Complete failures that happened during the history of animation

[Tommypezmaster]

Poochini's Yard-There's a GOOD reason why nobody watches this.
This Just In-Canceled after 6 episodes and has the most insufferable cast of characters of all time.
G4's Action Blast-No wonder why it got deadslotted.
The Nutshack-Short-lived and didn't finish its run until 2011 (4 years after it was canceled)
Igor-It'slitteritly a proto build of Norm of The Norm.
Will & DeWitt-Canceled after one season and has characters that were similar to This Just In's.
Free Birds-If this is a box-office success, then why didn't Relativity make more animated films after this?I really want to know.
Bordertown-One season and its cult following thought critics were too harsh on it.

 

[Pooky]

I liked Igor at the time.

 

[CookieS]

Define "complete failure".

I think we need to define this. Many people are mentioning unpopular movies or series, but we don't know the scope of their goal, their projected box office/ratings, or if they were considered failures by critics or backers.

I'd like to know which elements are being weighed the most:

• Financial failure. Did the investment into this project LOSE money?
• Reputation failure. Have critics or word of mouth affected the public perception or willingness to watch?
• Failure to reach critical mass. Did the project perform modestly, but didn't meet studio/network expectations? Did it have a wide release?
• Technical failure. Was the project dismissed because of a visual or technical aspect? (Think uncanny valley).
• Adaptation failure. Did this interpretation of the story not connect with fans?
• Bad timing. Is the project good, but the timing horrible? Has the reputation improved after time has passed?

I feel like I could go on. Identifying why something failed makes sure we're all judging failure using the same metrics. Some of you are mentioning smaller projects that just didn't take off (and were cheap to produce), while others are mentioning multi-million dollar flops. Let's get on the same page.

 

[hobbyfan]

Duckman did get a decent slot on BBC2 in the UK. I'm sure they were thrilled.

Capitol Critters and Fish Police were definitely pretty big failures. I'd add Family Dog in there too (which I like, I kind of like Fish Police too); an aborted high profile launch in 1991, two years of delay while merch mingles between warehouses and the odd escape into bargain bins, finally released in the summer of 93 where it is quickly dashed off to poor reviews and lacklustre ratings. A pretty big mess. I think The Critic is too well know and well liked to be classed as anything close to a complete failure, even if the ratings were never great.

The Garbage Pail Kids had a season made in full that never aired on US TV.

If we're talking purely in terms of commercial performance and industry ambition, The Thief and the Cobbler/The Princess and the Cobbler/Arabian Knight, after some 25 years of production and millions in various currency, only got a limited theatrical release in an extremely homogenized form which went on to have a weak second life in low profile VHS and DVD releases, at least one given away free with Cereals. Not great. Yes, it has a cult following now, but that's more around the production and individual sequences that had been animated in the 70s and 80s, not the finished film.

Freddie as F.R.0.7. was enough of a flop that production on a sequel (which reportedly had had some 12 minutes already animated) was halted, the studio was shut down, it wasn't released on VHS in the US until three years later in significantly re-edited form, writer/director/producer Jon Acevski was never heard from in the entertainment industry again, it's never had an English DVD release, and unless I'm forgetting something there were no more major British animated films released in theatres until Chicken Run 8 years later.

Garbage Pail Kids was intended as a SatAM cartoon for CBS, but there were issues.

 

[AllenJ]

Probably the most spectacularly infamous failure I can think of is 2008's Delgo. This film cost $40 million to make and spent nearly a decade in development hell only to make less than $1 million at the box office, making it one of the lowest grossing animated films of all time. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it in this thread yet.

'Delgo' Has One of Worst Openings in the History of Cinema

www.cartoonbrew.com