Monster Safari (lost production material of cancelled stop-motion animated film; 2009)

Screenshot from the "Shorts in a Bunch" version of the film.

Status: Lost

Monster Safari was a cancelled stop-motion film directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh and produced by Chris Finnegan of Screen Novelties for the Jim Henson Company. A script had been written in 2009 by Matt Chapman and Craig Zobel, two of the creators of internet series Homestar Runner.

"Monster Safari" was originally developed as a short film for a block of shorts called Shorts in a Bunch, before being expanded into a feature-length project. The plot focused on two bumbling cryptozoologists who work to save Earth's newly-found monsters from a big-game hunter. Despite being announced in 2009 and the short existing on Screen Novelties' website, not much had been heard about the movie for years.

In 2011, co-writer Matt Chapman remarked that he was unaware of the movie's status, explaining that he and Zobel "haven't heard anything since" they wrote their initial draft years earlier. In Sep 2013, Zobel similarly stated that he was unaware of any plans to produce the movie, "but if screen novelties ever do it, it'll be freakin awesome". To further complicate things, Peter Dennis, the voice of Basil Pennyfarthing in the original short, passed away during the process in April 2009.

On March 8, 2015, the original short surfaced, after finding its way online in November 2014. The script and whatever else was produced for the feature-length adaptation remains lost.

Gallery

Clip of the original short film.

Episode of Shorts in a Bunch, containing the original short film (1:16-7:02).