Ben 10 (partially found pitch pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; early-mid 2000s)

The series' early logo.

Status: Partially Found

Ben 10, or Ben 10 Classic, is an American animated series created by Man of Action Entertainment, and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. The series was first shown on "Sneak Peek Week" on Cartoon Network in 2005, alongside other shows that were upcoming at the time. The show began its regular run on January 13, 2006, and ended on April 15, 2008. However, there were rumors about a pilot episode of Ben 10 created the same year as the series, though they were debunked later on the search. Around 2020, after the Duncan Rouleau interview, in which he said that those screenshots were fan art, were believed until 2021 when footage of the pilot resurfaced.

The Rumors

The rumors started in 2018 by an anonymous Reddit user (that deleted his account after the post) claiming about an unaired pilot that was created the same year as the first episode of the series. The rumors started also with posts they shared some screenshots until the Duncan Rouleau interview.

The Duncan Rouleau Interview

In August 2020 Man of Action co-founder Duncan Rouleau agreed to get an interview to help promote the 2016 reboot series' film Ben 10 Versus the Universe: The Movie. The interview happened by The Ink Tank doing the interview he was asked about the early development of Ben 10 later a member of The Ink Tank sawed to him that the screenshots he said were fan art until Dave Johnson revealed that the pilot was real.

Dave Johnson Steps In

After the interview Twitter user, Tron Trovlta asked if the Pilot was real or not but Dave responded by saying that Gwen's mushroom shirt was changed to a cat because Cartoon Network didn't want to promote any drugs. He also shared concept art of the characters in his portfolio until Roxy found footage of the pilot.

Resurfaced Footage

In 2021, a user named Roxy, owner of a blog called "Ben 10: Lost and Found" was browsing archived versions of International Cartoon Network Websites on Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Within one of the files, Roxy found 14 seconds of animation from the test footage. On November 20th, 2021, The Ink Tank released a video discussing the new finding, featuring a brief appearance by Roxy (in the form of an alien species from the show) discussing how she found the clips.

The video would find its way to Nollan Obena, art director and background artist for the original series, who had the following to say:

"Ran into this post on my feed. Great detective work. Yep. It was a test for the overseas studios. We test the studios we want to use by having them animate a few scenes from the storyboards. Character interactions for acting and of course a transformation scene. I love that you also had pages from the zine we put together for ComicCon."

With this added context, it can be safely assumed that there are multiple takes of the test footage by different animation studios, namely Sunmin Pictures, Rough Draft Korea, and Lotto Animation, the latter who takes may be the version the footage is from, as Lotto is credited as the animation studio behind the episode, and part of their work is reused in the final release, during Four Arms' battle with the reanimated mammoth.

Gallery

Images

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  An early version of XLR8 from the Flash game Ben to the Rescue.

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  The characters early versions including Gwen's design from the pilot.

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  Early sketches of Ben.

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  Early sketches of Gwen and Grandpa Max.

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  An early design for Ripjaw from a Flash game.

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  Early sketches of Wildmutt.

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  Screenshot of the pilot (1/3).

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  Screenshot of the pilot (2/3).

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  Screenshot of the pilot (3/3).

Footage

The resurfaced pilot clips.

Videos

The Ink Tank's video on the found footage.

The Ink Tank's interview with Duncan claiming that the screenshots were fan-made.

See Also

Ben 10

• Ben 10 (partially found pop-up trivia version of Cartoon Network animated series episodes; 2008)
• I-10: The Ben 10 User Generated Experience (found Cartoon Network TV special; 2008)
• Turkish Ben 10 Games (partially found Proje Calide's promotional games; late 2000s-early 2010s)

Anthology Series

• Big Bag (partially found Cartoon Network live-action/animated/puppet series; 1996-1998)
• Cartoon Network "Cartoon Network Responds!" (partially lost interstitials from TV channel; 1997-1999)
• The Moxy Show (partially found Cartoon Network CGI animated anthology series; 1993-1995)
• Sunday Pants (partially lost Cartoon Network animated anthology series; 2005)
• ToonHeads (partially lost Cartoon Network animation anthology series; 1992-2003)
• ToonHeads "A Night of Independent Animation" (partially lost special of Cartoon Network animation anthology series; 1996)
• Villainous (partially found Cartoon Network Mexico online animated short series; 2012-2013)
• What a Cartoon! (found Cartoon Network animated anthology series; 1995-1997)
• Youri, the Spaceman (found Cartoon Network France CGI animated series; 2002)

Bumpers and Interstitials

• The Big Game XXVI: Tom vs. Jerry (found Cartoon Network marathon special; 1998)
• Cartoon Network (partially found "High Noon Toons" bumpers from TV channel block; 1994-1996)
• Cartoon Network (partially lost "Nood" bumpers from TV channel; 2008-2010)
• Cartoon Network NBA All-Star Slam (partially found interviews of marathon; 2003)
• Cartoon Planet (partially found bumpers of revival block of Cartoon Network animated variety series; 2012)
• Codename: Kids Next Door Mission Weekend (partially found marathon bumpers for Cartoon Network animated series; 2003)
• Fridays aka "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays" (partially found interstitials from Cartoon Network channel block; 1999–2007)
• Hotdog TV (partially found Cartoon Network interstitial series; 2010)
• JBVO, Toon FM & Viva Las Bravo (partially found interstitials from Cartoon Network channel blocks; early-mid 2000s)

Pilots

• Billy and Mandy in Trepanation of the Skull and You (found prototype short of "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy" Cartoon Network animated series; 1995)
• Camp Lazlo "Monkey See, Camping Doo" (lost unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2004)
• Captain Sturdy (found Cartoon Network animated pilots; 2001)
• Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe (partially lost pitch pilots from British animation studio; 2008-2011)
• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (found unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2003)
• Imp Inc. (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2001)
• Jeffrey Cat: Claw and Order "All Dogs Don't Go to Heaven" (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2002)
• A Kitty Bobo Show (found storyboard of cancelled second animated pilot for Cartoon Network; 2002)
• Major Flake in "Soggy Sales" (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2001)
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack (partially lost unaired "Wedgies" pilot and short of Cartoon Network animated series; 2007)
• Mess O' Blues (partially found prototype short of "Johnny Bravo" Cartoon Network animated series; 1993)
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey (lost unaired pilots of Cartoon Network animated series; 2003/2004)
• The Powerpuff Girls (lost unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series reboot; early-mid 2010s)
• Project Gilroy (lost Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2007)
• Regular Show (non-existent Flash pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; late 2000s-2010)
• Squirrel Boy "Kite Makes Right" (lost unaired pilot of Cartoon Network animated series; 2004)
• Uncle Gus (partially found original English audio of Cartoon Network animated pilots; 2000-2001)
• What's Wrong With Ruth? (found Cartoon Network animated pilot; 2007)

Live-Action

• Bobb'e Says (partially found Cartoon Network live-action clip series; 2009)
• BrainRush (partially lost Cartoon Network live-action game show; 2009)
• Track Rats (partially found Cartoon Network reality short series; 2010)
• The Othersiders (found Cartoon Network paranormal reality series; 2009)
• Out of Jimmy's Head (partially lost original English dub of Cartoon Network teen sitcom; 2007-2008)

Other Cartoon Network Series

• The Amazing World of Gumball "The Downer" (lost original draft of Cartoon Network animated series episode; existence unconfirmed; 2012-2014)
• The Amazing World of Gumball "The Rex" (partially found production material of cancelled Cartoon Network animated series episode; 2012)
• Chowder (lost pop-up trivia version of Cartoon Network animated series episodes; 2010)
• Chowder (lost production material of cancelled Cartoon Network TV film; 2009)
• Class of 3000 (found original English dub of Cartoon Network animated musical series; 2006-2008)
• Codename: Kids Next Door (lost production material of cancelled Cartoon Network animated series episodes; 2002-2008)
• Dexter's Laboratory "Rude Removal" (found unaired Cartoon Network animated series episode; 1997)
• Droopy's Guide to the Cartoon Network (found launch preview of TV channel special; 1992)
• Ed, Edd n Eddy "Luck Be an Ed Tonight"/"A Room with an Ed" (rumored/lost unfinished Cartoon Network animated series episodes; existence unconfirmed; 2005)
• Ed, Edd n Eddy "Special Ed" (non-existent unproduced Cartoon Network animated series episode; late 1990s/early 2000s)
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy "Matinee Mandy" (lost original English audio of Cartoon Network animated short; 2007)
• I Heart Tuesdays (lost production material of cancelled Cartoon Network animated series; 2011-2012)
• I-10: The Ben 10 User Generated Experience (found Cartoon Network TV special; 2008)
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes "Crossover Nexus" (partially found original 22-minute version of Cartoon Network animated series episode; 2010s)
• Skatoony (found original British version of Cartoon Network quiz show; 2006-2008)
• Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? (partially lost unreleased original voice audio and unfinished/unknown Cartoon Network animated series episodes; 2002-2003)

External Links

• Roxy's Tumblr blog on various obscure Ben 10 content.
• The Raw Videos Of The Pilot Found On The Flash File