Chanticleer

Chanticleer was a film based on the pre-WWI French play "Chantecler" by Edmund Rostand. Athough it was in development at the Disney Studio from the 40s up until the mid- 60s, it never saw completion.

Plot
Set, on a Parisean farm in the late 1800s , much like the play, "Chanticleer" was to have been the story of a vain rooster whose leadership the other barnyard animals had accepted because they all truly believed his crowing was what brought the sun up each morning. Although, a ruthless band of "Night Creatures" (e.g. moles, bats, vultures,) headed by a vicious fox named Reynard were planning to seize the animals on the farm for their dinner. After, they had gained their trust and made them loose faith in Chanticleer via a circus show, the rooster was to have duled one of Reynard's henchmen, a game cock, during which time the sun would have risen without his crowing. At this, he would have realized the error in his vanity, found the strength to beat the cock and chased away the baddies for a happy ending.

1940s
After both the financial and critical success of his first full-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt was always on the lookout for new material that his animators could adapt for the screen. In 1943, after "Chantecler" was brought to his attention, Walt told storymen Ted Sears and Al Perkins to see what they could do with the material. However, after they reported to him that they were in difficulties because they were unsure how to make a sympathtic character out of the titular rooster, Walt combined the project with that of "Reynard the Fox," another story animators were working on adapting at the time. This was because he thought that having a villain-in this case a fox to oppose Chantecler would help audiences sympathize with him. However, as with many of the studio's other feature films curently in development at the time, the project had to be shelved for the duration of WWII.

1960s
After they had both finished their work on 101 Dalmatians, animators Marc Davis and Ken Anderson decided to collaborate in order to create a film in the wake of Broadway musicals. Going down to the Animation Archive Library, they both came across the Chanticleer concept art and liked what they saw. When Walt heard that they were going to pick up on the project, he advised them to scrap all previously attempted work and start fresh, hoping that they could get it done in this way. Although, Davis and Anderson worked very hard for the next few months, creating lots of concept art, the other animators were more interested in Bill Peet's The Sword in the Stone because they also had the doubt that a rooster would be able to be sympathetic. On the other hand, the board of the studio, headed by Roy Disney was trying to convince Walt to halt production on animated features entirely so that he could put his finances toward his two Theme Parks. Though he would not agree to the former proposal, Walt did decide that one of the two projects currently in development at the studio would have to be shelved. The reason why Sword in the Stone was kept over Chanticleer was because it would be cheaper to animate human figures than it would animals.