- [Strider] Howdy!
This is PhantomStrider.
Throughout the years,
there have been animated movies that...
almost happened.
But for some reason,
these movies might suddenly get scrapped or pulled
before they're ever shown to the public.
Even Dreamworks and Disney
have canceled their fair share.
For some,
you just wonder why such a great idea
would be trashed.
For others...
we can be very glad
they never made it to movie theaters.
So let's check out
the Top 10 Cancelled Animated Movies.
Also, pardon the lack of footage on some of these.
I've gotten as much footage as I can,
but not a lot of footage is always available for me.
so there might be a bit more live-action than usual.
Anyway,
onto the countdown.
Number 10...
"Legend of Spyro 3D".
Hey, I still remember
the original Spyro games.
Good memories.
"Legend of Spyro" was intended to be
the first movie based on
the "Spyro the Dragon" games.
The story honestly sounded
super-cliché, though.
Get this:
(dramatic voice) Spyro learns of a
great dragon prophecy!
This prophecy speaks of a...
rare PURPLE dragon,
born once
only every ten generations!
But THEN comes the evil...
(normal voice) "Darkmaster"...
Darkmaster? Really?
That's like the most generic
evil antagonist name I've ever heard!
Let's just call him "Malefore" instead.
Anyway,
the evil Malefore
attacks the temple
where Spyro's egg is!
But in a sort of
Superman-Krypton-style screw-up,
the egg guardian Ignitus
manages to escape with Spyro's egg,
before...
fumbling the egg downriver into a swamp.
So Spyro's adopted
into a family of dragonflies!
Where he learns...
(gasps)
He's not a dragonfly!
Really,
shocker.
No...
Spyro is a powerful, mysterious,
steely-eyed stranger from another land.
So Spyro/Superman/Hercules
leaves in search of his true home,
fights evil Malefore,
Yadda, yadda, yadda, ya.
I'm kinda happy this one didn't make it
because to me,
it sounded like the most overdone Superman storyboard
in the last half-century.
The original movie was
planned to be released in 2009,
but then got delayed 'til 2010.
And at the last minute,
the movie was completely cancelled.
Apparently,
Activision made the decision
to take the franchise in a different direction.
We later found out that direction
was "Skylanders Academy".
which is a definite improvement on what I've read of...
this movie.
I mean, how seriously are we expected to take
"a purple dragon"?
It's a purple dragon!
(panting and footsteps)
And for number 9...
"Dumbo II".
Weirdly enough,
out of all the Disney movies you could've chosen,
they were actually planning a sequel to this!
I mean, the movie was basically
story about a badly-treated elephant
who gets absolutely slam drunk,
then figures out from some offensive charicatures
that he can fly due to his mutations.
"Dumbo II" was originally planned to be released in 2001,
but it got delayed again and again
until finally they just cancelled it.
The story actually took place
only one day after the original film,
but this time,
our now-flying friend Dumbo
teams up with a few other animals,
each animal representing a different stage of childhood.
But this time,
Dumbo gets lost in New York City,
and honestly...
a flying elephant in New York actually sounds like
a pretty interesting novelty to me.
Even in the very short time
we saw Dumbo in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit",
I was pretty intrigued.
Plus, as a foreign Australian,
I'd actually be pretty curious
to see the hectic life of New York City
from the perspective of a small-ish animal like Dumbo.
Dumbo's new friends included
Penny the Ostrich,
who is jealous of Dumbo
'cuz he could fly and she couldn't.
And Godfry the Hippo,
who was in older stages of childhood
and insisted on doing everything himself.
Honestly,
I actually enjoy the idea of this movie
more than the original,
and I think I would've been interested to see it.
(music)
Number eight...
"Me And My Shadow".
When Dreamworks had a dramatic staff overhaul,
"Me And My Shadow" was continually delayed
for years on end,
until finally,
it ended up in this weird state of limbo;
Not quite cancelled,
but certainly not complete.
But seeing as this movie was announced
nearly a decade ago,
we can probably call it cancelled.
Even the synopsis
of this mysterious shadow movie is weird.
It says it's about
the word's most dull, boring character.
Their words, not mine!
He's called Stanley
and he has an energetic shadow named Stan.
Together,
they discover a mass rebellion
by an evil shadow.
Apparently,
this evil shadow plans to lead
all the other shadows and taking control of their humans.
Which actually sounds kinda cool.
In fact, this movie
had a lot of great ideas
before it was shut down.
The animation designs
look slick and stylized,
particularly the shadows.
In fact, half the film
was planned to be animated in 2D.
I'm guessing this was a shadow portion
since, you know,
shadows basically ARE 2D.
Sadly,
both the 2015 director Edgar Wright and Dreamworks
seem to have moved on to other projects.
And even though I think
this would've been such a cool concept
for an animated movie,
I do understand why.
I mean, sometimes,
both inside and outside the animation world.
you just have to cut your losses and move on.
(music)
Number seven...
"Big Bug Man".
Marlon Brando's last known film work.
You might remember him from "The Godfather".
A legendary actor.
Originally, "Big Bug Man"
was intended to be released in 2007,
around 2008,
but it was mysteriously pulled from distribution
despite Marlon Brando's
unfortunate health failing at the time,
he was still so dedicated to his role
as Mrs. Lemon [Mrs. Sour].
- He would
read some lines,
go back on oxygen,
and he was obviously struggling just to breathe.
- It was actually a role he chose
because he always wanted to play a woman
at least once in his acting career.
- [Bob] How exciting
that we've--
His last dreams, he accomplished,
and we were helping him
accomplishing that last dream
playing Mrs. Sour.
- [Strider] He even went as far as
to dress up as the character in the recording booth,
complete with wig, dress, and so on
just to get into character.
Unfortunately, no footage is available,
but that would be awesome to see.
And despite his health failing at the time,
he's said to have had the most fun in work
since his 1953 film, "Julius Caesar",
and that really seems like a beautiful sentiment.
I mean, think of all the big-name films
Brando headlined in
during his amazing career.
It's nice to know that Brando's
last experience in film was
a lot of fun for him.
This is one case
where I really don't care if the movie was good or not.
I would've loved to see it anyway
just so we can see Marlon Brando's
final great performance.
And the sixth cancelled animated movie is...
"Treasure Planet 2".
"Treasure Planet", in my opinion,
is one of the most underrated Disney movies of all.
It's a fun combination
of both intergalactic space travel
and, well, pirates.
Space pirates, if you will.
I don't care if it makes sense or not.
It's two unorthodox but awesome concepts
to meld together.
Disney's plans with this movie
were much like their plans
with "Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar".
The sequel was said to be
the TV show's pilot.
Honestly, of all the Disney movies
that could've worked as a television show,
I think this is one of them.
I mean, space pirates,
what's not to like in a TV show?
I mean,
I'd happily jump up every Saturday morning
for "Disney's Space Pirates",
and it sounds like the film got pretty far
before being cancelled, too.
Apparently some of the producers
were in the recording studio
waiting to start work on the film
when they heard of its cancellation.
They received a call saying,
"The original movie has bombed, so the sequel is canned."
I mean, it did gross over $100 million,
but the cost to make it far excelled that,
and this potentially really fun space series
was up in flames.
And for number five...
"The Shadow King".
some of these cancelled animated movies
may look average,
but not many of them can claim to have a
$50 million budget backing them
before they were cancelled.
I mean,
that's one hell of an
animation botch-up money sink.
I think there's one big reason
this film had so much cash
sunk into it.
This is actually a Henry Selick film.
You know, the guy who made
"Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline".
And like most of Selick's films,
the premise sounded pretty unique.
It's about a nine-year-old orphan
with large hands who
becomes a secret military weapon
against an army of shadows,
which actually sounds like
a really cool claymation version
of "Kingdom Hearts", without the...
groanworthy,
completely unnecessarily-complicated story.
But unfortunately,
due to concerns over the film's finances,
Disney dropped the project completely.
But the last report on this film
actually sounded very positive.
Sources say that Mr. Selick
is still working on "The Shadow King",
along with two other projects.
But sadly, that report
was made in 2016,
and nothing has been said since then.
But who knows?
If it ever comes out in theaters,
I'll definitely be lining up to see
"Henry Selick's The Shadow King"!
And I know a whole lot of other people
will be, too.
On a side note,
what's with all these cancelled shadow movies?
Maybe all movies based on shadows
are cursed or something,
because whenever anyone tries to make a shadow movie,
the movie itself disappears...
into a shadow.
And for number four...
"Newt".
Something awesome happened
because of this movie's cancellation.
But first, I should tell you
what this movie was actually going to be.
The story was about a male newt named, well...
Newt,
and a female newt named Brook.
And they hate each other,
but are forced to work together
when ending up on a perilous adventure.
So, it was a buddy film about...
newts!
I guess that could be interesting?
Despite this film sounding
like it never passed the first draft,
there was actually a lot of work put into it.
There was clearly a lot of detail
put into the world,
and it looked like a visually gorgeous film.
But "Newt" just had problems from the get-go.
They just kept rewriting the script again and again
and it kept being pushed back
from 2008 to 2009 and so on.
Eventually, the film
was given to Pete Docter,
the director of "Up".
But instead,
he pitched Disney another idea,
which actually became
my favorite Disney movie of all time:
"Inside Out".
So thank you, Newt.
You inadvertently brought to life
one of my favorite animated movies of all time.
But as a result,
Newt is now shelved for good.
making it Pixar's only
cancelled animated film ever.
And the third cancelled animated movie is...
"Popeye".
As of this point,
Popeye is a truly ancient animated character.
Popeye has been around nearly 100 years.
But he's only had a handful of projects
since the 1940s.
But his trademark laugh,
love of spinach,
and his speech impediment
still feel so fresh in my mind.
Yet I can't even remember
the last time I saw one of his cartoons.
I guess he was just that memorable.
But when it comes to movies,
it just seems like Popeye gets rotten luck.
While the 1980 film "Popeye" is certainly memorable,
it was mainly memorable for being
the first debut of Robin Williams,
and was honestly a pretty mixed bag.
So while Sony originally intended to make "Popeye"...
It was instead scrapped for...
"The Emoji Movie".
I kid you not.
The ancient but memorable Popeye
was shelved for "The Emoji Movie".
To get a better idea of the movie,
I watched the sneak peek.
While the movie didn't look like it was
gonna be anything groundbreaking,
it at least looked true to the source material.
The animation has a Popeye feel to it,
and the voice acting didn't sound too bad.
(Olive grunts)
- Don't worry, Miss Oyl!
I'll save--
(punching and crashing) --you!
(footsteps) - Save ME?
- I mean, there's not much else to go off,
but I think we can safely say
"The Emoji Movie" was a step back.
Though I suspect a
stink bomb in the cinema
would have been more entertainment than...
whatever the hell "The Emoji Movie" was.
And the second cancelled animated movie is...
"Wild Life".
Just so you know,
I don't mean the 2016 movie "The Wild Life".
Just "Wild Life".
Ironically enough,
the movie was cancelled by Disney
for being too wild.
Originally, "Wild Life" was intended to be a satire
of the crazy 70s American culture,
as well as paying homage
to some of the fashion icons
who played a hand in that culture.
It was about an elephant named Ella
being discovered and being offered a job
as a star attraction
by a down-on-his-luck club owner named Red Pittstain
and his star attraction Kitty Glitter.
What went wrong with this one?
Well, the movie was being
developed by Disney,
and as you can imagine,
70s American culture
wasn't exactly always
family-friendly,
and the vice chairman Roy Disney
was absolutely appalled
by the movie's mature content,
and outright canned it.
Honestly,
I'm not quite sure what the target demographic
was with this movie,
but considering the subject matter,
I don't know if it coulda' gotten away with a PG.
I mean, come on!
We've got an elephant
in a pole dancer's costume here.
I mean, those aren't fishnet stockings,
those are fishnet everything.
Nothing against her,
I just don't know if that's suitable for kids.
You know, on Disney.
And my #1 favorite cancelled animated movie is...
"Larrikins".
This is probably my favorite cancelled animated movie.
The animation looked absolutely beautiful,
and I like the characters and concept.
It was even set
in my home country, Australia.
Essentially, Dreamworks intended
to make a movie about bilbies.
It's like an Australian opossum-bandicoot?
I dunno, we got weird stuff here.
But the premise actually sounded really promising.
It was about a bilby named Perry
and a kangaroo named Red
setting out on a musical adventure
across Australia.
- ♪ I should just sit by?
♪ watch this illegal alien
♪ squat on in?
- [Crowd] No! - ♪ I don't think so!
♪ That'd be quite un-Australian
- That sounds kinda neat.
The kangaroo Red was apparently
gonna be a bit of an Australian stereotype.
He's hard-edged, unemotional,
thinks everything is a joke, and hates authority.
Which I'd never really thought about before, but,
I guess that is a stereotype of Aussies.
Something I liked about Perry
is he's one of the first
proper Obsessive-Compulsive animated characters
I've ever seen.
He will compulsively stack berries all the time
and is fearful of breaking his routines and habits.
I can definitely relate.
Tim Minchin, the creator in charge of the film,
actually announced its cancellation
less than a year before it was gonna come out.
He even left a detailed blog
on all the work he put into it
and how much it cost.
It really showed what a shame it was
this film could never see the light of day.
"Larrikins" was a cancelled animated movie
that really looked like it was gonna be something special.
Fortunately, Dreamworks
did turn it into a nice little animated short named "Bilby",
which is basically about Perry
as he tries to protect a bird named Kylie
from the dangers of the outback.
Of which we know there are many.
And overall,
I think "Larrikins" was
the cancelled animated movie
that I was looking forward to most of all.
Well, thanks for checking out
these cancelled animated movies with me.
It is a shame, though, that sometimes,
years of creativity can end up being
not shown to the world at all.
But you know,
we've seen 'em now.
And good or bad,
I appreciate the effort of so many people
trying to make these animations come to life.
And if you've got your own thoughts
on these cancelled animated movies,
or if you know of one I missed,
feel free to leave them in the comments below.
And as always,
thanks for watching,
and I'll see you next time.