Female Warrior Toylines that failed

She-Ra Princess of  (1985) is best known of the following which I call female warriors but others might refer to as female He-Mans. She-Ra was He-Man's sister. She-Ra had a main male villain, Hordak who was supposed to be He-Man's villain, he even came as a He-Man toy and was not part of the She-Ra toy line. Catra, Entrapa and Double Face were the only villainesses in the toy line. She-Ra had dolls, coloring books, storybooks, posters, stickers, birthday stuff, her own animated series, and now DVDs. She was the only popular one. The other ones were ignored.

 

Golden Girl and the Guardians of Gemstone (1983)

Galoob came out with this toy line in 1983, it predates She-Ra. They had t-shirts, coloring books, board games and books. It somehow is remembered by toy fans but it was pretty much forgotten. It has a unique distinction of having a group of villainesses. They didn't have an animated series.

For more information on Golden Girl: http://www.thelaironstormisle.com/

 

Wonder Woman and the Star Riders (1992)

Probably done to have a recognizable Wonder Woman to attract the toyline but it didn't really work... actually it wasn't even released! Mattel made the prototypes. The only thing that exist that gave me an inkling about this was a mini comic that came with Minibuns. I got it thanks to a speech teacher I had, I think she got it from there. Anyways, the dolls were later used for Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic.

http://www.toyotter.com/actiongirl/starriders/

 

Saban's Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic (1995)

A cartoon doesn't equal a hit. Tenko wasn't exactly a warrior but the dolls of Wonder Woman and the Star Riders were used for Tenko. Tenko was a real life magician and she had live-action segments. This show aired on Fox Kids and was produced by Saban Entertainment, who is responsible for Power Rangers. It was canceled after one year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenko_and_the_Guardians_of_the_Magic

 

Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders (1995-1996)

This show lasted two seasons and it was syndicated. It had a toyline. It had fans but it didn't last passed two years and it is not as memorable as She-Ra. She was known as Starla outside of the US. Other Arthurian characters in the show include Merlin and Lady of the Lake. It was a pretty good series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Gwenevere_and_the_Jewel_Riders

 

Related: http://spanengrish.blogspot.com/2012/06/golden-girl-and-gaurdians-of-gemstone.html | http://spanengrish.blogspot.com/2006/07/best-of-she-rasecret-of-sword-review.html

Unused or Discarded Disney Characters

While developing a script or a movie, creators have to get rid of a character or no longer see the need for it. Or the character evolves into something better.

 

Little Mermaid

Ariel not only had Flounder and Sebastian, she also had a dolphin friend. Breaker the dolphin's personality was then implanted into Ariel.

http://www.mouseplanet.com/6928/The_Little_Mermaid

 

Beauty and the Beast

Belle was supposed to have a cute little music box who didn't speak but had music. He was replaced by Chip. He does appear in the movie next to Lumiere before the villagers attack the castle.

http://fancysomedisneymagic.tumblr.com/post/3922625605/unused-disney-characters

Aladdin
Aladdin's mom was once in the movie and Aladdin had a song called "Proud of your boy", a song that Clay Aiken even sang at one point in time. She was removed from the movie and Aladdin was made an orphan. It returned in the Broadway show. Also, there was to be another genie, one in a ring that Jafar would use. Rumored voices were Jim Carey and Lily Tomlin, unknown if they were actually asked.
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Aladdin's_Mother
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Genie_of_the_Ring

Before Jeffrey Katzenberg's "Black Friday," Aladdin had three human friends called Babkak, Omar, and Kassim. "One Step Ahead" was originally written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken as "Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Cassim" and was deleted. They came back in Broadway's Aladdin. Cassim's spelling was changed because Aladdin's dad was called Cassim in "Aladdin and the King of Thieves."

 

Lion King

There was Meethu ("Mee-Too"), Nala's brother had a desire to tag along with the two older cubs and their other friend, a bat-eared fox. After Scar’s coup, Nala would’ve been tasked with protecting her brother from Scar. The development of characters like Timon and Pumbaa rendered a second group of friends for Simba not needed.

http://thefw.com/more-deleted-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

Pocahontas

Believe it or not, Pocahontas had another friend in a turkey. Redfeather the turkey was replaced by Meeko.

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Redfeather

 

Mulan

Mulan had two dragons named Yin and Yang instead of Mushu, then it was a dragon and a phoenix, eventually they were canned for Mushu.

http://www.curatormagazine.com/aaronbelz/the-maker-of-mulans-mushu-speaks/

 

Muppet's Treasure Island

Amazonia the Parrot was Black Beard's female friend. Apparently Black Beard's Parrot friend was too flirty and female, was changed to Stevenson (above) who appeared in a CD-ROM game and he was ditched for Polly the Lobster.

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Amazonia_the_Parrot

 

Bambi

Bee was an insect that was taken out of Bambi, no reason given.

http://www.disneydreaming.com/2011/03/27/discarded-bambi-character-bee/

 

Not only the bee, but Thumper's dad was booted too. Mr. Hare is referenced in the movie but never seen but he was to be included, as he was in the original book. In one early draft of the script, he is constantly trying to tell Bambi a story, but keeps having to run off to avoid a fox before he can finish. He was to die as well. Thumper replaced him because of a cute child actor.

 http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

 

Snow White
In the original Snow White story, the dwarfs all had generic names and no defined personalities. Disney gave them names, but there were some that were unused. Deafy, sometimes written as 'Deefy,' he was hard of hearing.  Story drawings of Deafy still exist, proving that he was a more serious contender for a role in the film than other suggested dwarfs like Thrifty, Burpy, Wheezy, Jumpy, Baldy and Awful (steals and drinks and is dirty). Sneezy did replace Deafy. In Once Upon a Time, an 8th Dwarf has been added named Stealthy. http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

 Alice in Wonderland

Gryphon and Mock Turtle were in the books and they were planned characters for the movie but they were probably cut for time, which is funny because Alice in Wonderland is one of the shortest Disney animated features. Gryphon and Mock Turtle were actually used in a Black and White Jell-O commercial and it looks like they reused some cells from the planned canceled scene and some cells of Alice from the exact movie and just put new voiceovers for Jell-O.

http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

 

The Rescuers

Among the ideas considered early on was a story where the mice rescue a bear trapped in the zoo. Very little has been written about this version of the film, so not much is known about Louis the bear. Louis Prima (King Louie from ‘The Jungle Book’) was slated to voice him. Walt Disney’s death in 1966 may have weakened enthusiasm for the bear in the zoo storyline and also that Louis Prima had a brain tumor.

 http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip