History WhatCouldHaveBeen / AnimatedFilms

** [[https://mobile.twitter.com/JTuckerAnimator/status/1248050087822905346 James Tucker]] revealed a reject stinger idea for ''WesternAnimation/BatmanVsRobin'' that would've set up an adaption of ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'', complete with the Joker's face having been removed and pinned to a wall, but it was rejected and when the Joker showed up in ''Hush'', he still had his face.

** An adaptation of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans: ComicBook/TheJudasContract'' was also originally reported at the start of the line, only to be shelved, but the SequelHook of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueVsTeenTitans'' hinted that a ''Judas Contract'' adaptation, and it was later confirmed to be among the 2017 slate of movies.

** At the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, Creator/KevinConroy and Creator/MarkHamill floated the idea that they could act in an {{Animated Adaptation}}s of ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily'' and ''ComicBook/BatmanHush''. [[WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseBatmanDeathInTheFamily While films]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanHush were made]], ''Hush'', being set in the WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse, had Creator/JasonOMara and Creator/JasonSpisak respectively as Batman and the Joker instead, and ''Death in the Family'' being a follow-up to ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', saw the return of Creator/BruceGreenwood and Creator/JohnDiMaggio in the respective roles.

* Sequels of ''Film/SpaceJam'' we're planned, with different types of sports stars, but the ideas we're replaced with ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction''.

*** The movie would start with a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' parody that makes Elmer cry, instead of the cartoon that Daffy suggest.

** Early in production, the production team considered [[spoiler: Tybalt's death]] being investigated by a CSI-esque group of gnomes [[note]] no, [[Series/{{CSI}} not]] [[Series/CSIMiami those]] [[Series/{{CSINY}} CSIs]], unfortunately[[/note]], lead by Detective Prince (based on the Prince from the original story). The investigation would have proven Gnomeo guilty of "gnomicide", and sentenced to the wheelie bin, where he'd be thrown away in the morning. He'd have managed to escape the rubbish truck and end up in a gardening centre.

*** Related to ''Hush'', a proposed follow-up to ''WesternAnimation/TheBatmanVsDracula'' was an adaptation of ''Hush'', which (given both the film and [[WesternAnimation/TheBatman the series it's basedon]]), would've likely involved Creator/RinoRomano as the Dark Knight and Creator/KevinMichaelRichardson as the Clown Prince of Crime.

** *At the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, Creator/KevinConroy and Creator/MarkHamill floated the idea that they could act in an {{Animated Adaptation}}s of ''ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily'' and ''ComicBook/BatmanHush''. [[WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseBatmanDeathInTheFamily While films]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanHush were made]], ''Hush'', being set in the WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse, had Creator/JasonOMara and Creator/JasonSpisak respectively as Batman and the Joker instead, and ''Death in the Family'' being a follow-up to ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'', saw the return of Creator/BruceGreenwood and Creator/JohnDiMaggio in the respective roles.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:

*** The movie would start with a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' parody that makes Elmer cry.
*** And the characters would stay in the jungle temple for the final battle.

** The filmmakers experimented with keeping the character designs faithful to the toys, but felt they looked too skeletal and couldn't emote, [[ShowAccuracyToyAccuracy hence the drastic redesigns with characters receiving hands, mouths, glowing eyes and fleshy bits]]. They also toyed with the idea of giving them hands that could transform into various tools, but decided this would be unnecessary.

** There was an alternate scene of which Manolo meets his ancestors and his mother according to the artbook of the movie, in which he arrives at his family ancestors' home in The Land of the Remembered, and they all in a the middle of a meal when they saw Manolo walk through the front door, and all the family members having shocked looks on their faces.

** Joaquin was originally going to die in the bandit raid, crushed by his dads statue, which would have been the moment he gave Manolo the Medal of Everlasting Life.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames'' had an entire subplot removed, which also lead to an different ending, in which Sunset Shimmer, getting homesick, begins thinking about wanting to return to Equestria. It would have lead to a duet between her and Human!Twilight and Pony!Twilight appearing to help Sunset sort her feelings out. [[spoiler:At the end, the Human!Twilight would have returned to Crystal Prep with [[TookALevelInKindness her now much friendlier classmates]] and Sunset would have decided to stay in the human world, though opted for occasional visits to Equestria now and then.]]

* The movie rights to Jim Benton's children's book series ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' were optioned in 2007 to a virtually unknown independant production company called East of Doheny, who planned to work with Gotham Group to create an animated film series based on the books. As of 2020, no updates on the film series' development have been made since the announcement of the adaptation plans and it is likely that East of Doheny Productions has quietly gone bankrupt.

** Music/TimMinchin pitched an Australian musical adventure called ''Larrikins'', in which a bilby is sent away by his family in order to find a new self-sufficient life. Unfortunately, the film was being made at a turbulent time at [=DreamWorks=], having been pushed back repeatedly and with little creative agreement. Then it got caught up by the [=DreamWorks=]-Creator/{{Universal}} merger, and the new studio executives opted to shut down the movie entirely when production stalled for too long. The character models created for ''Larrikins'' were ultimately used instead for a 8-minute short titled ''Bilby''.

* Creator/BlueSkyStudios had been in talks for at least five years to make a film adaptation of Tor Seidler's children's novel ''Literature/TheWainscottWeasel'', but these plans never got off the ground. [[WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnoftheDinosaurs However, a weasel character was used in another Blue Sky Studios film. This said film was released in 2009 and was the third installment in a certain franchise about prehistoric animals.]] [[WesternAnimation/IceAge4ContinentalDrift Also, that said weasel returned again as a cameo in the fourth film]] and [[WesternAnimation/IceAge5CollisionCourse returned as a major character in that franchise's fifth film where they have to stop asteriod that's on a collision course towards Earth.]]

** An earlier attempt to adapt the franchise into an animated film came in 2014 when Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation held discussions with Creator/{{Nintendo}}, spearheaded by producer Avi Arad (best known for co-founding Creator/MarvelStudios and producing the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'') and then-Creator/TriStarPictures head Tom Rothman, to produce such a film. Pictures were taken of Arad with Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto and Creator/SatoruIwata, suggesting the the negotiations were close to finalization. According to leaked emails from the massive studio hack, Sony executives were hoping for a series of animated ''Mario'' movies, and at one pointed suggested they would potentially pave the way for further adaptations of Nintendo franchises down the road, culminating in a '''''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' crossover movie'''. The management shakeup post-hack resulted Rothman replacing Amy Pascal as head of Sony Pictures' movie group and Sony Pictures Animation reorienting its release strategy, thus shelving the ''Mario'' adaptation. When Sony declared the project dead, Nintendo decided to start talking to Creator/{{Universal}}.

** Originally in one of Vakama's visions from the second film, the Coliseum tower explodes and collapses. This was animated but cut for unknown reasons; perhaps because of the [[TooSoon Twin Tower disaster]] (the film came out in 2004), or perhaps because it made no sense, as the Coliseum is never under the threat of blowing up. The shot was replaced with shadowy clouds and lightning surrounding the building, taken from a later scene.

** Creator/RobertZemeckis was planning on making a MotionCapture {{Remake}} of ''Yellow Submarine'', but it was cancelled after the failure of ''WesternAnimation/MarsNeedsMoms'' to the relief of Yellow Submarine fans everywhere.

** There are dozens of whole films that were never made. These include ''Punk Farm''[[note]]based on a children's book[[/note]] and ''Truckers''[[note]]based on a children's trilogy written by Creator/TerryPratchett[[/note]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'': Robert Stack was originally supposed to voice Skipper the penguin, but he died before production began, so the temporary vocal track recorded by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation animator Tom [=McGrath=] was [[ThrowItIn left in as Skipper's voice]].

* The movie rights to Jim Benton's children's book series ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' were optioned in 2007 to a virtually unknown independant production company called East of Doheny, who planned to work with Gotham Group to create an animated film series based on the books. As of 2020, no updates on the film series' progress has been made since the announcement of the adaptation plans and it is likely that East of Doheny Productions has quietly gone bankrupt.

* Creator/RichardWilliams' masterpiece ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'', while unfinished due to ExecutiveMeddling, was re-edited and released in a LowestCommonDenominator mainstream version as ''Arabian Knight'', a 1995 deserved flop. Fortunately a Recobbled Cut was made in 2006 with the mostly-finished original work recut into more like what Williams was aiming at. Williams is best known to the public for animating ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' and highly regarded among his peers. b

** Originally, none of the characters from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' were actually going to talk, but this was changed toward the end of production as an attempt to avoid copying the "Rite of Spring" segment from ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' shot by shot (the battle between Littlefoot's mother and the Sharptooth even looks almost exactly like the battle between the Stegosaurus and the TyrannosaurusRex!). This is also true with Disney's ''{{Disney/Dinosaur}}'', which was originally ''almost'' going to be directed by ''[[Film/StarshipTroopers Paul Verhoven]]'' of all people!

* Since being 100% similar to the source material would end disastrously for the narrative, the writers of ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' played around with several ideas for the narrative format. One of them was the eponymous character [[BreakingTheFourthWall talking with the audience]]. And the film was originally going to be much more of a musical...with the songs written by ''Music/TheyMightBeGiants''! All that remains of this notion is that for about thirty seconds Coraline's father is voiced by John Linnell, and sings an [[{{Earworm}} absurdly catchy song]]. Another song TMBG originally wrote for the film, "Careful What You Pack", ended up being on their album ''The Else'' instead - knowing the song is actually about Coraline herself adds a bit of FridgeBrilliance to the lyrics.

* Creator/RichardWilliams' masterpiece ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'', while unfinished due to ExecutiveMeddling, was re-edited and released in a LowestCommonDenominator mainstream version as ''Arabian Knight'', a 1995 deserved flop. Fortunately a Recobbled Cut was made in 2006 with the mostly-finished original work recut into more like what Williams was aiming at. Williams is best known to the public for animating ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' and highly regarded among his peers.

** For that matter, Music/TheBeatles believed that as it was being produced by the same producers of the Beatle cartoons of the mid-'60's, which they hated at the time, they felt the film was a bad idea and only gave them half-hearted songs for the film's soundtrack, to fulfill the contract Brian Epstein signed in 1967. By the time the group saw the finished product, and liked and supported it, it was too late to offer better quality material. The songs in question--"Only A Northern Song," "All Together Now," "Hey Bulldog" and "It's All Too Much"--were recorded during the Sgt. Peppers sessions. Lennon reportedly shipped the recordings to Heinz Edelmann at TVC-London with a note that read "Can you use any of these?"

*** A comic book adaptation of ''Yellow Submarine'' ([[http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2010/12/nothing-you-can-do-that-cant-be-done.html panels of which can be seen here]]) shows Fred romancing a young woman who tries to impound the submarine. Guess what her name is. Go ahead, guess! [[spoiler: [[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand Lovely Rita, Meter Maid]].]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen/UnsortedAnimatedFilm