What Could Have Been / Disney & Pixar

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In general, since it takes a very, very long time to make an animated feature film, many films are significantly different during early stages of their productions. Some never even see the light of day. Books have been published, long ones, filled with concept art from these earlier iterations and dropped projects. And occasionally, you may find early test footage on the DVDs.

Cancelled films are listed here.

For examples related to the Disney Theme Parks, go here.

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Films with their own pages:

Disney

• Aladdin
• The Lion King
• Hercules
• Dinosaur
• Tangled
• Frozen
• Zootopia
• Encanto

Pixar

• Cars
• Coco
• The Incredibles
  • Incredibles 2
• Inside Out
• Monsters, Inc.
• Monsters University
• Toy Story
• Turning Red

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Film entries:

Disney Animated Canon

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:
  • The film originally had more scenes with the Prince, who would have been imprisoned by the Queen in a dungeon and then make a daring escape. The main reason for dropping it was that the animators were not yet experienced enough to handle the extra work of making a believable human character, what with Snow White and the Queen already taxing their skills. Some of these ideas were eventually used (more than 20 years later!) in Sleeping Beauty. Additionally, some of the scenes with the Dwarfs were also cut, mostly to tighten up the story. (Originally, the dwarves, being more "cartoony," were arguably supposed to be the main characters.) The best known of these was the "Music In Your Soup" song, which was eventually shown on the Disneyland program and in other specials in pencil test form. There's also a missing scene where the Dwarves build a bed for Snow White, which turned up in a children's book.
  • Snow White was also going to include all three of the Queen's assassination attempts (poison comb, bodice suffocation and the poison apple) but eventually streamlined it to just the apple instead. Up until very late in production, just the bodice was cut, with the comb remaining. Take a look at the title card in the beginning, there is a comb visible.
  • Dopey was originally going to have speaking parts, like the other dwarfs rather than being The Silent Bob. However, he was made mute because a voice actor wasn't able to be found for him.
  • Snow White's design was originally much more pink.
  • Disney's Dwarves was a spinoff about the Seven Dwarves that never came out. Years later Disney made The 7D which is loosely based on the same idea.
  • The Queen was originally supposed to be more of a comical figure—she was ugly but apparently thought of herself as attractive (a trait reused decades later for Ursula), with planned scenes of her popping pimples and the like. As the story became more serious she did too, becoming the dark, severe beauty that we know her as.
• Pinocchio:
  • Gideon was going to speak and be voiced by Mel Blanc. Blanc recorded lines for him, but after the popularity of Dopey it was decided that he would be more likable mute. Blanc's voice can still be heard when Gideon hiccups. Gideon still giggled a bit in the December 1939 radio adaptation broadcasted to promote the film.
  • Another deleted scene was originally the donkey Lampwick was supposed to join Pinocchio and Jiminy in their escape from Pleasure Island but he is caught by the Coachman's minions (accompanied by a pack of bloodhounds that would bear more than a passing resemblance to Pluto) and as he is being carried away, he says, "Go on, save yourselves, I'm a goner". However, some storybook adaptations keep the scene.
  • As seen on bonuses in the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film, there were at least three more possible ideas for scenes that were ultimately deleted:
    • First, after dousing Pinocchio's burning finger after he plays with a candle^note This particular bit was restored in the live-action remake, Geppetto puts him to bed while warning him never to play with fire because he is made of wood and should be proud of it because, as Geppetto tells it in a bedtime story, Pinocchio's grandfather is a noble pine tree, a proud monarch of the forest.
    • Second was an alternate scene of Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo starving inside Monstro the whale. Here, Geppetto, while fishing, manages to catch a package, which he hopes contains food, only to actually contain... a cookbook! Figaro sees the cookbook, which is open to a page on how to cook fish, and he tries to eat Cleo. Geppetto stops his every attempt and chastises him for it, only to almost eat the goldfish himself before coming to his senses. Like the deleted scene of Lampwick being carried off by the Coachman, this scene was used in storybook adaptations. This may also have served as the basis for the first Figaro short, "Figaro and Cleo", which features a similar plot of Figaro trying to eat Cleo, although in that cartoon, he is continuously thwarted not by Geppetto, but by a black "mammy"-type maid.
    • Third was a simpler ending, in which the film ends on the beach where they escape from Monstro. In this scene, it is Geppetto who is unconscious and Pinocchio who thinks he is dead^note This was also featured in the live-action remake and blames himself for allowing him to die, breaking down crying as he does so. Then Geppetto comes to as Pinocchio becomes, right then and there, a real boy. Geppetto exclaims, "Pinocchio! What's happened to you?" The whole group, which also includes Figaro, Cleo, and Jiminy, is ecstatic. The group, sans Jiminy, dances off down the beach while Jiminy stays behind, thanking the wishing star, after which, as in the final film, a shiny new badge appears on his shirt and the cricket sees the star reflected in the badge.
  • One of the many songs to made for, but ultimately not used in, Pinocchio was a song for Jiminy Cricket called "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow", which was used in another Disney film, Fun and Fancy Free, in which Jiminy also appears.
  • It was originally considered that Stromboli would have a pet parrot, partially to justify the birdcage in which Pinocchio is imprisoned.
• Fantasia:
  • The movie was supposed to be a periodic, if not yearly, event, with brand-new music and sequences for every rerelease. Unfortunately, the onset of World War II nixed this. This may be the most haunting of all the Disney couldabeens, as it could have changed the history of Western Animation. Imagine if it had gone beyond classical music and into swing, big band, rock, pop music and so on? We sort of saw a glimpse of what might have been with anthology features like Make Mine Music. (And then 41 years later with American Pop.)
  • Fantasia 2000 originally had a short parodying The Ugly Duckling starring Goofy named "The Ugly Goofling".
  • Fantasia 2006 was to focus on world music and segments were completed for it before the plug was pulled. They subsequently became standalone shorts: "One by One" and "The Little Match Girl" are included as bonus features on the special edition DVDs of The Lion King II and The Little Mermaid, respectively; Lorenzo screened before Raising Helen in theaters, and Destino has appeared at film festivals and, curiously, cruise ship art auctions. They all appeared at a 2008 Los Angeles screening hosted by Roy as well.
  • The original Fantasia was going to include "Clair De Lune"; but it was cut. It was animated and you can see it here; the sequence was recycled for Make Mine Music by changing the music to "Blue Bayou" instead.
  • Fantasia 2000 was supposed to include a sequence featuring characters from every Disney Animated Canon film at the time. The original idea was that Mickey was composing an orchestra where the audience featured every major character from every Disney film thus far. The scene would switch between Mickey performing and gags involving the audience. One known gag was Snow White sitting next to the Evil-Queen-in-her-disguise. Snow White offers the Evil Queen some popcorn while the Evil Queen offers her a basket of apples, causing Snow to look bemusedly at her, This sequence was scrapped because it was seen as just a gimmicky gag-filled joke without any emotional weight. This idea was then changed to featuring just the Disney Princesses in a cathedral, but that too was scrapped. The concept of having every Disney Animated Canon character appear would finally be realized in “Once Upon a Studio” as part of Disney’s 100 Year Celebration.
• Bambi:
  • According to the book "Mickey and the Gang: Classic Stories in Verse", a film adaptation of "Bambi's Children" was actually planned but never got beyond the early stages of development. The book did have an adaptation in comic form.
  • In the production of the first film, it was debated how to show the death of Bambi's mom: originally there was scene where we would see her body collapse as she jumped over a log, after hearing the sound of a shotgun, but it was decided the scene would be more effective emotionally if we don't actually see her die. According to Thomas & Johnston's Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, Walt Disney was also eager to show Man burned to death by the fire that he inadvertently started, but this was discarded when it was decided not to show Man at all.
  • Thumper's father was planned to appear in person, but that didn't make it into the final film.
  • In the mid-80s, there were plans for a spin-off film, starring Thumper.
  • The hunter was going to actually appear, but it led to a dilemma; kids wouldn't accept a character killing the protagonist's mother unless he was evil, but Disney didn't want to make it seem that they were demonizing hunters (as if the finished film hasn't turned who knows how many kids off that pastime), so the character was cut.
  • The film was originally going to be the studio's second animated film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but Walt's goal of animating the deer realistically proved to be more challenging than anticipated, so it was moved down the production line, and Pinocchio became their second feature instead.
  • At one point a Bambi 3 was planned.
  • Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit was going to be revealed as the killer of Bambi's mom, but this would have messed up the "Toons are actually actors" angle of the film.
  • Another story goes that the people who made Beauty and the Beast wanted to imply it was Gaston who killed Bambi's mom. Just goes to show you that no one shoots like Gaston!
• The two sequences of Fun and Fancy Free, "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk", were in development since 1940 and '41 as two standalone features. "Beanstalk" (originally named "The Legend of Happy Valley") was brought to the screen largely as originally conceived, but a planned scene of how Mickey got the magic beans in exchange for the cow was dropped. "Bongo", meanwhile, was considered to happen in parallel with Dumbo, and feature some characters from that film. It was also planned that Bongo have a chimpanzee for a partner. In the woods, they would meet two mischievous bear cubs. The character designs were also more realistic than would appear in the final film. But with the infamous Disney animators' strike of 1941 and then the outbreak of World War II, production on both films was halted. After the war, the studio was hurting for cash, and Walt didn't think that the two films were strong enough to each merit a standalone film. So, between that and the need to bring in some much-needed cash, the studio packaged the two films together as an Animated Anthology. Ironically, the two films did air individually on television as part of the Walt Disney anthology series, as well as released individually, as well as together, on home video.
• Cinderella:
  • Prince Charming originally had more screentime. In a deleted scene, he was seen apparently hunting a deer, but it turned out they were friends and playing a game together. In a Cut Song, he dreams of Cinderella beckoning him to find her again. In another deleted scene, he's reintroduced to Cinderella after she fits the slipper. While surprised that she was a servant, he accepted her immediately.
  • At one point Cinderella and her Prince were going to be shown having a dance among the clouds, based on an abandoned concept from Snow White, but it didn't make the final cut. This twice abandoned concept was later used at the end of 1959's Sleeping Beauty.
  • Originally Cinderella had a song where she lamented her situation called "The Cinderella Work Song", which came complete with Cinderella fantasizing about multiplying herself into an army of maids to take on her ever growing work load. Parts of this were clearly adapted into the "Sing Sweet Nightingale" segment with a dozen singing Cinderellas reflected in the soap bubbles.
  • A scrapped scene had Cinderella returning home from the Ball and overhearing her evil stepmother and stepsisters talk about the mystery girl from the Ball who had charmed the Prince - and Cinderella is shown to be deeply amused by this since she knows they're talking about her. Apparently old Walt Disney himself had the scene cut since he thought it made Cinderella look vindictive and thus unsympathetic.
  • Cinderella II: Dreams Come True consists of episodes from a cancelled Recycled: The Series sequel.
• Alice in Wonderland:
  • An earlier adaptation was planned back in the thirties. The storyboards were done by David Hall and very grotesque and quite dark. It was also much closer to the book. The Alice in Wonderland ride at Disneyland contains a homage to this early treatment: a signpost topped by the head of the Mad Hatter.
  • The trope image (From a children's book) depicts an unproduced scene from the film. Apparently, the Cheshire Cat's recitation of the opening lines of "Jabberwocky" was to give way to an actual encounter with the Jabberwock itself, voiced by Stan Freberg. It was trashed for evidently being too scary or because the sequence was really long. The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle were also apparently at some point planned to appear.
  • Apparently, Disney even toyed with the idea of having a live-action Alice explore an animated Wonderland, as in his early "Alice Comedies".
  • Janet Waldo, best known as Judy Jetson, was considered at one point to voice Alice. She would later voice Alice in Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?, televised in 1966 on ABC.
• Peter Pan:
  • Disney had been planning an adaptation of the story in the thirties. Unfortunately, the studio was hurting for money, and Peter and Alice in Wonderland were put on hiatus until after World War II. If you can find the film The Reluctant Dragon, you can spot very early concept art for these and several other films.
  • An alternate opening shows Peter deciding to fly from Never Land to Earth in order to find a potential mother for the Lost Boys. Though in the finished film, having Wendy be their mother was an afterthought of his.
  • It was originally intended that Nana the dog would accompany Peter and the Darlings to Neverland, which she eventually does in a Jake and the Never Land Pirates special.
• Lady and the Tramp:
  • It wasn't a love story originally; the focus was entirely on Lady and Junior, because the story was based on Joe Grant's (Disney's most prominent writer) cocker spaniel and how she reacted to Grant's wife's pregnancy.
  • Tramp had several names, "Homer", "Rags," and "Bozo", mostly because of this.
  • On top of this, an extra was meant to be in a Love Triangle with Lady and the Tramp, the rat was going to be less threatening and more comedic and speak in a gangster-type voice, Lady's only neighbor was a dog named Hubert, Aunt Sarah was supposed to be a stereotypical overbearing mother-in-law, Jim Dear and Darling were named Jim and Elizabeth Brown. And finally, Si and Am were called Nip and Tuck.
  • The dog pound was to be an example of Fantastic Racism, where dogs with collars and dogs without collars were separated, and the dogs without collars more likely doomed to execution.
  • It was originally considered that when Jock and Trusty went to stop the dog catcher's wagon from reaching the pound, the wagon would crush and kill Trusty. Walt thought it was no different than Bambi losing his mother, but Peggy Lee insisted that it would be too dark. Walt capitulated, and in the final film, while it looks as though Trusty is indeed killed as intended, he shows up at the finale alive, but with a broken leg.
• The Jungle Book (1967):
  • The original draft for the film was a bit closer to the book, and really grim.
  • The vultures were direct caricatures of The Beatles. Where they now merely have Liverpool accents and a few of them have Moptop -er- feathercuts, they were once supposed to be voiced by the Fab Four. Their song "We're Your Friends" was to be a Beatles-style '60s rock song. The Fab Four's schedule didn't help this plan. But more interestingly, Walt Disney assumed the song would become hopelessly dated. So if you, as a kid, always wondered why a bunch of birds who sound like the Beatles suddenly break into a barbershop quartet song of all things, there's your answer. Walt thought barbershop would age better. Another reason it was never meant to be was the fact John Lennon absolutely refused to work with the Disney corporation.
  • The vulture group originally had the company of a short-sighted rhino named Rocky, who was to be voiced by Frank Fontaine.
  • Actors considered for the voice of Shere Khan included Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, John Carradine, Hans Conried, Basil Rathbone, and Don Rickles.
• The Aristocats:
  • There were plans for an "The Aristocats II," which was supposed to be a direct-to-video sequel. While the first film had the kittens’ nemesis as a misguided butler intent on stealing their fortune, the sequel created a similar dynamic by pitting them against a jewel thief on the open seas aboard a luxury cruise ship. There was also a young kitty love interest for Marie who became the focal character of the film. The ship would travel to places like France, Scotland, England, Spain, etc, thus creating a creating a new atmosphere of different places in the early 1900s. It was scheduled to be released in 2007, but the production was canceled in early 2006 after Disney acquired Pixar. The closest would have to be the Miriya & Marie, which starred Marie and a new character exclusive to that manga, much like the anime series Stitch!.
  • There were also plans for an "Aristocats: The Animated Series" way back in 2003. Marie and her brothers Berlioz, and Toulouse would be teenagers, and Marie (who was supposed to be the main character of this new "Aristocats" show) would've been given someone new to bounce off of. They invented a teenage cat similar to O'Malley the alley cat, called Delancey, who could dance like a combination of Justin Timberlake and Usher. And then to round out the cast, "The Street Cats" were created. The basic idea here was to reinvent "The Aristocats" so that this franchise would then appeal to your typical Disney Channel/Toon Disney watcher. But when Disney bought Pixar in 2006, it was cancelled along with the "Aristocats II" film. Only concept art for "Aristocats: The Animated Series" managed to surface online.
  • There was a deleted character named Elvira who was Madame Bonfamille's maid. She would have formed a Big Bad Duumvirate with Edgar after singing a Villain Love Song with him called "Court Me Slowly."
  • When Walt worked on the film, Duchess and her kittens were more snobby. The "Aristocats" in the title was ironic. Through Character Development they would have to learn to stop being so mean.
  • Scat Cat's original name was "Satchmo Cat" and was intended for Louis Armstrong. When Armstrong's illness made this impossible, he was recast. The song written for Armstrong, "Le Jazz Hot", was replaced with "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat".
• Robin Hood (1973):
  • There was storyboard material that showed the Sheriff of Nottingham at the wedding in the ending, implying that he had reformed or was at least pardoned for his actions. This was cut and his fate had him working on the rock pile along with Prince John and Sir Hiss. (It in fact would have made more sense for Sir Hiss to perform the Heel–Face Turn, since he objects to the plot to draw Robin out by hanging Friar Tuck and is the only one of John's minions who truly fears him.)
  • The original ending also had Prince John stab Robin Hood and chase him and Maid Marian into a church. Both are saved by a timely arrival from King Richard.
  • Friar Tuck was going to be a pig, but this was considered too offensive and so was changed to a badger. Likewise, the Sheriff was going to be a naggy goat, but was changed to a more intimidating wolf.^note The change to Friar Tuck was also to set up a Stealth Pun: There is a scene where a character is running past guards a la a football player running the end zone. Friar Tuck can be seen in clapping in the audience, all the while the University of Wisconsin fight song plays (said university's football team are the Badgers).
• The Rescuers went through a lot of iterations before hitting the screen. At first, the mice were to rescue a political prisoner, which, believe it or not, is in-line with the original books. Then they were to rescue a bear from the zoo, or a depressed poet who was being held captive by a totalitarian government. The bear idea was scrapped due after Louis Prima, who was set to voice the bear, passed away. Before it was completely retooled into the film we know today, Cruella DeVil was going to be the villain. Note how similar Madame Medusa is to Cruella at her -er- cruelest.
• Originally, the character of Chief in The Fox and the Hound was going to die after being hit by a train, making Copper's revenge against Tod more extreme and justifiable. Disney decided to let the character live (albeit, like Trusty, with a broken leg) because they thought the original script was too dark, and he was a good character besides.
• The Black Cauldron was originally much longer, grimmer, and graphically violent. Most of the scenes—including a man being sliced in two in silhouette and the Horned King decapitating one of his henchmen—haven't been seen outside of rumor, but some cut scenes and shots including the infamous "man being dissolved by the undead" scene have managed to make it to YouTube due to animation cels, promotional materials, pencil tests and other elements of the scenes surfacing on the Internet.
• Originally, Oliver & Company was going to be about Penny from The Rescuers after she had been happily adopted and going on another adventure. Obviously, this was changed, but there are still some remnants of this concept, such as how the girl in the movie is named "Jenny".
• The Little Mermaid:
  • While it does not appear in the film itself, the fanon jury is still out on whether the detail about Ursula being Triton's sister is What Could Have Been or canon. It was dropped from the animated movie but included in the Broadway musical and implied in the Disney Villains files. On the other hand, the TV series (which was stated to be canon by the creators) never once mentions Ursula's relationship with Triton, and Return to the Sea heavily implies that Ursula is not related to King Triton at all.
  • The second movie was originally supposed to have a song, "Gotta Get My Wish", that elaborated a bit more on Morgana's past, but it was deleted. The scene was restored in the bonus features of the special edition DVD, however.
  • Disney came very, very close to making a movie based on The Little Mermaid almost thirty years earlier! The project was eventually abandoned (they couldn't figure out how to deal with the Bittersweet Ending), but you can still see the surviving production art on the "Little Mermaid" DVD.
  • Ariel was originally supposed to be blonde-haired, but it was eventually changed to red after producer Katzenberg stated that coloring her hair would turn her into a "Splash" ripoff.
  • In a case of "what could have not-been", Ariel's song "Part of Your World" was originally going to be sent to the cutting room floor due to Katzenberg thinking that test audiences were bored with it, even citing as petty a reason as a kid dropping his popcorn and focusing more on cleaning it up. Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Glen Keane were all appalled and furious, so they fought to keep it in and won. "Silence is Golden", a song originally sung by Ursula, was not quite as lucky.
  • Drag queen Divine was originally cast to play Ursula, but passed away before he could begin recording. He was replaced with Elaine Stritch, who was fired due to constant clashing with the crew and replaced with Pat Carroll. Bea Arthur was offered the role, but turned it down due to being busy filming The Golden Girls.
  • Most of the entire ending of the film was also intended to be much different. For one thing, it originally had Prince Eric willingly attempting to marry Vanessa (like in the original story) and then beginning to have second thoughts at the actual wedding instead of ending up Brainwashed as in the final version. Also, the shark that attacks Ariel and Flounder earlier in the film was originally supposed to make a reappearance where he attempts to get his revenge on Ariel and Flounder for humiliating him earlier with the anchor, only to be blown to bits when Ariel manages to reach the ship due to the barrel that she was using being revealed to have been a gunpowder barrel. The actual humiliation of Vanessa was originally supposed to occur at the last possible second; Scuttle attempts to use his knowledge of a reflection exposing Vanessa's true identity to his advantage (specifically by hauling a mirror towards her), but she manages to wreck it. Her real identity is exposed anyway due to water reflecting her. Ariel also wasn't supposed to get her voice back until after Ursula was killed. The manner of Ursula's death was also different, with her being impaled with the Trident by Eric shortly before he loses consciousness (which is more-or-less what actually happens when the story is revisited in Kingdom Hearts II). Also, Ursula's Berserk Button pertained more to Eric hurling the harpoon towards her and actually hitting her. Although she still kills Flotsam and Jetsam by accident, she has absolutely no horror or remorse in doing so. Chef Louis and Sebastian apparently also become friends during the wedding instead of keeping their rivalry as in the final version, and overall the ending is a lot more bittersweet than in the final version.
  • During the production of Ariel's Beginning, there was leaked storyboard material where Ariel and Sebastian were discussing/debating about Eric's recent behavior, Eric walks in and says, "is someone feeling really crabby?", and then Ariel glares at him. It's not known if this was cut or intended for another film.
  • Little Mermaid's Island was a 1990 collab project between Jim Henson and Disney. It was a television series starring a live-action Ariel (played by Marietta Deprima), a live-action Grimsby (played by Clive Revill), and puppet animals. It featured a new character named Sandy, who was Flounder's twin sister. The series was planned to be a daily series with four songs per episode, however only two episodes were ever produced. It was one of Jim's last projects. The character of Sandy ended up having a prominent role in a series of spin-off books about the franchise, however.
  • The work tape demo version of "Les Poissons", found in the Legacy Edition of the movie's soundtrack, reveals that the scene at one point took place during a cooking class Chef Louis was teaching, as opposed to him cooking alone like in the final version.
• Beauty and the Beast:
  • The 2001 DVD includes an early presentation reel of concept art that confirms the original storyline was going to stick closer to the fairy tale, with characters like Belle's two sisters still in it, and would have been a straight drama. It ran into the same problems the initial effort to adapt the story in Walt's day did — the second act (Belle in the castle) was dramatically inert. Making it a musical and adding characters like the Enchanted Objects did a lot to rectify this.
  • "Be Our Guest" was supposed to be sung to Maurice, but it was seen as too good to use on a minor character so early in the film. There exists some unfinished animation of Belle's father from this original treatment.
  • A music box was originally a prominent supporting character — it could soothe the Beast with its music (heh) and was the item that stowed away with Belle when she was freed. But when the filmmakers were impressed by the voice of the child hired for the then-one line role of Chip, they promptly began expanding his role, and the music box became superfluous. (You can see it among the Objects when the mob bursts into the castle, however.) The 2010 DVD release includes a storyboard reel revealing a whole set of library-specific Objects: Oxford the book stand, Cambridge the globe, a bust who spoke in famous quotations and was attracted to Belle (!?), and a pair of binoculars who talked up Little Known Facts about space. Oxford eventually made an appearance in Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World.
  • Early character designs and the 1989 story reel on the 2010 DVD release reveals Gaston was originally conceived as a foppish, foolish aristocrat, before animators decided an aggressively macho hunter would make a more effective antagonist. The story reel also reveals that at that point Maurice was a ruined businessman as in the original fairy tale, his Wicked Stepmother-esque sister was the primary antagonist intent on marrying off Belle to Gaston, Belle had two sidekicks in a little sister and a pet cat, Maurice's horse (then named Orson) arrived at the castle with him, and the Enchanted Objects did not speak.
  • The manner of Gaston's death also underwent several revisions: In one of the earliest drafts, Gaston was to have survived his fall, with a broken leg, and encounter the wolves from before, where it was implied that they finished him off. Another revision is a bit closer to the final film, although instead Gaston laughs all the way down (similar to the Joker in The Dark Knight), implying that his method of backstabbing the Beast was closer to Taking You with Me. The aforementioned wolf death concept was eventually reused with Scar's death in The Lion King.
  • Before all this, Don Bluth planned a "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation in 1984. His version would have involved (among other... embellishments) a clairvoyant dog, a detective bird, and a lizard escape artist. (See the "Other Western Animation" section for more Don Bluth couldabeens.)
  • At the end of the movie Belle was supposed to ask the now human Beast if he could grow a beard. This was eventually added into the live action remake twenty years later.
  • The midquel The Enchanted Christmas was originally meant to be a straight-up sequel, with Gaston's brother Avenant (a Shout-Out to the 1946 film of the fairy tale) as the antagonist intent on avenging Gaston's death and ruining the lovers' lives. It was changed to a midquel and Avenant's role was given to the pipe organ when the filmmakers thought the audience would be more interested in the Beast than the Prince.
  • If Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World looks like a television cartoon, that's because it is. The film is three shorts from a cancelled Beauty and the Beast cartoon combined into a film.
• Pocahontas:
  • Originally, the animal characters were going to talk, with John Candy slated to voice a turkey named Redfeather. The character was scrapped after Candy's death and it was later decided that the animals shouldn't talk in order to make the film more "serious" — it was originally a light adventure fantasy with a preteen heroine and teen John Smith, but execs wanted more serious Oscar Bait after Beauty and the Beast was nominated for best picture — a first for an animated feature. Also, the character of Wiggins was originally conceived to be much more snobby, but then he ended up looking perky in a piece of concept art and the rest is history.
  • As seen in the behind-the-scenes section of the July 1995 issue of Disney Adventures promoting this movie, there's a title card from pre-production featuring the eponymous heroine with a different design that looks similar to Tiger Lily from Peter Pan. In fact, it could very well be her but going by a different name to take on the Pocahontas role. Her eyes are closed, head tilted back, arms crossed and she's surrounded by a few forest animals. This gives the impression that using an established, past Disney character for the lead in this may have been considered early on at one point had the results turned out differently.
  • Originally David Ogden Stiers only voiced Wiggins, with Ratcliffe being voiced by someone else. Norman Lovett, Patrick Stewart and BRIAN BLESSED auditioned for the part.
  • The scene of Pocahontas visiting John Smith after he was captured originally was a song sequence "If I Never Knew You". It was ultimately cut, because Disney noticed that younger audience got bored during this sequence, although the older, teen audience seemed more emotionally attached. The song is added in as an extra in the 2005 10th Anniversary Edition DVD.
  • The version of "Savages" on the soundtrack is an uncensored version not used in the film. The censored line was "Their whole disgusting race is a curse" to "Here's what you get when races are diverse". In an earlier version, "dirty shrieking devils" was "dirty redskin devils".
• Hercules:
  • They chose Hades as its villain early on, but originally he was going to be a dark, brooding figure who talked slowly and menacingly. James Woods, however, kept joking a mile per minute during recording, resulting in the "Hollywood agent/car salesman type" that Hades became. Many, perhaps even most, of his lines were ad libbed.
  • Megara had a ballad named "I Can't Believe My Heart", instead of "I Won't Say I'm In Love". It was scrapped because they didn't think it was the type of song Meg would sing.
  • There was a canned sequel called Hercules 2: The Trojan War.
• Mulan:
  • The film evolved from a short movie called "China Doll", the story of an oppressed girl in China that is whisked away at the end of the story by a British prince to the happiness of the west. Then Robert D. San Souci, Disney consultant and children's book author, suggested making a movie based on the Chinese poem "The Song of Fa Mulan", and Disney decided to combine both projects.
  • The character of Mulan was originally going to be engaged to a man of high status, which would be one of the reasons why she left for the war. This motive was later rejected.
  • In 2004 an animated series named Mulan and the Treasure of Qin was pitched but nothing came out of it.
• The Emperor's New Groove originally started off as Kingdom of the Sun, a musical animation with a serious tone similar to The Prince of Egypt. Kingdom of the Sun would have involved Kuzco and Pacha switching places in a Prince and Pauper scheme, Kuzco falling in love with a llama-herding girl, Yzma being a menacing Vain Sorceress with a kickass Villain Song, and Pacha killing Yzma by lassoing the sun (?!) and striking her with it. The two directors had different ideas; one preferred comedy, the other drama. After one left, it eventually became a screwball comedy with little music. Sting was none too pleased about this last change...
  
  Which leads us to his muckraking documentary The Sweatbox, which chronicles the whole spectacular debacle of the film's complete thematic transformation. It's mentioned here because Disney owns the rights to the documentary, meaning we may never see the included original "Kingdom" artwork and music. A very small clip of the doc can be viewed here. Three songs from the original film was kept on the soundtrack, namely, "Walk the Llama Llama", "One Day She'll Love Me" and Eartha Kitt's delightfully dark Villain Song "Snuff Out the Light". Also, sketches and other conceptual artwork from the early days of Kingdom/Emperor (and American Dog/Bolt, see below) have been posted at this Paul Felix fansite. They give a better idea of what could have been.
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire:
  • The film was meant to have a sequel called Shards of Chaos, but it was abandoned due to the original film not being as successful as Disney expected.
  • Atlantis: Milo's Return is actually three episodes of a cancelled Recycled: The Series show called Team Atlantis. Team Atlantis was also going to have a Gargoyles crossover episode.
• Lilo & Stitch:
  • The ending scene was originally going to be much different: Just right after Gantu kidnaps Lilo, Nani, Jumba, Pleakley, and Stitch were all going to steal a passenger jet at an airport, and using it to chase Gantu's ship into the city of Honolulu, demolishing many skyscrapers in the process. Unfortunately, because of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the entire scene had to be completely reanimated, with the passenger jet being replaced by a large spaceship, and the skyscrapers being replaced by mountains. The rest of the ending was going to merge with the final version shortly afterwards (with Stitch climbing onto Gantu's ship to smash open the glass cage Lilo is trapped in, only to have Gantu shake him off, sending Stitch falling to the ground, where he then steals a fuel truck and drives it into a volcano, causing it to explode and sending Stitch flying back into the air, where he finally succeeds in defeating Gantu and freeing Lilo), except that they still use an airplane instead of a spaceship.
  • An earlier scene showing Stitch fighting Jumba and subsequently setting Lilo's house on fire was originally going to be much more violent. Jumba was originally going to make the roof collapse using his own blaster instead of dishes, a different song other than "Hound Dog" was going to play in the background, there was no exploding Scrump strapped to a roller skate, Jumba's shuriken was going to be made of knives instead of toothpaste, Stitch wasn't going to say "Blue punch buggy!" when he hits Jumba with a VW Beetle, the scene where Stitch activates a chainsaw was going to be much longer, and the house was going to catch fire by having Jumba accidentally shoot a leaking gas pipe broken by Stitch rather than playing Hot Potato with an overloading blaster with a carrot lodged in its barrel. Again, that scene had to be reanimated because of September 11th.
  • There was also going to be a scene where Stitch kills Pudge the fish, but the scene was cut for unstated reasons.
  • Another scene featured Lilo pulling pranks on racist tourists. It is assumed, like the previous scene, to have been cut very late in development, as they had fully voiced and animated animatics.
• Treasure Planet:
  • Alan Silvestri was attached to score the film but pulled out to do Lilo & Stitch instead.
  • There's a line cut from the ending that would have revealed it was Doppler who gave birth to the babies.
  • In the theatrical release, there was a scene where after being injured, Captain Amelia looks at her hand which is covered in blood. It showed that her injury is indeed very serious, but was cut for home release because it was deemed too graphic.
  • There was going to be a sequel that would pick up where the first movie left off. More information here.
  • A television series was in development but ended up shelved.
  • The "Legacy" ship was originally called the "Hispaniola" and then the "Destiny".
  • Doppler was originally a human. To make him stand out, he was changed into an alien. It was decided to give him dog features to play off of Amelia.
  • Early Amelia designs show her as a human-like alien with tentacles for hair and a humanoid alien with a large head. She was eventually turned into a cat but she went through various designs before her finalized version was solidified.
  • Morph was originally CGI but that proved to be too difficult.
• Brother Bear:
  • The movie was going to have an older adult bear named Grizz be a friend and mentor to Kenai instead of Koda...and Grizz was even voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan. That got scrapped but Duncan DID still get to voice another character in the movie: minor character Tug.
  • There was also the Cut Song "The Fishing Song". However, the song "Welcome" seemed to fit the mood much better, and the Fishing Song is now seen on YouTube and on the DVD.
• Home on the Range was originally named Sweating Bullets. An early plot was about a calf named Bullets who saves his herd from a gang of ghost cattle rustlers called The Willies.
• Chicken Little:
  • Chicken Little was originally a girl but was changed into a boy to appeal to boys more. That version of the story was very different from what ended up seeing the light of day, with Chicken Little being an overly imaginative yet very anxious chick that had both parents alive. She is sent to a summer camp named Camp Yes-You-Can in order to improve her self-esteem, as her anxiety caused her to have a panic attack about the sky falling that almost led her hometown to be destroyed. In Camp Yes-You-Can, she meets the friends that the male Chicken Little ended up having (only with a male Ugly Duckling instead of a female one). She then discovers that the camp counselors are literal wolves in sheep's clothing that plan on fattening up the campers so to eat them in a feast afterwards. However, she and her new friends end up saving the day.
  • There was a sequel titled Chicken Little 2: The Ugly Duckling Story planned at one time.
• Meet the Robinsons:
  • It was in production when John Lasseter took over for Disney; reportedly, he spent six hours meeting with the director after seeing it. Based on his advice, 60% of the movie wound up getting recut. In particular, Lasseter thought the villain was not very threatening, which led to the creation of Doris, his Hypercompetent Sidekick who winds up being the real Big Bad. The T-Rex battle was also a later addition, as was apparently at least some of the poignant ending. Lasseter was happy the new version would make people cry. He did work for Pixar, after all.
  • Wilbur's actor's voice changed so much during production that he had to redo all of his lines.
  • Various ideas that got cut: the good guys chase the villain to a Banana Cream Pie Planet; Grandpa Bud was a custodian at Louis' school; and Carl the robot having a rotating head with different faces/personalities.
  • Originally Wilbur was just going to lie about the time machine being out of fuel in order to keep from bringing Lewis back to see his birth mom. They decided that breaking the time machine and having Lewis fix it was better because it gave him something to do in the middle part of the film.
  • There was a sequel in development called Meet The Robinsons 2: The First Date. Also, a short film showing how Bowler Hat Guy caught Tiny the T-Rex almost got made.
• Bolt:
  • American Dog was a shelved idea that evolved into Bolt. American Dog would have followed Henry, a famous TV canine who stars in James Bond-like adventures, and finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert with a one-eyed, eyepatch-wearing cat and an oversized, radioactive rabbit, who he cons into driving him back to Hollywood. Director Chris Sanders would have also had Henry suffering from delusions over the course of the film. The trio would search for a new home, all the while still believing that they're on television. When John Lasseter came on board as the head of Pixar, Sanders created two early cuts of the film, but Lasseter (according to rumors) said that the film was "too quirky for its own good", and ended up firing Sanders after he couldn't rework the film, leading to DreamWorks Animation stepping in and hiring Sanders. In fact, Disney took great measures to white-wash any memory of the original project once Sanders left; there's a very brief mention at the start of The Art of Bolt book and no mention anywhere on the DVD extras. The only remnant of the original script lies in the sequence where Bolt, Mittens and Rhino stop in an abandoned junkyard in Nevada, and debate whether they should finally settle down or not.
  • Originally Chloë Moretz was meant to voice Penny. She recorded most of her lines before being ditched in favor of Miley Cyrus. Whatever you think of Cyrus' Penny, she sure was a deep-voiced ten year-old.
  • In her earlier designs, Penny had black hair instead of brown.
• The Princess and the Frog:
  • Disney had dabbled with adaptations of The Frog Prince years prior to developing this film.
  • Originally it starred a heroine named Madeline (better known as "Maddie") who, in a Cinderella-like plot, was the chambermaid to a spoiled rich girl. This was changed when a number of people complained that Maddie sounded too much like "Mammie" and was thus racist. The girl who "Maddie" worked for became the Spoiled Sweet Charlotte, and Tiana became a hard-working waitress.
  • Naveen would have originally been an English prince, but that was deemed "too cliché". There were differing issues on whether he should be white or black but eventually they went with Ambiguously Brown.
• Wreck-It Ralph:
  • The film has a whole lot of cameos in the movie, but a few didn't make it in:
    • Plans were there to include Mario and Luigi along with Bowser, but according to the director and screenwriter, they couldn't figure out a proper cameo for them. (It wasn't because Nintendo set their price too high, as is often reported.) The closet thing Mario has to a cameo is Felix hearing a doorbell ring and saying, "Oh, I bet that's Mario! Fashionably late, per the norm."
    • In the Bad Anon scene, Dr. Wily was meant to be part of the group, but for some reason, Capcom changed their mind and they replaced Wily with M. Bison. This only fueled further rumors of Capcom's hostility towards the Mega Man franchise, especially in the wake of the cancellation of Legends 3.
    • While he did make it in, Dig Dug was actually meant to have a bigger role—the same role that went to Q*bert in the end. Namco took offense at Dig Dug characters being left out in the cold, especially since they've had plenty of prominence with the likes of Mr. Driller. Bart Simpson, a Jurassic Park velociraptor and a Xenomorph were also meant to be among the homeless characters.
  • Originally, Felix and Ralph were going to be two video game sidekicks who traveled through games together, hoping to become true heroes. However, Ralph's interactions with Vanellope caused them to change their mind.
  • There would've been a fourth video game world after Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush called Extreme EZ Livin' 2 that would have been a mixture of Grand Theft Auto and The Sims.
  • Vanellope was originally planned to have gray or greenish skin to emphasize that she was a glitch, but it was felt that it made her look too sickly and zombie-like. The "No Glitches" warning sign at the Kart Factory reflects this look. Other concept art shows that she could have been a blonde, or a redhead at different points.
  • A few of the Sugar Rush racers had technicolor skin colors at some point in development: Swizzle was to be blue, Minty and Candlehead were to be green, Snowanna was purple, and Adorabeezle had light blue skin.
  • Some possible early concept designs for Taffyta Muttonfudge had her as an Evil Redhead or with brown hair, while most of the other drafts stuck with the platinum blonde idea.
  • The Sugar Rush racers were to have parents and houses seen in their world, with a town called "Candy Hollow" (which was to also be the title of the game before it was changed to Sugar Rush).
  • The name "Minty Zaki" was originally given to a mint ice cream-themed racer who'd wind up being called "Candlehead" in the final film. A sour apple-themed racer named "Emmareld" wound up as "Minty Zaki" in the final product. Other production name changes included:
    • "Peterbelly Buttercap" -> "Rancis Fluggerbutter"
    • "Adorabella Winterpop" -> "Adorabeezle Winterpop"
    • "Crumbelina Drizzlecap" -> "Crumbelina Di Caramello"
    • "Rumple" -> "Gloyd Orangeboar"
    • "Merfus" -> "Swizzle Malarkey"
  • Early concept art had Ralph as a hairy red beast or a sort of ape-like creature and other in-human designs (even machines like a bulldozer), rather than the human design they settled on in the end.
  • King Candy and Turbo were separate characters at one point instead of the same person, with King Candy acting as The Dragon to Turbo. King Candy would have also been redeemed at the end of the film.
  • One early developmental name for Ralph was the completely different "Wendell Grubble".
  • King Candy/Turbo was supposed to have a Villain Song where he explained how things work in Sugar Rush.
• Moana:
  • Moana was originally referred to as being fourteen, but was eventually aged up to sixteen.
  • Moana in the final product is an only child but originally she was the youngest of ten siblings, and the only female one. She had to rescue her older brothers.
  • Like Tangled, the film was originally meant to use the Paperman style to 2D-looking-CGI however that was scrapped for a more traditional CGI style.
  • The original idea was for the film to branch away from the Disney Princess template and focus entirely on Maui, with the story being a loose conglomeration of a few of the legends about him. Then the crew actually traveled to Polynesia and became so fascinated with the culture that Moana was created as the new focus character.
  • In early designs, Maui had a shaven head, just like Dwayne Johnson. However, as the team did research, they gave him a thick mane of hair to represent his mana.
  • Heihei was originally conceived as a much more serious, no-nonsense character that was determined to keep Moana out of trouble and remaining on the island. However, the chicken became unlikable, so they went in a totally different direction. Pua also had a larger role in earlier drafts.
  • Tamatoa was initially conceived of as a headless giant, like the Tamatoa of folklore. The giant crab basically just retains the name.
  • Lalotai was originally planned to be more of a traditional underworld (taking the form of a glowing underwater village amongst the coral) where Moana would meet the spirits of her grandmother and ancestors. The goddess Hina would have also been part of this sequence, though depicted as Maui's overbearing grandmother.
  • Several Cut Songs exist, such as "Unstoppable", "More", and the Dark Reprise "More (reprise)".
  • The scrapped song "Unstoppable" shows that Te Ka's original name was "Te Po".
• Ralph Breaks the Internet
  • The "Oh My Disney" sequence was actually a little darker. Originally, Ralph and Vanellope were meant to discover the defunct website to Disney Infinity and meet the various characters there.
  • During the same segment, Kylo Ren would've made an appearance where he was depicted as a spoiled Manchild, a nod to fan interpretations of the character. Lucasfilm executives weren't pleased.
  • Mario was again set to appear in the movie, with a more prominent role than he would've in the previous movie, but Universal's purchase of the movie rights to Super Mario Bros. resulted in him getting dropped, along with Bowser, who had made a cameo in the previous film. In their place was an Easter Egg where there were yellow question mark blocks in the background of Spamley's shack, complete with the 8-bit typeface of the mark. On the other hand, Sonic and Dr. Eggman were allowed to return, likely because of talks with Sega and Sonic movie rightsholder Paramount, the latter of whom was producing a feature film around the same period.
  • Phil Johnston and Rich Moore wanted clips from the classic sitcom The Golden Girls, another Disney property, to be shown in the Oh My Disney scene. When the clips were added to storyboards, the filmmakers weren't sure if younger audiences would recognize the series, so it failed to reach the production stage.
  • There were some lines and gags that were shown at the D23 Expo for the Disney Princess scene that didn't end up in the final film, presumably to avoid making the film too long. For instance, Snow White admitting she was nearsighted, Jasmine confessing she was allergic to cats, and the Princesses mistaking C-3PO for BB-8.
  • Shank went through a lot of different looks and names before she ended up the way she was in the final product. At one point, she was going to be a full-figured character named "Big Val", and be not only Ralph's Slaughter Race counterpart, but also his potential love interest. At other points, she would have had a snake, or a bunch of other menacing animals, be more directly inspired by Danny Trejo, or be named "Frieda".
  • Felix and Calhoun had many planned scenes throughout the movie (some of which have storyboards and other details included in the art book) where the audience would see how they were faring with the Sugar Rush racers. Unfortunately, their entire storyline and character arc had to be cut due to the movie's runtime constraints, resulting in only appearing at the very beginning and ending/epilogue. The credits hint at their intended major role, as they are listed at the beginning alongside their fellow main characters (as opposed to farther down with minor characters who only appeared in one or two scenes).
    • Much earlier in development, Felix and Calhoun would have had a very different storyline, including a flashback to Calhoun's early childhood (featuring her mother, who got eaten by Cy-Bugs), Calhoun becoming pregnant, and her and Felix having twins, with Q*Bert as the nanny.
  • When asked on Twitter about a Funko Pop! figure of Vanellope holding a sword, Rich Moore stated that was originally part of Vanellope's musical number where she pulls a sword out of a toxic waste barrel à la Sword in the Stone, but it unfortunately got cut.
  • John Madden was supposed to go and kick Ralph and Vanellope off of the football field of his game.
  • An early version had Vanellope becoming an internet celebrity instead of Ralph, with the fame going to her head. Ralph would have been mistaken for a virus and sent to prison; KnowsMore would have gotten a larger role as a fellow inmate.

Pixar Films

• A Bug's Life was originally simply called "Bugs", and the original plot featured some major differences to the final version. Flik would have been a red ant named Red, who was also the ringleader of the flea circus. It would have been his idea to pretend to be warriors. There also would have been Ladybug acrobats instead of pillbugs, and the team of insects would have used their circus show (instead of a bird in the final version) to defeat the Grasshoppers. There were also early rumors that it would be a musical (this was back when Disney felt Toy Story was a huge risk just because it didn't include characters singing).
• Ratatouille:
  • Gusteau was originally going to be more involved in the story — still living, but too depressed and gloomy from Ego's review. The producers felt the story was complicated enough, so his role was trimmed down.
  • Steve Jobs was not on board for the title of "Ratatouille" since he thought it'd be too hard for English speakers to pronounce correctly. Many other titles were proposed, like Rat! or Remy's Secret Kitchen.
• WALL•E:
  • EVE originally first didn't find out the plant survived the exploding escape pod until after going back inside (she was originally just really happy that WALL•E survived, but they changed it to show she was still more concerned about her job than him) and the scene in the airlock dump was originally supposed to have WALL•E and EVE's roles reversed (with EVE being the one AUTO damaged and WALL•E never making it to the deck), and WALL•E fixing EVE right then instead of EVE having to rush back to Earth to repair WALL•E. The original version of these scenes (as well as an explanation as to why) were included as an extra on the DVD and Blu-ray releases. This is also the plot the adaptation video game uses.
  • Shelby Forthright's voice was originally more of a William Shatner impression than the "Lovable car salesman" voice he had in the final film. His original voice can be heard in the deleted scene "Secret Files" on the DVD and Blu-ray.
  • According to the DVD features, the humans were originally going to be gel-like life forms with an incomprehensible language of random syllables who would vary between being careless and outright cruel to the robots. Finally, the robots would have rebelled and WALL•E would have been dragged into the whole thing. Also, AUTO went fairly far into production as a design similar to a blocky, masculine version of EVE instead of his wheel-like design.
  • There were plans for an cartoon spinoff series circa 2008.
• Up:
  • Muntz was originally going to be dealt with in a very horrific sequence of being tricked into entering Kevin's labyrinth and left to wander around lost until he starves. Pete Docter vetoed it as it made the ending more about Muntz than Carl and Ellie.
  • Carl's original reason for using the balloons was to visit Ellie in heaven.
  • The original opening involved young Ellie and Carl constantly out to punch each other due to a childish rivalry until they fall in love in their teen years. Then, one of Ellie's last acts in her hospital bed is to throw Carl an affectionate punch in the chest. Needless to say, Pete Docter said he got funny looks from test viewers.
  • Other endings were considered, including one where Muntz would redeem himself after talking to Carl; one where he got his foot tangled in the balloons and was pulled up into the air; and one where he ran into the house to grab what he thought was Kevin (actually just another balloon) and was followed by his dogs, their combined weight causing the house to fall.
  • Kevin was originally introduced with Carl and Russell finding her in one of Muntz's traps and freeing her. Then Docter realized it wouldn't make much sense after she'd been dodging his traps for decades.
• Brave:
  • Much of the film was originally to be set during the winter, with snow being the big technical challenge for the film. But when Brenda Chapman left the project, so did the weather.
  • The first summary released online stated the three Lords actually aided Merida in breaking the spell! That did not happen, to say the least.
  • Another summary implied that the three Lords were direct antagonists to Merida.
  • Mor'du's backstory was supposed to be more prominent in the earlier draft, thereby making the film much darker than it already is. Inevitably, executives made Pixar tone it down.
  • The movie's official artbook confirms that originally, Young MacGuffin is the one Merida ends up with. This was probably cut out of the final product since the filmmakers wanted to focus more on the mother/daughter relationship.
  • The film in general gets this; as revealed in a number of the home release featurettes, although every film Pixar (and any studio for that matter) makes always has sequences that get dropped, Brave specifically has an immense amount of scrapped and altered scenes that just didn't make the final cut, made harsher in that a lot of the sequences were nearly finished.
  • The directors commentary reveals numerous scenes and ways the film could have gone but they decided not to do for various reasons. The main change was that there originally would have had snow for two thirds of the film. They changed this due to the fact they felt it would ruin the Scottish Landscape.
• Finding Dory:
  • The story was reworked after the writers watched the documentary Blackfish. This included changing Destiny from an orca to a whale shark and changing the ending so that the characters don't stay in captivity.
  • Destiny was originally Dory's adopted sister instead of her childhood friend. The film revolved around Dory finding her sister.
  • The "sleep-swimming" scene from the teaser was originally part of the movie and was much longer.
  • Dory's flashbacks were originally one big childhood sequence at the start of the film instead of being spread out.
  • Originally Dory's short term memory ran in her family. It was decided against as it'd be too frustrating if her parents both forgot their conversations too.
  • The Tank Gang only appear in The Stinger but were meant to have a bigger appearance.
  • At one point in development, Bailey was Destiny's sister. They had a poor relationship but would reconcile by the end.
  • The giant squid originally had dialogue where he pretended to be Dory's uncle in order to lure her.

Other Disney Films

• Mary Poppins:
  • Disney offered to do an animated adaptation of Mary Poppins, but author P.L. Travers felt no one would take the movie seriously if it was animated.
    • After the film's success, Disney approached Travers for rights to film the other books, but given her absolute hatred of the movie, she unsurprisingly refused.
  • Walt was negotiating to have the rights to film Bedknobs and Broomsticks in case negotiations for the rights to Mary Poppins fell through.
  • The book had a chapter in which Mary Poppins and the children use a magic compass to visit different countries. The Sherman Brothers wrote a wide assortment of songs to use for their journey, but the chapter ultimately went unadapted. The Cut Songs eventually found use in other Sherman Brothers productions, such as The Jungle Book (1967) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
  • Although Julie Andrews was marvelous in her Oscar-winning turn as the magical nanny, you can't help but wonder what might have been if an earlier choice for the role had been the last; Angela Lansbury was seriously considered before Andrews was finally cast.
  • P.L. Travers suggested dropping a few hints that Mr. Banks used to have Mary Poppins as his nanny.
• And then there's Who Discovered Roger Rabbit. Recent rumors suggest that this may no longer be Vapor Ware, but many fans refuse to believe it until they've actually seen the film.
  • More factoids about What Could Have Been in Who Framed Roger Rabbit: in addition to the gang of weasels (literally!) comprising the Toon Patrol, Judge Doom would have had another accomplice, a Toon vulture named Voltaire (har, har). When Judge Doom attempts to dip Roger at the bar, the patrons protest that Roger should at least have a proper trial. The judge agrees, then pulls out a suitcase from which jumps a group of kangaroos that hold out signs reading "Y-O-U A-R-E G-U-I-L-T-Y" (a literal Kangaroo Court, in other words). Lastly, the final battle would have taken place on a zeppelin, and would have included a scene wherein Eddie is handcuffed to an open porthole, with most of his body hanging out thousands of feet above the ground.
    • Also, the original plan was that Valiant would be played by Harrison Ford and Christopher Lee would be cast as Doom. These facts (and the ones above) are just a few mentions, you can read the non-cut version of the script here. It was also proposed that Paul Reubens would do the voice of Roger, as this piece of test footage shows.
    • It was said that Spielberg's dream casting for Judge Doom in Roger Rabbit was Jon Pertwee. Pertwee was known as a very enthusiastic supporter and fan of the art of animation (so much so that he and Spike Milligan would later have serious arguments over who was the bigger fan of Disney's Aladdin), but Steve Martin, a close friend of both, knew that it would put Pertwee in a moral dilemma: Accept a role of essentially a genocidal madman, a role out of variance with Pertwee's actual character, or refuse and turn down a dream of his, to act in a Disney film, particularly one melding live-action and animation. In the end, Spielberg dropped the idea and went on to cast Christopher Lloyd.
  • Also originally it was to have been a gopher Judge Doom dipped instead of a cartoon shoe. This was likely changed due to being even more horrifying than the final cut, as the gopher would have been able to speak as he was being dipped.
  • Benny was going to originally be a fancy red roadster instead of a yellow taxicab, and was to have not a rough Noo Yawk voice, but rather, in the words of the non-cut script shown above, a deep voice "somewhere between Lord Buckley and Barry White."
  • A scene was scripted but never filmed or animated which would have taken place at Marvin Acme's funeral. Popeye and Bluto would have been among his pallbearers, and Casper the Friendly Ghost would have been a resident of the cemetery. This would have happen after Eddie leaves Roger at the bar and before the 'pig-head' scene.
  • Jessica Rabbit was to originally resemble Kathleen Turner a little more, and her dress would have been less revealing (covering her neck and chest).
  • There were to be seven weasels in the Toon Patrol (supposedly a parody of the Seven Dwarfs). The two that didn't make the cut? A '50s greaser-themed weasel named "Slimy", and a weasel named "Flasher" or "Sleazy" who'd wear nothing but a trenchcoat.
    • Even earlier drafts (as far back as the third linked above) had far more weasels, who were all interchangeable and had no distinct personalities. There would be a fight scene in which Eddie and Jessica would fend a bunch off, while the rest of the weasels would all die of laughter in a later sequence as in the final product (except with no foreshadowing of the laughter being fatal). Voltaire also was to be the one who'd be completely dissolved by the Dip in the climax, but due to the character's removal, the weasel Smart-Ass wound up with the fate instead (while the others died of laughter).
  • Then there's the plan of "Judge Doom killed Bambi's mother", which was scrapped because it would contrast with the 'toons are actors' premise.
  • The ending scene was originally going to have Judge Doom reveal his toon mouth and red hands with long nails.
  • Several characters from other companies were going to appear but didn't because the producers never got the rights, such as Tom and Jerry and Little Lulu.
    • There was going to be a sequel (well, actually a prequel) called Toon Patrol, telling Roger's story from birth, including his rise to fame and his experiences in World War II, all bookended by Roger's search to discover his biological parents after learning he was adopted. The film would have ended with Roger being reunited with his mother and his father, who is revealed to be Bugs Bunny. The project was shelved when Steven Spielberg realized that a movie about World War Two featuring a slapstick rabbit would come across as insensitive. They tried again with Who Discovered Roger Rabbit, which focused on Roger's rise in Broadway. They got as far as filming a CGI animation test, but Disney eventually pulled the plug on the whole project when it realized the budget for this would be astronomical.
• The Brave Little Toaster was originally in production at Disney, with John Lasseter set to direct. Lasseter had planned to use CGI for the characters, which would have been a first for an animated film at the time. Executives halted production because it would have been too expensive to use, as they were only interested in CG for cost-cutting, not artistic expression, as Lasseter had envisioned. Lasseter was fired by Disney ten minutes later, and he was eventually hired by Pixar; Toaster was made independently later. Both eventually returned to Disney, but one wonders how animation history would be like had the film been made as originally envisioned and Lasseter had never been fired.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
  • The DVD for the film included a very strange storyboarded scene in which the identity of Oogie Boogie was revealed to be Dr. Finklestein. His Igor would then appear from underneath the giant roulette wheel and they would both make their escape while everyone looked on dumbfounded.
  • Also this early script shows that we were going to see some of the other holidays at the beginning sequence, and "This Is Halloween" is considerably different from the final product (for example, Jack was going to come in on a Cool Undead Horse).
  • Originally the opening narrative poem was longer, and voiced by Patrick Stewart. His recitation can be found in the original soundtrack. Stewart also read a closing poem that was cut from the movie, which revealed that the narrator was Santa Claus himself. In this epilogue, Santa admitted that he had become "rather fond of that skeleton man" and he occasionally visited Jack in Halloween Land. Jack and Sally now had a family of baby skeletons, and when Santa asked Jack if he would have done what he did had he known what would have happened, Jack simply answered, "Wouldn't you?"
  • A sequel was planned which would have seen Jack visiting Thanksgiving World, and been animated in CGI.
• During production of Enchanted, Disney apparently took years to decide upon the circumstances in which a young woman from an animated fantasy realm would enter the live-action world of reality. According to this article, one early draft saw her end up in Chicago instead of Manhattan, and subsequently get mistaken for a stripper. Another featured a spoiled future princess have to learn how to survive by herself in New York City. Yet another had the heroine willingly go to New York in hopes of escaping a potential loveless marriage with a prince.
  • Even after Disney decided upon the circumstances that landed Giselle in live-action New York City in the final film, the script underwent at least one additional change: the deletion of the title song, which would have been sung by Nancy and Edward. Nancy's actress, Idina Menzel, explained in an interview that the writers found it out of character for her to sing.
• The Disney adaptation of James and the Giant Peach was originally going to feature a soundtrack by Andy Partridge instead of Randy Newman. Partridge left the project after he couldn't reach an "acceptable deal" with Disney. Home-recorded versions of the four songs he'd written for the film appeared on his Fuzzy Warbles series of demo collections.
• The several Classic Disney Shorts have had their share.
  • According to old storyboards, the gag from The Plowboy where the goat, chicken and pig meld into one weird creature was originally to have been used in Plane Crazy.
    • Speaking of which, Plane Crazy may have been conceived as an Oswald short before being the pilot for Mickey's series.
  • There was a Mickey cartoon titled Plight of the Bumblebee, that was directed by Jack Kinney, that had most of its pencil animation done, but was ultimately scrapped.
• The Tigger Movie was originally to have been a direct-to-video film, but it was upgraded to theatrical release after Michael Eisner became impressed with The Sherman Brothers' songs for the film.
  • Tigger's original voice actor, Paul Winchell, tried to provide his voice for the film, but the filmmakers thought he couldn't pull it off as well anymore and replaced him. The Disney Imagineers decided to prove them wrong and hired him to provide the voice of Tigger one last time for the Winnie the Pooh ride at Walt Disney World.
• There are several of these related to release of several animated shorts:
  • Steven Spielberg wanted the Roger Rabbit short Roller-Coaster Rabbit to be shown with Amblin's Arachnophobia, but Michael Eisner wanted it to run instead with Dick Tracy to increase awareness of the film. This dispute became one of the reasons Spielberg cut off plans for future Roger Rabbit shorts.
  • The 1992 traditional/CGI hybrid short Off His Rockers was originally scheduled to be released with a reissue of Pinocchio, but Randal Kleiser insisted it be shown alongside his film Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.
  • After A Kid in King Arthur's Court bombed, Disney wanted to give Runaway Brain another shot and planned to show it again with 101 Dalmatians, but they got cold feet at the last minute and cut it from all prints, and it ended up getting shown before George of the Jungle instead.
  • Pixar's Monsters University short Party Central was to have been shown before The Good Dinosaur, but when the film got delayed by more than a year, it was instead released with Muppets Most Wanted. Before that, it premiered nearly a year before at the D23 Expo.
• In Muppets Most Wanted, the original version of Constantine's song "I'll Get You What You Want" was originally supposed to be a 50's-esque rock song called "What You Want", "The Big House" was to have a different arrangement, and Something So Right would have had an extra verse. The movie was also supposed to be titled "The Muppets...Again", which is mentioned in the song "We're Doing a Sequel".
• Sky High was originally conceived as a series of four movies, one for each of Will and his friends' years of high school. It's known that the threat level of the villains would increase with each movie, with the characters saving the school in the first, the city in the second, the world in the third, then the entire universe in the fourth. One of these villains, likely the second, would've been the hinted-at Greater-Scope Villain Baron Battle, father to Will's friend and rival Warren. The sequels would also advance the Romance Arc, with Will and Layla breaking up and Layla getting together with Warren; whether Will would've received a new love interest is unknown. Alas, Disney deemed the original, which made twice its budget, still not a big enough hit to take a chance on three sequels.
• Maleficent had a fair deal of could-have-beens, with at least three roles dropped from the final cut for time alone. One was Maleficent's genuinely evil father, who encouraged her to become villainous. The other two were her aunt Ulla, the Queen of the Fairies (played by Miranda Richardson), and Ulla's husband King Kinloch (Peter Capaldi).
• Into the Woods:
  • Jake Gyllenhaal was originally cast as Cinderella's Prince, but chose to drop out to do Nightcrawler instead.
  • YouTube star Sophie Grace Brownlee of Sophie Grace and Rosie was originally cast as Red Riding Hood, but was replaced with Lilla Crawford when it was decided Brownlee was too young.
  • Director Rob Marshall had considered Catherine Zeta-Jones, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman (whom he had previously worked with), Michelle Pfeiffer, Donna Murphy, Idina Menzel, Miranda Richardson (the last four whom have portrayed witches before), and Kate Winslet for the Witch before settling on Meryl Streep.
  • An early draft of the script contains several elements that were altered (or never used) in the final film, such as...
    • The depiction of the Wolf as a sexy, hairy chested man. He also briefly transformed into a real wolf right before he howled during "Hello Little Girl".
    • The fate of the Witch. Rather than being swallowed up by a sinkhole, she is pulled into the ground by the arms of her mother, much like the outdoor productions.
    • The fate of Jack's mother. In the early draft, she is bludgeoned by the Steward as in the stage show, but she manages to get back onto her feet and temporarily help the Baker and his wife find Jack. She eventually succumbs to her head injury, and the Baker comes across her dead body in the woods. This explains how he had found out about her death prior to telling Jack during "No One is Alone".
    • The original finale. In the draft, all of the characters appeared at the end to sing "Children Will Listen", much like the original show. Afterwards, everyone would "disappear" (sans the Baker, Cinderella, Jack, and Little Red), and the rest of the song (a reprise of the title song) would be sung as a voice over. In the final film, the entirety of "Children Will Listen" (after the Baker's Wife's solo) is sung by the Witch and the chorus off screen, and the Into the Woods reprise is played over the end credits.
    • The scene where the Baker cuts open the Wolf and saves Little Red and Granny. The scene was originally portrayed as a "shadow play"; all of the action would be seen as a silhouette over the bed drapes (the scene also contained the full conversation between Granny, Little Red, and the Baker from the show). The final film cuts away before the Baker brings down his knife on the Wolf, and the entire conversation is greatly shortened.
  • Ironically, it wasn't even originally intended to be a Disney movie. The film was once planned in 1994 with a table reading at Penny Marshall's house from the likes of Robin Williams, Goldie Hawn and Cher. Subsequently, it was in development at Columbia Pictures and had Rob Minkoff attached as director and Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan and Susan Sarandon in talks to star.
  • Emma Stone turned down a role.
  • Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp and Neil Patrick Harris were all considered for the Baker.
• Cinderella (2015):
  • Among the candidates for playing Cinderella in this film were Emma Watson, Gabriella Wilde, Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander, Bella Heathcote and Margot Robbie. Amanda Seyfried was also heavily attached to the project for years, presumably before the film settled on a British cast.
  • Originally, the sisters were going to mutilate themselves to fit the slipper like in the Grimm's version (despite Disney basing Cinderella on the earlier Perrault variant), but Disney vetoed that for being too dark, going so far as to replace the director who suggested it. Weirdly, Disney had no problem with Into the Woods doing the same, likely because Into the Woods adapts the Brothers Grimm version, while both this film and the Disney animated classic are based more on the French version.
  • Lily James initially auditioned for one of the ugly stepsisters. Yes, really.
  • Lily James claimed that a shot from the carriage chase back to the house featured her running around inside the pumpkin with her arms and legs sticking out. The shot ended up cut, possibly due to potential Narm.
• Planes was originally about trains instead of airplanes.
• Early press release materials for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End stated that Sao Feng, Pirate Lord of Singapore, would be a third party in the war between the pirates and the East India Company and command a crew of demons. In the final product, he's a perfectly ordinary pirate captain, whose biggest contribution to the plot is being killed by Davy Jones and naming Elizabeth Swann his successor as he dies.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) had a few changes that were supposedly seen from a workprint displayed for test audiences:
  • The original villain of the movie was Pluto, wanting revenge on Chip and Dale for their tormenting in the old cartoons.
  • Sweet Pete, the older Peter Pan, was originally named "Mean Dean", who would have sought to try and create the ultimate cartoon.
  • Ellie would have a bigger role, but test audiences reacted poorly to her, including a "cringeworthy" scene of her singing the Rescue Rangers theme, thus her role is cut back.
• In a 1981 interview for Japanese magazine Sawayaka, Osamu Tezuka recounted about his once in a lifetime opportunity on meeting Walt Disney during the 1964 New York World's Fair. Tezuka asked Walt if he's seen the Astro Boy anime that just hit American television at the time. Walt then told him that he saw the show somewhere in Los Angeles and revealed that he always wanted to make a Sci-Fi story. Walt even expressed interest on collaborating with Tezuka on a potential animated project. Due to both creators being very busy with their own projects at the time ^note  Walt was preparing for the release of Mary Poppins which was 5 months away from premiering, while Tezuka was busy making manga , Walt told Tezuka "If you have time, visit me in Burbank". While the idea was never revisited due to Walt's death in December 1966, The Disney Company made up for the missed opportunity by airing both Unico movies on Disney Channel not long after it's launch in 1983 and throughout The '80s.

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