Five Anime Productions that Never Saw the Light of Day

There is no questioning the ever growing appeal of anime in the West. The medium was popularized not only due to audiences being curious about alternatives to Saturday morning cartoons, but also due to the combined talents of pioneers such as Osamu Tezuka, Hayao Miyazaki, Rintaro, Shinichiro Watanabe, and Hideaki Anno, just to name a few. However, as with the case of several American studios, some projects by famous directors never made it past the drawing boards or were put on indefinite hiatus. Producing high quality animation is certainly not cheap. Below is a small glimpse at what could have been.

 Miyazaki's and Takahada's Pippi Longstocking 

Production art for for the proposed film.

One hardly needs an introduction to Studio Ghibli founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahada. Their impressive filmography includes the likes of Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), Grave of Fireflies (1988), Only Yesterday (1990), Princess Mononoke (1997), and Spirited Away (2001). However, the two had just started out in the early 1970s and were relatively unknown. Takahada's and Miyazaki's efforts on ambitious projects, such as Horus: Prince of the Sun (1968) and the original Lupin III series (1971-1972), were shunned and ignored for several years, as they were ahead of their time.

In 1971, Miyazaki and Takahada approached Pippi Longstocking's author, Astrid Lindgren, expressing intrest in adapting the property into an animated feature entitled Pippi Longstocking: The Strongest Girl in the World (Nagakutsushita No Pippi: Sekai Ichi Tsuyoi Onna No Ko). They even traveled around Sweden, making observations for their proposed film. However, Lindgren was not keen on the idea. This was likely due to her unhappiness with the 1949 film adaptation of her book. All that remains of Miyazaki's and Takahada's project are some proposed watercolor storyboards.

Miyazaki and Takahada compromised by creating an original project featuring a young, feisty redhead in pigtails, Panda Kopanda. The two films, Panda Kopanda (1972) and The Rainy Day Circus (1973) run at about half an hour each. They follow a girl named Mimiko, who is left to take care of the house when her grandmother is away. But when she returns home from the station she finds herself in charge of two unusual guests, a large Panda and his son. Keen eyed fans will notice that Papa Panda bares an uncanny resemblance to Totoro. Indeed, the Panda Kopanda shorts were training grounds for the relatively new filmmakers, and they greatly influenced the direction of Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro (1988). So in other words, if Miyazaki and Takahada had actually managed to obtain Pippi Longstocking's copyrights, there likely would never even been a My Neighbor Totoro!  

Storyboards for Pippi Longstockings vs Panda Kopanda.

Rintaro's Lupin VIII 

 

A still from the pilot, "A Man from the Past."

After having three television series and three feature films, American producers began to notice the immense success of the Lupin III franchise in Japan. Thus, the French company DiC (which previously collaborated on anime-like projects, Ulysses 31 [1981] and The Mysterious Cities of Gold [1982-1983]) and TMS, decided to adapt Lupin III to suit American tastes. In 1982, production began under legendary director Rintaro (Galaxy Express 999 [1979], Metropolis [2001]), who was given a large budget to work with.

But, making Lupin appeal to Westerners proved to be difficult. The Japanese series was aimed at a more adult audience, featuring frequent gunplay and innuendos. Since cartoons in America were deemed as 'kid's stuff' throughout the '70s and '80s (save for a few wild cards like Ralph Bakshi), Lupin's occupation as a master thief and his criminal outings were deemed unsuitable for childern. The series had to undergo a major makeover.

This whole scene explains why Lupin had to be changed for American audiences....

Lupin VIII is set in the 22nd century. It follows the descendant of Lupin III, who is a freelance detective that pilots a spaceship. Since smoking and guns were a big 'no no' for American cartoons, Jigen's trademark cigarette and pistol were replaced with a lollipop and a laser gun. Goemon's samurai sword was changed into a ... lightsaber sword. And Fujiko's sexuality was toned down considerably. Because Lupin VIII is not a criminal, Inspector Zenigata's descendent simply chases him based on past family history.

A promotional poster for Lupin VIII. 

The series did manage to produce a pilot episode, "A Man From the Past,". Although the episode's animation and sound effects were completed, the project fell through before dialogue could be recorded. Apparently, a second episode was scripted, but it has yet to emerge on the internet. Lupin VIII failed to get off the ground due to copyright issues surrounding the Arsene Lupin name. Despite that Rintaro was set to direct the series, it probably relieved many anime fans that the show was canceled. Lupin VIII had changed so much from its original incarnation it wasn't even Lupin III anymore! DiC seems to have realized this though. It came up with a compromise about another (but rather clumsy) detective, Inspector Gadget.  

So instead of a wily thief, we got an incompetent inspector. Great. 

Miyazaki's and Takahada's Little Nemo

The 1985 pilot for Little Nemo by Yoshifumi Kondo.

 TMS is one of the the oldest and most successful anime studios. Not only did it bring us Lupin III, but also Rose of Versailles (1979-1980), Sherlock Hound (1984-1985), Akira (1989), and Detective Conan (1996-present). In order to try and expand its international market, the studio decided to try and make a feature length production that would transcend cultural boundaries. In 1977 producer Yutaka Fujioka flew over to Monterey, California to negotiate with Winsor McCay's family. He wanted to create a Japanese / American coproduction of McCay's comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland.

The project grew to be very ambitious and expensive. Perhaps a bit too ambitious and expensive. Fujioka approached both George Lucas and Chuck Jones to help with the film, but both declined, noting Little Nemo was plagued with story problems. Fujioka did manage to gather many other talented people for the production, including Ray Bradbury, the French comic artist Moebius, several Disney animators, Brian Froud, and the Sherman Brothers. Both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahada were brought on board in the early 1980s as well. Their longtime friend and animator director, Yoshifumi Kondo, managed to create a short pilot trailer for the film, before they all left the seemingly doomed production and established Studio Ghibli.

Beautiful concept art for Nemo by Moebius.  

But despite this blowing loss, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland continued to clunk along. Osamu Dezaki managed to create a second pilot and Sadao Tsukioka created a third, now seemingly lost, pilot. Dezaki's pilot is considerably closer to the finalized version of Nemo, but still bares more resemblance to an anime movie than a Disney cartoon. In 1988, Yutaka Fujioka appointed Masami Hata and William Hurtz as the film's directors. The film was finally released in 1989, after twelve years in production.

Even though Little Nemo holds the distinction of being the first anime film to receive national release in the United States, it flopped. Nemo only earned 10 million for its 35 million budget. It failed to connect with both Japanese and Western audiences, in spite of all its superb animation and inspired visuals. There were simply too many artists with differing opinions involved, which the movie's storyline obviously suffers from.

Akira Kurosawa's The Masque of Black Death

Kurosawa doing what he does best. 

Akira Kurosawa was one of Japan's most important and influential directors. His contributions to Asian cinema include Stray Dog (1949), Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), and Ran (1985). Kurosawa not only directed, but also often wrote and edited his own films. His work ranged from historical epics to noir-like dramas.

In 1998, Kurosawa surprised everyone when he announced that he had written a screenplay for the short Edgar Allen Poe story, "The Masque of Red Death." The film was going to be his first animated feature. However,  Kurosawa died on September 6th that year of a stroke. Renewed interest in the project occured in 2008, and Kurosawa Production planned to have the film completed by 2010, in honor of Kurosawa's 100th birthday. That deadline has long since passed, and The Masque of Red Death remains in hiatus. Very little information is known about what the initial production would have been like, as no animated stills from the film have been leaked online.

Satoshi Kon's The Dreaming Machine

 

Promotional art for the film.

Outside of Studio Ghibli, perhaps no other anime director has met as wide acclaim as Satoshi Kon at studio Madhouse. His movies are often realistically animated, and deal with complex issues such as social inequality, homelessness, and exploitation in modern Japan. Satoshi Kon frequently used female characters as his leads, who often dealt with keeping grasp with reality. His best known works are Perfect Blue (1998), Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), and Paprika (2006).

In 2010, Kon announced that he would make a fantasy-adventure movie targeted for family audiences entitled The Dreaming Machine (Yume-Miru Kikai). The Dreaming Machine was to feature no human characters, and instead star only robots. The plot was to center around three robots (Ririco, Robin, and King) as they embark on some sort of road trip.

Tragically, Satoshi Kon was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. His health rapidly deteriorated and he passed away on August 24, 2010. Before he died, Kon did manage to get all of The Dreaming Machine's storyboards complete and asked his studio to finish his film for him as a last request. Madhouse put character designer and chief animator, Yoshimi Itazu, in charge of directing. As of 2011, 600 out of 1500 of The Dreaming Machine's shots were completed. The production was put on hold and its website was taken down. When asked about progress earlier this year, Madhouse still cites that finacial issues are keeping The Dreaming Machine from being completed.

A model sheet for the female lead.

Animated Films that Never Were (Disney Edition)

Given Disney's long history as an animation powerhouse, it is not too surprising that several films over the years were purposed, but never came into fruition. Many of Disney's films have spent time in development hell (such as the Emperor's New Groove, Alice in Wonderland, and The Snow Queen [now renamed 'Frozen'].)  Here are some of the most interesting ideas that were scrapped due to budget reasons or other difficulties.

1.) Reynard the Fox / Chanticleer 

Original concept drawings of Chanticleer and Reynard by Marc Davis.

When Walt was still alive, he considered adapting the fable of Reynard the Fox and his rivalry with the noble rooster Chanticleer into a major motion picture. However, Walt later decided it would be in the studio's best interest to drop the project. This was because Reynard could be a bit of a nasty character at times. The wily fox's pranks could be very cruel. In the original tales, he often commits acts of vengeance and is not below murder. However, Disney has adapted several other fairytales with originally dark plot lines to better suit general audiences (such as the The Little Mermaid.) Another explanation as to why Reynard was abandoned would be that an antisemitic version of the story was written during the Nazi Regime, featuring a rhinoceros as a Jewish stereotype. This, however, did not stop the fable of Reynard into being adapted into a stop-motion film by Ladislas Starevich in 1937.

Why Disney abandoned the film.

What they settled for. 

However, although Reynard was scrapped it greatly influenced Robin Hood (1973), which was the second film made after Walt's death. (The first being The Aristocats.) Both of the titular characters are foxes who are cunning and use many disguises to carry out their tricks. Some of the film's other characters were also influenced from Reynard, including the Sheriff of Nottingham (partially based off Isengrin the Wolf) and the fact that the inept king is a lion. Ex-Disney animator Don Bluth made his own adaptation of Chanticleer entitled Rock-A-Doodle in 1991. The less spoken about it the better.

This movie is a disgrace. Oh, Don Bluth how you have fallen.

For those curious, more can be read about Reynard and Chanticleer here and here. A book written about the film's history can also be purchased on Amazon.

2.) Roald Dahl's Gremlins

Note, these two films have nothing in common.

Roald Dahl was best known for his children's books, but also wrote several brilliant short stories and, in the 1940s, he penned a script for Disney. The Gremlins was meant to be released in the 1943. It was about a team of British pilots befriending small mischief making creatures that enjoy drilling holes in airplanes. If made, this would have been Disney's first major film to be not based upon a fairytale or folk story and to be set in modern times. The Gremlins was scrapped because the animators found it hard to make the gremlins appear sympathetic and the film was in production for so long, it would have been 'outdated' by the time it was released. A lot of money was put into advertising the film and lots of merchandising was released to promote it, but it never came into fruition. However, due to public curiosity surrounding the film, the book tie-in has recently been republished and the character, Gus Gremlin, appeared in the video game Epic Mickey.  

The pilot makes an unusual new friend.

An avid fan explains the history behind Disney's Gremlins. 

3.) Where the Wild Things Are

An important work, despite never being made.

Before the Animation Renaissance, Disney created a test-film based off the iconic children's book Where the Wild Things Are in 1983. It was a landmark for the studio and animation because it was the first cartoon to utilize the blend of traditional animation and computer generated imagery. Also, it was created by John Lasseter, the man who made Pixar a household name and directed Toy Story in 1995. The animation for the film was provided by Glen Keane, who later designed several Disney characters including Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, and Tarzan. A film adaptation was considered but the technology was too expensive at the time for it to be economically feasible. This short has no relation to the 2009 movie by the way.

A clip from a documentary about Disney explaining the 30 second test.

4.) Roger Rabbit 2

Who knew the public would love a crazy albino rabbit?

Love it or hate it, there is no denying that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? made a huge impact when it was released in 1988. It was the first project by Disney to be economically and critically successful since Walt died during the production of The Jungle Book (1968). The film helped renew interest in cartoons by creating complex animation in homage to classic Hollywood. Fueled by the success, Disney would go onto create The Little Mermaid (1988) and The Beauty and the Beast (1990), entering the Animation Renaissance. So it may seem surprising that Disney never took the opportunity to cash in on Roger Rabbit by making a cheap-quel....err, sequel.

Roger Rabbit: The Toon Platoon was planned as a prequel about Roger Rabbit before his Hollywood days serving in WWII. Roger must rescue Jessica who has been kidnaped by the Nazis to create propaganda broadcasts. He also later finds out his father was Bugs Bunny. This idea was so outrageous that it is obvious to see why it was scrapped. (Steven Spielberg, who helped fund the first film, felt that it would be wrong to work on the film after directing Schindler's List.)

 "Here's my script. Roger Rabbit fights Nazis! I'm sure families well love it!"

The sequel was reworked and retitled Who Discovered Roger Rabbit. The plot was changed to be less controversial and was about Roger's rise to stardom. Some test footage was completed in 1998 utilizing CGI, instead of traditional animation. The test failed to appeal to Disney, partially due to budget concerns. Apparently, director Robert Zemeckis is still considering making a sequel sometime in the future.

The CGI test footage.

5.) Fraidy Cat

If Disney made a Hitchcock film...

An unfortunate victim of Disney's Eisner-era in the early 2000s, Fraidy Cat was meant to be a CGI thriller-comedy film paying homage to the works of Alferd Hitchcock. It was going to be directed by the dynamic duo Ron Clements and John Musker, who brought us such classics as The Great Mouse Detective (1987), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Aladdin (1992). The film was to star a spoiled cat who is kicked out of his cushy lifestyle when he is falsely accused of a crime.

Some brilliant concept art showing off dramatic lighting. 

Essentially, Fraidy Cat was shut down because it was 'too unconventional' for the studio's standards and 'lacked money making potential'. Yet, Michael Eisner was willing to green light films such as Home on the Range (2004) and Chicken Little (2005), which were, let's face it, box-office turds and critical disasters. He ignored the fact that Clements and Musker, obviously knew what they were doing, considering that their films were big successes for Disney and they worked at the company for over thirty years! One of Disney's executives apparently said:

"...who today even remembers who Alfred Hitchcock was? So why would kids in 2009 pay good money to see an animated film that pays tribute to an old, fat, dead movie director?"

This statement is either blindly ignorant or just an excuse to say the film 'has no commercial appeal.' All I can say is thank god Eisner got booted out of Disney. His type and their 'Hollywood Formulas' appeal to no one but the lowest denominator. Not only do their films not stand the test of time, they stifle artistic creativity and any originality. To see a glimpse at what could have been, more can be read about Fraidy Cat here.

Best thing Mickey Mouse did since staring in his black-and-white cartoons.

6.) American Dog

Gambling in a Disney film. Hasn't been seen since...Pinocchio? 

Ok, this article has already complained a lot about Eisner, but American Dog had to be mentioned. American Dog was going to be a CGI film directed by Chris Sanders, the man behind Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. The plot was to be sort of 'a fish out of water' tale about a film star dog, Henry, who is ousted out of his comfortable lifestyle. Henry later befriends a large rabbit and a cat with an eye path as he tries to get home. More on the plot as follows:

"Henry, a famous TV dog, finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert. Out in the world for the first time, Henry's tidy life of scripted triumph has come to an end, and his 2,000 mile trek through the real world is just beginning. Henry is a popular dog. He stars in his own television series, in which he is a James Bond style secret agent who manages to survive the most wonderful adventures. Henry is the toast of the town, but then one day one of the stunts in his show goes terribly wrong, Henry loses consciousness, and when he wakes up he finds himself on a train, thousands of miles away from his home. Henry has been a celebrity all his life and does not know how to handle himself in this new situation, but luckily he is able to make some new friends that he convinces to get him back home."

Original character designs for Henry and Ogo by Sanders.

More concept art. The style is reminiscent of the paintings of Edward Hopper.

The project was canned not only due to Eisner's disapproval, but surprisingly by John Lasseter's as well. Lasseter apparently wasn't too fond of Leo and Stitch either, and consider's Sanders films to be 'too quirky.' Normally Lasseter's judgment is sound, but he recently directed those mediocre car movies, while condemning Sanders. (Too be fair, Sanders has always been better at coming with interesting ideas than directing.) So Sanders left for Dreamworks. It also didn't help that American Dog's plot was proposed around the same time of Toy Story 3's and Cars was also to be set in Nevada. The film was thus put on hold. 

Eisner left Disney in 2005, and Lasseter (now Principal Creative Advisor for Disney) ultimately decided to play it safe. The film was completely reworked and was treated as a 'B-movie' to Wall-E. American Dog soon became unrecognizable, save for the fact that the titular character is a star who needs to return home. It morphed into Bolt (2008), a somewhat cute (but ultimately cliche and passable) movie about a dog who thinks he has superpowers. Bolt suffers the most from its lack of originality and usage of standard character designs, which lack the unique charm of Sanders's original drawings. (It also includes Miley Cyrus voicing a main character....ugh.) For those curious, a certain blog has an excellent article about American Dog's history.

The film ultimately became the generic Bolt. (Complete with the 'Dreamworks Smirk'.) 

7.) Newt

The visuals were lovely, but the plot was too familiar. 

Okay, technically Newt was an axed Pixar film, but Disney owns Pixar. The film was announced in 2008 and was to be directed by sound engineer and long time Pixar veteran Gary Rydstrom. The project was abandoned in favor of Brave. On hindsight though, this was probably the better choice. Newt's plot was very similar to two other animated films coming out about the same time it was scheduled to be released, the Blue Sky movie, Rio, and the abysmal Alpha and Omega. All three films were about two animals of opposite genders (and personalities) having to overcome their differences as they embark on some sort of journey. Thus, Pixar decided it would be for the best to avoid the issue of dueling movies. The only thing this film seemed really to have going for it was it's beautiful concept art. Coincidentally, Brave, the film that replaced Newt, sports gorgeous backgrounds and complex character rendering that required Pixar to rewrite its animation system for the first time in 25 years.

The film that replaced Newt. 

The Long & Complicated Production of The Thief & The Cobbler

This unique film's fate is perhaps one of the most tragic in movie history.

The Thief and the Cobbler was supposed to be the masterpiece of renowned animator, Richard Williams. Today, it is best remembered for its infamous production history. In 1964, after having success at making several short films, Williams set out to create an animated adaptation based off of the tales of Nasreddin. However, the translator of the original Nasreddin stories, Idries Shah, demanded that Williams give him 50% of the film's profits. Thus in 1972, Williams was forced to make major changes to the plot and replaced the titular character with two new ones, a willy thief and a humble cobbler named Tack. In order to fund his project Williams continued to create commercials and short films. In 1977, he hired several famous animators from the Golden Age to work on The Thief, including Art Babbitt, Ken Harris, Grim Natwick, and Ollie Johnston. As years passed, Williams's project became more and more ambitious (and expensive). He wanted to make The Thief his magnum opus.

The Thief eventually caught the attention of Robert Zemeckis and Steven Speilberg. Williams was hired to be the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and finally had the much needed financial backing to complete his film. But, Williams failed to complete The Thief and the Cobbler by its 1991 deadline. Even though only 15 minutes of screen time were needed to be finished, Williams lost control of the project and Miramax handed it over to Fred Calvert.

An unfinished scene using a storyboard of Tack and Princess Yumyum.

Calvert butchered the film. He completed the remaining animation as cheaply as possible, cut several scenes, and removed scenes that were more adult in nature (not realizing the film was supposed to be for the art house crowd). By far the worse offense committed was adding unnecessary dialogue for the Thief and Tack, who were supposed to be silent, and adding very poorly written musical numbers not in the original script. To make matters worse, several of the animators working for Williams had gone on to work for Disney, resulting in many similarities to Aladdin. When the edited version of the film was released in 1993, it failed miserably at the box office and was torn apart by the critics.

The feather doesn't have a reflection! It must be a vampire! (The Fred Calvert version of this film is awful.)

Disney, you're not fooling anyone. (Image courtesy of Jbsdesigns.)

However, the workprint of the original film survived. Appreciation of the film grew among film and animation enthusiasts. At the 2000 Annecy Festival, Williams showed the faded print to Roy E. Disney (Walt Disney's nephew). Roy collected several pencil tests and artwork from the film, but the project never came into fruition. In 2006, filmmaker and dedicated fan, Garrett Gilchrist, created a non-profit restoration named The Thief and the Cobbler: The Recobbled Cut. This edit gained support from many animators who worked on the film and several of them gave Gilchrist rare material to work with. Since then, The Recobbled Cut has gone under several revisions, using cleaner footage or newly discovered animation. Currently a 'Mark 3' version, released in 2008, is available on Youtube. The 'Mark 4' version is planned to be completed in 2013. In 2012, a non-profit documentary about Williams's life long project (Persistence of Vision) was released by Kevin Schreck.

Trailer for The Persistence of Vision.

Animated Films that Never Were (Don Bluth Edition)

Making an animated film is a long and complicated process. Many films spend years, sometimes even decades in development. ( In an extreme case, Ricard William's The Thief and the Cobbler spent about 30 years in limbo before it was released in 1993.) Here are some films by renowned animator, Don Bluth, that sadly never got to see the light of day. Bluth often struggled with finical troubles, particularly after his studio tanked in the mid 1990s. Here's a small glimpse at what could have been.

The Little Blue Whale:

Satyrday:




The Velveteen  Rabbit:

East of the Sun, West of the Moon: 
was meant to be released after the Secret of NIMH (1982), but but the union went on strike for 73 days.