Disney's laundry list of classic features include some of the most beloved stories put to the screen. So much goes into creating these fairytales, adventures, and other enchanted outings that it can be easy to forget that not everything works on the first try. Many factors, elements, and additions to these Disney fables often end up on the cutting room floor.
While most scenes are cut due to time length, rewrites, or they simply don't add to the narrative, there are those that are cut because they just elicit a negative response. Some are easily edited and rewritten, but some definitely deserve to be scrapped.
Car Graveyard (Cars)
Pixar's Cars really isn't a film that warrants too much creative discussion, but the fact that such a creepy scene was featured in a Disney movie about talking cars is a bit surprising. In a scene dubbed "Lost," Lightning McQueen finds himself in a haunted forest full of rusted out bodies and hulls of old cars as he tries to find his way back to the interstate.
The imagery is pretty creepy, but the scary part is the implication that McQueen has essentially been walking through a forest of corpses out in the middle of nowhere. That'd be a pretty disgusting situation if these were human characters.
Santa's Rage (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
On one hand, anyone who has to spend Christmas Eve stuffed into a trick-or-treat bag and then plunged into the clutches of the Boogeyman probably won't be in the best of moods. On the other, the original Santa that appeared in the early tests of The Nightmare Before Christmas looks a bit more derranged than what most viewers are used to.
After Jack crashes the sleigh, Santa made an appearance ready to take back his holiday, and not too pleased either. He has every right to be mad and not even Jack can blame him, but the early designs for the jolly old elf were anything but.
Oogie’s Identity (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
At one point, Oogie Boogie wasn't the jazzy bag of bugs fans know and love today. In one draft of the script, Oogie was only a disguise concocted by Dr. Finklestien to snatch Sally away from Jack. Needless to say, it wasn't the most orthodox idea the writers pitched.
For one thing, there's hardly any reason for it. It seemingly goes nowhere, and at no point was it ever even suggested that the doctor had some other scheme going on. It's easy to understand why this one was left on the storyboards.
Gepetto’s Hunger (Pinocchio)
Gepetto is a pretty mild and tender-hearted character that normally wouldn't even hurt a fly, but hunger and desperation have been known to drive people to do crazy things. Conspiring with one's cat to kill and eat the pet goldfish while being in the belly of a whale would certainly constitute an unwell train of thought.
To be fair, desperate times call for desperate measures, but this feels so out of character for Gepetto that it's outright jarring. And that's not even considering the evil expressions in the concept art.
Alice’s Execution (Alice In Wonderland)
At one point, Walt Disney wanted to make a more book-accurate version of Alice in Wonderland, even wanting to give it an art style inspired by the original illustration. But before it became the colorful musical that viewers received, it was originally 50 shades darker.
It had psychedelic visuals, creepy monsters, and other twisted motifs, but its most infamous diversion from the story was an ending that featured Alice's execution. Fortunately, this was one of the many sequences that were scrapped due to rewrites, as it no doubt would have soured an otherwise golden afternoon.
Be Prepared Reprise (The Lion King)
It might be half-cheating to include this sequence since it was reworked into the Broadway show, but its content earns it a mention. In a deleted scene from Disney's The Lion King, Scar seeks out a queen to carry on his "legacy." A great time for a musical number, but not such a great situation when he sets his eyes on Nala.
The scene and its implications are just as creepy as they sound, and the inclusion of this scene might have slapped the film with a PG-13 rating. It's certainly something that would not fly in today's social climate.
Sadistic Stitch (Lilo And Stitch)
He might be one of the Disney company's most marketable characters, but fans continue to ignore that Stitch is responsible for most of the film's conflicts. He might be just a troublemaker now, but in early drafts, he was absolutely evil.
One scene featured Lilo introducing Stitch to her fishy friend, Pudge, and what begins as a cute little interaction soon turns to terror as Stitch flings the creature to a flock of hungry seagulls. As Lilo struggles to save him, Stitch only looks on with a wicked smile. Not exactly the most cute and cuddly image for the company.
Shock Collars (Zootopia)
Zootopia got away with dealing in a lot of adult themes, racism, prejudices, drugs, and culture shock just to name a few. But that's not the only dark materials the film dealt with. There was one storyline in the film's development where the carnivorous members of the population were all saddled with literal shock collars to keep them from "going savage."
The image of seeing Nick being relentlessly tormented by electric shock is something most wouldn't believe came out of Disney animation. Thankfully, the directors went with the buddy cop comedy and the plot line was swept under the rug.
The Army Grows (The Black Cauldron)
There's a reason that The Black Cauldron is still considered the blacksheep of the Disney company. It has its problems and its scary moments, sure enough, but that pales in comparison considering what was actually cut from the film.
As shocking as it sounds, Disney's original draft nearly got pinned with an R-rating due to one overtly graphic and gory scene where one of the Horned Kings guards becomes a zombified member of the Cauldron Born, his skin melting off after a bloody bite. Needless to say, it's obvious why this one only exists in film cells today.
The Black Friday Reel (Toy Story)
What sounds like an urban legend is actually an eerie truth from the vaults of the Pixar company. In the first drafts of Pixar's Toy Story, Woody wasn't always the lovable leader of Andy's toys that he became. Rather, he was a jealous and vindictive character, practically the film's villain.
If that wasn't enough, the original test animation, dubbed "The Black Friday Reel," saw the cowboy deliberately toss Buzz out the window before insulting and berating his friends after he gets caught. It's hard to imagine that this was once the film's main direction.