History TroubledProduction / WesternAnimation

** ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'' suffered from this in spades. The film was originally helmed by ''LiloAndStitch'' director Chris Sanders, who wanted to make another quirky animated family film. To that end, he envisioned ''American Dog'', which followed a popular television star dog named Henry who (after being knocked out and waking up on a train to Nevada) enlists the help of two other talking animals, including a cat and oversized bunny rabbit, to drive him back home (while believing he's still in a television show). The film went through several different cuts (and suggestions from [[Creator/PixarRegulars John Lasseter and other Pixar directors]] on how to improve the film), but Sanders reportedly rejected all of the changes. Lasseter then fired Sanders from the project, and the film was drastically reworked (under a constrained timeframe) into the final product. Tellingly, ''American Dog'' is not mentioned anywhere on the film's DVD features, and only receives a passing reference in the making-of book ''The Art of Bolt''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' was, in its original run, one of the most talked-about shows on television and one of the biggest hits for the then-fledgling Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} network, and is now counted alongside ''The Simpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'', and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' as a revolution in TV cartoons and one of the key shows of TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation. However, right from the start, it was fraught with production troubles that ultimately destroyed the show;

** One of the biggest sources of friction was over censorship. Nickelodeon was always uneasy with the [[GrossoutShow gross-out nature of the show's humor]], and [[MissingEpisode shelved]] one episode, "Man's Best Friend", due to its violent and scatological content. As a general rule, anything that had to do with religion, [[BanOnPolitics politics]], alcohol, and tobacco was put under a microscope by [[MediaWatchdog Standards & Practices]]; the character George Liquor had his last name removed from one episode and made only sporadic appearances due to opposition from the network, right down to axing an entire scene with him from "Rubber Nipple Salesman" and forcing Spumco to change a Liquor cameo in "Haunted House" into a parody of [[{{Doug}} Doug Funnie]] (a scene that got edited out in reruns anyway), while "Powdered Toast Man", featuring ThePope, removed a cross from his hat and credited the character simply as "The Man with the Pointy Hat", and the ending scene of Toast Man carelessly using the Constitution and Bill of Rights as kindling for a fire got edited out after it's initial airing, which ironically ruined the episodes satirical message of how easily authority and power are abused.

* The [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1939]] FleischerStudios adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/GulliversTravels'' went through this. Many staffers, including animators ShamusCulhane and GrimNatwick, recall that the film had a lot of behind the scenes troubles that ended up hurting the quality:

** A studio that was under equipped to take on the challenge of making a Disney-like feature length animated film (many of the staffers weren't familiar with the West Coast style of animation pioneered by Disney), not helped by an influx of East Coast and West Coast staffers who were at odds with each other on their approaches to animation, and the studio's decision to hire amateur, apathetic Miami art students, as well as newcomers who received a few hours' worth of cram-course art training[[note]] contrast this to the years of extensive art training and schooling Disney and Don Graham pushed upon their artists[[/note]] resulted in sloppy inking and bad in-between work (explaining the film's [[OffModel very uneven animation quality]]). The Fleischers' move to a new studio in Miami also resulted in many of their talented employees in New York getting left behind (including BettyBoop voice actress Mae Questel), with the few who did make the move becoming homesick, as well as putting up with the hazards and quirks of Florida (such as many mosquito infestations).
** A feud between story artists over which direction the story would take--it was planned as a BingCrosby vehicle at one point, and at one point {{Popeye}} was intended to be the star of the film, with its tone being more cartoony, as Max Fleischer actually did not wish to follow the Disney approach to animated films. Both of the previous stories were thrown out and rewritten by West Coast storymen, particularly ex-Warners staffer Cal Howard.

** ''Disney/TheLionKing'' first suffered from [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail lack of internal faith]] - only up-and-coming animators or people who wanted to do animals picked up the project, with most going to work on ''{{Pocahontas}}'' instead. One of the directors, ''OliverAndCompany'' director George Scribner, who had even travelled with the other director Roger Allers and other people to Africa for reference, left as he disagreed on turning the film into a musical while his intention was focusing on the natural aspects. The script was so bad that it needed a reworking with the help of the directors of ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' - and still was being fine-tuned during production, with completed scenes being reanimated due to dialogue changes. And just weeks before release, an earthquake hit Los Angeles, shutting off the studio and forcing animators to finish their work from home. Thankfully [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail it was all worth it in the end.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' was, in its original run, one of the most talked-about shows on television and one of the biggest hits for the then-fledgling Nickelodeon network, and is now counted alongside The Simpsons, Beavis And Butthead, and South Park as a revolution in TV cartoons and one of the key shows of The Renaissance Age of Animation. However, right from the start, it was fraught with production troubles that ultimately destroyed the show;

** One of the biggest sources of friction was over censorship. Nickelodeon was always uneasy with the gross-out nature of the show's humor, and sent constant revisions to every single episode; they even kept one finished episode, "Man's Best Friend", off the air due to its violent and scatological content. As a general rule, anything that had to do with religion, politics, alcohol, and tobacco was put under a microscope by Standards & Practices; the character George Liquor had his last name removed from one episode and made only sporadic appearances due to opposition from the network, right down to axing an entire scene with him from "Rubber Nipple Salesman" and forcing Spumco to change a Liquor cameo in "Haunted House" into a parody of [[{{Doug}} Doug Funnie]] (a scene that got edited out in reruns anyway), while "Powdered Toast Man", featuring The Pope, removed a cross from his hat and credited the character simply as "The Man with the Pointy Hat", and the ending scene of Toast Man carelessly using the Constitution and Bill of Rights as kindling for a fire got edited out after it's initial airing, which ironically ruined the episodes satirical message of how easily authority and power are abused.
** The show suffered from severe Schedule Slip almost from the start, the result of, depending on who you ask, John Kricfalusi's perfectionism or the constant battles over what was acceptable to air. Nickelodeon had to rerun the pilot episode in order to have something to show in what would've been the second episode's time slot; this helped the show build an audience but killed any hope for syndication. This became a trend; the first season had only six episodes air between August 1991 and February '92.
** Feuding between John K. and Nickelodeon over Schedule Slip and censorship came to a head in September '92, in the middle of the second season, when Nickelodeon fired John K. and took over production themselves via the in-house studio Games Animation. The exact circumstances of John K.'s firing are hotly debated to this day; John K. cites his refusal to censor "Man's Best Friend" as the final straw for Nick, while others blame the Schedule Slip. Regardless, this is the moment when many fans claim that the show took a notable downturn in quality, especially given that a good chunk of the staff left in protest at John K.'s firing. Ren & Stimpy finished its second season and ran for a total of three more before it was canceled at the end of 1995 (though one last episode aired on MTV the following year).
** Later on, in 2003, John K. relaunched the show as Ren & Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoon, part of an adult animation block on Spike TV. The show once more suffered from Schedule Slip, though the censorship fights at Nickelodeon were inverted at Spike TV; John K. maintains that Spike TV pressured him to turn up the adult content farther than he was willing to go. In any case, the show only lasted two months and seven episodes (the pilot being the previously-unaired "Man's Best Friend") before being canceled.

* The 1990s ComicBook/IncredibleHulk AnimatedAdaptation is this [[http://marvel.toonzone.net/hulk/interviews/sebast/ according to the original producer.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' was, in its original run, one of the most talked-about shows on television and one of the biggest hits for the then-fledgling Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} network, and is now counted alongside ''The Simpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'', and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' as a revolution in TV cartoons and one of the key shows of TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation. However, right from the start, it was fraught with production troubles that ultimately destroyed the show.
** One of the biggest sources of friction was over censorship. Nickelodeon was always uneasy with the [[GrossoutShow gross-out nature of the show's humor]], and [[MissingEpisode shelved]] one episode, "Man's Best Friend", due to its violent and scatological content. As a general rule, anything that had to do with religion, [[BanOnPolitics politics]], alcohol, and tobacco was put under a microscope by [[MediaWatchdog Standards & Practices]]; the character George Liquor had his last name removed from one episode and made only sporadic appearances due to opposition from the network, while another episode featuring ThePope removed a cross from his hat and credited the character simply as "The Man with the Pointy Hat". Release of the uncensored episodes on DVD has since resulted in a BrokenBase between those who feel the censorship was unwarranted and those who believe Nickelodeon was just trying to make the episodes watchable.
** The show suffered from severe ScheduleSlip almost from the start, the result of, [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment depending on who you ask]], Creator/JohnKricfalusi's perfectionism or the constant battles over what was acceptable to air. Nickelodeon had to rerun the pilot episode in order to have something to show in what would've been the second episode's time slot; this helped the show build an audience but killed any hope for {{syndication}}. This became a trend; the first season had only six episodes air between August 1991 and February '92.
** Many of the early episodes were savaged by bad outsourcing, which resulted in many of the drawings getting heavily watered down or just flat out ruined, and the animation quality and timing was all over the place; there were even some unintentional (rather than purposeful) off model moments, such as Stimpy's eyes inexplicably turning black in the bridging segment of "Stimpy's Big Day / The Big Shot".
** Feuding between John K. and Nickelodeon over ScheduleSlip and censorship came to a head in September '92, in the middle of the second season, when Nickelodeon fired John K. and took over production themselves via the in-house studio Games Animation. The exact circumstances of John K.'s firing are [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment hotly debated to this day]]; John K. cites his refusal to censor "Man's Best Friend" as the final straw for Nick, while others blame the ScheduleSlip. Regardless, this is the moment when many fans claim that the show [[JumpingTheShark took a notable downturn in quality]], especially given that a good chunk of the staff left in protest at John K.'s firing. ''Ren & Stimpy'' finished its second season and ran for a total of three more before it was canceled at the end of 1995 (though one last episode aired on Creator/{{MTV}} the following year).
** Later on, in 2003, John K. relaunched the show as ''Ren & Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoon'', part of an adult animation block on Spike TV. The show once more suffered from ScheduleSlip, though the censorship fights at Nickelodeon were inverted at Spike TV; John K. maintains that Spike TV pressured him to turn ''up'' the adult content farther than he was willing to go. In any case, the show only lasted two months and seven episodes (the pilot being the previously-unaired "Man's Best Friend") before being canceled, with many fans declaring it FanonDiscontinuity.

** One of the biggest sources of friction was over censorship. Nickelodeon was always uneasy with the [[GrossoutShow gross-out nature of the show's humor]], and [[MissingEpisode shelved]] one episode, "Man's Best Friend", due to its violent and scatological content. As a general rule, anything that had to do with religion, [[BanOnPolitics politics]], alcohol, and tobacco was put under a microscope by [[MediaWatchdog Standards & Practices]]; the character George Liquor had his last name removed from one episode and made only sporadic appearances due to opposition from the network, while another episode featuring ThePope removed a cross from his hat and credited the character simply as "The Man with the Pointy Hat".

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' was originally developed in 2001 by Jan Pinkava, but Pixar lost faith in Pinkava and ultimately replaced him with BradBird.

* The pilot episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Some Enchanted Evening" went so badly wrong that it nearly killed the show before it even began. The big problem was that the key members of the production team didn't appear to be talking to each other. MattGroening and JamesLBrooks imagined a show with unique designs and color schemes, but characters who were animated in a realistic way. Animation director Kent Butterworth (and apparently the people at Klasky-Csupo) on the other hand thought it should be animated in a whacked-out, over the top style with little regard paid to keeping the characters on model. And nobody appeared to have told the Korean animators anything at all, meaning they were let loose on the episode with wildly inconsistent results. The end product, while sometimes defended by animation enthusiasts as how the show ''should'' have been animated, wasn't what the producers or Fox wanted at all, and the plug nearly got pulled on the series. Fortunately the second episode, "Bart the Genius" did fit what the producers were looking for, and so they reshuffled the episode order and kicked off the series with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," while "Some Enchanted Evening" got substantially re-animated and booted to the end of the season.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' was, in its original run, one of the most talked-about shows on television and one of the biggest hits for the then-fledgling Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} network, and is now counted alongside ''The Simpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'', and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' as a revolution in TV cartoons and one of the key shows of the RenaissanceAgeOfAnimation. However, right from the start, it was fraught with production troubles that ultimately destroyed the show.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' was, in its original run, one of the most talked-about shows on television and one of the biggest hits for the then-fledgling Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} network, and is now counted alongside ''The Simpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'', and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' as a revolution in TV animation and what was permissible to show to children. However, from start to finish, it was fraught with production troubles that ultimately destroyed the show.

** Feuding between John K. and Nickelodeon over ScheduleSlip and censorship came to a head in September '92, in the middle of the second season, when Nickelodeon fired John K. and took over production themselves via the in-house studio Games Animation. The exact circumstances of John K.'s firing are [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment hotly debated to this day]]; John K. cites his refusal to censor "Man's Best Friend" as the final straw for Nick, while others blame the ScheduleSlip. Regardless, this is the moment when many fans claim that the show [[JumpingTheShark took a notable downturn in quality]], especially given that a good chunk of the staff left in protest at John K.'s firing. ''Ren & Stimpy'' lasted a total of five seasons before it was canceled.

** ''{{Ratatouille}}'' was originally developed in 2001 by Jan Pinkava, but Pixar lost faith in Pinkava and ultimately replaced him with BradBird.

** ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'' suffered from this in spades. The film was originally helmed by ''LiloAndStitch'' director Chris Sanders, who wanted to make another quirky animated family film. To that end, he envisioned ''American Dog'', which followed a popular television star dog named Henry who (after being knocked out and waking up on a train to Nevada) enlists the help of two other talking animals, including a cat and oversized bunny rabbit, to drive him back home (while believing he's still in a television show). The film went through several different cuts (and suggestions from [[PixarRegulars John Lasseter and other Pixar directors]] on how to improve the film), but Sanders reportedly rejected all of the changes. Lasseter then fired Sanders from the project, and the film was drastically reworked (under a constrained timeframe) into the final product. Tellingly, ''American Dog'' is not mentioned anywhere on the film's DVD features, and only receives a passing reference in the making-of book ''The Art of Bolt''.

* ''WesternAnimation/FoodFight'', a film featuring Roger Rabbit-esque cameos by advertising mascots starring CharlieSheen was trapped in development for 10 years. Originally set for a 2003 release until being delayed to 2005, it became even further delayed when the harddrives containing all the animation files were stolen and the studio had to start all over again on an even lower budget. The final result was finished in 2009, given a small theatrical release and started to emerge direct to video in other markets in 2012.

** ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'' took six years, a change in directors, a complete rehaul of the film's original FracturedFairyTale premise, and a cost of $260 million to see the light of day. It currently ranks as the second most expensive film in Hollywood history, coming behind only ''[[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End'' in production costs. Happily for the future of [[Disney/{{Frozen}} other Disney fairy tale adaptations]], it became Disney's biggest hit since ''Disney/TheLionKing''.

* TheTwistedTalesOfFelixTheCat cartoon went through this, [[http://classiccartoonreviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/twisted-tale-of-twisted-tales-of-felix.html according to animator Milton Knight]], who worked on the first season.

** ''Disney/TheLionKing'' first suffered from [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail lack of internal faith]] - only up-and-coming animators or people who wanted to do animals picked up the project, with most going to work on ''{{Pocahontas}}'' instead. One of the directors, ''OliverAndCompany'' director George Scribner, who had even travelled with the other director Roger Allers and other people to Africa for reference, left as he disagreed on turning the film into a musical while his intention was focusing on the natural aspects. The script was so bad that it needed a reworking with the help of the directors of ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' - and still was being fine-tuned during production, with completed scenes being reanimated due to dialogue changes. And just weeks before release, an earthquake hit Los Angeles, shutting off the studio and forcing animators to finish their work from home.

** ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' started as ''Kingdom of the Sun'', a PrinceAndPauper epic directed by Roger Allers. Since the writers weren't very successful in adding original material and test audiences weren't reacting well, another director, Mark Dindal, was hired to see if things evolved. As [[AnimationLeadTime the deadline got closer]] and Allers and Dindal were basically working at two movies simultaneously (the former with a drama, and the latter with a comedy), the higher-ups intervened and Allers quit. After a six-month interval where Dindal and some writers reworked the movie, the film became the screwball comedy that eventually saw the light of day. It was all documented in ''The Sweatbox'', a film shot by Trudie Styler (as her husband Sting wrote songs for the movie) that Disney makes sure that never gets released. (but still [[http://vimeo.com/39111006 got leaked online]])

** ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' went through a number of problems along the way. Originally planned to have been screened before ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', it had went through a number of cancelled and uncancelled calls along the way before finally getting the go-ahead. As well, the many video game companies had strict guidelines as to how their characters should act - Nintendo had guides as to how [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros Bowser]] should drink a cup of coffee, Sega had them reanimate a scene were [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] loses some rings because they said he could only lose rings if he were hit and the only reason Q*Bert got prominence in the movie was because Namco took offence at VideoGame/DigDug being the target.