Finding Nemo, but it has also left some projects aside, either cancelling them or changing the original plan completely. Pixar’s first movie was Toy Story, released in 1995, and was the first entirely animated feature film. Toy Story opened a lot of doors for Pixar, which has produced over 20 movies since then, among those a couple of sequels.
Aside from the quality and attention to detail in them, Pixar movies have some elements in common, such as the main character going through a journey of self-improvement and more mature topics that other children’s movies (especially Disney’s fairy tales) wouldn’t address. These are some of the reasons why Pixar has been a big success and its stories continue to be of interest, but in order to keep up with its audience and make sure they won’t go away, the studio has had to make some important decisions that have affected its projects.
Like any other movie studio, Pixar has a list of cancelled movies as well as ideas for sequels that were either never made or went through a lot of changes, resulting in very different stories that made it to the big screen. Here’s every cancelled Pixar movie and how the sequels that happened were changed.
1906 - Cancelled
Back in 2005, a collaboration between Pixar, Disney, and Warner Bros. was happening thanks to James Dalessandro’s novel 1906. Based upon the events surrounding the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, the story follows the battles between political and cultural factions before and after the earthquake and fire, all told by reporter Annalisa arelli. 1906 would have been Pixar’s first live-action movie, and even had Brad Bird (Vikings) in 2012, but later that year, Disney and Pixar left the project, and it’s now in pre-production limbo at Warner Bros.
Newt - Cancelled
Perhaps the best-known cancelled Pixar movie, Inside Out, and Newt was officially cancelled.
Shademaker/The Shadow King - Cancelled
Henry Selick (Selick the option to take it to other studios, but it still hasn’t made it to the big screen.
The Graveyard Book - Unknown
Another project in the Selick/Pixar deal was an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Disney is still interested in it, there have been no updates on the development of the project.
Finding Nemo 2
Finding Nemo got its sequel, the idea for Finding Nemo 2 was revealed: Nemo would have met his long-lost twin brother, Remy, and Marlin would be captured, prompting Nemo, Remy, and Dory to forces to save him.
Monsters Inc. 2
Another sequel assigned to Circle 7 Animation was Monsters Inc 2, titled Monsters Inc 2: Lost in Scaradise. In it, Mike and Sulley would have visited the human world to give Boo a birthday present, only to find that she had moved. They would have then been trapped in the human world and parted ways after disagreeing on what to do. Monsters Inc 2 made it a bit farther into production than Finding Nemo 2, as pieces of concept art were released years later, but the idea was ultimately changed and the prequel movie Monsters University was made instead.
Toy Story 3
idea for Toy Story 3 was cancelled.
