Different World Different Movies / A Hippie in the House of Mouse

Movies

Disney Movies^note includes films under Fantasia Films, Hyperion Pictures, MGM Studios (post-1986) and Wildside Pictures

Disney Animation

• The Black Cauldron, Disney's next animated film after The Fox and the Hound (which Jim Henson tried to get some aspects changed but was unable to due to his position in Disney not being strong enough yet), undergoes significant changes, one of them being that, due to Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg not going to Disney (and instead going to ABC), Katzenberg will not "literally" cut out scenes from the film, thus creating notable skips and gaps within the film. During the production of the film, Jim Henson brings in Brian Froud onto the team, resulting in very distinct looks for the fairies, spirits and people. Despite pushback from higher-ups who want designs to be less unique, Ron Miller's intervention into the ongoing dispute has the film stick with not just unique designs, but also include Rosemary Anne Sisson doing the writing with a "Welsh" flare, Elmer Bernstein doing the score and completely eschewing musical numbers. Also, the characters are designed by Tim Burton, who utilises "stick figures"^note which were used in OTL as unused concept art before Tim Burton was fired from Disney.
  • Burton also makes an stop-motion short aired before the film, called The Nightmare Before Christmas, narrated by Vincent Price.
• The animated adaptation of Basil of Baker Street is pretty much the same as OTL, only that the film is renamed Elementary! rather than The Great Mouse Detective, Professor Ratigan's shape, appearance and genteel persona are partially based on Ron Miller, and Basil's shape and appearance are based on Jim Henson.
• After an animated short of Where the Wild Things Are is made to accompany The Jungle Book's re-release in 1984, approval is given for a full-length feature film in 1986. Directed by Glen Keane and John Lasseter, the film is made in parallel with Elementary!, utilising technology from Stan Kinsey's Disney Advanced Technology Animation initiative. Starring Corey Feldman as Max, the soundtrack is provided by Quincy Jones, with lyrics from Paul Williams, whilst Michael Jackson and George Thorogood sing pop covers of Love is the Greatest Magic off All and Be the Beast I Wanna’ Be, both of which played during the ending credits. Not only is the movie successful and a big hit, earning Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Art Direction, as well as winning the Oscar for Best Original Score, but the film is regarded as the start of the Disney Animation Renaissance.
• After being shown Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro by John Lasseter and Michael Peraza, Jim Henson finally accomplishes his desire to bring Japanese anime to American cinemas by releasing Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in 1985, titled as The Valley of the Wind and under the Fantasia Films label (after being redubbed by Disney voice actors). This results in an exclusive deal between Miyazaki and Isao Takahata's Studio Ghibli and Disney, with the release of Castle in the Sky in 1986.
  • In 1988, Disney releases Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro in a two-picture deal, despite Disney executives wanting to only distribute Totoro. At first, the former is released in a limited arthouse distribution, with Judith Barsi voicing in the dub as Setsuko and Eric Stoltz as Seita, but then after word of mouth about the film causes many more people around to see it, Grave of the Fireflies obtains a wider release and later receives the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film (which prompts the creation of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 1990^note ten years prior to OTL as well as the creation of the Walter Elias Disney Signature Series film label (a prestige animation label). The release of My Neighbour Totoro (with Soleil Moon Frye voicing Satsuki, Judith Barsi voicing Mei and Alan Thicke voicing Tatsuo in the dub) soon far surpasses Disney expectations and becomes a surprise summer breakout movie, making over $159 million in the US, going so far as to launch the phenomenon of "Totoromania" in the States and for people to make Totoro an honourary "Disney classic".
  • In 1994, Disney releases Pom Poko under the Walter Elias Disney Signature Series (WED Signature) film label, with Zachery Ty Bryan as Shoukichi, Liam Neeson as Gonta, Carrie Fisher as Oroku and Richard Dreyfuss as Seizaemon, while Joe Pesci, Matthew McConaughey, Laurence Fishburne, Daniel Stern, Danny DeVito, Drew Barrymore, Bruce Willis, Thora Birch, William Shatner, Jaleel White, Catherine O’Hara, Hugh Grant do other voices in the English dub, with Mark Hamill as the narrator.
• The next film in the Disney Animated canon, based of Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White, is made to be released in 1988, with it being renamed A Small World. In spite of all the odds, with "common wisdom" anticipating that a girl-led movie, based on a "far out from collective memory" book from the 1940s, would cut revenue down and its themes of colonialism and white man's burden aren't seen as "high concept", the film becomes an instant success, proving that the success of Where the Wild Things Are is not a fluke.
• After reading Terry Pratchett's Mort, Jim Henson has it become Disney's next animated feature to be released in 1990. Initially, with Tim Burton producing and in charge of art direction, Danny Elfman is initially set to do the music for the film on his own, until Richard Hunt comes to Jim with a request for Howard Ashman (along with Alan Menken) to do the songs, revealing that he and Howard are dying of AIDS. With River Phoenix cast as Mort, Helena Bonham Carter as Ysabel, Winona Ryder as Princess Keli and Michael Palin as Albert, the casting choices for Death are between Thurl Ravenscroft (Jim's recommendation) and Vincent Price (Tim's recommendation), before Pratchett asks for Christopher Lee to be considered, and upon successfully getting Lee cast, Tim concedes that Lee is the right choice. The production of Mort becomes tense, due to Howard's illness leaving him exhausted and short tempered, as well as the fact that many on the production (who are unaware of Howard's illness) are forced to fly to Fishkill, New York, in order to work alongside Howard.
• Due to Howard Ashman's cameo in The Song of Susan, the animation department chooses Aladdin as the next film to work on, due to Aladdin being a passion project for Ashman.
• Due to the successful partnership between Studio Ghibli and Disney, Jim Henson makes a deal with Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki to make a Disney feature in partnership with Studio Ghibli, about The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. With Disney animators going to travel to Japan to work on Only Yesterday and Porco Rosso, Ghibli animators make the trip to Burbank to work on The Bamboo Princess.
• For 1993's The Little Mermaid, due to Howard Ashman being busy with Mort, Aladdin and The Song of Susan, Freddy Mercury is chosen to do the soundtrack alongside Alan Menken, giving it a rock-opera feel that is described as "Rock Wagner", rather than the calypso feel of the OTL film.
• Ron Clement's plans for a Treasure Island in space film only gain traction after the idea is presented to Hayao Miyazaki; Treasure Planet is released in 1994 as a co-production with Studio Ghibli (with Miyazaki co-directing alongside Clement and John Musker).
• Jim Henson plans to collaborate with Osamu Tezuka on a Kimba the White Lion production, but due to Osamu Tezuka's death, Tezuka Productions and Disney are unable to come to a deal. Disney instead moves forward on The Lion King, the plot of which is inspired by the Epic of Sundiata thanks to Jim bringing in Harry Belafonte to the production. Tezuka and Kimba ultimately receive "Inspired By" credits in The Lion King.
• 1995's Hiawatha is born out of a pitch by Mike Gabriel and Joe Grant, who initially suggest a film based on John Smith and Pocahontas before Roy Disney points them towards Hiawatha, a Walt-era project that had been in storage since the 1940s. With it given an update for modern audiences, the story combines the actual Native American legend with elements of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow version.
• After Aladdin, a Classical Mythology-based animated film is suggested for the next Disney film, with animator Joe Haidar pitching one about Medusa and Perseus after ones about Hercules, Orpheus and Eurydice, Eros and Psyche, and Jason and The Argonauts are rejected. The resulting film is Medusa in 1996, which goes more in a reversed Beauty and the Beast-style direction for Medusa (voiced by Susan Egan), giving a more sympathetic portrayal to her and even a romance with Perseus (voiced by Christian Slater). Even though it's considered a disappointment compared to Aladdin and The Lion King, not to mention directly competing with Heart and Soul hurting its performance, Medusa is still a success at the box office as well as gaining a new appreciation in later years with its themes, to such an extent that it gets an animated TV series Perseus and Medusa on The Disney Channel in 2002 as well as a musical in the 2010s.
• Tim Burton's idea of a film centered on an adaptation of "The Finger" legend set in Victorian England and Jorgen Klubien's idea of a "New Orleans Ghost Story" are combined into 1997's Kindred Spirits, made in collaboration with Skeleton Crew Productions.
• With the People's Republic of China opening up to the West under Qiao Shi, an acknowledgement of tapping into the Chinese market is made with a new animated feature with a new Disney Princess. After ideas of Moon Princess Chang'e, Butterfly Lovers, Fa Mulan and Princess Kwan-Yin are rejected, the development team decides to make a story about a celestial dragon Princess falling for a poet that's inspired by The Legend of Lady White Snake tale, resulting in 1998's The Poet and the Dragon.
• The perpetually-in-development adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen finally sees the light of day with 1998's second animated feature, Heart of Ice.
• Disney's animated feature in 1999 is City of the Sun.
• Another Disney animated feature in 2000 is Invincible, based on The Ramayana.
• In 2013, Mickey Mouse makes his return to feature film for his 85th birthday, starring alongside Kermit the Frog in his Disney animated debut. The film, Moving Right Along…, is a musical in the style of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, with Kermit and Mickey missing their cross country flight and having to take a long drive across America, meeting all sorts of characters on the way, with other Disney, Muppet characters and celebrities making cameo appearances. Two years later, comes a sequel, Here we Go Again…, with Mickey and Kermit making a European road trip with Minnie Mouse and Miss Piggy, and a follow-up film in 2017, Gonzo, Goofy, & Ga-Ga.
• In 2015, Jeff Rowe's animated movie directorial debut, Model Town, is released. It stars Catherine Taber, James Arnold Taylor and Ashley Johnson as Jennifer, Christopher and Amy, a trio of high school students in the 1970s who stumble on a half-completed model town with the power to change their actual town.
• In 2000, Disney provides the US distribution for Aardman's Tortoise v. Hare (made in collaboration with Penguin Pictures), a "Plan B" film due to Finding Nemo forcing Aardman to delay their plans for a Great Escape ""with chickens" film. The film is focused on the aftermath of The Tortoise and the Hare race, with a court battle between Harry the Hare (voiced by Paul Whitehouse) and Morris the Tortoise (voiced by Phil Daniels).
  • The next Penguin/Aardman feature film, distributed by Disney in the US (but by Pathé internationally), is 2004's Flying the Coop.
• After being inspired by the technological progress of the Disney Creatureworks' Digital Puppetry, Robert Zemeckis proposes on making an entirely animated film with the technology, to which Jim Henson puts him into contact with Mike and Patty Peraza to create 2000's Journey to the Center of the Earth, with members of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers as the main characters. While not a huge success, the film does perform well enough to launch a film series centered around the S.E.A. as they battle against their archrival group, the Hephaestus Society, consisted of 2006's Haunted Mansion, 2009's Pirates of the Caribbean; A S.E.A. Adventure, 2012's Figment of the Imagination; A S.E.A. Adventure, 2014's The Mystery of Big Thunder Mountain: A S.E.A. Adventure and 2021's Tomorrowland: A S.E.A. Adventure.
• After having aired Wallace & Gromit shorts (in addition to The Amazing Adventures of Morph on the Disney Channel in syndication from 1984-1987), Wallace and Gromit get their feature film debut in 2007's Wallace and Gromit: Night of the Living Veg, featuring the duo trying to save the day from a Wallace experiment gone wrong, namely zombie zucchinis, stalking celery, undead arugula, revenant radishes, creepy carrots and lich-like lettuces. It's followed by 2011's Wallace and Gromit Down Under, where the duo travel to Australia on holiday.
• As part of the three-picture deal between Disney and Matt Groening's Bongo Studios in early 2001, the first film is 2004's Bart & Lisa’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure, in which Bart and Lisa Simpson undergo a time-travel adventure. The second film is 2007's Roger ‘n’ Me, starring Seth MacFarlane as Roger, an alien who busts out of Area 51, befriends two sisters Elena and Camilla (played by Ivan Baquero and America Ferrera) and tries to escape from Agent Orange (Patrick Stewart) and his assistant, Agent Green (also voiced by Seth MacFarlane). The third film is 2011's The Ice Dragon, directed and produced by Bryan Konietzko, written by Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley, and starring Kerry Ingram as Adara.
• Jim Henson and Steven Spielberg release Shrek! in 1992, which is more closely based on the book than OTL's film. Due to the film's frequently rude and misanthropic humor, the film is released under Fantasia Films and Amblimation rather than the mainstream Disney label. Animated by the Disney Digital Division (known as the 3D Division), the film is initially produced and directed by John Lasseter, but after his suspension and probation for sexual harassment, Joe Ranft takes over direction. Lacking a musical soundtrack, Shrek! instead has a soundtrack by Randy Newman. Shrek is voiced by Chris Farley (who was initially meant to voice the role in OTL before his death), with George Carlin as Donkey, Carol Kane as Princess Argyle and Steve Martin (who is initially considered by Spielberg for the voice of Shrek, as in OTL) voicing the main antagonist, Prince Guyling. In the first of many collaborations with the 3D team, John Ratzenberger voices the Prince's incompetent wizard, while Gilbert Gottfried and Fran Drescher voice Shrek's parents, and Tara Charendoff voices a unicorn in the cartoon Shrek watches in the opening scene.
• After the release of 3D's The Brave Little Toaster in 1994, an internal company contest in late 1992 comes up with the next film. Finding Nemo is chosen in order to tie in with the launch of Port Disney Phase 3 at the DisneySea resort in Long Beach in spring 1995. Directed by Andrew Stanton, the film is initially planned to have Nemo's mother die early on, but this story-arc was scrapped in order to maintain scientific accuracy, after ichthyologists at DisneySea tell the animation team what happens if the breeding female clownfish is no longer part of the social structure: the breeding male automatically changes genders to become the new female. Pete Docter suggests the idea of a “stifling household” as an alternative conflict. John Goodman is cast as the voice of Fin and Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Nemo, with Michelle Pfeiffer as Coral, Amy Sedaris as Marla (TTL's Dory) and Billy Idol as Gil (invoking Richard Attenborough's Bartlett from The Great Escape, which Nemo contains numerous references to).
  • Due to the team having been unsatisfied with the animation effects on Finding Nemo, Joe Ranft greenlights Loggerheads for a 2005 release, detailing two rival bales of Turtles (Green Sea Turtles and Loggerhead Turtles) getting into a dispute over a nesting beach, before teaming up to prevent an expensive private resort taking over the nesting beach. While Fin, Marla, Nemo and other Finding Nemo characters do make brief appearances in Loggerheads, Finding Nemo gets a spinoff focused around Marla in 2017 named Fishing for Marla.
• With Joe Ranft in charge of Disney's 3D Division instead of John Lasseter, Toy Story (named The Secret Life of Toys in TTL and released in 1997) becomes a sequel-in-all-but-name to the 1986 Disney's World of Magic Christmas Special, The Christmas Toy (with the setting still set in the Jones household, with toys owned by son Jack, who was born after the events of The Christmas Toy). While the leads are still a cowboy toy (named Cowboy Cody, voiced by Tim Allen) and a spaceman toy (named Buzz Lightspeed, voiced by Antonio Banderas), the idea of Buzz believing he is a real spaceman is dropped due to the special having already done that idea with Meteora. The supporting characters include Cody's love interest Big Sur Cindy (a Barbie Expy voiced by Sarah Jessica Parker), Rex the Tyrannosaurus (voiced by John Ratzenberger), Mr. Potato Head (voiced by Henny Youngman) and Slinky the Dog (voiced by Paul Reubens), with cameos from The Transformers Bumblebee (voiced by Dan Gilvezan) and Starscream (voiced by Hank Azaria), a trio of characters from My Little Pony (voiced by E.G. Daily, Tara Freeman, and Judith Barsi), Kimber Benton (voiced by Cathianne Blore) from Jem and the Holograms, a Luke Skywalker toy voiced by Mark Hamill and Christmas Toy characters voiced by Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Kathryn Mullen, Jerry Nelson, and Camille Borora (with Tugger the Tiger^note TTL's Rugby the Tiger and Meteora serving as mentors to Cody and Buzz).
  • After Joe Ranft becomes Disney's Chief Creative Officer, he greenlights a sequel to The Secret Life of Toys with 2004's The Further Life of Toys which combines elements of OTL's Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, which leads to another sequel in 2011 with The Afterlife of Toys.
• Despite John Lasseter's initial pitch for an insect film based on The Grasshopper and the Ants fable, Jim Henson goes with the Army Ants idea about a pacifist warrior ant. Through a Troubled Production that leads Lasseter to quit in 1997 and join Blue Sky Entertainment, resulting in animator Carole Holliday taking up direction of the film, and the original voice actor for Raid, Biggie Smalls dropping out, the resulting film released in 1999, Bug Life, has the main character Flit (voiced by Tupac Shakur) as a jaded warrior ant who is tasked with gathering intelligence by General Formic (voiced by Ice Cube), until he comes across a black ant, Raid (voiced by Patrick Warburton), whom he finds himself working together with when they are both washed away.
• For 3D's 2000 release, Jim Henson selects Jorgen Klubien's The Yellow Car pitch over Andrew Stanton's At the End of the World. Named Sparky, the film has the titular electric car character (voiced by William H. Macy) traveling from Europe to the US to compete in the Dinoco 300, despite opposition from the citizens of Sinclair, Texas, and mainly from Michael Keaton's Hot Rod, the reigning champion of the Dinoco 300. Several real-world NASCAR drivers make cameo appearances, including Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Rusty Wallace, and Dick Trickle.
• One of the movie ideas from a 90s "brainstorming" session at 3D is 2001's Scare Force One, which focuses on Johnson (voiced by Patrick Warburton), a monster on the Scare Force, who teams up with child Mary (voiced by Kimberly Brooks) to not only save her family from being made homeless by Councilman Jones (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson), but also save Monstropolis from the plans of his boss Mr. Sullivan (also voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) and rival Boggsworth (voiced by Steve Buscemi).
• Originally known under the working title of Trash Planet, Andrew Stanton directs 2002's At the End of the World, following robots QB-2 and EVE (both voiced by Ben Burtt).
• In 2011, Penguin Animation (in partnership with Disney) launches one of its first CGI films, Truckers, starring Hugh Laurie and Kate Winslet as Masklin and Grimma. The success of Truckers results in two sequels, 2013's Diggers and 2015's Wings, the latter being dedicated to the memory of Terry Pratchett after his death.
• 2012 sees the release of Brain Trust, based of EPCOT's Head Trip ride. A hybrid CGI-animated/live-action film, it switches between the live-action world of young 14-year-old girl Betty (played by Chloë Grace Moretz), and animated world of inside Betty's head, starring Amy Poehler as Captain Cortical Cognition (shortened as "Cortie"), Anthony Head as Professor Hippocampus, Will Smith as Sergeant Motor, Bob Hoskins as Henry Hypothalamus, Maggie Smith as Governess Orbitofrontal, Margaret Cho as Lieutenant Limbic, Tara Freeman as Happy Heather, Rachel Dratch as Sad Sadie, Wanda Sykes as Angry Angie, Jenny Slate as Scared Sarah, Sarah Silverman as Bored Bessie and Lewis Black (on helium) as Amygdala Amy.

Muppet movies

• With Jim Henson actively involved in Disney (and Disney having been sold the rights to the Muppets by ITC after arranging a deal with Lord Lew Grade), the sequel to the The Muppet Movie, A Muppet Mystery! (having been retitled due to Ron Miller and Card Walker's insistence) is a follow-up to the original movie unlike OTL's The Great Muppet Caper. Directed by Frank Oz, the plot is about how the Muppets are dealing with the increasing demands from their new studio head, Bobby Caracas (played by Jonathan Pryce). Set in San Francisco, the film still includes Muppets riding on bicycles, the Miss Piggy water ballet scene, Christine Nelson's cameo and the Muppets parachuting out of an airplane for the final scene. The film suffers when Disney Chairman Card Walker has its original release date changed to July in order to directly compete against Don Bluth’s The Secret of NIMH out of spite, which puts the movie in direct competition with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, hurting the film's performance.
  • Following on from the events of A Muppet Mystery!, Frank Oz returns to direct Muppets on Broadway, which includes largely the same plot, in which the Muppets attempt to make a Broadway show in New York, but includes cameos from Eric Idle, Eddie Murphy, Andy Warhol, Van Halen and Leonard Cohen.
• In 1988, the next Muppet movie is The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, directed by Ken Kwapis. True to the title, the film is said by Bernie Brillstein as "all but guaranteeing a great profit by simply being too cheap to fail" due to costing $8.1 million to make. Even the film's short, Hand Jive, follows on with this idea, with Muppet Performers Dave Goelz, Kevin Clash, Fran Brill, Richard Hunt, Steve Whitmire, and Karen Prell performing a comedy routine with Bare-Handed Puppetry. The plot of TCMMEM has the film-within-a-film, directed by Gonzo, who blows half of the budget with an huge, "Old Hollywood Busby Berkeley number", that results in the film being filmed on cheaper sets throughout until the film turns into black-and-white Super 8 film, a slideshow of poorly-drawn storyboards and ends on 70 mm widescreen (after getting a corporate sponsorship).
• In 1991, after being pitched by Nintendo for a crossover video game, Jim Henson and Jeffrey Hayes get an idea of making a crossover movie between Disney and Paramount Pictures, Muppets: Impossible. Directed again by Ken Kwapis, the film has the Muppets being hired by Agent Phelps of the IMF (played by Peter Graves) to retrieve the "MacGuffin Papers" in Monaco from Madame Carbroek (played by Michelle Pfeiffer), and features cameos from Tom Cruise, René Auberjonois, Paul Reubens, Clint Eastwood, Sandra Bullock, Roger Moore, Alan Rickman, Tom Hanks and Robin Williams.
• Then, in 1992, due to Frank Oz and Ken Kwapis' commitments elsewhere and despite him having a job with Disney's Imagineering department, Brian Henson takes time off to direct A Muppets Christmas Carol, which is basically the same movie as OTL, with the only differences being in that the song "When Love Is Gone" is retained in the theatrical cut and the film being merely dedicated to the recently deceased Richard Hunt due to Jim Henson living past his OTL death.
• Frank Oz returns to direct 1993's The Muppets Do Shakespeare, with the plot being Sam the Eagle attempting to make a production of King Lear, and gets "proper British Shakespearian actor" Patrick Stewart, cast, as well as Gonzo as Edmund, Link Hogthrob as the Earl of Gloucester, Animal as the Earl of Kent/Casius, Fozzie Bear as the Fool, Lew Zealand as Edgar, Miss Piggy as Goneril, Camilla as Regan, Janice as Cordelia, Uncle Deadly as the Duke of Albany, Rizzo the Rat as the Duke of Cornwall, Benny Bunny as Oswald and Beaker as the King of France (with Doctor Honeydew translating his "French"), with Rowlf the Dog as the narrator (voiced by Jim Henson).
• Based on a dream that Jim had, and sent to writer Jerry Juhl, the next Muppet movie, released in 1998, is Muppets in: The Nick of Time. Set in the 1890s, Kermit is an inventor named Kermit Frogg (resulting in a gag in which people mistake him as his cousin Phileas Frogg), who has developed a time machine with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker and embarks on an adventure with Robin, Piggy, Gonzo, Pepe the King Prawn and others to prevent Rowan Atkinson's Nick Parsley from “Taking Time” and bottling it up in an attempt to spend more time with his lost love Rosemary, which will cause the end of the universe. Notable cameos include Susan Sarandon as Rosemary, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as Bill & Ted, John Lithgow and Michael J. Fox as Doc Brown and Marty, Neil Patrick Harris as the 8th Doctor and Tim Curry in a Muppet chorus of "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• In 2001, Leonard Nimoy directs Kermit: Prince of Denmark, lifted from Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez's idea of Kermit as Hamlet. Featuring Kermit as both himself and Hamlet, Piggy as both Ophelia and Gertrude, Jason Alexander as Claudius, Sam the Eagle as Polonius, Scooter as Horatio, Pepe the King Prawn as Laertes, Gonzo as Rosencrantz, Fozzie as Guildenstern and Uncle Deadly as The Ghost/Hamlet's father, the film includes a cameo from Tim Burton as the Gravedigger as well as Yorick from Sam and Friends (performed by Jane Henson).
• In 2005, a biopic of Jim Henson is released, Muppet Man, with no humans in it but Muppet versions of themselves. Covering Jim's life from his childhood, then going through his days doing Sam & Friends, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and his time in Disney, the film is notable for the People Muppets using Muppet Muppets (with examples being Muppet Jim and Frank holding their own Muppet versions of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Muppet Carroll Spinnet putting on a Big Bird costume along with Muppet Richard Hunt putting on Sweetums), and was nominated for some Golden Globes, an Oscar technical nomination and winning a BAFTA.
• A feature film adaptation of Pigs in Space comes out in the summer of 2007, directed by Paul King from a screenplay by Kirk Thatcher and Joey Mazzarino, and starring the crew of the USS Swinetrek facing off against Dearth Nadir in a parody of Star Wars and Star Trek, even featuring actors from both franchises such as Mark Hamill, Rosalind Chao, and LeVar Burton, with Scooter and Zondra in major roles as well. The film also marks Jim Henson's final performance as Rowlf, before handing him over to Bill Barretta.

Marvel movies

• With Disney having acquired Marvel 20 years earlier than OTL, Marvel manages to ride in on Sam Raimi's Batman with Spider-Man in 1991, directed by Frank Oz, with Seth Green starring as the titular character and facing up against Liam Neeson's Dr. Curt Connors aka the Lizard. The success starts off the Marvel Movie Universe of Earth #307135.
  • The success of the first Spider-Man film prompts more Spider-Man sequels, with Spider-Man 2 in 1993, directed by Robert Zemeckis, and having Spider-Man up against Alfred Molina's Doctor Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus (who appeared in a cameo in the previous film) and Spider-Man 3 in 1995, directed and written by Joss Whedon, where Spider-Man is confronted by the threat from Joe Morton's Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin. Then, in 2005, Joss Whedon returns to direct and write Spider-Man 4 (which has Peter Parker marrying MJ, his struggles with the Venom symbiote acquired during the events of Four and introducing Stanley O'Brian, Peter's successor as Spider-Man, portrayed by Adam Wylie). Spider-Man 4 is followed by 2007's Spider-Man 5 (featuring Stanley becoming Spider-Man, with Peter retiring, as well as the debut of the Sinister Six^note consisted of Ben Mendelsohn's Shocker, Randy Savage's Rhino, Michael Biehn's Electro, Christopher Lloyd's Vulture and Dominic Purcell's Sandman lead by the Hobgoblin, portrayed by Henry Simmons reprising his role as Harry Osborn) and 2009's Spider-Man 6, in which Stanley O'Brian's Spider-Man is in the lead role, with Peter Parker as a side character (with Stanley and Peter facing off against the threat from Alister Smythe, portrayed by James McAvoy, and his Spider-Slayers as well as Stanley's brother Terry aka the Dark Spider, portrayed by Wyatt Russell).
  • The events of Spider-Man 4, lead to a Venom spinoff film in 2006, with Sam Witwer reprising his role as Eddie Brock as well as Katheryn Winnick reprising her role as Felicia Hardy/Black Cat and Seth Green making a cameo with Jim Carrey starring as Cletus Kassady/Carnage, followed by a sequel in 2008.
• The next Marvel film release other than the Spider-Man movies, is 1994's The Incredible Hulk, directed by Ernest Dickerson and starring Tim Robbins as Bruce Banner, with Michael Clarke Duncan (wearing the wearable Hulk animatronic) and Lou Ferrigno portraying the Hulk (with Waldo-work by Bill Barretta), Annabella Sciorra as Betty Ross, Matt Dillon as Rick Jones, Chris Cooper as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and John Malkovich as Samuel Sterns/Leader. After a long period of time, the film finally manages to get a sequel during the Marvel Movie Universe's Phase III period (from 2005-2012).
• After it is deemed that the effects for The Fantastic Four are still a few years away, Marvel produces an X-Men film for a release in 1996. Richard Donner, upon seeing Spider-Man and liking the themes of the X-Men, goes to MGM for an X-Men film, only to be brought in as director and producer, working with Joss Whedon, as well as Richard's production associate Kevin Feige, on a plot that combines elements and themes from Days of Future Past and God Loves, Man Kills, and casting Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier/Professor X, Christopher Lee as Erik Lensherr/Magneto, Rachael Leigh Cook as Kitty Pride, Liev Schreiber as Logan/Wolverine, Malcolm McDowell as Reverend Stryker and John Slattery as Senator Kelly.
  • X-Men is followed by a sequel in 1998, X-Men 2: Rise of the Sentinels, and in 2000, X-Men 3: Rise of the Phoenix, directed by Caroline Thompson, as well as a spinoff in 2002, The Scarlet Witch.
• In 1997, The Fantastic Four is released, directed by Leonard Nimoy on the recommendation of Frank Oz, while casting Pierce Brosnan as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Michelle Pfeiffer as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Keanu Reeves as Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Tommy Lister as Ben Grimm/the Thing as well as Ralph Fiennes as Dr. Victor von Doom, and setting the film in the 1960s.
  • Joss Whedon, the screenwriter of The Fantastic Four, directs 1999's Fantastic Four: Rise and Fall, which is then followed by 2001's Fantastic 4: Herald of the End Times and 2003's Four.
• After Wesley Snipes approaches Marvel with an idea for a Black Panther film, Stan Lee is on board with the idea as is Jim Henson, who brings in Harry Belafonte as a producer (in addition to doing the music and starring as T'Chaka's brother N'Baza). Directed by The Incredible Hulk director Ernest Dickerson, the 1998 film has Snipes' T'Challa, raised alongside his adoptive brother M'Windaji (portrayed by Clive Owen), before going to America to enrol in university, when King T'Chaka (portrayed by James Earl Jones) is killed by HYDRA agent Ulysses Klaw (portrayed by Mickey Rourke), who is allied with Michael Clarke Duncan's M'Baku, prompting T'Challa to become the Black Panther.
• After departing from the DC film universe due to Creative Differences with Warner Bros., Sam Raimi signs on to not only play a creative role in future Marvel movies, but to direct, co-produce (alongside Robert Talpert) and write (alongside Ted Raimi and Neil Gaiman) The Mighty Thor. Released in 1999, the film depicts Donald Blake (portrayed by Daniel Craig) as a separate identity from Thor (portrayed by Brad Pitt), who is trapped in Mjolnir after being backstabbed by Loki (portrayed by David Tennant) and wants Donald to reawaken the Asgardians, despite opposition from the Rock Trolls and their king, Ulik (portrayed by Doug Jones and voiced by Frank Welker). A sequel is released in 2001, Thor: Ragnarök, while the Warriors Three get their own TV show in the 2000s, with Bruce Campbell as Fandral the Dashing, Toru Tanaka as Hogun the Grim and Mark Addy as Volstagg the Valiant.
• Ron Howard directs 1999's Captain America, starring Matthew McConaughey as the titular character, with a dual narrative, split between the 1940s (with Captain America and his team facing off against HYDRA and the Red Skull) and the present (after Captain America is woken up). The film is followed by 2001's Captain America: Sins of the Past and a sequel during Phase III.
• In May 2000, Iron Man is released, directed by Michael Mann, with Nicolas Cage returning to portray the titular character (after having portrayed Tony Stark in a cameo role in Fantastic Four: Rise and Fall), while Denzel Washington returns as James Rhodes (after having portrayed him in The Incredible Hulk and Captain America) and Stanley Tucci as Obadiah Stane (after having portrayed him in The Incredible Hulk and in a cameo in Fantastic Four: Rise and Fall), while Robin Wright plays Pepper Potts, Jeremy Irons as Edwin Jarvis and Wayne Knight as Happy Hogan. The film is followed by a sequel in 2002, Iron Man: Curse of the Mandarin.
• Set after the events of X-Men 3: Rise of the Phoenix, 2000's The Avengers (directed by Ernest Dickerson) brings together the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther as well as SHIELD, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, to face off against HYDRA and the Phoenix Force. The next Avenger films are 2002's The Avengers: Ashes of the Phoenix and 2004's The Avengers: World War (set immediately after the events of 2003's Dr. Strange) and Avengers: The End.

Other Disney films

• Jim Henson's efforts to get The Dark Crystal released via Disney run into roadblocks with many executives not liking the dark tone of the film, as well as finding Jen too flat and boring, due to Jim's preference for visual storytelling, and the initial plan for the urRu and Skeksis to speak in alien languages. Conflict between Jim and Disney rises, until Ron Clements, who has been sent by Disney as a script-doctor, secretly helps Jim get the film made, working alongside writer David Odell to finalise the script, which Jen gets a proper character arc and a few more aspects of the film are more fleshed out, whilst a test sequence suggested by Frank Oz proves the "alien languages" idea to be unworkable, thus all urRu and Skeksis scenes are shot in English. Even after completing the film, the rough cut initially has Disney executives calling for cuts and edits, until it is agreed for the film to be released under Fantasia Films rather than the mainstream Disney label. Due to releasing earlier than OTL (Christmas 1981 rather than mid-1982), the film makes around $58.3 million domestically against a $25 million budget (compared to OTL's $41.4M domestic) and even is nominated for Academy Award for Best Visual Effects alongside Dragonslayer. Despite the film not performing as hoped, the film does retain a cult following for years to come as well as a sequel in 1988 directed by Frank Oz, The Dark Crystal: Return to Thra, and an prequel series in the 1990s.
• Despite opposition from the Disney board, Back to the Future is distributed by Disney due to Jim Henson and Bernie Brillstein's backing, under the Fantasia Films label. Due to their backing, the film is made much earlier and released in 1984, meaning that the film is set in 1984 and 1954, as well as going to 2014 in the ending, and that Doc Brown is played by John Lithgow. The film is still a success and still spawns two back-to-back sequels. Also, it's indirectly implied, and then outright confirmed in the footnotes, that Back to the Future goes with the nuclear test site instead of the clocktower as its climax.
• Also, Ghostbusters gets distributed by Fantasia Films, with Bernie Brillstein (who was heavily involved in the Ghostbusters in OTL) advocating for it and Jim backing him up against the Disney board (who were opposed on the basis that "Ghosts aren't funny"). The film is largely the same with only Eddie Murphy cast instead of Ernie Hudson.
  • In 1989, Ghostbusters II: Who You Gonna Call Now is released, while in 1997, efforts to get a third Ghostbusters movie lead to a film set around a new cast and setting with Ghostbusters: West Coast Ghosts. Set in San Francisco, the Harold Ramis directed film has Will Smith portraying the main character, Will Holmes, Jeff Goldblum as Daniel Roseman, Chris Farley as Jimmy Moran, Benecio del Toro as Alejandro Luis “Lou” Delgado with Rosario Dawson’s Rosalita Los Santos as the love interest, while Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Eddie Murphy and Harold Ramis make cameos as their characters.
• Due to Big being released by Disney's Hyperion Pictures in the fall as so not to directly compete, Willow does much better than in OTL and this success spawns a trilogy of films directed by Joe Johnston, with Shadow Moon in 1990, Shadow Dawn in 1992 and Shadow Star in 1994.
• Jurassic Park in this timeline, is directed by Tim Burton as a Darker and Edgier film that has some of the slight 50s parody element of Mars Attacks!, meaning while it is still a major achievement, popularises dinosaur movies and creates the CGI boom, it's more a well liked Cult Classic than Spielberg's runaway success in OTL. The sequel, Jurassic Park II: The Lost World is directed by Sam Raimi, but due to Johnny Depp being scheduled to play another role (and is uninterested in reprising the part), Michael Crichton doesn't retcon Malcolm Morrison’s death in the book, and thus, Malcolm stays dead, with Winona Ryder's Dr. Sarah Harding as the main lead (due to TTL's original lead character Ian Grant being relegated to a cameo due to actor Pierce Brosnan being busy with Fantastic Four). For the third film released in summer 2001, Jurassic Park III, due to Raimi being busy with the Marvel films, producer Tim Burton finds a new director in the form of Eli Roth, after coming across his and Randy Pearlstein's Cabin Fever script. With Brosnan and Ryder unavailable to lead, the decision is made to introduce five new characters, a group of teenagers who become stranded on Isla Sorna, with Cerina Vincent as Lisa, Jordan Ladd as Heather, Tom Welling as Trent and Michael Rosenbaum as Deacon.
  • Due to the backlash about the violence in Jurassic Park, George Lucas and Lucasfilm develop Dinotopia: A Land Apart From Time as a G-rated alternative.
• In around the mid-1980s, story artist Pete Young pitches at "Soft Pitch Friday", the idea of an "Oliver Twist with dogs". After getting it through to the "hard pitch", the film gets approved, not as an $30 million animated feature, but as a $9 million Muppet feature, merged into an idea in development named Dog City. Initially delayed for The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, Oliver and the Dodger debuts in 1989, directed by Ken Kwapis, with a story by Jim Cox, Jerry Juhl, and Timothy J. Disney, and original songs by Miles Goodman while Kevin Clash performs as Oliver, Jerry Nelson as Dodger, Fran Brill as Nancy, Richard Hunt as Fagin, Bill Barretta as Tito, Dave Goelz as Einstein, Kathryn Mullen as Lady Brownlow, David Rudman and Karen Prell as Roscoe and DeSoto and Steve Whitmire as Sykes, while Jim Henson performs Rowlf the Dog, who does the framing narration.
• In 1984, after an initial tepid interest in the Chip Proser spec script by Warner Bros., Diana Birkenfield picks it up for Disney, knowing that Disney was in development of a "Body Wars" ride at the upcoming Living Body pavilion at EPCOT. Lawrence Kasdan is handed the script and the director's chair of Innerspace by Steven Spielberg, by now a new "associate" board director at Disney, and Jeff Bridges portrays Lt. Tuck Pendleton, whilst Rick Moranis portrays Jack Putter. Later, a script by Stuart Gordon and produced by Brian Yuzna, about a freelance inventor in Fresno named Wayne Szalinski, later becomes a sequel to InnerSpace in 1989 when Gordon and Yuzna bring it to Disney, with Rick Moranis reprising his role as Jack Putter who replaces the character of Szalinski. The resulting film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!, becomes a big hit in theatres, prompting updates to the InnerSpace ride as well as spawning two sequels.
• When Jim Henson first joins with Disney (at first "Creative Consultant" before getting the job as Chief Creative Officer), TRON goes into production, with Steven Lisberger and Donald Kushner taking on Jim's suggestions about Flynn experiencing an existential crisis in the computer world rather than their original plan for Flynn to have "this sort of Jimmy Olsen thing going". Debuting in December 1982, the film does not suffer from directly running up against E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and manages to perform somewhat better than in OTL, leading to a sequel Tron: Return to the Network in 1984, and even leads to an TV series in 1991.
• 1987's Who Framed Roger Rabbit goes into production in 1985 and without the involvement of Richard Williams (thus forcing Disney to utilise computers to ensure that the characters have 3D propositions), while Terry Gilliam is convinced to direct the film by Jim Henson, with animator Darrell Van Citters (who produced the test footage) as second-unit director. While Kathleen Turner voices Jessica Rabbit as per OTL, Paul Reubens voices Roger Rabbit, while Ed Harris is cast as Eddie Valiant and Tim Curry is cast as Judge Doom. While many of the cartoon characters appear as they did in OTL, Casper the Friendly Ghost makes an appearance in TTL's film, with Jim also insisting on the appearances of puppets as "pups", with cameo appearances from Edgar Bergen's Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd (with Edgar Bergen portrayed by his daughter Candice Bergen), Kukla, Fran, and Ollie and a young Statler and Waldorf (who appear during the Daffy/Donald piano duel). Then, in 1991, Jim approves production of Roger Rabbit II: The Toon Platoon, directed by Robert Zemeckis and follows Roger searching for his birth mother as well as serving in World War II. After numerous Roger Rabbit animated shorts and two TV series, Roger Rabbit’s Radical Revue and Roger Rabbit’s Tales from Toon Town, a third Roger Rabbit film is made, 1998's Roger Rabbit: Bunny in the ‘Burbs, directed by Joe Dante, which depicts Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit and their children, Reggie Rabbit (voiced by Michael Imperioli) and Jenny Rabbit (voiced by Christina Hendricks), moving to the suburbs where they face hostility from their neighbours, Tom and Angela Stepford (played by John Turturro and Amy Sedaris). Along with the usual cameos from various Disney, Warner Bros, Hanna-Barbera and Universal characters, Muppets from Sam and Friends (including the “mom’s turquoise coat” version of Kermit) and a young Mr. Burns from Nuclear Family also appear.
• In 1991, Fantasia Films adapts Cerebus the Aardvark in The Sword of Cerebus as a fantasy parody film, with Mel Brooks directing (as well as making a cameo as Bran Mak Mufin), while George C. Scott is cast as the voice of Cerebus (who is portrayed as a worn animatronic, with Shari Weiser performing in the suit with David P. Robinson controlling the animatronic head through a "waldo"), Crispin Glover stars as Elrod of Melvinbone, Lori Singer as Jaka, Brian Thompson as The Cockroach, Brigitte Nielsen as Red Sophia, Frank Ferante as Lord Julius and Tim Curry as Necross the Mad. The film is successful enough to have a direct-to-video sequel The Wrath of Cerebus in 1993, as well as an animated TV series, The Adventures of Cerebus the Aardvark.

Non-Disney Movies

Warner Bros. Movies

• After Sam Raimi's success with Friday the Thirteenth Part 5 and The Running Man, Warner Bros. is suggested by Steven Spielberg that they go with Sam Raimi to direct Batman. Even though Michael E. Uslan is enthusiastic, the studio is resistant at first, concerned by a relative lack of experience and origins as a horror film director, which is only reassured when, at the urging at Lisa Henson, Raimi puts together test footage with Bruce Campbell as Batman. Even though the test footage impresses the studio and producers enough for Raimi to be given the green light to direct the film, Raimi's plan to cast Campbell as Batman falls through and thus, Willem Dafoe is cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman (like in OTL with Michael Keaton, the choice initially angers Batman fans, only for them to be won around after seeing his performance). Campbell does get a cameo in the film as obnoxious reporter Jimmy Scupe and a “Fake Shemp” Batman stand-in for reshoots. After being forced by the studio to use the Joker as the antagonist (after wanting a more mundane villain like Scarecrow) and despite the studio's preference for Jack Nicholson, Raimi casts Robin Williams as the Joker, while casting Sean Young as Silver St. Cloud, Ian Abercrombie as Alfred Pennyworth, Jack Palance as Rupert Thorne, Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon and Kevin Kline as Mayor Harvey Dent. Utilising Danny Elfman for the score, Prince for original songs, and gothic-influenced architecture (like in OTL), the film makes use of Raimi's signature close-ups, whip-pans, jump-cuts and dutch angles.
  • Sam Raimi returns to direct the sequel, in 1991's Batman: Rise of the Dark Knight, which not only has Willem Dafoe, Sean Young, Ian Abercrombie, Pat Hingle and Kevin Kline reprising their roles, but has Brandon Lee portray Dick Grayson, whom in the film is hired as Bruce Wayne's personal assistant, only to later become Batman's new sidekick Nightwing (due to Robin being considered at that point "box office poison"), Uma Thurman as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Nicolas Cage as Roman Sionis/Black Mask. Like with Batman Returns, the film's Darker and Edgier tone clashes with the toys and Happy Meals that WB is selling in conjunction with the film. Then, in 1993, Raimi returns to direct Batman 3: The Killing Joke, with Willem Dafoe and Brandon Lee returning as well as Robin Williams as the Joker. The film starts off with an idea from Bruce Campbell (who works on the story with Sam and Ted Raimi, in addition to returning as Jimmy Scupe and shemping for Batman, Nightwing and Riddler) to have the Riddler (portrayed by Jim Carrey) tell the story of the Joker's origin to the Clownz (lifting the Red Hood aspect as well as making it "multiple choice" ambiguous), before starting off the film proper with Bruce retired as Batman and engaged to Silver St. Cloud and preparing to sell Wayne Industries to Oswald Cobblepot (portrayed by Danny DeVito), while Nightwing is taking over for Batman, with Barbara Gordon/Batgirl (portrayed by Julia Roberts) assisting. After Sam Raimi quits, Luc Besson directs (with John McTiernan producing) 1995's Batman: The Penguin's Gambit, with Bruce Willis taking over as Bruce Wayne/Batman, facing up against Danny DeVito's Penguin, as well as Rose McGowan's Poison Ivy and Brian Thompson's Bane (due to studio insistence). Later, a new Robin, Jean Veilleux (portrayed by Christian Bale), takes over briefly as the Batman after "events that every comics geek knows".
• After the success of Sam Raimi's Batman, Warner Brothers greenlights a reboot to Superman, with Ron Howard directing 1992's Man of Steel (and Raimi contributing a screenplay and script), starring Robert Downey Jr. as Clark Kent/Superman, Mia Sara as Lois Lane, Anthony Michael Hall as Jimmy Olsen and Patrick Stewart as Lex Luthor (after Raimi's original proposal to utilise Brainiac as the villain is rejected by WB in favour of Lex), as well as Val Kilmer as John Corben, Kevin Costner as Perry White, Morgan Freeman as Mayor Frank Berkowitz, Bruce Campbell as Vice Mayor Alex Evell as well as cameos from Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder as Jon Kent and Martha Kent.
  • In 1994, Joel Schumacher directs the sequel, Superman: The Long Arm of Lex Luthor.
• In 1995, after initially hiring Joss Whedon to direct as well as write the script for Wonder Woman, Kathryn Bigelow is brought in by WB to direct Wonder Woman, and has Catherine Zeta-Jones star as the titular character, with Brad Pitt as Steve Trevor and Angelina Jolie as the main villain Eris.
• After Superman: Champion of Justice, directed by Michael Mann, starring Robert Downey Jr as Superman, William Baldwin as Batman and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Wonder Woman, is released in 1996, Gary Marshall directs The Justice League in 1997, with Downey Jr returning as Superman, Zeta-Jones returning as Wonder Woman, while Tom Sizemore is cast as Batman, Elijah Wood as the Flash, Laurence Fishburne as the Martian Manhunter, Denzel Washington as John Stewart/Green Lantern, Drew Barrymore as Black Canary and Hank Azaria as Aquaman, facing up against Michael Clarke Duncan's Darkseid.
• In 1998, WB creates Catwoman, a spinoff of the Batman films which recasts Catwoman as Erika Eleniak due to Uma Thurman refusing to join after Creative Differences between Warner and Sam Raimi.
• With the vocal fan outcry from fans about Raimi's departure from DC, as well as the death of Robert Downey Jr. and the underperformance of Catwoman, fears in Warner Brothers are apparent that The Justice League's performance had been a fluke, so the future of the DC film universe continuing on hinged on 2000's Aquaman, directed by Anthony Hicox, performing well. Set after the events of Justice League, the film depicts Arthur dealing with his half-brother Orm (portrayed by Alan Cumming), who allies with Black Manta (portrayed by Peter Mensah) and Leron of the Xebelites (portrayed by Jason Scott Lee) in order to conquer Atlantis, while Arthur allies with Mera (portrayed by Tia Carrere) to retrieve the trident of the First King of Atlantis in order to stop Orm. An commercial and critical success, the film not only saves the DC film universe, and boost Hank Azaria's career, but rehabilitates Aquaman's reputation.
• Warner Bros makes an animated Batman film, spinning off from Batman: The Animated Series, made by Brad Bird, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini's Bird Brain Productions, 1993's Batman: Fear of the Reaper, which unlike Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, is promoted by Warner due to the success of Bird's 1991 Spirit film, and leads to a modest $26 million return against its $6 million budget.
  • 1998 sees the releases of two animated Batman films, done without the involvement of Bird Brain Productions (due to Warner Bros declining to renew their contract with them in 1993), Batman: The Rise of Bane and Batman: Terror of the Scarecrow.
• In 1996, an animated movie based on the Justice League animated series, Justice League vs. The Legion of Doom is released, done by Warner Bros. Animation without the involvement of Bird Brain Productions.

Universal Movies^note includes ABC's Hollywood Pictures and Creator/Miramax Pictures after the Universal-ABC merger in 1995

• After George Lucas becomes a Disney shareholder after the 1984 ACC takeover attempt, he approaches Roy Disney about doing an animated production of Howard the Duck, which George had been wanting to do since 1981. However, with Disney too swamped with other projects and a fear of brand confusion due to Howard's resemblance to Donald Duck, the idea is rejected. However, a Disney animator recommends to Lucas to go to Ralph Bakshi, who currently is looking for a project after Fire & Ice is a financial failure, and attempts to make Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Catcher in the Rye are not succeeding. Approached by Lucas, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, Bakshi is initially uninterested in doing another “adult funny animal” cartoon after Fritz the Cat and Coonskin, but after reading through some of the comics, agrees to do so, and thus hires John Kricfalusi as his lead animator, and makes Howard the Duck for Universal, in collaboration with Marvel Productions, with Harvey Keitel voicing Howard. After the original cut of the film is rated X by the MPAA, subsequent cuts barely manage to avoid the "R" rating and get rated "T" (via Lucas' wishes). The success of the film not only ensures that it is a cult classic (with an infamous "uncut" version released on video) and inspired an adult animated series in the 90s, but results in the creation of Bakshi-Kricfalusi Productions.
• In December 1993, Red Tails is released by Universal as a 3 hour epic about the 332nd Fighter Group, made in partnership with Spike Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, and George Lucas' Lucasfilm. Both Lee and Samuel Fuller, whom he became close friends with from their time in MGM, agree to share direction on the film, with George Lucas taking on the duties as second unit director. Featuring exciting dogfight scenes (with warbirds and models utilised as well as early CGI), sweeping camera work, and commanding performances by its all-star cast, headed by Denzel Washington as Capt. Hannibal “Iowa” Lee, Jr., the film surprises studio heads (who felt that a 3-hour black-leading film would not succeed) due to making $121 million against its $53 million budget. At the Oscars, the film wins Best Picture and Cuba Gooding Jr. (who stared as Cdt. Walter Peoples in the film) wins Best Supporting Actor, with nominations for Best Direction, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing. Losing the latter two to Jurassic Park, the film's Best Direction nomination of Spike Lee and Samuel Fuller loses ironically to Samuel Fuller for Swing Youth, which leads to Fuller (angry at the Academy for snubbing Lee) giving his Oscar to Lee.
• After watching 1994's Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, Mike Myers is struck by how different the resulting film is from the 1967 film and gets ideas on making Shagwell, named after the lead, Basil Shagwell. After initially approaching Hyperion due to being an SNL alum tied to Bernie Brillstein, an encounter with Jeff Katzenberg results in the film going over to Universal and Hollywood Pictures. Initially planned for have the whole film set in the 1960s, Katzenberg pushes Meyers to have Shagwell cryogenically frozen and reawaken in the modern day, after learning about Eisner having Columbia picking up Rowan Atkinson's own spy parody script. In 1999, comes a sequel, Shagwell 2: The Spy who Shagged Me.
• Universal releases the Revolutionary War film Charles’ Town in 2001, which is directed by Mel Gibson (and has him in an unspecified starring role as well), but Gary Oldman stars as Benjamin Martin. And unlike OTL's The Patriot, the film includes showing the morally gray, complex portrayal of the American Revolution and the aspect of slavery, making better received by historians than the OTL film.
• In 1988, the rise in anime prompts the United Productions of America (UPA) to make a deal with Toho for a fully animated Godzilla movie, named Godzilla: Lord of Fire. Due to other Japanese animation studios being overworked with other projects, UPA teams up with Kyoto Animation and Don Bluth's animation studio in Dublin to make the movie, with Kyoto responsible for background and effects while Bluth's crew in charge of character and creature animation, with UPA overseeing preproduction, scripting and storyboarding. After an original plan for Godzilla being "in danger of having a meltdown" due to a use of a nuke being scrapped due to Chernobyl making such an idea look to be in bad taste, the decision is made for Godzilla to fight a monster, which they come up with the idea of Lavapentis, a "lava snake" living amongst volcanoes in Hawaii. The film ends up being a success, with Godzilla: Lord of Fire considered a vital part of paving the way for Don Bluth's future work, as well as a triumphant return for UPA to animation after a long hiatus. The film also leads to the release of the 1992 Monster Mayhem with Kong and Godzilla tv series for Universal.
• Following Disney's example in partnering with Studio Ghibli, Universal and Image Entertainment partner together to distribute Wicked City, Fist of the North Star, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland and AKIRA from 1987 to 1989.
• In 1995, Judge Dredd is released by Hollywood Pictures (the last film green-lit by Michael Eisner before he "leaves" for Columbia), directed by Paul Verhoeven, with the titular character portrayed by Dolph Lundgren. While filled with over-the-top and gory action pieces, the film is deemed as more than just an empty summer action film, with the film addressing serious topics. Performing well, especially with Lundgren earning praise for his portrayal as Dredd, Judge Dredd gains a cult following, while only being followed by a forgettable sequel.
• Due to He-Man's modest success at the box office resulting in a spike of VHS sales of the first two Conan movies, Universal greenlights Conan the Conqueror, which had been in production hell since the underperformance of Conan the Destroyer and Red Sonja, which releases in 1989 and is directed by John Milius.

Paramount/20th Century/Fox Movies^note Both three film studios, subsidiary film labels under Triad Entertainment Group after Gulf+Western Industries acquires controlling stake in 20th Century Fox Corporation and rebrands it as the Triad Entertainment Group in 1985

• The Money Pit is made under Paramount, stars Kelsey Grammer, and becomes such a massive Box Office Bomb, a documentary is made about it a decade after the film's release.
• While working on an internship at Lucasfilm, Lisa Henson works on a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and after sharing her ideas with Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, puts together a film treatment for Mask of the Monkey King: An Indiana Jones Adventure, where Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood are in China when they go on an adventure to recover the Mask of the Monkey King while the Imperial Japanese, lead by Colonel Yamato Oni, hunt for it as well.
  • In 1989, the third Indiana Jones movie, The Judgement of Anubis is released, which has the similar opening scenes to The Last Crusade with young Indiana Jones played by River Phoenix as well as the confrontation with Panama Hat, before the film properly opens in early 1939, where he and Marion go on a hunt for the Scales of Anubis alongside his father (who is, like OTL, played by Sean Connery), while contending with Italian forces who seek the scales, lead by Robert Davi's Field Marshall Dellaslealtà.
• The Star Trek movies don't change instantly at first, with only Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home casting Eddie Murphy in it as the marine biologist. But the plot changes in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, with Sybok's cult having captured Spock due to their belief that his resurrection in Wrath of Khan makes Spock their messiah. Then in Star Trek VI: The Last Voyage, comes a time-travel crossover plot involving the Borg and the crews of USS Enterprise-A and USS Enterprise-D, where Kirk and Chekov are killed. This is then followed by 1993's Star Trek: Point of No Return, which ties in with the TV series' Borg War season arc, 1996's Star Trek: Timeless, which includes a Heart of Darkness plot, only more comical and including Riker's doppelgänger (ideas that Michael Piller and Rick Berman had, in OTL, planned for Insurrection^note the evil twin plot being recycled for Star Trek: Nemesis) and 1998's Star Trek: Defiance, which features the Star Trek: Envoy crew as it's main cast (with a couple of TNG cameos).
• While The Empire Strikes Back is still the same as OTL due to it's production being pre-Point of Divergence, the third Star Wars movie is changed significantly, with Lamont Johnson directing instead of Richard Marquand, and Lucasfilm intern Lisa Henson throwing in a couple of ideas, such as the title Legacy of the Jedi, suggesting that the Ewaak design be more "Lemur-like" and talking Lucas out of making Leia Luke's twin sister (but retaining her force-sensitivity). Also, the location is switched from Endor, to the Imperial capital of Had Abbadon (as was planned in OTL in an earlier draft of Return of the Jedi) and the moon of Sicemon, while the Emperor's throne room is located beneath the surface of Had Abbadon, filled with lava (implied to be similar to the Ralph McQuarrie concept art), for the Death Star is removed from the film entirely, with the shield generator instead protecting Had Abbadon. Other changes include that the Ewaaks are accompanied by "bands of savage raiders", consisted of various species formerly enslaved by the Empire, and that Johnson convinces Lucas to have David Prowse portray the unmasked Anniken instead of Sebastian Shaw ("to save time and money").
  • The Star Wars prequels start off, with A Darkness Rising, directed by Steven Spielberg, and launching in 1997. With the involvement of Lisa Henson (now the Fox chairman), Frank Darabont and Spielberg, the film has Obi-Wan Kenobi (a Jedi Knight in TTL, portrayed by Kenneth Branagh) encounter Anniken Skywalker (aged to 13 years old TTL and portrayed by Zachery Ty Bryan) and his mother Shmi (portrayed by Lynda Carter) rather early on as slaves on the Sha’anar Trade Guild ship (eschewing Tatooine and the pod-race scene entirely), as well as changing the planet of Nima and it's capital of Oxon due to Lucasfilm having already made Dinotopia in TTL^note Dinotopia having influenced the city of Theed in OTL. Aleksa Palladino portrays Queen Padme Amidala of the Nimoida, while Benicio del Toro portrays Mauk Shivtor (with Ray Park as his stunt double), Queen Latifah as Nassai Baaza of the Roona (TTL's Gungans) and Ian McKellen as Baron Cetu Thorpe. The third act, has Anniken stay at the Jedi Temple to be trained by Samuel L. Jackson's Mace Windu, while Obi-Wan and his “sen-nai”, Quigon Djyn (portrayed by Katsuhiko Sasaki) accompany Padme, along with technical savant Ba Ba Yubi (voiced by Howie Mandel) and smuggler Moog Dakra (voiced by Nathan Lane), to liberate Nima with Mandalorian mercenaries. Then, in 1999, Episode II: The Hidden Army (the title being a nod to Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress) is released, directed by Robert Zemeckis, and in 2001, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is released, directed by Ron Howard.
  • Then, in 2014, George Lucas launches the Sequel Trilogy, with A Whisper of Fear, directed by Joss Whedon, followed by Duel of the Fates in 2016, directed by Jon Favreau, and The Will of the Force in 2018, directed by Ernest Dickenson.
• While Aliens is pretty much the same in OTL, despite 20th Century Fox being broken up by it's owners, the third Alien movie, 1991's Alien³ is directed by Ridley Scott (due to Penny Marshall being hired to direct Thelma and Louise), with its script written by William Gibson (and script-doctored by Carrie Fisher), Corporal Hicks taking the center stage with Ripley, Bishop and Newt (played now by Ariana Richards) relegated to supporting roles, while 1993's Alien Homeworld, directed by Luc Besson, has the humans going to destroy the Xenomorphs on their own homeworld.
• The Predator films start off with a very different turn, with 1987's Predator, directed by Sean S. Cunningham and the Predator portrayed by Bolo Yeung (despite concerns from studio heads with the 5'6" Yeung being towered over by the stars of the film), being considered a "Sci-Fi Smart Slasher", while 1990's Predator 2, directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Rutger Hauer as Lieutenant Mike Harrigan, features Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch in a cameo, before Robert Rodriguez gets the chance to make Predator III in 1997 due to the success of Alien Homeworld.
• In 1994, Fox Studios (run by Lisa Henson) makes a live-action adaptation of Equal Rites with Kathryn Bigelow directing, while Kate Maberly is cast as Esk, Maggie Smith as Granny Weatherwax, Heydon Prowse as Simon, Eric Idle as Drum Billet and BRIAN BLESSED reprising his role as Archchancellor Ridcully (a change from the book's Cutangle due to Disney's Mort having already introduced Ridcully). After the film's success prompts Pratchett in making more novels based around Esk, Fox Studios not only gets film adaptations of Spell Binding in 1997 and Hyper Text in 1999, but a sequel to Equal Rites in 1997, Wyrd Sisters, with Maggie Smith's Granny Weatherwax alongside Miriam Margolyes' Nanny Ogg and Martine McCutcheon's Magrat.
• In 1999, Bird Brain Productions partners with Filmation and Fox Studios, with The Incredibles, which in this timeline, is a 2D animated film. Starring Tim Allen as Bob Smith/Mr. Incredible and Meg Ryan as Hellen Smith/ElastiGirl, the film still focuses on superheroes being banned, but this time, it is all due to the political machinations of Ian Holm's Xerex, who is the ex of ElastiGirl. Like in OTL, Samuel L. Jackson voices Frozone and Brad Bird voices Edna Mode, while Yeardley Smith voices Vale "Obscura" Smith and Eli Marienthal voices Dashiell "Dash" Smith.
• After taking the job of Chief Creative Officer of Blue Sky Studios, John Lasseter (who is aware of Disney being in development of Jorgen Klubien's Sparky) comes up with a film idea, American Car. Similar to the plot of OTL's Cars, the film has egotistical race car Shelby Cobra (voiced by John Leguizamo) stranded in a small town on Route 66 in Arizona named Suspension Springs while on his way to a NASCAR race. Due to the rush to get American Car out ahead of Sparky, the film is somewhat rushed. Despite this, the film's sentimentality and memorable characters (with Larry the Cable Guy's Johnny R. Deere being a breakout character) ensure the film is a hit that spawns several sequels, one of them being 2003's American Car 2, as well as a TV series, American Car: Tales from Suspension Springs.
• Spielberg's next WW2 project, after Schindler's List and The Diary of Anne Frank is The Day After D-Day. With DreamWorks SKG not existing, the film is distributed by Paramount. Other than that Matt Damon's character is named James Francis Ward, and Tom Sizemore already being committed to The Thin Red Line means that Michael Madsen (Spielberg's original choice in OTL) reluctantly accepts the role of Technical Sergeant Mike Horvath, the film is pretty much identical to OTL.
• Due to agreeing to direct Dragonflight for Fox Films in exchange for 20th Century Studios giving a green-light to his next film, James Cameron's Titanic is slightly delayed up to 1998. With Fox Baja Studios not existing in TTL, Cameron has the film's water tank sequences filmed at the Mediterranean Film Studios in Malta. With the casting, Ethan Hawke is chosen to play Jack Dawson after River Phoenix and Leonardo DiCaprio are both unavailable, while Neve Campbell is cast as Rose DeWitt. And while Ewan Stewart (who is able to get Murdoch's "shooting himself" in the script cut out in TTL), Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton and Bernard Hill are still cast as their roles from the OTL film, Rob Lowe is cast as Caledon Hockley, Jessica Walter as Ruth DeWitt, Reba McEntire as Molly Brown, Hugh Grant as Jack Phillips, Gene Hackman as Benjamin Guggenheim, Billy Zane as John Jacob Astor, David Warner as Thomas Andrews, Paul McGann as Bruce Ismay, Bruce Campbell as W.T. Stead and Lindsay Lohan as Cora Cartmell. And while Cameron isn't able to convince Enya to perform the score, she does perform "My Heart Will Go On" instead of Céline Dion.
• After being rejected by Hollywood Pictures, Dark Horse Productions approach Tim Burton's Skeleton Crew Productions about a Tank Girl film. While Fantasia Films shows tepid interest in the film, Tim Burton goes to Lisa Burton at Fox, who manages to get the film distributed under the 20th Century label. Caroline Thompson is chosen to direct the film, while Helena Bonham Carter is cast as the titular character, Rik Mayall as Booga, Björk as Jet Girl, Carmen Ejogo as Sub Girl and Malcolm McDowell as the villain, President Hogan, as well as featuring cameos from Joan Jett, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie Sioux, Debbie Harry, Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, Mark Mothersbaugh, Danny Elfman, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Mike Patton, and Kathleen Hanna. Even though the film is not a big success, it does become a massive cult hit, with an adult animated series, Tank Girl: The Animated Catastrophe, made by Whoopass Studios in collaboration with Filmation, and airing on FX from 1997 to 2003.
• In 1995, Sylvester Stallone pitches to Paramount, a Genre Throwback film about 80s' and 90s' action movies named The Impossibles, with the script penned by Shane Black. Directed by Andrew Davis, the film stars a wide variety of action stars from the 80s and the 90s, and is successful enough to have two sequels and a female centered spinoff, The Ladyhawks.
• Thanks to the efforts of Robert De Niro, Nino Baragli (Leone's editor), Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, Sergio Leone's passion project 900 Days in Leningrad is made with the production support of MGM as well as Columbia, Tri-Star and Universal after Leone's fatal heart attack in 1989 and released in 1991 by 20th Century. Based of the Harrison Salisbury non-fiction work The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad, the film follows DeNiro as Jim Capra during the 1941 siege of Leningrad.
• In 1989, Manhattan Transfer is released by Paramount, directed by Gene Wilder and starring Eddie Murphy as Cedrick Lawrence, who leads a team of former employees of Franklin Toys to steal all the money stolen from them by corporate raider Jason Burnes (played by Michael Douglas).
• In 1987, He-Man is released under Fox Pictures, directed by John G. Avildsen, starring Brian Thompson as He-Man/Prince Adam, Hulk Hogan as Man-at-Arms, Elisabeth Shue as Teela, Billy Barty as the voice of Orko, Linda Fiorentino as Evil-Lyn, Mr. T as Beast Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor. An direct-to-video sequel is released in 1989, He Man and She Ra: The Curse of Skeletor.
• Seeking to continue the Friday the 13th franchise after Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, producer Timothy Silver is asked to check out The Evil Dead, which leads him to approach it's director Sam Raimi to direct the fifth Friday the 13th in 1985. Even though reluctant, Sam and his brother Ted see the potential in making it and thus go ahead with Friday the 13th Part 5: Jason’s Legacy, casting Thom Mathews as the adult Tommy, with Corey Feldman reprising his role as young Tommy, while Bruce Campbell is cast as Tina's boyfriend Eddie, Ted Raimi as Jake Patterson, Juliette Cummins as Robin Brown, Dan Hicks as Dr. Matthew Letter, and Marco St. John as Sheriff Cal Tucker, with Melanie Kinnaman, Debi Sue Voorhees and Tiffany Helm portraying the same roles as the OTL film. With Raimi using the idea that Tommy is actually killing his friends instead of Jason, whom he's been hallucinating, the film becomes a sleeper hit, and leads to the rise of the "smart slasher" type of films.
  • With the success of Part 5 resulting in the greenlight of a sixth movie, Tom McLoughlin directs Friday the 13th Part 6: In the Blood, which releases in the late summer of 1986, which is then followed by Friday the 13th Part 7 and Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Triumphant.
• Due to the success of movies like Final Girl, George Romero gets to make his Resident Evil movie in 2000 with 20th Century Studios, with Amy Jo Johnson as Jill Valentine, Nicholas Brendon as Chris Redfield, Val Kilmer as Albert Wesker, Neil Flynn as Barry Burton and Danielle Harris as Rebecca Chambers. Unlike the OTL movies that were made by Paul W.S. Anderson, this movie and it's subsequent sequels are much more faithful to the games though with Romero's signature, social commentary being injected in.

Columbia Movies

• The Forrest Gump film (directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and distributed by Columbia instead of Paramount) and its titular character (played by John Travolta) are much more closer to the book than the OTL film, due to Winston Groom having a much more closer control on the film, in which Forrest is more cynical and colder than Tom Hanks' “warmhearted dope” interpretation of Forrest.
• With the 1994 release of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, Rowan Atkinson gets inspired to make a film about a "old 1950s machismo" spy with socially conservative values (and being a heavily repressed gay man) brought into the modern world, dealing with both the idea of a female monarch and that he has a female boss (a former female agent whom he had treated condescendingly in the 50s). Centered around Lord James Henry “Alby” Albion, the first film For King (Queen) and Country, has Albion trapped and frozen by his arch-nemesis, only to be reawakened by archaeologists in 1997 and back working with MI6, under Dame Elizabeth M. Smith (played by Judy Dench, and Kate Winslet in the first act), partnering with CIA agent Jack Slate (played by Wayne Brady) to take down Ernesto Ghasbhag, Jr. (played by Malcolm McDowell). Upon hearing that Hollywood Pictures is releasing Mike Myers' own spy parody, Columbia Pictures Chief Creative Officer Michael Eisner picks up the script and releases it in July 1997 to compete against Shagwell. Then, in 1999, comes a sequel, For King (Queen) and Country II: A License to Spill.
• Due to Ted Turner's desire for an IP with "good theme park integration" for Peach Grove Studios, he gets into contact with Saul Zaentz about making an adaptation of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The new CCO of Columbia Pictures, Michael Eisner, finding the prospect of a high fantasy film trilogy too risky, elects to film The Hobbit as a test film (after Turner arranges a deal with United Artists, who own the US distribution rights for The Hobbit) before going for Lord of the Rings. During production, Peter Jackson contacts Columbia about getting involved. Due to Jackson's success with Universal's Kong: King of Skull Island, Jackson is brought in as a second unit director, as is his company WETA (who are tasked with the effects work), while Guillermo del Toro is brought on as director. For casting, Billy Boyd is chosen to play Bilbo Baggins, while Richard Harris is cast as Gandalf the Grey due to Ian McKellen being too busy as Cetu Thorpe in the Star Wars prequels, Hugo Weaving is cast as Thorin Oakenshield and Christopher Lee voices Smaug. Other casting has Ken Stott as Balin, Stephen Fry as Bombur, Billy Connolly as Glóin, John Rhys-Davies as Beorn, Stellan Skarsgård as Lord Elrond, Antony Sher as Thranduil, BRIAN BLESSED as the Great Goblin, Russell Crowe as Bard the Bowman and Timothy Spall as Gollum.
• During the talks with Saul Zaentz and Michael Eisner about The Lord of the Rings, in which Eisner suggests on Mel Gibson directing and potentially staring as Aragorn, Gibson makes a film treatment focusing on Aragorn solely on a quest to reclaim the throne of Gondor. Despite Eisner being receptive to the idea, Zaentz outright refuses due to the outrage it would cause to the Tolkien fans and family. So, Gibson reworks the idea into a King Arthur film, The Once and Future King, starring Gibson as Arthur, Julia Roberts as Guinevere, Brad Pitt as Lancelot, Alan Rickman as Mordred, and Sean Connery as Merlin, where critics and fans note its similarities to Braveheart in terms of themes and plot points.
• Kevin Reynolds directs The Rocketeer (due to Ted Turner seeking movies compatible to make rides at Columbia's Peach Grove Studios), which stars Bill Paxton as the titular character and Jennifer Tilly as his love interest Jenny Blake while Timothy Dalton still stars as Neville Sinclair as per OTL. The film, which is closer to the original comic than the OTL film, makes a good enough return ($76 million against a $38 million budget) to justify the new tie-in theme park ride as well as a short-lived TV show.
• After Kevin Costner finally comes on as a producer, Lawrence Kasdan directs the The Bodyguard.

Other Movies by non-Disney studios^note Includes ABC's Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Pictures before the Universal-ABC merger in 1995

• Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness wind up getting made as the Tales from the Crypt episode "The Necronomicon", and the film Tales from the Crypt: Medieval Dead respectively.
• Due to pure random butterflies^note Danny Rubin had chosen the original holiday for the plot of the film by opening his calendar and finding the closest holiday coming up, the Bill Murray vehicle Groundhog Day becomes the Tom Hanks vehicle Memorial Day, and only barely retains any similarities to the OTL film^note instead of a weatherman constantly reliving Groundhog's Day, it's a lawyer constantly reliving Memorial Day; it can as such be inferred that the trope is called "Memorial Day Loop" ITTL.
• The James Bond films take a different turn when Sam Neill gets cast in the title role in The Living Daylights. Even though it is more or less the same film, one major difference is that Dolph Lundgren "reprises" his cameo from A View to a Kill as The Dragon Necross.
  • Then, Neil has two more films, with 1989's A Quantum of Solace (which includes elements from the For Your Eyes Only collection, namely the plot of Risico, the title of Quantum of Solace and elements and characters from The Hildebrand Rarity), directed by John Glenn, and involving Bond being sent down to Central America to investigate a drug cartel, only to be caught up in an conspiracy involving the CIA, SMERSH, Columbo’s cocaine cartel, the government of the Republic of Costa Diabla, and MI6. The film stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as Isabella Krest, Robert Davi as President Hidalgo de la Peña, Pedro Armendariz as Enrico Columbo and Timothy Dalton as Milton Krest/Kristatos, while Gladys Knight sings the opening number and Michael Kamen does the score. Then, in 1991, Sam Neill returns as Bond in Property of the Lady, where Bond travels to Hong Kong to face up against David Yip's Sir Henry Lee Ching.
  • After Ted Turner secures the theme park rights to James Bond in exchange for the rights to Casino Royale, James Bond resets with a new continuity set in 1953, with 1994's Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, directed by Martin Campbell and starring Ralph Fiennes as James Bond, Rachel Weisz as Vesper Lynd, Pete Postlethwaite as M and Olivier Martinez as Le Chiffre. Then, Ralph Fiennes returns as Bond with 1996's To Live and Let Die, starring Halle Berry as Solitaire, James Spader as Felix Leitner and Delroy Lindo as Mr. Big, 1997's Moonraker, starring Anthony Hopkins as Sir Hugo Drax, Götz Otto as Krebs and Elizabeth Hurley as Gala Brand, 1998's Diamonds Are Forever, starring Christina Hendricks as Tiffany Case, Guillermo Díaz and John Benjamin Hickey as Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, Charles Levin and James Woods as Jack and Seraffimo Spang, 1999's From Russia with Love, starring Charlize Theron as Tatiana Romanova, Kevork Malikyan as Darko Kerim, John Stratham as Donovan "Red" Grant and Charlotte Rampling as Colonel Rosa Klebb, 2000's Dr. No, starring Cameron Diaz as Honeychild Ryder, Delroy Lindo as Quarrel and David Will No as Dr. Julius No and 2001's Goldfinger, starring Rebecca Romijn as Jill Masterson, Amy Smart as Tilley Masterson, Cate Blanchett as Pussy Galore, B.D. Wong as Oddjob and Jeroen Krabbé as Auric Goldfinger.
• In 1994, Sam Raimi directs The Crow (1994) for Hollywood Pictures, with Brandon Lee as Eric Draven, Charlize Theron as Shelly, and Kiefer Sutherland as T-Bird whilst Bruce Campbell is cast in a minor recurring role as Officer Albrecht, Matthew Lillard as Funboy, Larenz Tate as Tin-Tin, Omar Epps as Tom-Tom, Jonny Lee Miller as Top Dollar, Danny Trejo as Sanchez, Jon Polito as Gideon, Laurence Fishburne as Captain Hook, Evan Rachel Wood as Sherri and Bill Barretta doing the voice and waldo-work of Eric's crow. Even despite the troubled production behind the scenes and attempted executive interference, the film is a big hit and becomes a cult classic, cementing Sam Raimi's directing status.
• 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the same as OTL, except that it is being distributed by Orion Pictures instead of Tri-Star and that instead of Edward Furlong, Zachery Ty Bryan is cast as John Connor. Zachery's casting then leads to a situation when he asks Cameron why didn't Skynet just go back in time to tell itself how it lost so that it wouldn't. Then, in 1994, while working with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Bryan for Universal Studios' Terminator: Battle Across Time motion based dark ride, Cameron gets inspiration from Bryan's previous question and writes up a treatment for a third Terminator film. With Cameron busy with Dragonflight and his passion project Titanic, 1997's Terminator 3: No Fate is directed by John McTiernan. With Hamilton and Bryan returning as Sarah and John, Schwarzenegger appears in the film this time as former US Special Forces soldier Sgt. David Wagner whilst Bruce Willis appears as an older John Connor, Bryce Dallas Howard makes her first major acting debut as Allison Williams, daughter of a Cyberdyne scientist and Sigourney Weaver appears as Skynet, in the body of a T-900 Terminator.
• In 1995, Robert Zemeckis directs TTL's equivalent to Apollo 13, named Lost Eagle with John Travolta starring as Jim Lovell instead of Tom Hanks.
• In 1994, Hollywood Pictures releases a dinosaur film, in the midst of the post-Jurassic Park craze. Renny Harlin's Carnosaur, starring Bill Pullman as David Pascal, Diana Rigg as Dr. Jane Penward, Johnny Depp as Dr. Leary and Janine Turner as Jenny, includes puppetry and animatronic work from Stan Winston and manages to stand out in spite of being a dark, gothic, cerebral thriller compared to Jurassic Park.
• In the aftermath of Fantasia Films' successful adaptation of Super Mario Bros., the film rights for the Mortal Kombat video game are taken up by New Line Cinema. With the game creators Ed Boon and John Tobias writing the script, Robert Rodriguez is chosen to direct the film, which is made by the three to be as violent as the games. Starring Robin Shou as Liu Kang, Brandon Lee as Johnny Cage, Cameron Diaz as Sonya Blade, Michael Jai White as Jackson “Jax” Briggs, Hiroyuki Sanada as Raiden, Thuy Trang as Kitana, Yuji Okumoto as Kano, James Saito as Scorpion, Mark Dacascos as Sub-Zero, Keith Cooke as Reptile (with Frank Welker providing vocal effects) and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung, the film becomes one of the top grossing movies of 1995, resulting in two sequels in 1997 and 2000.
• Lethal Weapon is released by Hollywood Pictures in 1987, with Bruce Willis as Riggs and Richard Dreyfuss as Murtaugh.
• Due to Paul Verhoeven not giving the RoboCop script a second glance after throwing it away, Alex Cox directs the film, with the titular character portrayed by Emilio Estevez and Anne Lewis portrayed by Stephanie Zimbalist. The film does not connect with audiences like the OTL version, and thus has no sequels, but is relegated to a cult film.
• Hollywood Pictures releases Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (which is practically identical to the OTL film), after buying out a bankrupt De Laurentiis Entertainment after it picks up the screenplay before Fantasia Films does. However, the sequel film, 1991's Bill & Ted's Cosmic Tour, turns out to be less of a hit, after Jeff Katzenberg elects not to use the "Bill & Ted go to Hell" script and instead pushes for a script that rehashes the first film.
• With the success of WED Signature Series' Maus making adult-targeted animation a viable option, Ralph Bakshi fends off executive interference, and gets his vision for Cool World made, after Pathé and TriStar Pictures agree to produce and distribute.
• With the rise of the "smart slasher" type of film, A Nightmare on Elm Street would follow suit with 1987's A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Waking Nightmare^note according to Word of God, a mix between A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, in which Freddy Krueger invades the real world, attacking the cast and crew of the film-in-a-film "A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Pleasant Dreams". The film is followed by 1988's A Nightmare on Elm Street Part IV: The Devil Inside and 1989's A Nightmare on Elm Street Part V: Freddy Reborn, both directed by Renny Harlin.
• Another horror franchise affected by the "smart slashers" is Halloween, with Halloween 4: The Inevitable Return of Michael Myers only for negative feedback to Halloween being made a smart slasher resulting in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers having a simple slasher plot.
• TriStar Pictures and Toho Studios collaborate to make Melancholy in 2004, based on the 4/15 attacks in Japan. Directed by Yoji Yamada, the film has an all-star cast, consisting of Hiroshi Abe as Shoko Ashara, Ken Watanabe as Kenichi Hoshino, Tatsuya Nakadai as Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, Masato Ibu as Inspector Nakagawa, Kiichi Nakai as Major Takeo Fushida, Akira Onodera as Ichiro Ozawa, Issey Ogata as Yoshiro Mori, Dennis Quaid as President Al Gore, Corbin Bernsen as Agent Franklin Moreland, John Karlen as Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski and Kaori Momoi as Makiko Hoshino.

Television

Disney Television

• As part of the deal to get The Dark Crystal released, Jim Henson agrees to make two more seasons of The Muppet Show, filmed at the Disney lot in Los Angeles after Ron Miller and Lord Lew Grade arrange a deal to sell ITC's rights to production, distribution, syndication, and licensing for the Muppets to Disney in the spring of 1981. Guest stars during Seasons 6 and 7 include Mr. T, Miles Davis, Robin Williams, Lucille Ball, Jerry Lewis, Salvador Dalí, Andy Kaufman, John Ritter, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Michael Caine, Matthew Corbett, Sooty and Sweep, Basil Brush, Rod Hull and Emu, Gerry Anderson’s marionettes, Fred Rogers, Tom Baker, Larry Hagman, John Candy, Kim Cattrall, Mel Blanc, Larry Bird, Bill Cosby, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The B-52s, Oingo Boingo. Olivia Newton-John, David Bowie, KISS, Cher, Tony Bennett, Stan Freberg, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, Queen, Betty White, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Bette Midler, Electric Light Orchestra, Frankie Laine, Ray Charles, Don Rickles, Herbie Hancock, Sterling Holloway, Aerosmith, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Bruce Springsteen and the grand finale guest star: Jim Henson.
• In 1981, with Disney's Wonderful World struggling and under threat of cancellation by NBC, Disney's newly appointed Chief Creative Officer, Jim Henson, is tasked with revamping the show, and assigns production duties to Muppet Show producer David Lazer, Disney Creative VP Tom Wilhite, and Bernie Brillstein. After initially asking Disney President Ron Miller to host, Jim Henson is asked instead to host, and thus, Disney's World of Magic is launched on CBS, to showcase new talent and material and as a test bed for new ideas via shorts (new sequences, short animations, Muppet sequences, musical videos or performances, short documentaries, excerpts from upcoming movies and occasional classic shorts), featuring live guest stars that would interact and perform with Muppets, animated characters, walkaround characters, or even the host. Future big names in animation make their appearances in the show, such as John Lasseter, Ron Clements, Joe Ranft and Tim Burton, and the show airs weekly from spring 1982 until fall 1986, when the show would become a periodic special format. In 1990, with Jim Henson's time now hard to come by, the show is revamped into The Wonderful World of Disney with Disney Animation Vice President Roy E. Disney coming in to host the show. Then, at the end of the 1990s, Roy hands over the hosting roles to Walter Elias Disney Miller (Walt's grandson), who choses Roy's own son Timothy J. Disney as the new producer and showrunner.
• With the upcoming launch of the Disney Channel in 1983, Ron Miller is looking for a flagship show to make the channel a success, and asks Jim for ideas, in which he and Jerry Juhl come up with Waggle Rock. The show is still somewhat similar to the OTL Fraggle Rock, except that the Fraggles are named Waggles, the Doozers are named "Gozers" (with a leader "Chairgozer Dross", voiced by outgoing Disney Chairman Card Walker at Jim's request), the Gorgs are named "Krogs" and the human lead is named "Tinker Dan".
• After Muppets on Broadway introduces the Muppet Babies, a spinoff Muppet-based show is launched on the Disney channel, as is a Saturday morning cartoon on CBS.
• Following the airing of The Tale of the Bunny Picnic special on Disney's World of Magic in 1985, a four season Muppet-based TV series, Benny Bunny's Family, is aired on the Disney Channel, before being followed by Benny Bunny’s Big Adventures, a two season animated show on CBS. Then, in the 2000s, a reboot animated series is launched, The Adventures of Benny Bunny, which runs for around four seasons.
• Other Muppet shows include Little Muppet Monsters and Muppet High, which don't perform as well as Muppet Babies.
• In 1985, Haim Saban takes his idea of idea of "re-cutting and redubbing old Japanese Toei live action shows with new American actors" to Jim Henson, who agrees to a test screening at the behest of Margaret Loesch (VP of Production for Children’s Programming). The test screening to it's test audience, proves a huge success and prompts the production of Bio-Force Five, which screens on the Disney Channel in early 1986 and leads to many re-cut and re-dubbed Bio-Force series over the years.
• From 1994 to 1999, the Disney Channel airs a dubbed version of the Sailor Moon anime, with Jodi Benson voicing Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (Serena Taylor in the Disney dub), Paige O'Hara as Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury (Amy Anderson in the dub), Thuy Trang as Rei Hino/Sailor Mars (spelled “Raye” in the dub), Tisha Campbell as Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter (Lita Kirby in the dub) and Cheryl Chase as Minako Aino/Sailor Venus (Mina Aarons in the dub). For the voices of Luna and Artemis, the production looks for a "Julie Andrews" type to voice the former, but upon learning about the role from Jim Henson, Julie Andrews herself auditions for Luna and later recommends Dick Van Dyke for the role of Artemis, to which he accepts. The villain roles of Queen Beryl and Queen Metalia are voiced by Eartha Kitt and Mike Patton.
• Tim Allen gets the attention of Bernie Brillstein in 1990, and creates for Hyperion TV the Sit-Com Internal Combustion based on Tim's own life as an ex-con, with Tim in the role of Tim Stone, an ex-con starting up a garage and looking after his daughter (played by Staci Keanan) and son (played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) after his ex-wife dies in an car accident. Other recurring characters include Marsha Warfield's Marsha Dimes, Tim Stone's parole officer, and John Goodman's Jimmy Swift, wealthy founder and CEO of the nationwide Swift Automotive auto repair chains.
• After the success of Mort, discussions on more adaptations of the Death books (made more difficult due to Disney's inbuilt resistance to making sequels to their animated films) lead to the idea of making Reaper Man as an animated TV series, running from 1992 to 1995. In order to save cost on voicework, the voice cast of Mort is replaced with Disney regular voice actors, with Tony Jay as Death, Corey Burton as Albert, Jim Cummings having a limited role as Mort, Susan Sheridan as Ysabel and Judith Barsi voicing Susan. Later, after Reaper Man finishes, Soul Music is made as a sequel, airing from 1995 to 1998. Then, in December 1998, Hogfather is made as a 4-part miniseries, directed by Maxwell Atoms.
  • With Skeleton Crew Productions in need of new talent to keep up with the number of projects in demand, they hire Adam Maxwell Burton, aka Maxwell Atoms, who auditions with his student film Billy and Mandy in: Trepanation of the Skull and You. After a stint as a staff animator for Reaper Man and Tim Burton's Nocturns, Atoms is then tasked with providing a series of Billy and Mandy shorts, which are put onto the end of each episode of Soul Music.
• With Droids and Ewaaks having been made by Disney Animation and aired on ABC, the next Star Wars animated series comes after Star Trek: Excelsior is launched by Filmation and Disney asks Lucasfilm for a competing series. So, after mixing Timothy Zahn's then in-development book trilogy, concept art and kit-bash prototypes from Kenner's The Epic Continues toyline, Star Wars: Heir to the Empire is formed and aired in 1991, with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Frank Oz, Erik Bauersfeld and James Earl Jones reprising their roles as Luke, Leia, C-3PO, Lando Calrissian, Yoda (as a Force Ghost and in flashbacks), Admiral Ackbar and Darth Vader (in flashbacks and force dream sequences), while casting Dan Hennessey as Han Solo (after Harrison Ford initially voices Han in the pilot), Graeme Campbell as Admiral Thrawn and Obi-Wan, Don Francks as Atha Prime, Cree Summer as Mon Mothma and Mara Jade, Winston Rekert as Jariis K’ba’al and Judith Barsi as Halixiana, while running for three seasons.
• Due to gaining the rights to Buck Rogers, Disney's Fantasia Television partners with both Lucasfilm and Marvel to create a Buck Rogers TV series, with Rick McCallum as the showrunner. After a conversation with Jim Henson, Bruce Campbell auditions and wins the lead role, while Lucy Liu plays Wilma Deering and Jennifer Tilly plays Princess Ardala, Robert Guillaume plays Roger's mentor Dr. Elias Huer, Charles J. “Professor Tanaka” Kalani Jr. plays Killer Kane and BRIAN BLESSED plays Emperor Draco. Gil Gerard and Erin Grey make cameo appearances as Earth Force admirals, while Mel Blanc voices a computer. The robots, Twiki and Dr. Theopolis, are performed by an assortment of Muppet Performers, with Sheri Weiser wearing a suit for Twiki, whilst Fran Brill provided the voice and waldo work, and Jerry Nelson and a Muppet intern working together on Dr. Theopolis. Initially struggling after airing the first season on CBS, the show moves to the Fantasia Channel for seasons 2 and 3, and while unfavourably compared to the 1979 show as well as its competitors, Star Trek: TNG and Ringworld, the show does get a cult following, with its fans becoming known as "Buckaroos".
• After Joss Whedon gets inspiration from Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel (rather than The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara as per OTL), he develops the sci-fi TV series Tranquility, which airs on Fantasia TV for three seasons, from 2002-2005. After initially wanting to cast her as Inara, Joss is made to cast Ming-Na Wen as Captain Mallory “Mal” Hé after she insists on it. The crew of the Firefly class ship, the Tranquility, consists of Mal's right hand man, Sergeant Lance Dunbar (played by Andy Serkis), pilot Hogan “Burnie” Burns (played by Alexis Denisof) and his wife, the ship's mechanic Katherine Lee “Kaylee” Foster (played by Mindy Kaling), who are joined by Doctor Simón Ibekwe (played by Henry Simmons), a "free" Clone slave Billy (played by Nicholas Brendon), Simón's sister Daraja “Dari” Ibekwe (played by Rutina Wesley), Padre Raphael Martin de Santa Sophia (played by Edward James Olmos) and companion Inara Vimoksha (played by Navi Rawat).
• Following the sale of Marvel to Disney in May 1986, the very first Marvel animated series following this deal is X-Men: The Animated Series. Following the perspective of Kitty Pryde (rather than the OTL's show following Jubilee), the series does not take off immediately, with its first season regarded as the weakest by fans, due to its first director being more used to simplistic, merchandise-driven animated shows, leading him to be replaced midway through the second season, which leads to the storytelling and writing becoming more complex and sophisticated as the show goes on, starting when the second season adapts a story arc based on Days of Future Past. With a voice cast consisting of Alyson Court as Kitty Pryde, Christopher Daniel Barnes as Cyclops, Kath Soucie as Jean Grey, Iona Morris as Storm, Peter Cullen as Wolverine, John Stephenson as Beast, Mary Kay Bergman as Dazzler, Neil Ross as Nightcrawler, Michael Bell as Iceman, Dan Gilvezan as Colossus, Ed Asner as Professor X, Earl Boen as Magneto, Catherine Disher as Emma Frost, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Jennifer Dale as the Scarlet Witch, Alan Oppenheimer as Quicksilver, Ronald Gans as Juggernaut, Patrick Pinney as Sabertooth, and Randall Carpenter as Mystique, the show runs for seven seasons, ending in 1993.
• The second Marvel animated series following the Disney-Marvel deal, 1988's The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Renamed in the third season as simply Spider-Man: The Animated Series) has Robert Hays voicing the titular character. Produced and directed by Eric Lewald, James Semper, and Victor Cook, the show becomes very highly acclaimed, with a theme song by Ron Wasserman, strong writing from Joss Wheldon, Greg Weisman, and Paul Dini, an iconic voice cast including Joely Fisher as Mary Jane Watson, Gary Imhoff as Harry Osborn, Tracey Moore as Gwen Stacy, Patrick Labyorteaux as Flash Thompson, Mark Hamill as Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin, George Buza as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Joseph Campanella as Curt Connors/The Lizard, Jennifer Hale as Felicia Hardy/The Black Cat and Stan Lee in numerous cameos throughout the series, as well as faithfully adapting many of Spider-Man's classic stories (including The Night Gwen Stacy Died in the show's 4th season) and introducing many new iconic stories throughout its eight-season run, right until the show's end in 1996.
• Following an animated series of The Fantastic Four (running from 1994 and lasting for three seasons), the next Marvel animated show (now set in a shared universe known as Earth-186) is The Avengers, airing from 1995. Head writer Joss Whedon casts Jeff Bennett as Tony Stark/Iron Man (replacing Gerry Mendicino from an unsuccessful pilot for an Iron Man animated show in 1994), Lawrence Bayne as Steve Rogers/Captain America, John Rhys-Davies as Thor (and Donald Blake), Neal McDonough as Bruce Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk (replacing Ray Landry from an unsuccessful pilot for an The Incredible Hulk animated show in 1992), Jess Harnell as Hank Pym/Ant-Man and Jodi Benson as Janet Van Dyne/Wasp, with Charlie Adler as Nick Fury, Christopher McDonald as Henry Peter Gyrich and other supporting characters (including role reprisals of Alan Oppenheimer, Jennifer Hale, and Peter Cullen from X-Men: The Animated Series, Beau Weaver, Lori Allan, Brian Austin Green and Chuck McCann from The Fantastic Four and Robert Hays from Spider-Man: The Animated Series), as well as more main cast joining the Avengers as the show goes on. Lasting for five seasons, the show would culminate with an adaptation of The Infinity Gauntlet.
• Another Muppet series, Too Late with Miss Piggy, airs from 1996 to 2003, with Jim Henson being a consultant and receiving an executive producer credit. Jerry Nelson and Jerry Juhl are showrunners, with Steve Whitmire, Dave Goelz, Fran Brill, and Kevin Clash directing many episodes. It focuses on the titular talk show, hosted by Miss Piggy with Clifford as the showrunner, Kermit as the producer and the Electric Mayhem as the house band. Frank Oz performs in the first several episodes, before handing his roles over to Eric Jacobson. Fake commercials for fictional movies and television series are commonly featured. Guest stars include Garth Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Björk, and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
• In 2015, a new Muppet series named Muppet Quiz, made by Walt Disney Television and Muppet Studios for NBC, premieres and runs for six seasons up until 2021. Jim Henson still serves as a creative consultant and executive producer, while Kevin Clash, Bill Barretta, and Kirk Thatcher are the showrunners. A game show inspired by Match Game, this series is hosted by Rowlf the Dog with Walter as his announcer and Clifford and Kermit as the producers. Two guest stars are the contestants, while six different Muppets are panelists. Muppet Quiz is described as a "variety show dressed up as a game show".
• Another Muppet series on NBC, Good Muppet Morning!, premieres in 2022. Hosted by Clifford, Miss Piggy and Scooter with Clash, Barretta and Thatcher returning as showrunners, the series parodies morning shows (though it ironically airs in primetime). New characters include Scooter's Tomboy with a Girly Streak friend Bobby^note performed by Alice Dinnean, coin-operated robot Cooperbot^note performed by Billy Barkhurst, and Clifford's nephew and aspiring reporter Norman^note performed by Tau Bennett, named after Clifford the Big Red Dog creator Norman Bridwell. Kermit, like in Too Late and Muppet Quiz, remains as the producer (though he also introduces each episode this time).
• Sam and Ted Raimi produce The Mighty Thor: The Animated Series in 1997, which only lasts for two seasons before being cancelled in 1999.
• With The Clone Saga being much smoother and less chaotic than in OTL, Marvel finds an conundrum in trying to adapt a new Spider-Man animated show with the fact that Peter Parker is (in the comics) "retired" and his replacement, a clone by the name of Ben Reilly, had a complicated origin that didn't endear him to new fans, as well as whenever to set it in the same continuity as Earth-186 or do a new one. While the decision is made to do a new continuity, the decision on who the show should focus on leads to 1999's Spider-Man animated series having two leads: Peter Parker and Ben Reilly (both voiced by Rino Romano). With trouble behind the scenes as well as struggling to define itself from the predecessor show, the show only lasts two seasons before being cancelled.
• In 2000, Greg Weisman, Craig Kyle, and Victor Cook become the showrunners of X-Men: Mutant High, a show focused around a group of six young new, original mutants, rather than the established, well-known members of the X-Men (who still appear in supporting roles). Consisted of Matthew Lincoln/Starforce (voiced by Khary Payton), Rachel Summers/Marvel Girl (voiced by Tara Freeman), Musume Oyama/Weapon XIII/Talon (voiced by Grey DeLisle), Julian Vargas/Biokenis (voiced by Dante Basco), Cynthia Cartwheel/Tempus (voiced by Venus Terzo) and Jake Jackson/Canvas (voiced by Quinton Flynn), the show manages to stand out from X-Men: The Animated Series, running for seven seasons.
• In 1990, Jim Henson launches a reality show named Viewpoint (renamed from his initial Handmade Video title due to concerns from George Harrison about confusion with his HandMade Films label) on the Hyperion Channel, with the objective being that random people, all over the country and the world, would be given a video camera to "show their lives to the world". Topics covered by Viewpoint varied from either mundane issues to deep, serious and controversial issues, gaining Emmy Awards, Peabodies and all sorts of accolades as well as condemnations throughout its ten-year run. The series would be the namesake of Disney's video-sharing website.
• After being impressed by peace activist Samantha Reed Smith after her 1984 Disney special Samantha Smith Goes to Washington, Jim Henson's suggestions on creating a TV show around her lead to Bernie Brillstein creating a semi-autobiographical Sit-Com, The Littlest Diplomat, produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions and aired by CBS from 1984 to 1986, with Smith starring as Samantha Samuels, as she balances her work at the UN with her school life and family life.
• Running from 1998 to 2004 on Disney's Toon Town, Transformers: Evolution is set years after the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, who have evolved into the Maximals and the Predacons, on the planet of Energoa, where the war between the two factions restarts.
• In the fall of 1993, on the Fantasia Channel, Tim Burton’s Nocturns would air (right until 1999) as a competitor to the late-night horror anthology shows, Tales from the Crypt from HBO and Freddy's Nightmares from PFN, with Rick Heinrichs as showrunner, Tim Burton as host and many of the Skeleton Crew regulars guest starring, directing or writing for the show, with many other collaborators making their appearances as well as other notable guest writers, directors, and creative artists making their appearance. Although airing at around the "Friday Night Death Slot" (9pm), Nocturns manages to find it's audience and become a huge success, eventually moving to ABC halfway through the first season.

Non-Disney Television

• In 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation still airs, this time on Paramount-Fox Network (PFN), but with significant cast changes, with Patrick Bauchau as Jean-Luc Picard (due to Gene Roddenberry exercising his veto against Patrick Stewart), Jenny Agutter as Dr. Beverly Crusher, Samantha Smith as Leslie Crusher, Robert Englund as Data, Denise Crosby as Councillor Deanna Troi and Rosalind Chao as Tasha Yar, with Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn still cast as Riker, LaForge and Worf. Crosby, having had enough with the development of her character and wardrobe choices, still leaves the show by the end of Season 1, with Troi being killed off, while Smith successfully pushes for changes in her character, resulting in Leslie getting a foil in the form of an insufferable young Vulcan named T’lon played by Lukas Haas (who becomes a fan favourite) and significant character growth as the show progresses. Later, by around Season 4, while Picard is still assimilated by the Borg as Locutus of Borg, Riker would move into the Captain's seat permanently while Locutus of Borg would would become the recurring “face of the enemy” due to Patrick Bauchau's desire to move on to other things, with Elizabeth Dennehy's Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shelby taking the First Officer post. With a Borg War arc in Seasons 6 and 7, The Next Generation would have an eighth season to finish the series.
  • With Brandon Tartikoff going to CBS instead of Paramount, the circumstances that lead to the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine don't come about, and thus, the follow-up Star Trek show, Star Trek: Envoy is aired in September 1995 instead on PFN. Known as VOY, the series follows the adventures of Captain Shelby and the crew of the USS Hézuò, a diplomatic vessel (equipped with a cloaking device and able to land on the surface of a planet) tasked with traveling and visiting known worlds and species. The crew of the Hézuò included the half-Vulcan executive officer Commander Suvok (played by Tim Russ), Shelby's senior attaché Melidzia Daxx (played by Terry Farrell), the helmsman Lieutenant Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill this time reprising his role from TNG rather than bringing in a Suspiciously Similar Substitute), the engineering Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney reprising his role from TNG), Dr. Iskender Bashir (played by Alexander Siddig), Betazoid Ensign Kyrrannah Zol (played by Jennifer Lien) as well as de-assimilated Borg Seven of Ten (played by Milla Jovovich).
  • After seven seasons of Envoy, the next Star Trek series is created, with it's origins in Envoy's S3:E24/S4:E1, “First Contact”, when the Borg attempt to stop the warp flight of Zefram Cochrane (played by Jeffrey Combs) and the crew of the Hézuò foil it. Airing in the fall of 2002, Star Trek: Discovery follows on the same premise as well as similar themes as OTL's Star Trek: Enterprise, except for that the lead ship is not named Enterprise, but rather Discovery. The crew of the USS Discovery include Captain Archer J. Drexler (played by Dennis Haysbert), Subcommander T’Pau (a younger version of the T'Pau from Star Trek: The Original Series' "Amok Time", played by Padma Lakshmi), Commander Matthew Tucker Jeffries III (played by Connor Trinneer), security officer Ian Moore (played by Daniel Craig), Dr. Na’roxx-u’lamaria-e’tommiala-cho (simply known as Dr. Na’roxx and played by Brent Spiner), Lieutenant Joseph “Joe” Fuimaono (played by John Tui), Ensign Eun-Ji Yeoh (played by Margaret Cho) and Yeoman Naalia Booker (played by Aisha Tyler), being joined later by recurring Andorian character Commander Shraa (played by Jeffrey Combs). The series, written with the help of J. Michael Straczynski, runs for around five seasons.
  • In 2013, the next Star Trek series is Star Trek: Mercy, centered around the hospital ship of the same name, under the command of Captain Crusher, and is described as an "hospital drama in space".
  • Also, Paramount, via Triad's Filmation subsidiary, would launch three animated Star Trek shows. The first being Star Trek: Excelsior, centered around the crew of the USS Excelsior, under the command of Captain Sulu, voiced by George Takei. The series, would last for six seasons, and spawn a three-season spinoff, Captain Kraal, centered around a crew of Klingons. Then, after Data leaves (given Robert Englund's concerns that his advancing age is making an unageing android character unsustainable) The Next Generation, he would return in the animated edutainment series Star Trek: Captain Data as Captain of the science vessel USS G.W. Carver. Other Star Trek animated series include Tales from the Borg War, The Romulan War (set after the events of Star Trek: Discovery, on the vessel USS Defiant) and Star Fleet Academy.
• With the release of Star Trek: The Next Generation on PFN, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg (who are now at ABC, heading up Hollywood Pictures) seek to release a competing sci-fi series on their new Hollywood Pictures Television (HPTV) channel. After a failed attempt to develop a Star Wars series, Eisner and Katzenberg look around for an existing IP to adapt, with Larry Niven's Known Space being chosen. Katzenberg, who is tasked with acquiring the rights from Niven, also manages to acquire the rights to The Draco Tavern, which proves vital when it is discovered that Niven had sold the rights to the Kzinti species to Paramount back in the 1970s. An initial attempt to buy back the rights fails and results in the debut of a Kzinti on TNG, thus leading to ABC using the Chirpsithra species (from Draco Tavern) to fill in the hole left by the absence of the Kzinti. For the special effects, Eisner turns to Disney's Creatureworks, which results in some tension with the upcoming release of Hollywood Animation's Return of the Littles competing against Disney's A Small World, while for casting, Dennis Dun played Louis Gridley Wu, Anthony Daniels voiced Nessus, Denise Crosby voiced Speaker-to-Animals (which was now a Chirp), Dirk Benedict played Gil "The Arm" Hamilton, Kim Fields played Teela Brown, Mario Van Peebles played Rick Schumann and Christopher Hewett voiced 2E-94 “Tooey”. The resulting series, Ringworld, makes it through three seasons and maintains a cult following years afterwards.
• On Doctor Who, Colin Baker manages to wear the black velvet jacket that he desired for the Sixth Doctor's costume after BBC 1 Controller, Michael Grade, rejects the "Technicolor Nightmare Coat" upon first looking at it. Then, after Baker leaves, Richard Griffiths is brought in by new showrunner, Eric Saward, as the Seventh Doctor, adopting the "Technicolor Nightmare Coat" (albeit refitted) as well as a waxed mustache, a question mark cane and a top hat, and a "clownishness" personality. After Bonnie Langford's Melanie "Mel" Bush departs, the Seventh Doctor takes on a new companion in the form of Fen, portrayed by Rik Mayall. Later, with American viewers liking the Seventh Doctor and the show's campiness, the show has old companion, K-9, return. Then in 1989, Richard Griffiths leaves after a 3-season run, with Eric Saward replaced as showrunner by Joan Ganz Cooney of the Children's Television Workshop (replaced as head of CTW by Jane Nebel Henson) and is replaced by Neil Patrick Harris, who portrays the Eighth Doctor from 1990 to 1993, alongside new companion Jess (portrayed by Carmen Ejogo) and K-9, while Anthony Ainley's Master is regenerated into a equally younger Master, portrayed by Simon Gregson. Facing strong division between the Doctor Who fandom over choosing Harris, Cooney manages to get the departing Michael Grade (leaving the BBC for a job as the President and CEO of ITV) to not cancel the show but give it one more season to allow the ideas of Doctor Who screenwriter Russell T Davies, who is recruited as the new showrunner while Cooney becomes the executive producer, to come to fruition with the Ninth Doctor, portrayed by Jude Law. After K-9 is dropped off in Los Angeles with Natasha, portrayed by Lark Voorhies, to set up a spinoff series, K-9 and Krewe (that would last four seasons), the new Doctor and Jess would be joined by a new companion, a Cambridge scholar named Nigel (portrayed by Anthony Head), with Law's Doctor lasting from 1993 to 1997. The choice for the Tenth Doctor, is set up all the way back to the 1993 “Calling All Doctors” Anniversary Special with an appearance by the 3rd Doctor, portrayed by Jon Pertwee's son Sean Pertwee, who is then chosen to portray the Tenth Doctor, who regenerates, as does the Master, now portrayed by David Tennant. After Jess and Nigel depart, the Doctor encounters a Māori warrior named Arataki, portrayed by Lawrence Makoare, who becomes his new companion.
  • Nelvana makes a Doctor Who animated series, following the Eighth Doctor, but after a number of fan-made "continuing adventures" plays featuring previous incarnations of the Doctor, Nelvana creates the Tales of Doctors Past cartoon, which had many former Doctor Who actors voicing earlier Doctors and their companions (with Sylvester McCoy voicing William Hartnell's First Doctor). Popular with many adult fans, Nelvana forms a partnership with Time-Atlantic to produce animated feature films, one of which included the 60th Anniversary animated crossover "Paging All Doctors" in 1993, featuring all eight doctors teaming up against many incarnations of The Master and an appearance of the then recently introduced 9th Doctor.
• Filmation, taking over Star Wars animation from Disney animation after promising reduced costs but with comparable quality, launches Star Wars: The Mandalorian Chronicles in 1995, featuring members of Clan Fett, including Boba Fett, in their adventures. Later, as the Star Wars prequels gets underway, an animated series is launched by Filmation, Star Wars: Chronicles of the Clone Wars.
• After making a version of his comic strip Life in Hell for The Tracey Ullman Show, Triad options up Matt Groening's The Bunyans, animated by Klasky-Csupo. Set in a Gothic Middle America, the show is set around the titular family consisted of the angry and jaded father Cotton (voiced by Billy West), the emotionally insecure mother Sheela (voiced by Tress MacNeille), the socially-isolated daughter Leela (voiced by Kath Soucie) and attention-seeking troublemaker son Bart (voiced by Rob Paulsen) as well as mute baby Dot (voiced by Kath Soucie as well). The show also becomes famous for the plotline that Leela is actually the mother of Dot. The success of Bunyans later results in Groening helping develop the Klasky-Csupo/Wayward Entertainment show Rugrats (airing on Nickelodeon's Nick, Jr channel), with his suggestion that the characters be aged up to around 3 to 5 years old in order to be able to write out more interesting plots and scenarios with the characters. While pretty much the same as OTL, Nancy Cartwright is the voice of Chuckie Finster and Yeardley Smith is the voice of Angelica Pickles. While working on the first season of Rugrats, Groening works on an idea about an animated sitcom that becomes Nuclear Family, airing on CBS in 1993 with Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley as the showrunners. Focused around the Simpson family in the town of Springfield, the show still has Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie as well as C. Montgomery Burns, but is different from OTL in that Maggie is aged up to 4 years old and voiced by Judith Barsi and Mr Burns is the head of the Scorpio organisation behind his corporate facade. Nuclear Family manages to run for around 14 years. Then, after Groening forms his own production company Bongo Studios, he develops Futurama, Bartman and Evil, Inc.
• In 1990, the BBC still airs House of Cards, but with some slight differences, in that Michael Dobbs writes A Game of State (dealing with the US/UK Special Relationship as well as the British handover of Hong Kong to China) in between To Play the King and The Final Cut, thus House of Cards becomes a quadrilogy. Not only does House of Cards get an American remake, aired by HBO in 2005 and starring Bryan Cranston as Frank Underwood, but also several other international remakes, with a Canadian version named Hat Trick on CBC in 2003 (starring Donald Sutherland as Franklin Undrell), and a Japanese version on NHK in 2010 named Sajo no Rokaku (starring Ken Watanabe as Fuminori Uchiyama).
• With the 1990 film adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale butterflied, the novel is adapted as an HBO series (airing from 2001 to 2006) due to post-Anita Hill third wave feminism, and the effects of the Aum Shinrikyo and Sword of Liberty attacks, sparking renewed interest in the novel, and does resemble the OTL Hulu series with some slight differences.
• After an initial pitch to PFN is rejected, CBS picks up Dick Wolf's Law & Order, which is aired in the fall of 1990. Starring Ed O'Neill as Sergeant Max Greevey and Chris Noth as his partner Mike Logan, as well as Steven Hill as District Attorney Adam Schiff, Michael Moriarty as Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone, Richard Brooks as ADA Paul Robinette and Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen, the show would go through a number of lead characters as the series progressed, competing against ABC's NYPD Blue and NBC's Homicide: Life on the Streets. Like the original show from OTL, Law and Order gets several spinoffs, with the first one being Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 1997, starring Samantha Smith's Assistant District Attorney Emily Carovac alongside John Slattery's ADA Jimmy Grayson as well as detectives Eric Stabler and Olivia Morrow (played by David Duchovny and Reiko Aylesworth) and S. Epatha Merkerson’s Lieutenant Anita Goren. Other spinoffs include 2001's Criminal Minds, 2005's Law & Order: Los Angeles, 2008's Atlanta, 2010's Organised Crime Unit as well as international versions set in London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney and Moscow, and a semi-self-aware special Law & Order: Newcomer Affairs Unit in 2008, focused on an NYPD unit assigned on issues associated with an alien race from the Alien Nation tv series, and becomes so popular that it launches a 3-season TV series on the Hyperion Channel.
• In 1990, instead of Benny Medina noticing Will Smith on The Arsenio Hall Show (which lead to him casting Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel Air), he and Jeff Pollack find Jamie Foxx, working as a comedian in LA clubs, and cast him as the lead for their Sit-Com, Ferdinand "Fox" Jameson, a young East LA man who moves in with his cousins in Bel Air. Lasting 6 seasons with NBC, Yo Homes to Bel Air launches Jamie Foxx's career.
• After different writers at NBC give the September 1988 pilot of Cadets a slightly better showing than in OTL, a second pilot is launched in the spring of 1989, leading to Cadets being picked up as a series in the spring of 1990. Starring Soleil Moon Frye as lead Tyler McKay, Jaleel White as Cadet Nicholls and Richard Roundtree as Sergeant Matt Gideon, Cadets lasts for around 6 seasons and inspires a whole host of other "first girl in X” Sit-Coms, none of which succeed just as well as Cadets. Also, Jaleel White's supporting role means that he is not cast in a guest appearance as Steve Urkel in Family Matters, leading to it being merely a good-but-unremarkable, Perfect Strangers spinoff that only lasts for four seasons.