Just
before
the
weekend
started,
the
animation
space
lit
up
when
someone
suddenly
leaked
a
lot
of
never-before-seen
internal
material
from
Disney.
We
won’t
link
to
it,
but
included
in
that
material
is
a
sizable
amount
of
stuff
from
the
company’s
TV
animation
slate
across
its
Disney
Channel
and
Disney
XD
networks
that
goes
as
far
back
as
the
mid-2000s.
Gravity
Falls,
Owl
House,
you
name
it:
if
it’s
got
a
sizable
fanbase
(and
isn’t
a
Marvel
cartoon),
then
it’s
probably
featured
here
in
some
fashion.
Included in the leak were over 20 pilots, some of which were shows that’d been pitched, but ultimately never went anywhere. Similarly, there were also 40 show bibles—documents creators use to pitch their show, from the tone and characters to breakdowns for potential future seasons. Disney’s animated slate didn’t have quite the highs of Cartoon Network or even Nickelodeon, but what’s here may have you thinking about some shows you haven’t thought about in a while. (Case in point, they’ve got the bibles for Super Monkey Team HyperForce Go! and American Dragon: Jake Long in here, which may take you waaaaaaaay back.)
Setting aside how surprising it is that all this got leaked—and what’s more, whoever did it hasn’t stated why or who they are—what’s out there is admittedly interesting to go through. Fans of particular shows are going to get a lot out of those pilots and bibles, if only to see how these series evolved over time, particularly in terms of their art style. Even more interesting is to see what episodes these creators were pitching: in Gravity Falls’ case, most of these weren’t made, but you can see how parts of them—like Dipper getting into a golf war with Lil’ Gideon—were retooled into actual episodes.
For the creatively inclined, the show bibles are probably going to be the most worthwhile things to sift through. In reading through some of these, they’re quite extensive and can be a good guide to help you figure out how TV works, or even do a similar bible of your own for whatever you’re making. The Ducktales bible, for example, devotes multiple pages to each principle character’s interests, special skills, and core relationships with each other...along with how they’d react to a mummy.
Again, various websites and Twitters have gone through this stuff and put it out there for you to watch or read—and if you like any of these shows, or just animation in general, it’d be worth searching for. io9's reached out to Disney for comment on the leak, and will update when a response is given.
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