Deleted member 82792
I was just wondering what different plots for movies like Snow White, Aladdin or Frozen would be like. Any ideas?
Do you mean films that could have been made in an alternate timeline that still had a Disney, or films that could have been made in our own timeline but weren't?
For the former, you could only really consider settings in the 20th Century, as an earlier PoD might wipe away Disney the man and hence the Studio. In a world where America goes communist, or Germany gets really, really lucky in World War II, then you could easily see very different films being made, though I don't think we'd like to see them
In fact, given that a Disney film can be set in any world, at any point in history, there's not much the real world could do to direct the path Disney takes.
As it is, OTL gives Disney quite a bit of leeway. I could see the scare of the Cold War producing a movie set in the aftermath of nuclear war, like if Disney did Fallout I do know that at least Frozen could've been a very different film, with Elsa as a sort-of 'neutral antagonist'. Her famous (or infamous, depending on how many times you've heard it ) song alludes to the original premise, "I am one with the wind and sky", "No right, no wrong, no rules for me", where Elsa rejects the idea of good and evil 'ascends', in her mind, above morality. Frozen IOTL did play with the standard 'formula' (the magical queen is good-but-misunderstood, and the 'Prince Charming' is a murdering sociopath), so it might just have worked (I don't know how, I'm not a scriptwriter).
For the former, you could only really consider settings in the 20th Century, as an earlier PoD might wipe away Disney the man and hence the Studio. In a world where America goes communist, or Germany gets really, really lucky in World War II, then you could easily see very different films being made, though I don't think we'd like to see them
In fact, given that a Disney film can be set in any world, at any point in history, there's not much the real world could do to direct the path Disney takes.As it is, OTL gives Disney quite a bit of leeway. I could see the scare of the Cold War producing a movie set in the aftermath of nuclear war, like if Disney did Fallout
I do know that at least Frozen could've been a very different film, with Elsa as a sort-of 'neutral antagonist'. Her famous (or infamous, depending on how many times you've heard it ) song alludes to the original premise, "I am one with the wind and sky", "No right, no wrong, no rules for me", where Elsa rejects the idea of good and evil 'ascends', in her mind, above morality. Frozen IOTL did play with the standard 'formula' (the magical queen is good-but-misunderstood, and the 'Prince Charming' is a murdering sociopath), so it might just have worked (I don't know how, I'm not a scriptwriter).
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Deleted member 82792
Do you mean films that could have been made in an alternate timeline that still had a Disney, or films that could have been made in our own timeline but weren't?
For the former, you could only really consider settings in the 20th Century, as an earlier PoD might wipe away Disney the man and hence the Studio. In a world where America goes communist, or Germany gets really, really lucky in World War II, then you could easily see very different films being made, though I don't think we'd like to see them
As it is, OTL gives Disney quite a bit of leeway. I could see the scare of the Cold War producing a movie set in the aftermath of nuclear war, like if Disney did Fallout
A bit of both, I think.
Let's See:
1: Originally, the original main villain of The Rescuers was to be Cruella de Ville from 101 Dalmatians, but the original authors of both works threatened to sue Disney if that happened.
2: While Don Bluth was working on Fox and Hound, it was much closer to the original book. It was only after he left that the plot was changed to make it a parable of race relations.
3: The Black Cauldron's original script had an extra 25 minutes of screen time, which included more characterization time for Taran, Eilowny, and Flewddur Flaam, and a better explanation of Arawn the Death Lord's motives and plans.
4: Little Nemo In Slumberland was originally a joint venture between Disney and Tokyo Movie Shinsha. However, during the regime change that brought Michael Eisner to power, Disney withdrew from its part of production, forcing them to scramble to find a new partner. It took five more years to complete the film, with the help of Warner Brothers (through the Orion Pictures label), and one of the American animators on the project was none other than Bruce Timm of the DCAU (Starting with Batman: The Animated Series.)
5: Oliver and Company was originally planned to use human characters and be a more straightforward adaption of Oliver Twist.
6: Aladdin was only greenlighted after Duck Tales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp turned into a box office bomb, and was stricken from the Disney Animated Canon. Had the latter movie been a hit, it would have probably meant that A Goofy Movie, Another Goofy Movie, Tigger's First Movie, and The Heffalump Movie could have been counted among the Canon, too. (This alongside OTL's Winnie the Pooh 2{2010}).
7: There were repeated attempts to turn Swan Lake into an animated feature during the 1990s and early '00s.
8: Before the success of The Incredibles, the plot of Bolt was radically different, closer to that of live action film G-Force!
9: Tangled was originally meant for either hand-drawn animation, or a more stylized cell-shading animation style, and would go for a more tongue-in-cheek, fractured fairytale style of Shrek. Then the director successfully rewrote the physics engine, and a new script after the relative success of The Princess and the Frog.
10: Wreck-It Ralph's original name was Joe Jump, and it was originally a Pixar Script. Allegedly, it was supposed to be a more faithful big screen adaptation of either Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros. than the 1992 film with Bob Hoskins.
11: There were several earlier drafts of Frozen. In one, the love triangle with Hans and Kristoff would have been more overt, and featured Elsa at the center, and she would have been the villain of the piece. Then the recording of "Let it Go" came back, and everybody realized that Idina Menzel's delivery simply wouldn't work for a Disney Villainess without some major Unfortunate Implications. A last-minute rewrite with only eight months left until release caused a lit of nail-biting among Disney High Ups, and the $120,000,000 write-off constituted roughly 2/3 of the budget.
1: Originally, the original main villain of The Rescuers was to be Cruella de Ville from 101 Dalmatians, but the original authors of both works threatened to sue Disney if that happened.
2: While Don Bluth was working on Fox and Hound, it was much closer to the original book. It was only after he left that the plot was changed to make it a parable of race relations.
3: The Black Cauldron's original script had an extra 25 minutes of screen time, which included more characterization time for Taran, Eilowny, and Flewddur Flaam, and a better explanation of Arawn the Death Lord's motives and plans.
4: Little Nemo In Slumberland was originally a joint venture between Disney and Tokyo Movie Shinsha. However, during the regime change that brought Michael Eisner to power, Disney withdrew from its part of production, forcing them to scramble to find a new partner. It took five more years to complete the film, with the help of Warner Brothers (through the Orion Pictures label), and one of the American animators on the project was none other than Bruce Timm of the DCAU (Starting with Batman: The Animated Series.)
5: Oliver and Company was originally planned to use human characters and be a more straightforward adaption of Oliver Twist.
6: Aladdin was only greenlighted after Duck Tales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp turned into a box office bomb, and was stricken from the Disney Animated Canon. Had the latter movie been a hit, it would have probably meant that A Goofy Movie, Another Goofy Movie, Tigger's First Movie, and The Heffalump Movie could have been counted among the Canon, too. (This alongside OTL's Winnie the Pooh 2{2010}).
7: There were repeated attempts to turn Swan Lake into an animated feature during the 1990s and early '00s.
8: Before the success of The Incredibles, the plot of Bolt was radically different, closer to that of live action film G-Force!
9: Tangled was originally meant for either hand-drawn animation, or a more stylized cell-shading animation style, and would go for a more tongue-in-cheek, fractured fairytale style of Shrek. Then the director successfully rewrote the physics engine, and a new script after the relative success of The Princess and the Frog.
10: Wreck-It Ralph's original name was Joe Jump, and it was originally a Pixar Script. Allegedly, it was supposed to be a more faithful big screen adaptation of either Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros. than the 1992 film with Bob Hoskins.
11: There were several earlier drafts of Frozen. In one, the love triangle with Hans and Kristoff would have been more overt, and featured Elsa at the center, and she would have been the villain of the piece. Then the recording of "Let it Go" came back, and everybody realized that Idina Menzel's delivery simply wouldn't work for a Disney Villainess without some major Unfortunate Implications. A last-minute rewrite with only eight months left until release caused a lit of nail-biting among Disney High Ups, and the $120,000,000 write-off constituted roughly 2/3 of the budget.
Seriously though there was supposed to be HSM IV and they were even talking about it becoming a franchise where they would make successive movies with new cast members as old cast members "graduated" from East High. That talk was after HSM II when the franchise was really on the rise.
After HSM III they quickly came to realize that it had run its course. HSM IV became Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure and then it all quietly went away.
Well the 1990s scripts (at least 2 were released, one version dated Jan 19, by J T Allen alone, and one dated May 23, by J T Allen and Ron Bass) for Lion King were dramatically different to the final version, at neither involved many of the proposed-but-dropped characters that were sketched up like Nala's brother Mheetu, of their childhood friend, the bat-eared fox Bhati.
That was originally a Renard the Fox movie. Then, the screenwriters at Disney looked a little further into the source material and realized that it would have taken a Fritz the Cat mentality. So, they scrapped the original story, but kept the art assets they already developed.
You know, Originally, Disney was developing a sequel to Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It was to be entitled Shards of Chaos, but it was abandoned once The Lost Empire was less successful than anticipated.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Well, i love the movie.
What do you think Shards of Chaos was to be about?
Driftless
Donor
The Black Cauldron was a major dud both financially and artistically. The Chronicles of Prydain are a very well written series that should have translated well to the screen. It could have been done much better as live action with CGI, or all CGI if they had done the filming a few years later. There's five stories in the series, that work as standalone(more or less) tales in a single story arc with a relatively small cast of main characters. There is plenty of action, but the stories are character driven. Any of Lloyd Alexander's work should have played well for Disney.
Some more
Louis the Bear - In a loose concept of The Rescuers, jazz singer Louis Prima was to voice a character named Louis the Bear. The story was about a bear who escapes from a zoo with the help of two mice, and it was to feature six songs written by Floyd Huddleston sung by Prima with Sam Butera and the Witnesses. Several recorded demos from the film included "Rescuers Aid Society", "Misery", "I Never Had It So Good", "Sittin' In My Favorite Position Doin' Nothin'", and "All I Ever Do Is Think Of You". Unfortunately in 1975, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, Prima discovered he had a stem brain tumor, and the project was scrapped.
Who Discovered Roger Rabbit - The shelved proposed prequel to the 1988 Disney/Amblin film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film, which previously went by the working title, Roger Rabbit Two: The Toon Platoon, was set in 1941 during the Second World War, and would have had Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman going on a journey through the perils of the war in search of Roger's birth parents in the Americas. It would have been a musical, direct-to-video release.
Homer's Odyssey - A feature film set around the odyssey of Homer.
Mickey Columbus - Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are cast as the captains of the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, and Minnie stands in for Queen Isabella. The film's writers could not decide what to do about the Native Americans that Columbus would encounter in the New World.
Mickey's Arabian Nights - A feature film starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy, set around the entire One Thousand and One Nights anthology.
Where is Roger Rabbit? - A sequel to the original Roger Rabbit film, planned as either direct-to-video or a theatrical feature film sequel.
Hercules II - Disney planned a proposed direct-to-video sequel to Hercules. Hercules is now living in Athens with Megara and their daughter, Hebe. However, when an old friend named Helen is captured by the evil Paris of Troy, Hercules joins the united Greek army as they head out to war. However, this war will create revelations, and Hercules finds an old friend who eventually goes missing.
Treasure Planet II - The cancelled direct-to-video sequel to the original film. Treasure Planet: The Animated Series was supposed to follow the sequel.
Fantasia III - Also known as Fantasia 2006, this would have been the third film installment in the Fantasia series, even Minnie, Pluto and Goofy were going to join in one of these unknown segments, until the plans were eventually dropped altogether, and proposed segments from that abandoned film were instead produced and released as individual stand-alone Disney animated shorts.
The Aristocats II - The canceled direct-to-video sequel to the original 1970 film.The story was to have concerned Marie, Duchess's daughter, who becomes smitten by another kitten aboard a luxury cruise ship. However, she and her family must soon take on a jewel thief on the open seas.
The Jungle Book 3 - Multiple story ideas were suggested such as Baloo and Shere Khan being captured and sold off to a Russian circus, and Mowgli, Shanti, Ranjan and Bagheera deciding to save them both. Over the course of the film, Shere Khan regrets his hatred against humanity because of his capture, and eventually reforms,but the project never materialized.
Antonius - The project follows the story of a leopard in ancient Egypt who becomes a freedom fighter.
Thoughts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unproduced_Disney_animated_shorts_and_feature_films
Louis the Bear - In a loose concept of The Rescuers, jazz singer Louis Prima was to voice a character named Louis the Bear. The story was about a bear who escapes from a zoo with the help of two mice, and it was to feature six songs written by Floyd Huddleston sung by Prima with Sam Butera and the Witnesses. Several recorded demos from the film included "Rescuers Aid Society", "Misery", "I Never Had It So Good", "Sittin' In My Favorite Position Doin' Nothin'", and "All I Ever Do Is Think Of You". Unfortunately in 1975, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, Prima discovered he had a stem brain tumor, and the project was scrapped.
Who Discovered Roger Rabbit - The shelved proposed prequel to the 1988 Disney/Amblin film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film, which previously went by the working title, Roger Rabbit Two: The Toon Platoon, was set in 1941 during the Second World War, and would have had Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman going on a journey through the perils of the war in search of Roger's birth parents in the Americas. It would have been a musical, direct-to-video release.
Homer's Odyssey - A feature film set around the odyssey of Homer.
Mickey Columbus - Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are cast as the captains of the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, and Minnie stands in for Queen Isabella. The film's writers could not decide what to do about the Native Americans that Columbus would encounter in the New World.
Mickey's Arabian Nights - A feature film starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy, set around the entire One Thousand and One Nights anthology.
Where is Roger Rabbit? - A sequel to the original Roger Rabbit film, planned as either direct-to-video or a theatrical feature film sequel.
Hercules II - Disney planned a proposed direct-to-video sequel to Hercules. Hercules is now living in Athens with Megara and their daughter, Hebe. However, when an old friend named Helen is captured by the evil Paris of Troy, Hercules joins the united Greek army as they head out to war. However, this war will create revelations, and Hercules finds an old friend who eventually goes missing.
Treasure Planet II - The cancelled direct-to-video sequel to the original film. Treasure Planet: The Animated Series was supposed to follow the sequel.
Fantasia III - Also known as Fantasia 2006, this would have been the third film installment in the Fantasia series, even Minnie, Pluto and Goofy were going to join in one of these unknown segments, until the plans were eventually dropped altogether, and proposed segments from that abandoned film were instead produced and released as individual stand-alone Disney animated shorts.
The Aristocats II - The canceled direct-to-video sequel to the original 1970 film.The story was to have concerned Marie, Duchess's daughter, who becomes smitten by another kitten aboard a luxury cruise ship. However, she and her family must soon take on a jewel thief on the open seas.
The Jungle Book 3 - Multiple story ideas were suggested such as Baloo and Shere Khan being captured and sold off to a Russian circus, and Mowgli, Shanti, Ranjan and Bagheera deciding to save them both. Over the course of the film, Shere Khan regrets his hatred against humanity because of his capture, and eventually reforms,but the project never materialized.
Antonius - The project follows the story of a leopard in ancient Egypt who becomes a freedom fighter.
Thoughts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unproduced_Disney_animated_shorts_and_feature_films
Driftless
Donor
Probably too dark for Disney, but several of the James P. Blaylock books might work too. The Balumnia series: Elfin Ship, Disappearing Dwarf, Stone Giant are Steampunkish, with suitably off-center and funny heroes in sinister settings. Several of the Langston St Ives books are true Steampunk and dark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elfin_Ship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disappearing_Dwarf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stone_Giant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin%27s_Machine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elfin_Ship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disappearing_Dwarf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stone_Giant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kelvin%27s_Machine
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