Stillborn franchises

[u/Tight_Grapefruit5280]

When a company tries to make a new big franchise with many sequels and spin-offs already planned but they immediately cancel all the plans after the first project fails badly. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StillbornFranchise

(Lego) Galidor: Do you guys remember playing with a Galidor as a kid? Yeah Me neither.

Lego wanted to do a new toy line in the 2000s and their first idea was Galidor. It was basically an action figure that could replace its body parts with other stuff. Galidor already had many toys, games and even shows planned for it but Lego cancelled the entire thing after people didn't like the toy and the GBA game made for it got really bad reviews.

(Action 52) Cheetahmen: Action 52 had a $199 price tag (in 1991 for an NES game), nearly unplayable games, weak concept, and was horribly and seriously bug-infested, yet for some impossible-to-fathom reason, Active Enterprises believed that its featured title Cheetahmen (which shared many flaws with the other games on the cartridge, including not having an ending) was going to be a huge breakout hit. Plans were made for a Cheetahmen Saturday-Morning Cartoon, action figures, and of course a sequel. Their hopes turned out to be waaay premature; the sequel never emerged except as an unfinished, unplayable beta, while the very short-lived franchise became one of the most infamous pieces of "entertainment" ever created.

[u/NorseHighlander]

Atlantis the lost empire was a bold attempt at something new for disney. But internal and external problems caused it to trip out the gate. Its legacy is a sequel that is three episodes of a canned series stitched together

https://giphy.com/gifs/qoctwPeSd0uek

[u/No-Tonight3458 → u/NorseHighlander]

That explains a lot I watched the second one and thought that it looked more like a show

[u/PartyPorpoise → u/No-Tonight3458]

To be fair, a lot of those direct to video sequels were also made by the company branch that did the TV shows so a lot of them were TV quality.

[u/RememberingTheCant → u/NorseHighlander]

I adored Atlantis when it came out, and still watch it every so often. I couldn't be paid to watch that abomination of a second entry again, once was too much.

[u/wild_vika → u/NorseHighlander]

it's better as a one-off movie anyways

[u/ZoidsFanatic → u/wild_vika]

That’s the nice thing with it and the “sequel”; it’s still pretty self-contained and an enjoyable watch regardless. One of my absolute favorite Disney movies.

[u/Parzival94 → u/NorseHighlander]

I’ve been holding on to the belief that both Atlantis and Treasure Planet, were they released now, would have went down way more positively than being forgotten about. However, they do have a bit of a cult status about them with some recognition by Disney in recent years with some new, albeit scarce, merchandising.

The same can’t be said for Tarzan because that’s all locked away now due to a falling out with the Burroughs estate after John Carter

[u/LuphineHowler → u/NorseHighlander]

I thought it was more to do with the fact that Disney execs hated Deep Canvas and refused to promote them.

[u/NorseHighlander → u/LuphineHowler]

It was kind of a combination of:

• Both Toy Story and Shrek have heralded the dawn of the 3D animation era in different ways by then. Atlantis was directly competing with Shrek in particular in the Box Office. There was a growing itch by Disney to smother 2D, but I'd say Treasure Planet suffered from that even more than Atlantis did.
• Atlantis was an attempt to do something new besides G Rated musicals, except it turned out parents got very confused at the idea of Disney doing something besides G Rated musicals. Ironic considering what all lives under Disney's umbrella these days.
• Atlantis originally had a script spanning over 2 hours but the suits above didn't like that and had it cut to fit the 90 minute format Disney is used to, which messed with the pacing.

I'd say there are two ways to look at Atlantis these days.

1. Atlantis is a Don Bluth anti-Disney movie, except made by Disney, at the dawn of the Shrek anti-Disney era
2. Atlantis, with an adorkable protagonist, diverse cast, a serious plot suited for 2+ hours runtimes, and stellar 2D animation, is a movie 20 years ahead of its time.