As Disney and Pixar have grown over the years, many films have come to fruition and gone on to live in audiences' memories forever. However, just as many, if not more, movies never make it all the way through production.
Films such as Gigantic, Don Quixote, and The Shadow King were pitched to Disney or even made it to production before being put on hold or scrapped entirely. In many cases, this has left Disney fans with amazing concept art teasing beautiful scenery, character designs, and storyboards for films that may never came to be.
10 Chanticleer Was Considered An Unlikeable Character
Chanticleer would have seen Disney produce the famous play about the titular rooster as the next animation following the success of Pinocchio. Production started in the 1940s when artists began drafting the designs for the farmyard animals that Chanticleer would rule over. However, the writers started to feel that Chanticleer was an unlikeable character who audiences wouldn't sympathize with.
Walt Disney attempted to solve this problem by combining the initial story with Reynard the Fox, which would have given Chanticleer an enemy to battle and made him more appealing to the audience. Unfortunately, the onset of World War II caused the project to be shelved until the 1960s. However, even then the film wasn't meant to be, as Disney looked over the project and found that he still didn't like the titular character.
9 Fraidy Cat Would Have Paid Homage To Alfred Hitchcock
Drafted for release in 2009, Fraidy Cat would have told the tale of the cowardly cat Oscar and courageous cockatoo Corina on their comedic quest to find a kidnaped neighborhood pet. The film was supposed to pay homage to the noir-style films created by filmmaker legend, Alfred Hitchcock.
However, there were concerns that Fraidy Cat wouldn't reach the right target audience and that many younger viewers wouldn't understand any references to the old filmmaker. With that in mind, the project was canceled, leaving many older Hitchcock fans disappointed.
8 Don Quixote Has Been Proposed Multiple Times
Don Quixote is a famous Spanish novel published in 1605 that tells the tale of a man desperate to become a knight-errant in order to restore chivalry to the world. The story was first proposed to Disney in 1946 as a musical short, and at the time it was designed in great detail. However, due to heavy monetary losses, the studio was forced to shelve the project. Don Quixote was proposed again in 1951, this time as a feature film, but after more designs were drawn up, the animation style suggested was found lacking and the project was shelved again.
In the early 2000s, Don Quixote was floated once again. But where the animation style was lacking before, the new designs were considered "too adult," and the plug was pulled yet again. There were rumors of a live-action Disney film in the 2010s, and while a script was drawn up, it was never used. Fans have been left to wonder whether there will ever be a Disney rendition of Don Quixote or whether it's nothing more than an impossible dream.
7 Mistress Masham's Repose Would Have Been A Charming Take On Gulliver's Travels
Mistress Masham's Repose was a novel that followed 10-year-old orphan Maria as she tried to escape her strict caretakers Mistress Masham and Mr. Hater. In the story, Maria found a small island filled with tiny Lilliputians who became her only friends.
The film adaptation of Mistress Masham's Repose was proposed in the 1980s to Roy Disney, Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Although Disney thought the story was charming and worth exploring, both Katzenberg and Eisner hated it and so it was canceled in favor of The Black Cauldron.
6 Where The Wild Things Are Wasn't Meant To Be
In the 1980s, Disney purchased the rights to the famous book, Where the Wild Things Are. This classic Maurice Sendak book follows the story of a young boy, Max, who doesn't care for his parents' rules and seeks the company of the Wild Things where he can live freely as a chaotic monster.
The Disney film would have combined CGI backgrounds with traditional animation for the characters, and it got as far as a successful test sequence. However, the combined animation styles proved too costly for the company, so the project was dropped.
5 King Of The Elves Would Have Seen Magic In Mississippi
Intended for release in 2012, King of the Elves would have seen the mystical race of the elves and a single dwarf surviving modern-day Mississippi and then naming a human their king after he accidentally saved them from an evil troll. Headed by John Lasseter and Chris Williams, King of the Elves was set to rival Frozen for a release date and was reportedly doing well in production.
However, King of the Elves was shelved in 2009 after Williams lost passion for the project. Then, when it was re-examined in 2016, production ended when Williams stated that he didn't wish to continue working on it and left the story altogether.
4 Ghostopolis Had Cast Hugh Jackman As Its Lead
Based on Doug TenNapel's graphic novel, Ghostopolis was to be a live-action movie wherein the Supernatural Immigration Task Force would attempt the search and rescue of a living boy who had become trapped in the ghost realm, a scarier premise than most Disney flicks.
It was soon announced that Hugh Jackman had been cast as the main role and that Disney would work with Seed Productions and The Gotham Group to create the film. However, sometime in 2010, the film was canceled, though the reason for doing so was never revealed to the public.
3 The Shadow King Was Suggested By Henry Selick
Following the commercial success of Coraline, Henry Selick wrote a script known as The Shadow King which he pitched to Disney. In traditional Selick fashion, The Shadow King was to be a stop-motion animated feature following a nine-year-old orphan with oddly long fingers who could create hand shadows that came to life.
Although Disney initially accepted a film deal for The Shadow King, they eventually backed out after spending around $50 million on the project. The mounting costs proved too much for them, so the film was canceled. Selick still has the original puppets and hopes that the project might still go on one day.
2 Mort Was Almost Disney's Introduction To Discworld
Terry Pratchett's story Mort followed the titular character as he was hired to be Death's apprentice, giving Death a chance to take a much-needed holiday. The film was pitched to Disney in 2013, and they were eager to buy the rights and start production immediately.
However, Mort never made it past the pitching process when the company realized that to purchase the rights to Mort, they would also have to purchase the rights to the full Discworld series. With no idea whether the film would pay off, the project was quickly rejected under the premise that it would be too expensive to buy the rights to all of Discworld.
1 Gigantic Would Have Been A Cute Re-Telling Of Jack And The Beanstalk
First announced at the 2015 D23 Expo, Gigantic would have told the tale of Jack finding his way into the Land of the Giants and meeting eleven-year-old giantess named Inma who wanted to keep him as her living doll. Gigantic received a lot of support from the public, who loved the designs revealed at the expo and couldn't wait for more.
Although Gigantic was slated for a 2018 release date, it was later announced that it had been pushed back to 2020. Then in 2017, the film was canceled altogether. It was never announced why the project was canceled, though many reasons have been speculated by fans who wished to see this dream-like film become a reality.