Wild Life
Disney put a visually experimental animated comedy into production, then judged its adult humour incompatible with the studio name and shut it down.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Never Born
- Peak stage
- full production started
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A cancelled computer-animated Walt Disney Feature Animation production directed by Howard Baker and Roger Gould.
The film followed an elephant who became a sensation in 1970s New York club culture, using an unusually graphic visual style and more adult comic tone.
Existence timeline
Disney develops an original story for its computer-animation group.
Howard Baker and Roger Gould lead design and story work.
Animation tests and substantial visual development are completed.
Studio leadership reviews the project's tone and material.
Disney stops the feature before a releasable film exists.
Why it ended
After an internal screening, Disney leadership rejected the story's tone and halted production in 2000.
Last confirmed trace
Concept art, animation tests, production designs and archived interviews preserve the abandoned feature.
What it left behind
Wild Life marks an early path not taken in Disney's transition toward computer animation and adult-oriented visual experimentation.
How we classified it
The proposed archive unit never reached ordinary public access in the form being documented.
The strongest verified milestone maps to full_production_started under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.