There are a lot of animated movies out there, some memorable and enjoyable, and some aren’t. Though, not every single movie idea makes it to the big screen. There are quite a few cancelled movies out there, but today I’m going to be focusing on cancelled animated movies. This is my Top 5 Favorite Cancelled Animated Movies, in no particular order. One rule: No lost animated movies. Those aren’t technically cancelled unless confirmed to be. With that out of the way, let’s get started.
5. The Bob and Larry Movie (Big Idea Productions)
(Concept art by Phillip Dimitriadis)
During development of “Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie”, another Veggietales movies was in development. The Bob and Larry Movie revolved around how Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber met and started Veggietales. The film would’ve possibly had human characters as well. Not much else is known about the movie. It as planned for a 2005 release, but the film was cancelled due to Big Idea going bankrupt. The movie would be eventually replaced with “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie.”. In 2019, Big Idea announced a new Veggietales show and a brand new movie with Dreamworks. Fans speculated that this movie would be the Bob and Larry movie, but Veggietales co-creator, Phil Vischer shot down that theory on Twitter. Sorry fans, this is one Veggietales movie you’ll probably never get to see.
4. The Shadow King (Disney)
(Concept art by Katy Wu)
Did you know that Henry Selick was going to work on another stop-motion animated movie with Disney? This is Disney’s The Shadow King. It’s about a young orphan named Hap who learned how to create hand shadows that come to life by a living shadow girl. Hap uses his shadows to fight in an ongoing war against a shadow monster that desires to kill Hap’s younger brother, Richard and destroying New York. Selick was given a picture deal after the success of Coraline. Henry Selick rejected the deal. The movie was cancelled until it was revived in 2013, with the help of distributor and production company K5 International. It’s unknown if The Shadow King is cancelled or not, but with lack of any new information and Selick currently working on Wendell and Wild, it’s doubtful that we’ll hear from this movie again. Though, it’s not the last time you’ll hear about a movie featuring living shadows on this list.
3. Mumbai Madness [Bollywood Superstar Monkey] (Dreamworks)
(Concept art by Ron Kurniawan)
Mumbai Madness, also known Bollywood Superstar Monkey, was going to be a different kind of movie by Dreamworks Animation. It was going to be a musical based off Bollywood movies, and was an adaptation of the Indian story ‘The Ramayana”. The plot revolves around two monkey brothers trying to stop a demon from conquering the world. The music was to be written by Stephen Schwartz, who worked “Wicked” and “Prince of Egypt” and A.R Rahman, who worked on “127 Hours” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. The movie was cancelled due to hundreds of Dreamworks employees being laid off around development. It would’ve been interesting to see Dreamworks take on Bollywood movies, since it had some real talent behind it.
2. Popeye (Sony Pictures Animation)
(Concept art by Aurélien Predal)
Now here’s something very upsetting. Popeye would’ve been the 3rd movie directed by Genndy Tartakosvky with Sony Pictures Animation at the time. It would have been about Popeye’s origin story. The test footage shows the movie would have had the cartoony animation and style similar to the Hotel Transylvania movies. Contrary to popular belief, this movie was not cancelled due to The Emoji Movie. Genndy Tartakosvky said that the studio didn’t like the test footage, and the hack in 2015 leading Sony to cancel some of the projects leaked. So in short, the Emoji Movie didn’t cancel Popeye, it was just convenient timing. Although it’s still a crime Sony still greenlit the Emoji Movie.
Honorable Mentions
And now, some honorable mentions. Some cancelled movies that didn’t make the list.
Celebrity Harvest (Dreamworks?)
(Concept art by Jamie Hewlett)
A Gorillaz movie that revolved around the band fighting their way through an apocalyptic world infested with zombie-like celebrities. Dreamworks backed out on the project due to the movie being too mature and dark for audiences.
The Dreaming Machine (Madhouse)
(Art by Various Artists)
The final movie by famous Japanese director, Satoshi Kon, known for movies like “Millennium Actress” and “Paprika”. Production halted due to Kon’s passing. Anime studio Madhouse tried to finish the movie, but the studio couldn’t find another director to take the helm.
Deadpool Series (FOX)
Not a movie, but I still fell like this is worth mentioning. An animated Deadpool TV series that was gonna be developed by Donald and Stephen Glover. Test pilots by Titmouse, Radical Axis, and another unnamed studio. (Only the Titmouse pilot is available online). No reason why it was cancelled has been revealed yet.
1. Me and My Shadow (Dreamworks)
Me and My Shadow would’ve been about a boring man and his sentient, hyperactive shadow trying to save the world from a bunch a malevolent shadows trying to take over the world. The movie would have been one of the few movies that blended both hand-drawn animation with CG animation. 3D with the humans. The movie was cancelled because of the company laying off employees. The same reason why Mumbai Madness was cancelled. Lots of concept art, but very little animation exists for the movie. I will go into deeper details about this movie in a separate post because I feel like this deserve a whole page to itself. Trust me, this was gonna be a gold mine of a movie. Though to be fair, any of these movies listed could’ve been good. It’s a true shame that they’ll never see the light of day. ~
UPDATE (08/26/2019): Added various links.
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