of which was an adaptation of The Rescuers). The Country Cousin was seen as perfect for a full length feature, and though concept art was made, it was eventually decided to cancel the project since The Rescuers also entered development and it was seen as not a good idea to have two films featuring main mice characters so close in production.
     The idea of The Country Mouse being pulled into a 70-80 minute feature sounds like it would have its fair share of problems, as you wouldn’t want to risk the film being stuck in a very repetitive loop of action beats simply set in different locales. At the same time, though, I would have loved to have seen what kind of accidental, death-defying adventures and predicaments the poor country mouse would have ended up in, especially based off the intriguing and gorgeous artwork.

05) Wild Life

     A satire of 70’s pop culture that was meant to be the first CGI-animated film from the company, Wild Life followed a talking elephant named Ella that is brought into a nightclub as an attraction (after their main star sees dwindling popularity) who, being too nervous about being a performer and not thinking she has what it takes to be a star, is accidentally electrocuted and she comes to thinking she is a famous singer who quickly rises to stardom. There were also characters that were meant to be caricatures of the likes of Diana Vreeland and Andy Warhol and the film itself was inspired by the Pygmalion.
     It also had a very adult sense of humour and, once seeing an early reel, it was hated by Roy Disney, being appalled by the humour, and he pulled the plug on it. Unfortunately, the team animating it was the same as the ones who animated Dinosaur, ‘The Secret Lab’, and they were shut down after the cancellation of the film. This one comes out of curiosity for the film as a whole in terms of how exactly the makers got as far as they did, since there had to be a certain level of appeal there still for children, beyond ‘singing elephant.’ Also, it’s always worth seeing just how far adult jokes can go in films like this, especially since we’ve had endless amounts of entertainment that really pushes it. I mean, from what you can find, the joke that seemed to be the drawing line for Roy Disney was one involving two gay characters who have to travel into the sewers, and as they are about to do so, one turned to the other and asked; “Have you ever been down a manhole before?”

04) Musicana

     Hey, we mentioned you not too long ago! Artist/Designer Mel Shaw left Disney after working on Bambi to serve in World War II. He returned to the studio in the 70s to work on The Rescuers, and would go on to lend work to The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. During his return, though, he teamed with Wolfgang Reitherman, one of the famous Nine Old Men, to conceive Musicana. The film was to be a follow-up to Fantasia, made up of a variety of shorts set to music, but the shorts would be all set in different parts of the world with music from said countries accompanying them. All of the shorts that were to be used were storyboarded. Along with The Emperor’s Nightingale (to be set in China and starring Mickey), the other shorts included the likes of; The Rain God (set in Africa), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (set to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade); Finlandia; By The Bayou (set in the Deep South); and a sequence meant to take place Aztec mythology.
     The problem that Musicana was faced with was the fact that is wasn’t really seen as something that would be successful commercially, as Fantasia was a flop when it was released. Hesitation lead to cancellation, Reitherman left the studio, while Shaw went on to work on the aforementioned projects. It is said to have led way to Fantasia 2000, but it would have been incredible to see a film where all of these cultures would be represented, especially joined by appropriate music.

03) Mort

     In the early 2010’s, Disney toyed with the idea of adapting the Discworld novel of the same name by Terry Pratchett. Planned for a traditional style to be directed by Ron Clements and John Musker (directors of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog, Moana and more), the story would follow Death taking in a man named Mort as his apprentice, only to have Mort foil a pre-planned death that ends up causing problems in the world.
     Pratchett. Disney. Traditional Animation. It is almost too good to even think of or consider, and the fact that we could have got it makes me curious as to what kind of animation style they would have gone with. Unfortunately, it turned out that the only way to receive the rights to the novel would be to buy the rights to the entire Discworld series, as it was only offered to be sold as a package. Of course, for obvious reasons, Disney did not want to spend the money buying all the rights only to adapt a single book. It’s too bad, as it would have been unlike a lot of what we are used to from the company.

02) My Peoples

     Barry Cook, the co-director of Mulan, began working on an idea he had in the late 90’s, one that would grow to be My Peoples. Set in 1940’s Appalachia, Texas, the film would have told the tale of two families that are feuding, and their two children falling in love. One of the children, Elgin, creates dolls inspired by folk art, and has a full set he has made. The father of the opposite family, wanting the boy to forget about his daughter, makes a potion that is intended to wipe Elgin’s memory, only for it to bring Elgin’s dolls to life.
     Cook began work on the project not long after Mulan, and his initial idea, known as The Ghost and the Gift, was rejected for multiple reasons. Cook rewrote it and pitched the reworked idea, which got the greenlight. Then the producer that set the greenlight resigned and the new producer, David Stainton, began making demands of retooling, going so far as to change the title of the film to reflect the new plot (which saw the dolls being possessed by deceased members of Elgin’s family).
     With the new plot being worked on, and a new story reel shown, Stainton was pleased with the results, even giving it some glowing praise. A few weeks later, visiting the working animation branch in Florida, Stainton said the film was cancelled to make Chicken Little, as that one was felt to be capable of reaching a bigger audience. Not only that, but the Florida branch of animation was closed and Barry Cook left.
     It’s a sad, real look at how far animation can get before it is cancelled. Some even get farther. A list of actors and musicians were already chosen for the film before the project was shut down. It’s a shame because the film sounds as though it could have been very special, especially with all of the passion and heart that Cook had for it. The concept art is intriguing and gorgeous, along with the idea Cook had to make the film a mixture of 2D and CGI, with the dolls being computer generated with the humans and everything else in the world hand drawn. It’s an incredible loss for something that could have stood up tall with a lot of other Disney films.

01) Fraidy Cat

     I tried so hard not to be but, damn it, I can’t help being predictable. The Great Mouse Detective topped my Favourite Disney Films list, as it really hit my sweet spot of detective loving. I’m also a sucker for a good film noir and ‘Fraidy Cat’ was meant to be a spoof of Hitchcockian thrillers following, well, a scaredy cat. Disney had John Clements and Ron Musker lined up to direct for a possible 2009 release, but the project was shelved in 2005.
     The initial story pitches and reels for the movie were met with enthusiasm, just not from David Stainton. Yup, again. He claimed that the movie wouldn’t be marketable to audiences as he felt people, not just children but everyday people, wouldn’t know or be familiar enough with Hitchcock to “get it.” It’s probably incredibly easy to see why this was a very stupid reason to cancel the film.
     A good satire is a good satire if viewed for that purpose, that is true, but a good film that happens to be a satire will hold up on its own, whether or not someone understands what the piece may be satirizing. In the best cases, the satire ends up being an added bonus if you happen to ‘get’ it. Airplane, for example, these days is known simply as a great comedy, and anyone who may have seen the film over the last few decades probably doesn’t know that they are meant as a satire/parody of films like Airport. I wouldn’t even be surprised if many of those same people know Airport is a film that even exists.
     The point is, the films should have been looked at as a standalone film first and satire second. If it didn’t work or they couldn’t have a good enough story then that is fine. With the great concept art and the simple idea of a scared cat being caught in a Hitchcockian thriller, I believe this would have done great. If everything came together perfect, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it ranked as one of people’s favourites of the ‘newer’ Disney.