History ExecutiveMeddling / AnimatedFilms

* ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': The film started out as a PrinceAndPauper movie called ''Kingdom of the Sun'' in 1994, intended by ''Lion King'' co-director Roger Allers as an "epic picture mixing elements of adventure, comedy, romance and mysticism". It would have been in the traditional style of ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' or ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''. The plot would've involved a greedy, selfish emperor who finds a peasant who looks just like him, so the emperor swaps places with the peasant for fun. Meanwhile, he evil witch Yzma has plans to summon the evil god Supai and capture the sun so that she may retain her youth forever. Discovering the switch between the prince and the peasant, Yzma turns the emperor into a llama and threatens to reveal the pauper's identity unless he obeys her. The emperor learns AnAesop about humility, and ends up loving a llama herder named Mata Together. She & the emperor set out to stop Yzma's evil plans. Sting was signed on as the song composer. Disney execs thought that due to the poor critical & commercial recpetion of ''Pocahontas'' and ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', both of which were serious dramatic musicals in the style of ''Kingdom of the Sun'', the film would be unsuccessful. Compounding this was the fact that the release date had been firmly set at the year 2000, and by 1998 it was clear that production would not wrap up in time. Thusly, almost all the original plot points and characters were scrapped. The movie became transformed into a simple, ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-style slapstick buddy comedy. While the end result was warmly recieved by critics, who found it a breath of fresh air compared to most of Disney's fare, animator Andreas Deja, who supervised animation on Yzma during ''Sun'', was displeased with what the film was reworked into, and left to work on ''Lilo & Stitch'' before the retool. Allers was also disappointed with the final film, calling it a ''simple slapstick comedy'', and saying that if he had had more time, he could've made the film according to his original visions.

* ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': The original idea started out as a PrinceAndPauper movie called ''Kingdom of the Sun'', heavy on the [[AnAesop aesoping]]. Due to [[TroubledProduction heavy production issues]] and poor reception from test audiences, the plot of the entire movie was ordered to undergo an overhaul. The whole film was retooled in the space of about six months, becoming a zany buddy comedy with more in common with WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes than typical Disney fare.

* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': The movie was originally going to be hand-drawn, and first titled "The Snow Queen", then "Anna and the Show Queen". After Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog under-performed at the box office, they made it CGI and the title was changed to "Frozen" ([[MeaningfulName which actually fits the film's theme more, anyway]]). Even the SignatureSong, "Let It Go", went through a slight lyric change. The third line was originally going to to be "''Couldn't keep it in, God knows I tried''". It wasn't because they wanted to remove religious references (as some people initially thought), but it didn't want to be considered to be taking the Lord's name in vain. The final line is instead "''Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried''", which fits better with the song's pattern anyway.

* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'': The video game companies had a major say in what their characters can do and not do. Creator/BandaiNamco did not like the plan to have VideoGame/DigDug be the homeless game hero, forcing them to change it to VideoGame/QBert. Nintendo had shown the animators the proper way to have [[Franchise/SuperMario King Bowser]] hold a cup of coffee and Sega made the animators reanimate the scene where Ralph escapes ''Hero's Duty'' and into ''Sugar Rush'' because of Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog's reaction - Sonic was originally supposed to be scared out of his rings when Ralph's escape pod raced by, but Sega had said that only being hit caused him to do so.

* On the topic of Creator/RalphBakshi, his version of ''WesternAnimation/TheLordOfTheRings'' was originally going to be a trilogy before becoming a theoretical TwoPartTrilogy. Then these execs insisted on changing Saruman to Aruman but that didn't remain consistent; then they insisted on calling it ''The Lord of the Rings'' instead of ''The Lord of the Rings: Part I'', assuming the audience wouldn't see half a movie; and finally, they rushed the film out the door. No wonder the movie is a LoveItOrHateIt film.

* Disney has had many, many cases of this. One of the most notorious victims was ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron''. Then newly-installed Disney Studios chief [[Creator/DreamWorksAnimation Jeffery Katzenberg]] ''personally'' cut nearly twenty minutes off the finished film before it hit theaters, causing obvious skips in the soundtrack (an uncut version of which was released in 2012). The film certainly has other problems -- movies in DevelopmentHell for twelve years tend to accumulate them. But anyone with even a vague knowledge of animation production can see how insane this decision was.
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' was almost the victim of this thanks to Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg continually pushed for a [[DarkerAndEdgier more adult, cynical]] ''Toy Story'', making Woody even more of a jerkass and relying heavily on insult humor. The result backfired horribly; at a screening for the Disney execs, Roy Disney declared it the worst thing he'd ever seen, and Disney was ready to scrap the whole project until the writers were finally left alone to write the story they wanted to write. The rest is history.
** Later on, Pixar also had to deal with Michael Eisner. During the Disney v. Pixar negotiations, Eisner created Circle 7 Animation, which would have churned out Disney Brand Cheapquels to Pixar films including ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory 3''. Thankfully, he was fired, the studio got shut down, and Pixar retained the rights to their characters, and Pixar's version of [=TS3=] ended up being far better than what Circle 7's was going to be.
* Creator/RobinWilliams signed with Disney to do the character Genie in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', even receiving lower paychecks, demanding that his name wasn't used in advertisements, and that the ads didn't feature the Genie alone, or not feature him in over 25% of the space. (He had a prior commitment premiering around the same time and didn't want to screw the minds behind it.) As Disney executives realized the Genie was the soul of the movie, the second condition was promptly discarded, and by the time of Academy Award nominations, the first as well. Williams got angry and refused to work with the studio again, with the [[Disney/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar first sequel]] and [[WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries TV series]] [[ThePoorMansSubstitute featuring Dan Castellaneta as Genie]]. Disney's change of president made Williams rethink, and he returned as the voice of Genie in [[Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves the final sequel]] to the Aladdin film series (although it is rumored that a $20 million Picasso may have also helped Williams change his mind)...only for the VHS cover for ''Aladdin and The King of Thieves'' [[HereWeGoAgain to bear the subtitle "Starring Robin Williams"]]. And then it happened ''again'' (with ''Film/BicentennialMan''). Robin Williams never voiced the character again for the rest of his life.
* During the making of ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', which features cameo appearances from characters from both the Disney and WarnerBros. animation studios, it was mandated by executives of both companies that their characters could only be used as long as they received the ''exact'' same amount of screen time as their competitors. For this reason, every time that WesternAnimation/BugsBunny and MickeyMouse, the two figurehead representatives of WB and Disney respectively, appear on screen they are together -- originally, Bugs had a solo scene, but for the reasons above, Disney raised a stink and it was cut. Fortunately, the writers were imaginative enough that viewers tend not to notice this unless it is pointed out to them. It is also rumored that the question mark that should logically form a part of the title was removed after the results of a market survey indicated that movies with question marks in the titles were more frequently failures at the box office. Evidently someone at the meeting table concluded, "Correlation may not equal causation, but why take chances[[strike:?]]."
* In a case of the meddling actually working out for the ''better'', ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' started out as a PrinceAndPauper movie called ''Kingdom of the Sun,'' heavy on the [[AnAesop aesoping]]. Due to [[TroubledProduction heavy production issues]] and poor reception from test audiences, the plot of the entire movie was ordered to undergo an overhaul. The whole film was retooled in the space of about six months, becoming a zany buddy comedy with more in common with WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes than typical Disney fare. [[TropesAreNotBad And it was AWESOME]]. The only thing it really lost in the {{retool}} was a [[EarWorm rockin']] VillainSong sung by Eartha Kitt, though the curious can still find it on the official soundtrack.
** That said, many fans [[WhatCouldHaveBeen are still rather curious]] about the original version of the film. Sting wrote all the songs -- which were later trashed in the new version -- and his wife made a documentary entitled ''The Sweatbox'' about all the Executive Meddling during the making of the film, and it's one of the few chances one would have to see cuts from the original version. Thing is, Disney ''owns the rights'' to that documentary, and you can imagine how well it went over with them...
** Although it was done pretty well, there was also some negative results from the change as well. For instance, because of their rewriting the story from scratch, Yzma became a fusion of a stereotypical [[EvilChancellor backstabbing royal vizier]] and a mad scientist, when in the original tale, she was a vain sorceress who intended to bring about everlasting darkness to regain some beauty. This decision infuriated animator Andreas Dejas due to feeling that this was a step backwards, causing him to quit not just the production of ''The Emperor's New Groove'', but also Burbank entirely.
* ''Disney/TheLionKing'': The ending was going to be a total DownerEnding (like ''Hamlet'') , but it was not liked by the execs.

** Several short, but fairly, important scenes were axed, including the original (much more emotionally charged) last moments of Nuka and Zira. The reason was due to them being perceived as child-unfriendly.

* ''Disney/TheLionKing2SimbasPride'': The sequel, however, got several short, but fairly important scenes axed, including the original (much more emotionally charged) last moments of Nuka and Zira. These were removed due to being perceived as child-unfriendly, and others... for no particular reason, it seems. The idea that Kovu was actually Scar's son was dropped to merely being hinted at. This was presumably done so that Kovu & Kiara wouldn't be KissingCousins by the end (although the film also hints that the exact status of Kovu's relation to Scar was geared more towards adoption than being sired by him).

* The ending of ''Disney/TheLionKing'' is an example of executive meddling done right. The original (like ''Hamlet'') was going to be a total DownerEnding, but it was not liked by the execs. Interference from the higher-ups also lead the unfocused and unengaging script to become the basis of Disney's highest grossing film of all-time (until Disney/{{Frozen}}).
** The sequel, however, got several short, but fairly important scenes axed, including the original (much more emotionally charged) last moments of Nuka and Zira. These were removed due to being perceived as child-unfriendly, and others... for no particular reason, it seems. The idea that Kovu was actually Scar's son was dropped to merely being hinted at. This was presumably done so that Kovu & Kiara wouldn't be KissingCousins by the end (although the film also hints that the exact status of Kovu's relation to Scar was geared more towards adoption than being sired by him).
* Somewhere out there in cutting-room floor land are the legendary million dollars' worth of finished animation cut mainly for time from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime''. Except for a few tantalizing clues, and edits that are awkward and obvious if you pay close attention, few fans have any idea what these scenes might have included. Bluth and Spielberg felt as if they were trying to make two different movies (For example, Spielberg's version would have had no talking dinosaurs at all) and much of the film we see today is the result of meddling.

%%* Perhaps the most extreme case of meddling in an animated film happened to Richard Williams' masterpiece, ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler''. There is no nice word for how this film was treated. It was ''butchered''. Shelved for years, altered to make it look more like Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', redrawn by different animators... the film has never gotten the respect it deserves. The only way people know of these injustices are through the effort of film editor Garrett Gilchrist, who compiled multiple versions of the film into a "Recobbled Cut", which he distributes freely online.
* ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'': According to ex-WBFA personnel such as Creator/LaurenFaust, the movie was originally supposed to be akin to Creator/RalphBakshi's ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'', being a more adult film and even have a PG-13 rating. Warner Bros. decided that they wanted it to be more like a Creator/{{Disney}} film instead, so the entire film was rewritten to fall in line.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeTheMovie'', Duke was supposed to have died from Serpentor's snake javelin. The executives liked this idea so much they decided to kill off [[TransformersTheMovie Optimus Prime]], too. After the traumatic response from the latter, they quickly backpedaled and made the GI Joe writers change Duke's death to only being in a coma.
** Which was done with just one changed line of dialogue and one line added in voiceover to a crowd scene. You can still get cuts of the film where Duke dies.
* According to Creator/DanAbnett, who wrote the script for ''WesternAnimation/{{Ultramarines}}'', he had no information about the project's budget, the team had different interpretations of his script, and his executives told him what to include and what he could not.
* TheFilmOfTheSeries ''WesternAnimation/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' was originally supposed to be a silent dinosaur film with no dialogue or voiceovers. The producers however would not have it as such, and thus voices were dubbed over the finished animation, ([[TaintedByThePreview which was quite extensively featured in the advertisements]]), presumably in an attempt to [[FollowTheLeader capture the success of]] earlier talking dinosaur films like ''Disney/{{Dinosaur}}'' and ''Film/TheLandBeforeTime''. Going by the critics' and audiences' reactions to the final film, compounded by its poor opening weekend in the US, [[ForegoneConclusion it didn't work out]]. The prominent use of ToiletHumor (also used in ads) couldn't had helped much either.

* A few examples concerning ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', which one could say ended up being ''positive'' examples. The movie was originally going to be hand-drawn, and first titled "The Snow Queen", then "Anna and the Show Queen". After Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog underperformed, they made it CGI and the title was changed to "Frozen" ([[MeaningfulName which actually fits the film's theme more, anyway]]). Even the SignatureSong, "Let It Go", went through a slight lyric change. The third line was originally going to to be "''Couldn't keep it in, God knows I tried''". It wasn't because they wanted to remove religious references (as some people initially thought), but it didn't want to be considered to be taking the Lord's name in vain. The final line is instead "''Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried''", which fits better with the song's pattern anyway.
* ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' had meddling from the video game companies, who had a major say in what their characters can do and not do. Bandai Namco had a fit when it was originally planned for VideoGame/DigDug to be the homeless game hero, forcing them to change it to VideoGame/QBert. Nintendo had shown the animators the proper way to have [[Franchise/SuperMario King Bowser]] hold a cup of coffee and Sega made the animators reanimate the scene where Ralph escapes ''Hero's Duty'' and into ''Sugar Rush'' because of Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog's reaction - Sonic was originally supposed to be scared out of his rings when Ralph's escape pod raced by, but Sega had said that only being hit caused him to do so.

* Aardman Animation's ''WesternAnimation/FlushedAway'' suffered from meddling from the get-go; Aardman originally pitched it to Creator/DreamWorks as being about pirates, but they claimed that there was no market for pirate films and were forced to modernize the idea. The movie was postponed for work to be done on ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit''. Ironically, when ''Flushed Away'' was finally released, ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' already had its first sequel under its belt.
** [=DreamWorks=] weren't done with their meddling there; the singing/whistling slugs that recur regularly in the movie were originally just in one scene, but the producers apparently thought it was comedy gold and insisted that if a significant amount of time had passed without any big laughs, [[RunningGag they were to slot in the slugs in some way]]. Depending on the viewer, the slugs either became an OverusedRunningGag by the film's end or [[TropesAreNotBad made the film funnier]]. The experience working with [=DreamWorks=] (along with the poor box-office receipts) was enough to make Aardman Animation break off from them completely and later join Sony Pictures, who eventually did greenlight and release [[WesternAnimation/ThePiratesBandOfMisfits that aforementioned Pirates project]].
* It wasn't just ''Flushed Away'' they meddled with; ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' had many attempts at meddling made towards it. [=DreamWorks=] wanted Wallace's voice actor to be changed to a well-known American, which Aardman quite rightly fought against. Luckily, [=DreamWorks=] dropped the issue.
* Perhaps the most extreme case of meddling in an animated film happened to Richard Williams' masterpiece, ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler''. There is no nice word for how this film was treated. It was ''butchered''. Shelved for years, altered to make it look more like Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', redrawn by different animators... the film has never gotten the respect it deserves. The only way people know of these injustices are through the effort of film editor Garrett Gilchrist, who compiled multiple versions of the film into a "Recobbled Cut", which he distributes freely online.
* According to ex-WBFA personnel such as LaurenFaust, ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'' was ''made'' of Executive Meddling. Ever wonder what the axe-beaked chicken suddenly made a HeelFaceTurn [[AssPull with no foreshadowing]]? That's why.
--> Warner Bros did not know what they were doing. They didn't care about animation being as an art form as well as entertainment, they wanted profits. If they wanted a bad Disney knock off, they should have talked to Don Bluth on their part. Camelot was planned as an animated feature in the veins of Ralph Bakshi's ''WesternAnimation/{{Wizards}}'', you know something with a PG-13. In the end they didn't even know what to do with it. Nearly everyone I knew that worked on Camelot hated it, and they don't even want to talk about it. Personally, its makes Don Bluth's bad movies in the 90's look good. It was rather stressful since production time was overhauled for us animators to stay at the studio longer to animate the scenes since WB was about to be late for a deadline on the movie. When it was finished it tanked(I myself along with the people who I worked with knew that it was going to bomb). The heads of WB then say "Why did this bomb?", what I said to them was "You made it worst, and turned something good into something nobody wants to look at". They even had to cancel an animated film that a guy by the name of Milton Knight pitched to them. Only because they couldn't picture cartoony animation working out for animated features. Everyone I know thinks a PG-13 animated feature would have been better than a poor Disney knock-off. It still annoys me that the female character looks like Belle while the guy looks like the human version of the beast.
--->-'''Lauren Faust'''
* Averted with ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}: Mask of Light''. One of the original ideas they had for the movie was that a [[RogerRabbitEffect live-acted kid would wind up in the Bionicle universe]] and become the Seventh Toa, instead of [[EnsembleDarkhorse the Chronicler Takua]]. The idea was abandoned in ''very'' early stages of development, and none of the several other DirectToVideo Franchise/{{LEGO}} films featured any live actors. However this still remains one of the main reasons why ''BIONICLE'' will never see a big-screen movie adaptation, unless one of the fans gets to be a very big-name in Hollywood. The execs would not let go of their idea that human kids would make the movie easier to promote, while LEGO would not let go of their ''absolutely NO humans'' rule. Its SpiritualSuccessor ''Franchise/HeroFactory'', which had no such rule, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen almost got a live-action adaptation]], but its plans were scrapped along with the toy line.
** The "no humans" rule is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'': [[spoiler: there are some live-action segments near the end of the film that feature a kid named Finn playing with several Lego construction sets and toys from the story that belong to his dad-the latter of which usually strives to have them kept in order and scolds Finn for playing with them. However their roles on the story serve more as an [[AllegoryAdventure allegory]] on how Finn/Emmet and the other Master Builders use their creativity to fight against the perfectionism of Finn's dad/Lord Business than it does impact the plot.]]
** The conclusive ending of the second ''BIONICLE'' film was added because they didn't know whether a third movie would be made. So when it did get made, it became a between-scenes {{interquel}}.
* In-universe: In the Disney movie, ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'', a character named Mindy Parker is a fine example of this trope. As a network executive, when the ratings start going down, she tells the director that the 18-35 year-old are unhappy with "happy" and tells him if they lose a single rating, she would fire everyone in the room, leading to the idea of a cliffhanger episode (which freaks Bolt out, thinking that Penny is still in danger and cannot save her). Later in the film, when Bolt goes missing, she tells Penny that they have to make a "grown-up" decision of forgetting about Bolt and using a double instead.
** Things that happened with this movie out-of-universe: Almost all of the already completed voice performance of Creator/ChloeMoretz were thrown in the trash for no reason, replacing her with MileyCyrus. Also, the movie was originally going to be called ''American Dog'', be written by the writers of ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', and the plot would've been about a self-centered dog who was stranded in the middle of the Arizona desert, meeting quirky characters and learning the error of his ways. Disney didn't really like this concept because they thought it was too similar to ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'', and so it was re-tooled into the film we see today. While the final product is very well-liked, there are quite a few Disney fans who would've preferred the original incarnation.

* Parodied in ''Animation/FilmFilmFilm'', showing how at the end of the production, there is little left of writer's original work.
* Creator/RalphBakshi's ''Film/CoolWorld'' suffered from perhaps the more extensive cases of Executive Meddling. Originally, the movie was supposed to be about half-doodle/half-human [[PunnyName Debbie Dallas]], out to kill her human father for having sex with her cartoon mother. The executives secretly rewrote the script and handed it back to Bakshi, changing the animated horror/thriller story to a ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' clone about an artist getting trapped in the comic book he created when he was in prison and his creation, Holly Would, having sex with him so she can become human and unleash the cartoon creations into the real world. Bakshi also intended to have Drew Barrymore as the female lead, but instead they stuck him with Kim Basinger, who thought that it was a ''[[AnimationAgeGhetto children's movie]]''.
** As a result of the casting change, Basinger supported the studio's attempts to downgrade the film's original R rating to PG. This didn't quite work, as the final version of the film ended up being PG-13.

* Disney has had many, many cases of this. One of the most notorious victims was ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron''. Then newly-installed Disney Studios chief [[Creator/DreamWorksAnimation Jeffery Katzenberg]] ''personally'' cut nearly twenty minutes off the finished film before it hit theaters. The film certainly has other problems -- movies in DevelopmentHell for twelve years tend to accumulate them. But anyone with even a vague knowledge of animation production can see how insane this decision was.

* According to ex-WBFA personnel such as LaurenFaust, ''QuestForCamelot'' was ''made'' of Executive Meddling. Ever wonder what the axe-beaked chicken suddenly made a HeelFaceTurn [[AssPull with no foreshadowing]]? That's why.
--> Warner Bros did not know what they were doing. They didn't care about animation being as an art form as well as entertainment, they wanted profits. If they wanted a bad Disney knock off, they should have talked to Don Bluth on their part. Camelot was planned as an animated feature in the veins of Ralph Bakshi's {{Wizards}}, you know something with a PG-13. In the end they didn't even know what to do with it. Nearly everyone I knew that worked on Camelot hated it, and they don't even want to talk about it. Personally, its makes Don Bluth's bad movies in the 90's look good. It was rather stressful since production time was overhauled for us animators to stay at the studio longer to animate the scenes since WB was about to be late for a deadline on the movie. When it was finished it tanked(I myself along with the people who I worked with knew that it was going to bomb). The heads of WB then say "Why did this bomb?", what I said to them was "You made it worst, and turned something good into something nobody wants to look at". They even had to cancel an animated film that a guy by the name of Milton Knight pitched to them. Only because they couldn't picture cartoony animation working out for animated features. Everyone I know thinks a PG-13 animated feature would have been better than a poor Disney knock-off. It still annoys me that the female character looks like Belle while the guy looks like the human version of the beast.

* In ''GIJoe: the Movie'', Duke was supposed to have died from Serpentor's snake javelin. The executives liked this idea so much they decided to kill off [[TransformersTheMovie Optimus Prime]], too. After the traumatic response from the latter, they quickly backpedaled and made the GI Joe writers change Duke's death to only being in a coma.

* TheFilmOfTheSeries ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' was originally supposed to be a silent dinosaur film with no dialogue or voiceovers. The producers however would not have it as such, and thus voices were dubbed over the finished animation, ([[TaintedByThePreview which was quite extensively featured in the advertisements]]), presumably in an attempt to [[FollowTheLeader capture the success of]] earlier talking dinosaur films like ''Disney/{{Dinosaur}}'' and ''Film/TheLandBeforeTime''. Going by the critics' and audiences' reactions to the final film, compounded by its poor opening weekend in the US, [[ForegoneConclusion it didn't work out]]. The prominent use of ToiletHumor (also used in ads) couldn't had helped much either.

** The "no humans" rule is [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] in ''Film/TheLegoMovie'': [[spoiler: there are some live-action segments near the end of the film that feature a kid named Finn playing with several Lego construction sets and toys from the story that belong to his dad-the latter of which usually strives to have them kept in order and scolds Finn for playing with them. However their roles on the story serve more as an [[AllegoryAdventure allegory]] on how Finn/Emmet and the other Master Builders use their creativity to fight against the perfectionism of Finn's dad/Lord Business than it does impact the plot.]]

** [=DreamWorks=] weren't done with their meddling there; the singing/whistling slugs that recur regularly in the movie were originally just in one scene, but the producers apparently thought it was comedy gold and insisted that if a significant amount of time had passed without any big laughs, [[RunningGag they were to slot in the slugs in some way]]. Depending on the viewer, the slugs either became an OverusedRunningGag by the film's end or [[TropesAreNotBad made the film funnier]]. The experience working with [=DreamWorks=] (along with the poor box-office receipts) was enough to make Aardman Animation break off from them completely and later join Sony Pictures, who eventually did greenlight and release [[ThePiratesBandOfMisfits that aforementioned Pirates project]].

--> Warner Bros did not know what they were doing. They didn't care about animation being as an art form as well as entertainment, they wanted profits. If they wanted a bad Disney knock off, they should have talked to Don Bluth on their part. Camelot was planned as an animated feature in the veins of Ralph Bakshi's {{Wizards}}, you know something with a PG-13. In the end they didn't even know what to do with it. Nearly everyone I knew that worked on Camelot hated it, and they don't even want to talk about it. Personally, its makes Don Bluth's bad movies in the 90's look good. It was rather stressful since production time was overhauled for us animators to stay at the studio longer to animate the scenes since WB was about to be late for a deadline on the movie. When it was finished it tanked(I myself along with the people who I worked with knew that it was going to bomb). The heads of WB then say "Why did this bomb?", what I said to them was "You made it worst, and turned something good into something nobody wants to look at". They even had to cancel an animated film that a guy by the name of Milton Knight pitched to them. Only because they couldn't picture cartoony animation working out for animated features. Everyone I know thinks a PG-13 animated feature would have been better than a poor Disney knock-off. It still annoys me that [[Expy the female character looks like Belle while the guy looks like the human version of the beast.]]

** -> Warner Bros did not know what they were doing. They didn't care about animation being as an art form as well as entertainment, they wanted profits. If they wanted a bad Disney knock off, they should have talked to Don Bluth on their part. Camelot was planned as an animated feature in the veins of Ralph Bakshi's {{Wizards}}, you know something with a PG-13. In the end they didn't even know what to do with it. Nearly everyone I knew that worked on Camelot hated it, and they don't even want to talk about it. Personally, its makes Don Bluth's bad movies in the 90's look good. It was rather stressful since production time was overhauled for us animators to stay at the studio longer to animate the scenes since WB was about to be late for a deadline on the movie. When it was finished it tanked(I myself along with the people who I worked with knew that it was going to bomb). The heads of WB then say "Why did this bomb?", what I said to them was "You made it worst, and turned something good into something nobody wants to look at". They even had to cancel an animated film that a guy by the name of Milton Knight pitched to them. Only because they couldn't picture cartoony animation working out for animated features. Everyone I know thinks a PG-13 animated feature would have been better than a poor Disney knock-off. It still annoys me that [[Expy the female character looks like Belle while the guy looks like the human version of the beast.]]
-->-'''Lauren Faust'''

-> Warner Bros did not know what they were doing. They didn't care about animation being as an art form as well as entertainment, they wanted profits. If they wanted a bad Disney knock off, they should have talked to Don Bluth on their part. Camelot was planned as an animated feature in the veins of Ralph Bakshi's {{Wizards}}, you know something with a PG-13. In the end they didn't even know what to do with it. Nearly everyone I knew that worked on Camelot hated it, and they don't even want to talk about it. Personally, its makes Don Bluth's bad movies in the 90's look good. It was rather stressful since production time was overhauled for us animators to stay at the studio longer to animate the scenes since WB was about to be late for a deadline on the movie. When it was finished it tanked(I myself along with the people who I worked with knew that it was going to bomb). The heads of WB then say "Why did this bomb?", what I said to them was "You made it worst, and turned something good into something nobody wants to look at". They even had to cancel an animated film that a guy by the name of Milton Knight pitched to them. Only because they couldn't picture cartoony animation working out for animated features. Everyone I know thinks a PG-13 animated feature would have been better than a poor Disney knock-off. It still annoys me that [[Expy the female character looks like Belle while the guy looks like the human version of the beast.]]

* Creator/RalphBakshi's ''Film/CoolWorld'' suffered from perhaps the more extensive cases of Executive Meddling. Originally, the movie was supposed to be about half-doodle/half-human [[PunnyName Debbie Dallas]], out to kill her human father for having sex with her cartoon mother. The executives secretly rewrote the script and handed it back to Bakshi, changing the animated horror/thriller story to a ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' clone about an artist getting trapped in the comic book he created when he was in prison and his creation, Holly Would, having sex with him so she can become human and unleash the cartoon creations into the real world. Bakshi also intended to have Drew Barrymore as the female lead, but instead they stuck him with Kim Basinger, who thought that it was a ''[[AnimationAgeGhetto children's movie]]''.

** Things that happened with this movie out-of-universe: Almost all of the already completed voice performance of Creator/ChloeMoretz were thrown in the trash for no reason, replacing her with MileyCyrus. Also, the movie was originally going to be called ''American Dog'', be written by the writers of ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', and the plot would've been about a self-centered dog who was stranded in the middle of the Arizona desert, meeting quirky characters and learning the error of his ways. Disney didn't really like this concept because they thought it was too similar to ''Film/{{Cars}}'', and so it was re-tooled into the film we see today. While the final product is very well-liked, there are quite a few Disney fans who would've preferred the original incarnation.

* During the making of ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', which features cameo appearances from characters from both the Disney and WarnerBros. animation studios, it was mandated by executives of both companies that their characters could only be used as long as they received the ''exact'' same amount of screen time as their competitors. For this reason, every time that BugsBunny and MickeyMouse, the two figurehead representatives of WB and Disney respectively, appear on screen they are together -- originally, Bugs had a solo scene, but for the reasons above, Disney raised a stink and it was cut. Fortunately, the writers were imaginative enough that viewers tend not to notice this unless it is pointed out to them. It is also rumored that the question mark that should logically form a part of the title was removed after the results of a market survey indicated that movies with question marks in the titles were more frequently failures at the box office. Evidently someone at the meeting table concluded, "Correlation may not equal causation, but why take chances[[strike:?]]."

* Creator/RalphBakshi's ''Film/CoolWorld'' suffered from perhaps the more extensive cases of Executive Meddling. Originally, the movie was supposed to be about half-doodle/half-human [[PunnyName Debbie Dallas]], out to kill her human father for causing her to exist. The executives secretly rewrote the script and handed it back to Bakshi, changing the animated horror/thriller story to one about an artist getting trapped by his own creation. Bakshi also intended to have Drew Barrymore as the female lead, but instead they stuck him with Kim Basinger, who thought that it was a ''[[AnimationAgeGhetto children's movie]]''.

* According to ex-WBFA personnel such as LaurenFaust, ''QuestForCamelot'' was ''made'' of Executive Meddling.

* Creator/RobinWilliams signed with Disney to do the character Genie in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', even receiving lower paychecks, demanding that his name wasn't used in advertisements, and that the ads didn't feature the Genie alone, or not feature him in over 25% of the space. (He had a prior commitment premiering around the same time and didn't want to screw the minds behind it.) As Disney executives realized the Genie was the soul of the movie, the second condition was promptly discarded, and by the time of Academy Award nominations, the first as well. Williams got angry and refused to work with the studio again, with the [[Disney/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar first sequel]] and [[WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries TV series]] [[ThePoorMansSubstitute featuring Dan Castellaneta as Genie]]. Disney's change of president made Williams rethink, and he returned as the voice of Genie in [[Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves the final sequel]] to the Aladdin film series (although it is rumored that a $20 million Picasso may have also helped Williams change his mind)...only for the VHS cover for ''Aladdin and The King of Thieves'' [[ to bear the subtitle "Starring Robin Williams". And then it happened ''again'' (with ''Film/BicentennialMan''). Robin Williams never voiced the character again for the rest of his life.

* Creator/RobinWilliams signed with Disney to do the character Genie in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', even receiving lower paychecks, demanding that his name wasn't used in advertisements, and that the ads didn't feature the Genie alone, or not feature him in over 25% of the space. (He had a prior commitment premiering around the same time and didn't want to screw the minds behind it.) As Disney executives realized the Genie was the soul of the movie, the second condition was promptly discarded, and by the time of Academy Award nominations, the first as well. Williams got angry and refused to work with the studio again, with the [[Disney/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar first sequel]] and [[WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries TV series]] [[ThePoorMansSubstitute featuring Dan Castellaneta as Genie]]. Disney's change of president made Williams rethink, and he returned as the voice of Genie in the final ''Aladdin'' sequel (although it is rumored that a $20 million Picasso may have also helped Williams change his mind). And then it happened ''again'' (with ''Film/BicentennialMan''). Robin Williams has never voiced the character since. The ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'' VHS cover including the subtitle "Starring Robin Williams" probably didn't help either.

* Averted with ''{{Bionicle}}: Mask of Light''. One of the original ideas they had for the movie was that a [[RogerRabbitEffect live-acted kid would wind up in the Bionicle universe]] and become the Seventh Toa, instead of [[EnsembleDarkhorse the Chronicler Takua]]. The idea was abandoned in ''very'' early stages of development, and none of the several other DirectToVideo {{LEGO}} films featured any live actors. However this still remains one of the main reasons why ''Bionicle'' will never see a big-screen movie adaptation, unless one of the fans gets to be a very big-name in Hollywood. The execs would not let go of their idea that human kids would make the movie easier to promote, while LEGO would not let go of their ''absolutely NO humans'' rule. At least in ''Bionicle'' -- its SpiritualSuccessor ''HeroFactory'' takes place in a world that has our Earth in it, but aside from a couple of jokes on the website, the story focuses solely on planets inhabited by robots.