Nobody does animated films like Disney, so it's tempting to think that their most classic stories wound up exactly the way the writers, directors and animators expected. But fans may never know what beloved characters, songs, and storylines wound up on the cutting room floor. Missed opportunities or dodged bullets, fans will want to see for themselves.
Here are Screen Rant's Disney Movie Scenes You've Never Seen.
Lilo & Stitch
Disney's story of an alien bringing two sisters closer together had a playful sense of humor from the very start, so even when the film's climax had the cast flying an alien spaceship in a death defying chase, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Originally, that chase was going to be even more far fetched, with Stitch and the gang hijacking a Boeing 747 and flying it through the buildings of downtown Honolulu. Obviously the filmmakers realized the scene would read differently following the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, and refitted the animation to an alien spaceship over Hawaiian mountains instead.
The Lion King
Any fan of Shakespeare can tell you that The Lion King is basically the story of "Hamlet" told with African animals. So it's no surprise that Disney originally wanted the movie to be even darker and more adult. The original ending still had Simba return to Pride Rock for his showdown with Scar, but he met a much uglier end. After tossing Simba to his death (with a line directly out of Shakespeare's play) Scar wound up plummeting into the wildfire, and presumably burning to death. Apparently Disney decided that was a little too grim - why they thought having him torn apart by his hyena soldiers was more suitable for kids, we can't explain.
Frozen
The fairy tale fans who followed Frozen from the start know it began as an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen", which would have seen Elsa play the villain, with a much darker side. It was eventually decided that a tale of sisterly love was a better choice, but you'd be surprised to know how far some of Elsa's darker antics made it into production. Take one deleted scene, where Elsa encases two Arendelle soldiers in ice as they search for her sister, beginning to torture them for information, and assembling an army of snow monsters. It was cut from the movie, but shows out just how much a single scene can change an audience's idea of a character.
Not every deleted scene is important to the overall plot, but considering the shots taken at Kristoff throughout the rest of the movie, there's no question he would've liked to see this one make the cut. Trying to sell ice in a blizzard makes him seem pretty foolish, but the scene shows that the skills Kristoff needs to do his job are no joke. And hauling his reindeer Sven along with him still shows off his softer side. In the end the directors decided that introducing Kristoff frozen solid was a better joke, and it's hard to disagree.
Aladdin
No true Disney fan will ever forget the stars of Aladdin, from Abu the monkey to Iago, Jafar - take your pick. But did you know Aladdin's mother was originally going to play an important role in the story? Apparently the street rat's wish to be a prince wasn't just for himself, with a musical number revealing Aladdin's mission to prove everyone wrong, and make his mother proud. The song, "Proud of Your Boy" even had Abu in tears, but the number and the character had to be cut to keep the plot moving forward. Crazy to think another potential Disney classic wound up on the cutting room floor.
Wreck-It Ralph
Everyone has their favorite video game cameo or reference in Wreck it Ralph, but one major set piece didn't make the finished cut. When Ralph went game-jumping into the shooter Hero's Duty, he was originally going to be locked up with a man named Bobby Dunderson, who told him about a strange game paradise called "Extreme EZ Livin 2'". Modeled on life simulation games like The Sims, EZ Livin' was a world where there were no heroes or villains... and no real point. Ralph would eventually head there in the final act, before realizing that being bad wasn't something to be ashamed of. The message worked fine without the sequence, so it was cut for length. But the strange look at social games where players maximize "likes" would've been a cool touch.
Inside Out
It was Riley's imaginary friend, Bing Bong, who stole the show in Pixar's look inside the mind of a preteen girl, but he wasn't going to be the only figment of Riley's imagination that Inside Out audiences got to meet. Riley's favorite drawing 'Mrs. Scribbles,' and the monsters who used to live in her closet were just a few of the creatures forming a makeshift village in the girl's mind. Like most of the scrapped storylines and extra emotions the filmmakers axed, the movie's overall message worked better with less - still, it's nice to know that the fans favorite characters were only the tip of the iceberg.
Conclusion
Those are all the deleted scenes from hit Disney movies that we think fans should know about, but which ones have we missed? Be sure to name them in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos like this one!