My Peoples (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-early 2000s)

Concept art of Angel and Miss Spinster, two of the dolls.

Status: Partially Found

My Peoples was an animated film that began life in late 1999. It was created by Barry Cook, who had previously co-directed Mulan one year earlier. Despite many alterations and retools, the movie had actually gotten fairly far along into production. However, it was ultimately cancelled in favor of the 2005 CGI-animated film Chicken Little, and to this day, only a handful of production materials from the original project have been released.

Plot

The film was to be set in the 1940s in Appalachia, Texas. In the original concept, it revolved around a young man named Elgin Harper who falls in love with a woman named Rose McGee, despite an ongoing feud between their respective families. Elgin, who is known for creating folk art dolls out of common household objects, pursues Rose anyway, and Rose's father attempts to cast a spell to make him forget her.

However, the spell actually ends up bringing Elgin's dolls to life, and after one of the dolls (Angel) refuses to help the couple and leaves, the rest of them have to try to make things work.

According to Cook, the film was intended as a "comedy with a romantic subplot, with a lot of adventure." It was to be animated with a mixture of styles, as the dolls would have been CGI while the humans and backgrounds were traditionally animated.

Production and Cancellation

Throughout its production, My Peoples went through various changes under different studio executives, including several title changes. The doll characters were added after an initial rejection by Michael Eisner (then-Disney CEO) and Thomas Schumacher (then-Head of Walt Disney Feature Animation), and after this rewrite, the film was greenlit and production seemed to be moving smoothly. However, after Schumacher resigned in January 2003 and was replaced by David Stainton, more alterations were made.

Stainton was less impressed with the movie than Schumacher was, and the film was retooled so that the dolls would be possessed by ancestral spirits rather than simply being enchanted. Cook was not in favor of the change, but he continued working on the film in the new direction, as Stainton seemed happy with it at the time. This did not last, though, and on November 14, 2003, Stainton abruptly announced the film's cancellation, due to his belief that Chicken Little was more likely to draw in audiences.

Availability

The film was far enough into production that various story reels, test animations, and music pieces are known to have been completed. Most of these have not been released to the public, though, and all that currently exists is the animatic of the opening scene (and its song, "Tender Hearts"), a few seconds of animation, and several pieces of concept artwork.

Gallery

Videos

Opening sequence animatic.

2D test animation (see 1:23).

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A compilation of various clips and animation tests from the film.

Concept Art

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  Early sketches of Rose.

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  Character size chart.

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  Concept background.

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  Cherokee, one of the dolls.

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  Rose, and Elgin.

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  Good O'Boy, one of the dolls.

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  Abe, one of the dolls.

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  Mock-up poster featuring one of the film's alternate titles.

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  Old Man McGee, Rose's father.

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  Storyboard.

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  Music video storyboard.

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  More sketches.

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  Title logo.

See Also

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• The Incredibles (found full version of McDonald's Happy Meal commercial for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• The Incredibles (found online promotional trailers for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• Pixar (partially lost early CGI animated commercials from animation studio; 1989-1998)

Animation (Disney)

• Alice in Wonderland (partially lost original draft of Disney animated film; 1939)
• Aladdin (found Howard Ashman treatment of Disney animated film; 1988)
• American Dog (partially found original version of "Bolt" Disney animated film; 2007-2008)
• The Black Cauldron (partially found deleted scenes of Disney animated film; 1985)
• Chanticleer (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 1940s-mid 1960s)
• Chicken Little 2 (partially found production material of cancelled sequel to Disney animated comedy film; 2006)
• Disney Circle Seven Animation (partially lost production material of cancelled Pixar sequel films; 2004-2006)
• Dumbo II (partially found production material from cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2000s)
• Fantasia 2006 (partially lost production material for cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002-2004)
• Fraidy Cat (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2004-2005)
• Frozen (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 1937-2012)
• Gigantic (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2013-2017)
• The Jungle Book (lost Bill Peet version of Disney animated film; 1963-1964)
• Kingdom of the Sun (partially found original version of "The Emperor's New Groove" Disney animated film; late 1990s)
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (partially found production material and deleted scenes of Disney animated sequel film; 1995-1998)
• Music Land (lost Disney animated anthology film; 1955)
• The Search for Mickey Mouse (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2002)
• The Seven Dwarfs (partially found production material of cancelled direct-to-video prequel to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" Disney animated film; 2000s)
• Tangled (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 2001-2010)
• Tinker Bell (partially found first draft of Disney animated film; 2007)
• Treasure Planet II (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002)
• Wild Life (lost production material for cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-2000)
• Zootopia (partially found pre-rewrite version of Disney animated film; early 2010s)

Animation (Pixar)

• A Tin Toy Christmas (lost production material of cancelled Pixar animated Christmas TV special; early 1990s)
• Cars 3 (lost deleted scene of Pixar animated sequel film; 2017)
• The Good Dinosaur (lost original version of Pixar animated film; 2011-2013)
• Inside Out (lost original Bing Bong death scene of Pixar animated film; 2015)
• Made in Point Richmond (found miscellaneous content from Pixar DVD; 1986-2000)
• Newt (partially found production material of cancelled Pixar animated film; early 2010s)
• Toy Story (partially found early test footage of Pixar animated film; 1992)
• Toy Story 4 (found original script of Pixar animated sequel film; 2013-2017)
• Toy Story & Toy Story 2 (partially found intermissions for 3D double feature re-release of Pixar animated films; 2009)
• Toy Story "Black Friday Reel" (partially found rough cut of Pixar animated film; 1993)
• Toy Story "Jessie" (found Patsy Montana Award acceptance speech animation of Pixar character; 2000)
• WALL·E (partially found original treatments of Pixar animated film; 1994-2008)

Audio

• Enchanted (lost deleted song from Disney live-action/animated fantasy comedy film; 2007)
• Fantasia (partially lost original audio of Disney animated film; 1940)
• Jack Wagner (partially lost Disney Park background music collection from American actor; 1970s-2001)
• Mars Needs Moms (found Seth Green vocal performance of Disney motion-capture animated film; 2011)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (lost original Vincent Price audio of Disney stop-motion animated film; early 1990s)
• Pinocchio (lost Mel Blanc's "Gideon the Cat" dialogue from Disney animated film; 1940)
• Toy Story 2 (partially found Bullseye dialogue test footage from Pixar animated sequel film; late 1990s)

Live Action

• 101 Dalmatians (found "Spotted Landmarks" teaser trailer of Disney live-action film; 1995-1996)
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (found deleted scenes from Disney live-action film; 1993)
• Sleeping Beauty (partially found live action reference material for Disney animated film; 1959)
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (lost original cut of Disney dark fantasy film; 1982)
• Walt Disney (lost physical Mickey Mouse animation reference footage of animator; late 1930s)

Short Films

• Alice Comedies (partially lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1920s)
• Blowin' in the Wind (found Pixar animated short film; 1985)
• Lafflets (lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1922-1923)
• Language Arts Through Imagination (found series of Disney educational short films; 1988-1989)
• Mickey and Minnie Mouse (lost unauthorized pornographic animated short film; existence unconfirmed; 1936)
• Mickey's Man Friday (partially found production material of unproduced remake of Disney animated short film; 1939-1941)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (partially lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1927-1928)
• Poor Papa (found "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" Walt Disney animated short film; 1927)
• The Princess Academy (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated short film; 2009)
• Short Subject aka "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam" (found unofficial animated short film; 1968)
• Tales from Radiator Springs "To Protect and Serve" (lost episode of "Cars" animated miniseries; 2015)
• Totally Twisted Fairy Tales (partially found Disney animated short series; 1997)
• Uncle Walt (lost unauthorized Disney short film; 1964)

External Links

• The Disney Wiki's article on the film.