Disney has some of the most iconic animated films in their vast catalog, and while more recent hit films have received sequels, some all-time classics have never received one. That’s especially true of Disney’s earlier animated movies, but some of those sequels were discussed or even in development before being cancelled for any variety of reasons. Now we are breaking down 12 of those cancelled Disney animated movie sequels and ranking them by how much we wish they had actually happened.
12. Chicken Little 2
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios
The original Chicken Little certainly has its fans, and it’s hard not to love the title character. At one point, there was a sequel in development titled Chicken Little 2, and Tod Carter was brought on as animation director for the project. Early details point to a story of friendship and the crew dealing with jealousy thanks to a new character, but the film was never completed.
While John Lasseter might have a hand in scrapping the project (via The Disney Classics), it didn’t help that the original Chicken Little wasn’t a runaway success at the box office. With a budget of $150 million, it would bring in $314 million worldwide, and while that’s a success, it’s not exactly enough success to jump right into a sequel, at least for Disney.
11. Bambi’s Children
In 1942, Disney introduced the world to one of its most heartbreaking film openings in Bambi, and it has since become a favorite even amongst their incredibly stacked catalog. There was a sequel planned for the film titled Bambi’s Children, which would have followed Bambi as an adult and explored his life with his newfound family.
Unfortunately, Bambi didn’t exactly light up the box office, though the fact that it was released during World War II certainly had an impact on the box office. It was also known that Walt Disney wasn’t exactly big on doing sequels, even though there were a few exceptions made along the way. While Bambi’s Children wasn’t made, there was later a direct-to-video sequel titled Bambi 2, but it was set at different time frames during the first movie and not a true sequel.
10. Dumbo II
Image courtesy of Walt Disney Animation
In 1941, the original Dumbo made its debut, but it would take until 2001 for the film to get a sequel. Robert Reese was the writer on the project, and early story details indicate the story was going to center around all of the baby animals leaving the circus and getting lost as they tried to find their way home, with a focus on friendship and some new characters in the mix to shake things up.
Unlike Bambi’s Children, this one got a bit further into development, as there was even behind-the-scenes footage and a logo revealed. Dumbo II was cancelled though after John Lasseter was made CEO of Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2006, and that was due to Disney’s shifting approach to direct-to-video films as a whole.
9. The Aristocats II
The Aristocats were set to receive a direct-to-video sequel in the 2000s thanks to Disneytoon Studios, but the film never seemed to get past this early phase. That’s because the Studio had already worked with multiple versions of the story, and due to a short timeline to get the film moving, the team tried to iron out the original storyline and pitch it.
The story revolved around the cats being on a cruise ship and running into a jewelry thief, which sounds like a promising premise. There was also evidently a love interest for Marie in the mix, but there wasn’t faith that the project would work on such a quick timeline, so the film was cancelled.
8. Mulan III
Mulan is one of the few films on this list that was going for a trilogy, as there was already the original Mulan in 1998 and Mulan II in 2005. Mulan III was set for 2007, and it was set to take place a few months after Mulan II. The story revolved around Fa Mulan helping a Chinese maiden named Wei Hua save her father Wu Takashi, who was being held prisoner in Japan.
That certainly sounds interesting, but a one-two punch kept it from being completed. One of the biggest changes was that Disney bought Pixar in 2006, which caused several projects to be shelved as the company ironed out its lineup, but there was also a shift from 2D animation to 3D animation during this same timeframe. Both of those led to Mulan being put on the shelf, and a third film was never completed or released.
7. Pinocchio II
The original Pinocchio was released in 1940, and though it took a long time, a direct-to-video sequel was in development in the 2000s as part of Disneytoon Studios. The original film leaves off in a pretty natural place for a sequel to pick up, as now fans would follow Pinocchio along his new life as a real boy.
Robert Reese was writing the script, and though we don’t know many details about the story, the one detail that surfaced was that Pinocchio was going to learn about why things are sometimes unfair in the world. The film was never finished though, as with other direct-to-video sequels, it was cancelled once Lasseter took over.
6. Hercules II
The next film on our list actually received a release date of 2001, and that’s Hercules II: The Trojan War. After the release of the first film, Disney released a Hercules animated series that continued the story, and the sequel film was set to pick up after the animated series.
The film would follow Hercules and Megara as they live their life in Athens with their daughter Hebe, but when an old friend named Helen is captured by the evil Paris of Troy, Hercules joins the fight and heads out to war. The film would then tease big revelations, including Hercules discovering an old friend who ends up going missing. While it seems the core points of the plot were done, the film never finished the proposal phase, and once Lasseter took over, it was put on the shelf along with several other direct-to-video releases.
5. Snow White Returns
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs were at the center of one of Disney’s first Disney Princess classics, so it makes sense that Disney would at least think about a sequel. That’s why it may surprise you that while there was a sequel started, it wasn’t a full movie.
Instead, it was a sequel short titled Snow White Returns, and it was built around two scenes that were animated for the original movie but not included. It appears that the film was going to take place a year or two after the ending of the original film, and the plot was based on her yearly return to visit the dwarfs. No specific reason for the film not being completed was ever given, but there was an unfinished version included with the Snow White Diamond Edition DVD.
4. Treasure Planet II
In the 2000s, Disney released its big pirate adventure, Treasure Planet, and there were plans to continue the franchise with a Treasure Planet 2 sometime in 2003 or 2004. The story would focus on Jim Hawkins and Kate teaming up with Long John Silver to take down the dastardly pirate Ironbeard before he could free his friends from Botany Bay Prison. Even better was that Ironbeard was going to be voiced by Willem Defoe.
Unfortunately, the first Treasure Planet didn’t resonate at the box office. While audiences and critics were generally favorable towards it, it had huge competition at the box office during its run, and it never could quite break through. As a result, the sequel was cancelled, as was a television series, so we’ll never know how that second adventure would have panned out.
3. Tangled 2
Courtesy of Disney
Tangled was quite successful at the box office, so one might expect that a sequel would end up getting the green light. That didn’t happen though for Tangled, and recently, co-director Nathan Greno revealed why the sequel never came to fruition.
Greno revealed that the team did try to figure out a story for a sequel, describing an off-site meeting they had where they talked about it for hours. After that though, Greno said they walked away feeling they couldn’t find a story worth telling. There was a short film and an animated series released later, but as for a true sequel, it seems that isn’t happening anytime soon.
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas 2
It doesn’t get much more classic than The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is why it’s surprising that there’s never been a sequel. There were talks of creating a sequel, but director Tim Burton didn’t want the sequel to be CGI over the original’s classic stop-motion animation, and after that disagreement, Burton convinced Disney not to proceed. It’s a shame that we won’t get a sequel, at least for now, but it’s also great that Burton didn’t settle for something that wouldn’t hold up to the original.
1. Roger Rabbit II: The Toon Platoon
One of the biggest films to never get a sequel is the beloved Roger Rabbit, which melded live-action and classic animation to create a one-of-a-kind classic. That’s why it’s surprising that a sequel was never made, but there was work being done on a prequel film at one point, which was going to follow Roger during World War II.
Evidently, the film became too dark in tone due to the World War II setting, and over the course of development, Steven Spielberg had pulled out of the project as well. That pretty much sealed the fate of the film, and it was cancelled, but we’ll always wonder what that film would have looked like.
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