Nobody does animated films like Disney, so it's tempting to think that their most classic
stories wound up exactly the way the writers, directors and animators expected. But fans
may never know what beloved characters, songs, and storylines wound up on the cutting room
floor. Missed opportunities or dodged bullets, fans will want to see for themselves. Here
are Screen Rant's Disney Movie Scenes You've Never Seen.
Lilo & Stitch
Disney's story of an alien bringing two sisters closer together had a playful sense of humour
from the very start, so even when the film's climax had the cast flying an alien spaceship
in a death defying chase, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Originally, that chase
was going to be even more far fetched, with Stitch and the gang hijacking a Boeing 747
and flying it through the buildings of downtown Honolulu. Obviously the filmmakers realized
the scene would read differently following the September 11th attacks in New York,
and refitted the animation to an alien spaceship over Hawaiian mountains instead.
The Lion King
Any fan of Shakespeare can tell you that The Lion King is basically the story of Hamlet
told with African animals. So it's no surprise that Disney originally wanted the movie to
be even darker and more adult. The original ending still had Simba return to Pride Rock
for his showdown with Scar, but he met a way uglier end. After tossing Simba to his death
- with a line directly out of Shakespeare - Scar wound up plummeting into the wildfire,
and presumably burning to death. Apparently Disney decided that was a little too grim....
Why they thought having him torn apart by his hyena soldiers was more suitable for kids,
we can't explain.
Frozen
The fairy tale fans who followed Frozen from the start know it began as an adaptation of
"The Snow Queen", which would have seen Elsa play the villain, with a much darker side.
Disney decided that a tale of sisterly love was a better choice, but you'd be surprised
to know how far some of Elsa's darker antics made it into production. Take this deleted
scene, where Elsa encases two Arendelle soldiers in ice as they search for her sister, beginning
to torture them for information, and assembling an army of snow monsters. It points out just
how much a single scene can change an audience's idea of a character.
Aladdin
No true Disney fan will ever forget the stars of Aladdin, from Abu the monkey to Iago, Jafar...take
your pick. But did you know Aladdin's mother was originally going to play an important
role in the story? Apparently the street rat's wish to be a Prince wasn't just for himself,
with a musical number revealing Aladdin's mission to prove everyone wrong, and make
his mother proud. The song, "Proud of Your Boy" even had Abu in tears, but the number
and the character had to be cut to keep the plot moving forward. Crazy to think another
potential Disney classic wound up on the cutting room floor.
Frozen
Not every deleted scene is important to the overall plot, but considering the shots taken
at Kristoff throughout the rest of the movie, there's no question he would've liked to see
this one make the cut. Trying to sell ice in a blizzard makes him seem pretty foolish,
but the scene shows that the skills Kristoff has to do his job are no joke. And hauling
his reindeer Sven along with him still shows off his softer side. The directors decided
that introducing Kristoff frozen solid was a better joke in the end - and it's hard to
disagree.
Wreck-it Ralph
Everyone has their favorite video game cameo or reference in Wreck it Ralph, but one major
set piece didn't make the finished cut. When Ralph went game-jumping into the shooter Hero's
Duty, he was originally going to be locked up with a man named Bobby Dunderson, who told
him about a strange game paradise called "Extreme EZ Livin 2'". Modeled on life simulation games
like The Sims, EZ Livin' was a world where there were no heroes or villains... And no
real point. Ralph would eventually head there in the final act, before realizing that being
bad wasn't something to be ashamed of. The message worked fine without the sequence,
so it was cut for length. But the strange look at social games where players maximize
"likes" would've been a cool touch.
Inside Out
It was Riley's imaginary friend, Bing Bong, who stole the show in Pixar's look inside
the mind of a preteen girl, but he wasn't going to be the only figment of Riley's imagination
audiences got to meet. Riley's favorite drawing Mrs. Scribbles, and the monsters who used
to live in her closet were just a few of the creatures forming a makeshift village in the
girl's mind. Like most of the scrapped storylines and extra emotions the filmmakers axed, the
movie's overall message worked better with less - still, it's nice to know that the fans
favorite characters were only the tip of the iceberg.
Those are all the deleted scenes from hit Disney movies that we think fans should know
about, but which ones have we missed? Be sure to name them in the comments, and don't forget
to subscribe to our channel for more Disney movie facts like this one!