Disney Circle 7 Animation (partially found production material of cancelled direct-to-video sequels; 2004-2006)

Circle 7 Animation logo.

Status: Partially Found

In January 2004, Pixar announced they would not be renewing their agreement with Disney, due to rising tensions between the two companies. While Pixar left to find different distributors, Disney bought the rights to the Pixar characters and created Circle 7 Animation. The company was formed to make direct-to-video sequels of Pixar’s movies. Circle 7 Animation had 3 films in production. However, they didn’t get very far in production with their projects, as Michael Eisner (then-CEO of Disney) was kicked out, and Pixar was bought by Disney for approximately $7.4 billion. Thus, Circle 7 Animation was shut down on May 26th, 2006. As of 2006, Circle 7 Animation had 168 employees.

Cancelled Projects

Toy Story 3

Not to be confused with Pixar’s 2010 sequel film of the same name, Toy Story 3 focused on a malfunctioning Buzz Lightyear who is shipped off back to the original Buzz Lightyear factory located Taiwan. But as it turns out, the Buzz Lightyear brand has been recalled, so Woody and the gang ship themselves to Taiwan to rescue Buzz.

In an earlier draft written by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner (of Teacher’s Pet fame) involved Andy visiting his grandmother’s house, and Woody and the gang, then end up getting trapped in Andy's grandma’s attic.

Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise

Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan enter Boo’s door to celebrate Boo’s birthday. However, Boo has moved, so Mike and Sulley go on a mission in the human world to search for Boo.

When Pixar got the rights to their characters and the making of sequels back upon the merger with Disney in 2007, the project was re-made as a prequel tilted Monsters University, released to theatres on June 21st, 2013.

Finding Nemo 2

Not to be confused with Pixar's 2016 sequel film Finding Dory, Finding Nemo 2 focused on Nemo reuniting with his long lost brother, "Remy." Marlin (Nemo's father), then gets captured and sent to an aquarium named "PLANET BLUE," so now Nemo, Remy and Dory have to go save him. No concept art has been released of this project.

Availability

Very little video footage of these projects was ever released, most likely because Circle 7 Animation was shut down before they could produce any more video material. The only images to have surfaced of these projects are multiple pieces of concept art. It is unknown if Disney still has these scripts, as Pixar has stated that they will never look at the scripts.

Findings

On October 13th, 2018, Lost Media Wiki user Veggiefinder found the entire script for Circle 7's Finding Nemo 2 on the official Raindance Film Festival website.^[1]

On October 14th, 2018, a day after the Finding Nemo 2 finding, Lost Media Wiki user Veggiefinder Discovered that an early "REVISED DRAFT" for Toy Story 3 dated December 8th, 2004, was available to purchase on scriptcity.com, a site for buying and selling Hollywood scripts and stageplays for $15.^[2] The listing remained unnoticed until September 5th, 2019, Lost Media Wiki user YoshiKiller2S discovered the listing. Yoshi quickly purchase the script and has since shared it with the public.^[3]