Wild Life (lost production material for cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-2000)

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This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its plagiarism, and will be deleted if not rewritten by October 1st.



WildLifeTitleCard.jpg

A title card drawn by Doug Walker.

Status: Lost

Wild Life is a cancelled late 1999 - 2000 CGI-animated film directed by Howard Baker and Roger Gould.

The movie would have been reminiscent of 1970s American pop culture and would have paid homage to popular figures at the time such as Andy Warhol, Anna Wintour & Diana Vreeland.

Plot

The plot begins with Red Pittsain, the owner of a prestigious nightclub who is quite distressed because Kitty-Glitter, his once-beloved diva pop sensation, has dwindled in popularity. Without a star attraction, everyone will go to the club owned by Magda, editor of "Magazizi," the city's most popular fashion-magazine and Red's biggest rival. Needing something big to regain the reputation their club once had, Red and Kitty find Ella: an elephant from the local zoo who is able to talk. However, things for Ella do not go as they plan at first because she doesn't think she is good enough to be a star, and she starts to have second thoughts about performing.

One night, though, while attempting to plug in a neon sign, Ella is electrocuted and knocked unconscious. When she gains conscious, Ella is now under the impression that she is a famous pop singer and quickly rises to fame, much to Kitty and Red's delight. However, Ella soon tires of her the glamorous lifestyle and tells Red one night that she would like to return to the zoo.

Not wanting Ella to leave, Red attempts to sweet-talk her into staying. Kitty catches sight of their conversation and mistakenly thinks that Red is trying to seduce Ella, which upsets Kitty greatly because she is secretly in love with him. After Kitty has angrily confronted Red about the situation, Ella goes back to the zoo.

However, Red and Kitty soon clear up the misunderstanding and proceed to ask Ella to come back and perform for them. Even though Ella told Red and Kitty that she would be much happier in her old environment, Red and Kitty understand, at which point they finally admit their feelings for one another and become a couple.

Development

Wild Life began production in 1999, under a team of animators that included Hans Bacher, Floyd Norman Jim Hill, George Mac, Doug Walker (unrelated to the Nostalgic Critic), Craig Kellman, Buck Lewis and Darryl Kidder, who also served as head of story. In the words of Jim Hill, the directors were hoping to create something that would really knock the socks off the competition. They wanted Wild Life to have a mature edge and wrote some adult-oriented jokes, however, the people working on the movie, especially the animators, often worried that Disney would not want to release the film. This constant fear was realized when Roy Disney, then vice chairman of the board, viewed the presentation reel in fall 1999 and stated that he was "appalled" at the mature humor (particularly one joke where two gay characters are about to enter the sewers and one remarked "have you ever been down a manhole before?") and ordered the film to be shut down.

The animation for Wild Life was to be handled by Disney's then-current effects team "The Secret Lab" who had previously animated the characters in the 2000 Dinosaur film. After the film was shelved, "The Secret Lab" was closed down.

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