Anyone ever hear about Greg Weisman's pitch for the never made Disney Villains?

[Antiyonder]

We had to develop this one over and over, despite the fact that I successfully sold it to Michael Eisner on MORE THAN ONE occasion. The problem was that MY BOSS, Gary Krisel, didn't like the idea and kept rejecting every approach. Kept unselling the idea, in essence.

One approach had Captain Hook (easily the original model for Igthorn who was in turn the original model for Xavier) stumbling through the Wicked Queen's Magic Mirror into Jafar's lamp. Jafar can't get out, except on a technicality. If the world turns so evil, that letting him out is redundant, than he's free. So he applies a carrot/stick approach to Hook and has him gather the greatest villains in the Disney Toon Universe to try and turn the world evil.

Our main cast included Hook, Cruella, Don Karnage, Mad Madame Mim, Megavolt, Toadie. Ratigan, maybe. I can't remember now. It was long ago and we went through so many versions. We put together some VERY funny stuff.
There was one story with Ursula and Monstro for example.

Another great series I couldn't get on the air.

I did ask him about the possibility of doing this in comic book format for Boom, and he responded:


I haven't lost interest, and it's an interesting suggestion, but I'm not sure how practical it is.

These villains come from multiple different franchises. Disney could do it themselves, but for another company it would be a licensing nightmare.

So if Disney was ever willing to do some cartoons in the vein of their classics, and ever did green light this cartoon, would anyone be interested in it?

Aside from the interesting premise, I'd be interested in seeing it due to wanting to see Greg doing a more comical cartoon outside of the super hero type material (he did a comedy at least in JLA Showcase #1).

[AlgeaX]

Oh yeah, I read about this on Ask Greg. Personally, I think it's a kick-ass premesis and if Greg doesn't do it someone should. I think the hardest part would be trying to sell obscure villains like Megavolt and Don Karnage as main characters. That probably would have worked back in the early 90s when Darkwing Duck and TailSpin were still on the air, but nowadays you'd be hard pressed to find people who even remember who they are. Heck, I'm as big a 90s cartoon geek as anyone and even I needed to google Don Karnage.

If Boom Studios were interested in doing something along these lines, one way to get around the licensing problem might be to just use villains from the franchises they already have a license for. So that's like the Red Queen, the Jabberwocky, Syndrome, Evil Emperor Zurg*, not to mention the combined rogues galleries of Scrooge, Darkwing and the Rescue Rangers.



*Ideally in his Buzz Lightyear of Star Command incarnation.

[the greenman]

Im too at a lost for how it could work. What would your typical episode look like?

Seems weird to me. It might work as a video game though, in the vein of Kingdom Hearts.

[W.C.Reaf]

I would've loved that. I always liked the villains more than the heroes and it would've been really cool to see all these Disney villains working together (and more than likely against each other) in a cartoon.

Shame it didn't happen.


Aside from the interesting premise, I'd be interested in seeing it due to wanting to see Greg doing a more comical cartoon outside of the super hero type material (he did a comedy at least in JLA Showcase #1).

Well he did episodes of Kim Possible and Buzz Lightyear, although it depends on what you class as "super hero type material" I suppose.

[Dudley]

As a fan of cartoon crossovers, that sounds like the most awesome thing ever.
Hope we see that in some form in the future.

[Dr.Pepper]

I like crossovers, but a show about the villians seems too weird to me. And no way are Disney Afternoon villians going to be there if this ever gets made.

[steet]

Thanks for sharing this! I didn't know about that project, or that Karnage was supposed to be part of the main cast of another series. That would have been great to see. (Don Karnage was a main character of one Raw Toonage episode (http://www.animationsource.org/talespin/en/articles/Don_Karnage_in_Raw_Toonage/103200.html&id_film=9)though)
Ratigan and the Mouse Detective in general is way too much underrated, there was also rumors about a new series featuring these characters but apparently this either didn't get past the pitch state, or was never true. I would really love to see these characters getting some recognition! (apart from the recent DVD re-release of course)


I like crossovers, but a show about the villians seems too weird to me. And no way are Disney Afternoon villians going to be there if this ever gets made.
That's unlikely, but never say never. No one thought we would ever see new Darkwing or Rescue Rangers comics happening too. Yet it does, and it's a success! That may give Disney some ideas. No one thought we would ever see a crossover between Disney and Squaresoft universes either (it may seem "normal" now, but it really was a strange idea back in 2001), yet it happened.

About this pitch, the only problem I have, is that I don't see how it would work. If the main characters are villains, then what do they do? You would need heroes to counterbalance them. But if they would include heroes in the show, then it would become like any other series.

[Dudley]

About this pitch, the only problem I have, is that I don't see how it would work. If the main characters are villains, then what do they do? You would need heroes to counterbalance them. But if they would include heroes in the show, then it would become like any other series.

Greg Weisman would've made it work. He's Greg Weisman! He's great at writing for villains. Look at what Demona from Gargoyles went through....

[Antiyonder]

About this pitch, the only problem I have, is that I don't see how it would work. If the main characters are villains, then what do they do? You would need heroes to counterbalance them. But if they would include heroes in the show, then it would become like any other series.

Considering that we had a cartoon with two lab mice trying to take over the world, I think this could work.

[Romperstoomper]

Cool idea that we all have had, in some point in our lives.

Just curious on how this would work out. If it happend.

Which whould the heroes be?

[Philmister978]

As a fan of cartoon crossovers, that sounds like the most awesome thing ever.
Hope we see that in some form in the future.

I agree Dudley. I'd long to see that happen.