List of unreleased Disney animated shorts and feature films

This is a list of unmade and unreleased animated shorts and features by The Walt Disney Company. Some of these films were, or still are, in development hell. Some films, such as Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Fun and Fancy Free, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Fantasia 2000, Destino, Lorenzo, and Tangled were unreleased at some point.

1942
Note: Disney studio produced an animated sequence for Samuel Goldwyn's film Up in Arms which ended up unused in the final version of the film.

1947
NOTE: Fun and Fancy Free, released in 1947, was originally planned to be two separate feature films.

1949
NOTE: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, released in 1949, was originally planned to be two separate feature films.

1975

 * Louis the Bear - In a loose concept of The Rescuers, jazz singer Louis Prima was to voice a character named Louis the Bear. The story was about a bear who escapes from a zoo with the help of two mice, and it was to feature six songs sung by Prima with Sam Butera and the Witnesses written by Floyd Huddleston. Several recorded demos of the from the film included "Rescuers Aid Society", "Misery", "I Never Had It So Good", "Sittin' In My Favorite Position Doin' Nothin'", and "All I Ever Do Is Think Of You". Unfortunately in 1975, following headaches and episodes of memory loss, Prima discovered he had a stem brain tumor, and the project was scrapped.

1980

 * Musicana - An early version of what eventually became Fantasia 2000. Some segments of the planned film were to be titled "Finlandia", involving a fight between the Ice God and Sun Goddess; an African segment about a curious monkey and a Rain God that includes many hippos, lions and elephants; "The Emperor's Nightingale", based on the Andersen story and which would have starred Mickey Mouse as the keeper of the nightingale; a southern jazz story called "By the Bayou" which included many frogs, including caricatures of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong; a segment set in the Andes with a beautiful girl/bird; and a version of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" featuring tropical birds. It was cut due to financial issues and in favor of The Black Cauldron and Mickey's Christmas Carol.

1988

 * Army Ants - Disney had considered producing an animated feature film that centered around a pacifist ant living in a militaristic colony; however, the idea was never fully materialized.

1989

 * Swabbies - The entire film was storyboarded, recorded and an animatic was created. Complete model sheets of all the characters were printed up and layout as well as some animation had begun before it came to an abrupt halt.The story found our heroes, Mickey, Donald and Goofy out of work, out of luck and in need of a job. They end up enlisting in the Navy and going to boot camp with Pete as their exasperated drill instructor and then meet their feminine counterparts, Minnie, Daisy and Clarabelle who are all WAVs. Once they put to sea, they encounter a submarine full of the Beagle Boys, who all spoke a Russian sounding gibberish.

1990

 * Who Discovered Roger Rabbit - The shelved proposed prequel to the 1988 Disney/Amblin film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film, which previously went by the working title, Roger Rabbit Two: The Toon Platoon, was set in 1941 and the Second World War, and would have had Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman going on a journey through the perils of the war in search of Roger's birth mother and birth father, in the midst of the Americas. It also would have been a musical, also would have been a direct-to-video release.
 * DuckTales (film series) - Originally, Disney had planned an entirely further line of theatrical DuckTales feature films to literally follow on Treasure of the Lost Lamp, but the plans were quickly shelved in the process, just right after the box office failure of that proposed first film in the would-be series.

1991

 * Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: The Movie - The proposed feature film spin-off of the television series, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. It was scrapped in the midst of the box office failure of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

1992

 * Homer's Odyssey - Set around the odyssey of Homer. A feature film.
 * Sinbad the Sailor - This proposed feature film, itself based on the Arabian Nights tale of the same name, was scrapped after Aladdin was released.
 * Mickey Columbus - Mickey, Donald & Goofy cast as the captains of the Nina, the Pinta & the Santa Maria and Minnie standing in for Queen Isabella), the film's writers just couldn't decide what to do about the Native Americans that Columbus would encounter in the New World.
 * Mickey's Arabian Nights - Mickey-Donald-Goofy featurette set around the entire One Thousand and One Nights anthology.

1993

 * Swan Lake - Later retooled into The Swan Princess by former Disney animator and animation director Richard Rich, who had been working on and proposed a pitch to Disney about the said film.
 * Song of the Sea
 * Terbialos
 * King of the Kalahari (a.k.a. King of the Beasts and King of the Jungle) - An early version of what eventually became The Lion King.

1994

 * Silly Hillbillies on Mars
 * Hare in My Soup - A fourth Roger Rabbit cartoon short based on Who Framed Roger Rabbit was planned for release in 1995, to coincide with the release of Toy Story preceding that proposed feature film in the process. It was canceled after pre-production ended and before production could begin, and was replaced in the preceding gap with a rerun of Rollercoaster Rabbit.

1995

 * The Rescuers III - A third Rescuers film was planned, to released straight-to-video rather than theatrically, but due to the sudden death of Eva Gabor, the voice of Miss Bianca, were eventually altogether scrapped the prepared plans for the film, and all future Rescuers installments in the would-be franchise, and even into a proposed television series adaptation.

1996

 * Toots and the Upside Down House - A tale of a young girl who creates a fantasy world of goblins, fairies, sprites and an evil Jack Frost.
 * Fantasia Continued- Another early version of what eventually became Fantasia 2000.

1997

 * Aida - Verdi's opera Aida tells the story of the fatal love affair between the Egyptian war hero Radames and the captured slave girl Aida. Jarrod Emick, who won a Tony for Damn Yankees, will play Radames. The title character Aida has been offered to Audra McDonald, who's currently doing Master Class and won a Tony for Carousel.
 * Where is Roger Rabbit? - Sequel to the original Roger Rabbit movie. Rather as a direct-to-video film or a theatrical feature film sequel.

1999

 * Kingdom of the Sun (a. k. a. Kingdom in the Sun) - A very early, serious traditional musical version of what eventually became The Emperor's New Groove.

2001

 * Dumbo II - At one point, Disney planned a proposed direct-to-video sequel to Dumbo, which after its announcement, and its early pre-production status, with concept art already prepared for the film, for some mysterious reasons, was aborted before it began production, and the development of the film was never revived.
 * Hercules II - Disney planned a proposed direct-to-video sequel to Hercules. Basically, Hercules is now living in Athens with Megara and their daughter, Hebe. However, when an old friend named Helen is captured by the evil Paris of Troy, Hercules joins the united Greek army as they head out to war; however, this war will create revelations, including Hercules finding an old friend who eventually went missing.
 * Atlantis II: Shards of Chaos - The original proposed direct-to-video sequel to Atlantis: The Lost Empire, it ultimately eventually became Atlantis: Milo's Return, just two years after the film was scrapped along with plans for a television series spin-off of Atlantis.
 * The Nightmare Before Christmas (Sequel) - At one point, Disney had planned to do a sequel to Tim Burton's Nightmare, but instead of using traditional stop-motion animation, the sequel would have use computer animation instead. Burton, however, convinced Disney to drop the idea, as he was very protective of the Nightmare franchise, and did not want a continuation of Jack Skellington's chronicles outside Halloween World.
 * Don Quixote - Yet another attendment of making this as a feature film that ran into the same obstacle as earlier.

2002

 * The Emperor and the Nightingale - Emperor Wu has a nightingale whose beautiful songs bring him much joy. One day the Emperor receives a mechanical bird that can sing and dance and he devotes his attention to the toy bird. Neglected and ignored, the nightingale flies away. Some time passes and the mechanical bird breaks down. The Emperor, never realizing the treasure he had in his nightingale, pines for the melodious songs of the nightingale. One day the nightingale returns to the palace and the Emperor promises to never neglect it again.
 * The Fool's Errand - The story is said to center on a court jester who goes on a mythical journey to return peace to his kingdom.
 * Treasure Planet II - The cancelled direct-to-video sequel to original film. Treasure Planet: The Animated Series was supposed to follow the said sequel.

2003

 * Antonius - The project follows the story of a leopard in ancient Egypt who becomes a freedom fighter.
 * The Prince and the Pig - The project is described as a fairy tale centering on the grand adventure of a boy and his pig as they set off against all odds to try to steal the moon.
 * The Three Pigs - Feature film based on the original Three Little Pigs fairy Tale.
 * Uncle Stiltskin - The story begins where the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale Rumplestiltskin leaves off. In Uncle Stiltskin, the fabled aspiring babynapper Rumplestiltskin again tries to fulfill his dream of being a father, but this time he discovers the true meaning of family.

2004

 * Recess: The First Day of School - This would've been a direct-to-video film to be released in August 2004, the fourth direct-to-video film, and the fifth film in the Recess franchise. Many fans believe that it focuses on T.J. and his gang (Sans Gus, who wouldn't have moved to town yet) adjusting to fourth grade, making it a prequel to the events of the series. It was scrapped shortly after Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade and Recess: All Growed Down were released at the end of 2003.

2005

 * A Few Good Ghosts - This proposed feature film was to have concerned a family of ghosts living in a haunted house. which mixed traditional and computer-generated animation, had already gone through a number of title changes including My Peoples, Angel and Her No Good Sister, Elgin's People and Once in a Blue Moon -- and was being directed by Barry Cook, one of the directors of 1998's Mulan. Set to a bluegrass score, it revolved around a group of ghosts inhabiting folk-art dolls. Its voice cast included Hal Holbrook, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin.
 * Fraidy Cat - This proposed feature film was to have chronicled the life of a frightened cat who had already lost three of his nine lives trapped in a Hitchcock-esque plot, but that too was quickly axed and ultimately never revived as well.
 * Wild Life - A feature in development at the defunct Florida studio told of anthropomorphic animals trying to get by in seedy New York City. Was to be alarmingly more "adult" than what Disney is known for. Scrapped due to the mismanagement of the studio. However, the cancelled film eventually became the C.O.R.E. film The Wild.

2006

 * Fantasia III - Also known as Fantasia 2006, this would have been the third film installment in the Fantasia franchise, until the plans were eventually altogether dropped, and proposed segments from that abandoned film was instead produced and released as individual stand-alone Disney animated shorts.
 * Mulan III - At one point, a third film in the Mulan film series was planned; like the first sequel this proposed second sequel to Mulan would have ultimately gone direct-to-DVD. The production was eventually canceled, and was never finished after that.

2007

 * The Aristocats II - The canceled proposed direct-to-video sequel to the original 1970 film.
 * Chicken Little: The Ugly Duckling Story - The proposed direct-to-DVD sequel to Chicken Little.
 * Meet the Robinsons: First Date - The canceled direct-to-DVD sequel to Meet the Robinsons. It would have further chronicled Cornelius Robinson's new-found life, as a teenager, growing up, going on his first date.
 * Disney's Dwarfs - At one point, Disney was developing a sort-of Lord of the Rings-like franchise series of direct-to-DVD films, that which would chronicled the adventures of the Seven Dwarfs before they met Snow White. The proposed project didn't go through, and the planned resulting series was ultimately canceled.
 * Pinocchio II - The proposed direct-to-video sequel of the 1940 film.

2008

 * Disney Princess Enchanted Tales (film series) - Initially, after the release of the film Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, there was to be an entire series of Enchanted Tales film installments, with the proposed second film planned to feature an Cinderella story and a Mulan story. But however, due to the later concept tweaking of, and resulting poor DVD sales from the first film, the proposed entire series of films was scrapped.

2010

 * Newt - The first canceled proposed project from Disney/Pixar. It would have concerned the exploits of two blue-footed newts, one male and one female, trying to find each other and then bonding themselves, and eventually made to prevent the extinction of their newt race, as well as trying to avoid the need to hate and stop caring about each other in the process. It was planned to be released in 2012.

2011

 * Mort - This proposed traditionally animated film would have been based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel of the same name. It would have been directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, the directors of the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog. Unfortunately, Disney could not afford the rights to the film, so it was scrapped. The film would have been released in 2014.
 * Yellow Submarine (Remake) - See Yellow Submarine (2012 film), for details.
 * Phineas and Ferb (feature film) - Film would have been released July 26, 2013, was delayed to 2014, and then on August 16, 2013 was reported cancelled.

2012

 * Princess Academy