Ah, Disney. Arguably the greatest studio in the history of movie making (and becoming more powerful every day), they have brought joy and toys to kids throughout the world for decades. Hell, even their flops become franchises, complete with more action figures, costumes and stuffed animals than you can shake a fuzzy stick at. Sometimes it seems like everything they touch turns to gold.
Only, you know, not so much. Even the House of Mouse has had a gigantic share of flops, sometimes even before the talking horse is out of the gate. For a myriad of reasons, from lack of funding to lack of interest, Disney has multiple films that have sadly never seen the life of day. On top of that, a slew of them are actually sequels to much beloved flicks!
With the power it's now amassed and the current love for nostalgia, who knows, some of these may make a reappearance someday.
For now, here are 19 Canceled Disney Sequels We’ll Never Get To See.
DUMBO II
Dumbo is one of those characters who remains loved in the public eye, despite most people not being able to what the story is actually about (there's him and his mom in a circus with some crows, right?) This is why in 2001, plans were made to release Dumbo II.
Taking place one day after the first film ends, the sequel would have shown Dumbo, Timothy Q. Mouse, and other baby animals lost in New York City, all trying to re-unite in the Big Apple.
Sounds adorable, right? You can even watch the trailer for it on the Dumbo 60th anniversary edition DVD. Sadly, after being hyped in the early 2000s, no news was heard from it again and then the project was canceled by John Lasseter after he was named CEO of Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2006. Sadly, all our flying elephant dreams will have to now directed toward the live-action adaptation coming from Tim Burton.
THE TOON PLATOON / WHO DISCOVERED ROGER RABBIT
Many people don't actually know that Roger Rabbit is owned by Disney, and it was a pretty solid move for the studio to show the dark side of that candy-colored cartoon universe.
There were actually two plans for prequels to the famous original. The first, Roger Rabbit: The Toon Platoon would have shown our hero in WW II, saving Jessica from the Nazis, with a big reveal at the end that Bugs Bunny is Roger's father! Gasp! However, executive producer Steven Spielberg stopped the projected after Schindler's List, saying humorous Nazis would be disrespectful to Holocaust survivors. Probably a good call.
There was another idea in the late '90s for a prequel about Roger's rise to fame, first on Broadway then in Hollywood. However, due to an extremely high budget and lack of studio interest, it too was canceled. There's still talk of bringing it back, but for now, sadly, no more jokes for this rabbit. Unless...
Who Framed Roger Rabbit II
There is a chance for Roger Rabbit to ride again... possibly.
Last year, while promoting his film Allied, director Robert Zemeckis mentioned that the script to the Roger Rabbit sequel is finished. He told the Telegraph that it would bring Roger and Jessica "into the next few years of period film, moving on from film noir to the world of the 1950s.” It would also feature the return of Eddie Valiant as a ghost.
“It would be very hard to do but we would do a digital Bob Hoskins," he said.
However, while there has been interest in the past for a sequel, Zemeckis also its the current chance of it happening is slim. "The current corporate Disney culture has no interest in Roger, and they certainly don't like Jessica at all," he said.
TRON: ASCENSION
Ah, Tron films: much talked about, almost never done.
Just like with the first sequel to Tron, Tron: Legacy, which took almost 30 years to happen, Tron: Ascension is being held in a screen saver-like limbo. It's officially not happening, yet, there's still some talk about maybe, possibly, someday coming out.
No one really knows what it's about. There's been talk about Cillian Murphy returning to his uncredited role as Edward Dillinger, Jr. and this time being the film's big bad, as well as Jared Leto playing a new role named Ares.
At this point, it's anyone's guess whether this film will actually see the light of day. Judging from the gap between the first two films, we may only have 23 years to go!
15. JOHN CARTER: THE GODS OF MARS
John Carter? No... seriously, do you him? Set in 1868, Taylor Kitsch, he went to Mars, it was based off the famous Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. ?
The forgettable nature of the first John Carter is exactly why there hasn't been anymore of his adventurers. The original film was actually planned on being part of a trilogy, with the second film called John Carter: The Gods Of Mars. If it's anything like the book of the same title, it would have told the story of John returning to Mars to liberate the planet from its crazy overlords.
However, the first John Carter did truly terrible in the theaters and interest for a sequel was dropped. Poor John Carter, no more trips to Mars for you.
BAMBI'S CHILDREN
Ah, Bambi, a story about family if there ever was one - you know, if you disregard that devastating scene with the hunter and Bambi's mother. However, the rest of it: pure family.
Felix Salten, the author who wrote the first Bambi novel, actually wrote a sequel about Bambi and Faline's children growing up. It's another sweet tale of nature at its best and worth a read if you enjoy adorable (yet brutal) Austrian folktales.
There was talk for years of Disney making it into a sequel, but it never got off the ground. However, the novel did get Dell Comics treatment in an official Walt Disney story, published in 1943. So if you want to go back into that forest, well, at least there's something out there for you.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS II
Honestly, out of all the sequels on the list, this is the one we're most surprised hasn't happened yet.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a fantastic tale of love, obsession, and holidays. There's been talk about a sequel or prequel for years, but story creator and executive product Tim Burton has always been against it:
"I was always very protective of (Nightmare), not to do sequels or things of that kind. You know, 'Jack visits Thanksgiving world'... just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it," Burton said to MTV. "I try to respect people and keep the purity of the project as much as possible."
We will be getting an official sequel comic about Zero's adventures in Christmas Town next year, but for now, that's as close as we're going to get.
12. TREASURE PLANET II
If you haven't seen the original Treasure Planet, we recommend you stop reading, go watch it, and then come back to finish this article, because it is wonderful and truly underappreciated.
The film is basically Treasure Island, but in space, which should be enough to sell you on it. Had it done better at the box office, we could have gotten the long-planned sequel. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emma Thompson, Brian Murray were set to return and Willem Dafoe would have played the evil Ironbeard. It would have been an epic tale of pirates chasing down pirates, but again, in space!
We're still holding onto hope that this one still happens. Maybe if we all go and watch the original right now, and then wish really hard, it could come true...
MONSTERS, INC. 2: LOST IN SCARADISE
Oh man, we love a good pun here as much as anyone, but that title for the proposed second Monsters, Inc. is truly terrible.
Long before we went back to college and got our prequel, there were thoughts of a sequel: Monsters, Inc 2: Lost in Scaradise. The idea was that Mike and Sulley would learn that Boo has suddenly moved and they have to travel through the human world to find her.
We loved the wacky college hi-jinks of Monsters University in 2013, so we are glad Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan's next adventure went back instead of forward, but Disney and Pixar both love their sequels. We may see more movies with this duo yet.
THE ARISTOCATS II
Not to be confused with the infamously filthy joke, Disney's The AristoCats told the story of a highbrow cat, her little kittens, and the alley cat who helps them after they've been kidnapped. It's entirely adorable.
The planned DisneyToon Studios sequel seemed like it would have been equally charming, with the family now on a cruise ship trying to stop an international jewel thief. They would have traveled the world, seeing beautifully Disney animated lands like Spain, England, Scotland, and more. However, it was also scrapped when Lasseter became CEO in 2006.
We would have expected more cat puns and high adventure on the high seas. It would have been - pardon us, but we have to do it - purrrrrfect.
