American Dog: everything I found in one neat thread
Oct 11, 2023 19:17:43 GMT
lammyvox and MantleM like this
Post by Springy on Oct 11, 2023 19:17:43 GMT
A year ago, I discussed finding new sources about American Dog. Since then I created two reddit posts about what else I could find of the movie's development. However, I recently deleted my reddit account and for archival sake, I will be posting just about everything I found in here. Special thanks to some users on my original reddit posts, the tumblr blog lostdisney, and more for helping or showcasing some cool stuff along the way.
The most important reason why I am posting this here is it contains many sources to the story as well as potential ways to find more.
Do you recognize this dog?
Chances are, if you were an animation fan or Disney fan in the mid 00s, you might. This is the story of that dog and how his film ultimately transformed into Bolt, the arguable first movie in the Disney revival era. No, seriously.
Lilo & Stitch & Chris Sanders
In the early to mid 90s Disney was releasing a slew of movies that were massively popular and successful for the company, an era that is collectively known by Disney and Animation fans as "The renaissance era" of Disney. However, by the late 90s and early 2000s, things began to shift for Disney, as strong competitors began to pop up, particularly Dreamworks and Pixar (which weren't out-right owned by Disney, just had movies presented by Disney at the time) were wowing audiences with CGI imagery and stories that went against the grain of typical Disney fare. To make things worse for Disney, they were now releasing films that were not the big box-office successes of past ones and did not gain the critical praise Disney once had.
A new smash success was needed, but it would take nothing short of a miracle to happen, a visit from an angel if you will.
In the early to mid 90s Disney was releasing a slew of movies that were massively popular and successful for the company, an era that is collectively known by Disney and Animation fans as "The renaissance era" of Disney. However, by the late 90s and early 2000s, things began to shift for Disney, as strong competitors began to pop up, particularly Dreamworks and Pixar (which weren't out-right owned by Disney, just had movies presented by Disney at the time) were wowing audiences with CGI imagery and stories that went against the grain of typical Disney fare. To make things worse for Disney, they were now releasing films that were not the big box-office successes of past ones and did not gain the critical praise Disney once had.
A new smash success was needed, but it would take nothing short of a miracle to happen, a visit from an angel if you will.
Luckily that angel would come in the form of animator Chris Sanders, who had worked on Disney movies in the past before, but this movie would be his first director debut. This movie would transform and grow in a behind-the-scenes story that is amazing by itself, eventually releasing as Lilo & Stitch. Lilo & Stitch was just the success Disney needed at the time and now the animation world as well as Disney were looking forward to Sanders' next big move.
The next mov(i)e
On August 16th 2004, Disney announced the creation of three new projects: A Day with Wilbur Robinson, Rapunzel Unbraided, and the main focus of this piece: American Dog. Then on August 10th, 2005, Disney revealed more about the production at that years SIGRAPH event including various pieces of concept art, a short looping animation of the central moment of the film alongside various locations, and a brief plot summary.
The comments on ain't it cool forums had some who were excited about the upcoming film...
Looks great.
by Daddylonghead
Man, that painting of the poker game is beautiful. Is American animation learning something from the Triplets of Belleville, maybe? What great cartoon gangsters!
by Daddylonghead
Man, that painting of the poker game is beautiful. Is American animation learning something from the Triplets of Belleville, maybe? What great cartoon gangsters!
the design of this looks great. i'd go see it.
by g_mo_d
the best looking stuff ive seen from disney in years.
by g_mo_d
the best looking stuff ive seen from disney in years.
and some that were more critical…
"Lilo and Stitch" was a bore...
by Mr. Waturi
I love a kids movies... "Iron Giant" and "Monsters, Inc." being my favorites. I actually walked out of "Lilo and Stitch." It was cute without being funny, animated without being interesting. The concept was fine, but the movie just dragged. The stills from this movie look nice, though. Looks like the same artist that creates the comic book about the polar bear and kid.
by Mr. Waturi
I love a kids movies... "Iron Giant" and "Monsters, Inc." being my favorites. I actually walked out of "Lilo and Stitch." It was cute without being funny, animated without being interesting. The concept was fine, but the movie just dragged. The stills from this movie look nice, though. Looks like the same artist that creates the comic book about the polar bear and kid.
Oh Hell no.
by Krahnos
When are we going to grow up from overly cartoonized characters?Christ. I have sever reservations about this... whatever it is.
by Krahnos
When are we going to grow up from overly cartoonized characters?Christ. I have sever reservations about this... whatever it is.
The plot
Henry, a famous TV dog, finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert. Out in the world for the first time, Henry's tidy life of scripted triumph has come to an end, and his 2,000 mile trek through the real world is just beginning.
-Jim Hill
-Jim Hill
From the creator of Lilo & Stitch comes the charmingly twisted story of a Canine TV star who finds himself stranded in the most forsaken hundred miles of Nevada with an oversized bunny and a testy cat.
-Disney
-Disney
Henry seemingly has everything: fame, fortune, and star power.
However, Henry lacks a real home life as at the end of each filming session, Henry is locked up in a dark cage or room and his life is put on hold until the filming of the next episode.
To Henry, this is normal, so he believes that what he does during filming is real. Then one day, a stunt goes horribly wrong and Henry gets knocked out and ends up waking up on a train going towards Nevada. After years of being served hand and foot, going through "adventures" where he always wins, and living a skewed reality on a television set, Henry has no idea how to interact with real people or get along in the real world.
If Henry attempted something he thought he knew how to do due to his scripted adventures, such as drive a car, it would not work his way and would cause a terrible situation. So Henry needs as much help as he can get.
Luckily for Henry, he comes across this help in the form of Spig, an eye-patch wearing cat (that was radioactive in early concepts), and Mr. Buttons, a radioactive rabbit that was gigantic in early drafts.
Luckily for Henry, he comes across this help in the form of Spig, an eye-patch wearing cat (that was radioactive in early concepts), and Mr. Buttons, a radioactive rabbit that was gigantic in early drafts.
The two live in a gas station with retirement savings stored in a giant dinosaur statue and, most importantly to Henry, a classic car hung in some Christmas wire.
Henry bribes the duo to drive him back home and the two agree to it, possibly due to Ruthie, a mutant zombie girl-scout that stalks the duo and tries to kill them each night.
Along the way, the trio come across a variety of odd and quirky characters. Some of the most-documented ones were Jo Night/Knight, a Vegas waitress that meets Henry in the elevator of a safari-themed hotel. She could have potentially "used her movements" to distract a would-be assailant.
There was also The Lady in Black, an ex-circus performer who was holed up in a mansion located in the swamps of Georgia. Alongside her may have been a fez-wearing knife-throwing gorilla, though one render might indicate he was downgraded into a background prop at some point in development.
There would have also been several other characters as well that have been showcased in concept art and renders, though their involvement in the story have not been documented or discovered.
Sources for all pieces mentioned here can be found here.
How American Dog became Bolt
After a couple years of moves that brought down the value of the Disney company, Eisner was kicked out of Disney and a new CEO was given the keys to the kingdom. Meet Bob Iger, starting out as ABC's person to conduct menial labor on TV sets, he would soon grow in the ranks into becoming head of ABC entertainment. When ABC was bought out by Disney in 1995, Iger was too brought in, and then would once again grow in the ranks within the larger Disney company. When the "save Disney" campaign was well over with, picking Iger was a natural conclusion for shareholders. Iger's early moves were specifically done to fix the reputation of Disney, with the largest being to fix the broken relationship between Disney and Pixar at the time. To do so he offered to buy out Pixar for 7.4 billion dollars (that's $10,272,431,932.45 in 2022 money). As an added bonus, John Lasseter, one of the heads of Pixar at the time, would now become head of Disney Animation. Some point afterwards, Lasseter went around to see how the progress was going on some of Disney's recent projects. That's when he saw American Dog's progress, after seeing two screenings of the film, Lasseter reportedly wrote down suggestions on how to fix the film. Sanders, not wanting to change his passion project, rejected all the suggestions, and so Sanders was dropped off his own project.
Take this with a large, large grain of salt, but one alleged insider in Cartoon Brew's comments described the screenings:
After a couple years of moves that brought down the value of the Disney company, Eisner was kicked out of Disney and a new CEO was given the keys to the kingdom. Meet Bob Iger, starting out as ABC's person to conduct menial labor on TV sets, he would soon grow in the ranks into becoming head of ABC entertainment. When ABC was bought out by Disney in 1995, Iger was too brought in, and then would once again grow in the ranks within the larger Disney company. When the "save Disney" campaign was well over with, picking Iger was a natural conclusion for shareholders. Iger's early moves were specifically done to fix the reputation of Disney, with the largest being to fix the broken relationship between Disney and Pixar at the time. To do so he offered to buy out Pixar for 7.4 billion dollars (that's $10,272,431,932.45 in 2022 money). As an added bonus, John Lasseter, one of the heads of Pixar at the time, would now become head of Disney Animation. Some point afterwards, Lasseter went around to see how the progress was going on some of Disney's recent projects. That's when he saw American Dog's progress, after seeing two screenings of the film, Lasseter reportedly wrote down suggestions on how to fix the film. Sanders, not wanting to change his passion project, rejected all the suggestions, and so Sanders was dropped off his own project.
Take this with a large, large grain of salt, but one alleged insider in Cartoon Brew's comments described the screenings:
Man, this is so annoying. Amid, someone....please, SOMEONE get their hands on the latest story reels of American Dog. Someone from Disney steal it and give it to someone and let people watch it online.
Why?
Because it was AWFUL!!! I saw the latest reel (yes, I worked at Disney then) and it was the most disjointed, confusing, quirky, weird, unmarketable movie Ive seen. It was rife with plot problems, the characters were unappealing (the dog looked like a miniature moose for eff's sakes, and his giant nose took over the screen so you couldnt see his eyes, no matter what you did) Sanders was never around, and when he was, he wasnt leading, just giving weird notes and then would disappear for weeks. A-dog had ONE thing going for it, good concept art. Big effin deal.
And thats fine for a film when its in early production, but this was ready for primetime, it was supposed to be final, and at the last possible second, Lasseter came in and saved the day. Bolt is WAAY better. Had Sanders stayed on the project, it would have either been severely delayed (which we couldnt afford, the execs woulda pulled the plug) or been abysmal and closed WDAS down.
As it turns out, Bolt is the best animated film in a long long time from Disney (some think better than wall-e or ratatouille or the incredibles, no joke), and it just fell victim to a dumb fan-fueled movie that scored a 40-something on rottentomatoes* and bad marketing. To an outsider watching the marketing, Bolt looks like trash, but after seeing it you realize its a VERY good film.
Im sorry (very sorry) for ranting, but I HATE seeing people ignorantly trashing a film, and comparing it to a film they know NOTHING about, and have built up in their mind as something amazing, when in reality it was a garbage film being directed by an absentee, flighty director who was given plenty of chances to fix his film, and didnt.
Lasseter didnt pull the plug on A-Dog because it was quirky, he pulled the plug because it just wasnt working and Sanders wouldnt fix it. And it wasnt just John's opinion, we ALL disliked it, even those of us whole liked Chris very much personally.
Now, this is just my opinion, but I hope I didnt ruffle too many feathers, but I just wanted you guys to know there IS another side to the story.
Why?
Because it was AWFUL!!! I saw the latest reel (yes, I worked at Disney then) and it was the most disjointed, confusing, quirky, weird, unmarketable movie Ive seen. It was rife with plot problems, the characters were unappealing (the dog looked like a miniature moose for eff's sakes, and his giant nose took over the screen so you couldnt see his eyes, no matter what you did) Sanders was never around, and when he was, he wasnt leading, just giving weird notes and then would disappear for weeks. A-dog had ONE thing going for it, good concept art. Big effin deal.
And thats fine for a film when its in early production, but this was ready for primetime, it was supposed to be final, and at the last possible second, Lasseter came in and saved the day. Bolt is WAAY better. Had Sanders stayed on the project, it would have either been severely delayed (which we couldnt afford, the execs woulda pulled the plug) or been abysmal and closed WDAS down.
As it turns out, Bolt is the best animated film in a long long time from Disney (some think better than wall-e or ratatouille or the incredibles, no joke), and it just fell victim to a dumb fan-fueled movie that scored a 40-something on rottentomatoes* and bad marketing. To an outsider watching the marketing, Bolt looks like trash, but after seeing it you realize its a VERY good film.
Im sorry (very sorry) for ranting, but I HATE seeing people ignorantly trashing a film, and comparing it to a film they know NOTHING about, and have built up in their mind as something amazing, when in reality it was a garbage film being directed by an absentee, flighty director who was given plenty of chances to fix his film, and didnt.
Lasseter didnt pull the plug on A-Dog because it was quirky, he pulled the plug because it just wasnt working and Sanders wouldnt fix it. And it wasnt just John's opinion, we ALL disliked it, even those of us whole liked Chris very much personally.
Now, this is just my opinion, but I hope I didnt ruffle too many feathers, but I just wanted you guys to know there IS another side to the story.
A key moment in this evolution came in the fall of 2006, nine months after the merger, at a Story Trust meeting in Burbank. It happened after a fairly awful screening of American Dog) a film structured around a famous and pampered canine actor (think Rin Tin Tin) who believed that he was the superhero character he played on TV. When he found himself stranded in the desert, he had to face for the first time how his tidy, scripted life had not pre- pared him for reality-that he, in fact, had no special powers. That was all well and good, but somewhere along the way, the plot had also come to include a radioactive, cookie-selling Girl Scout zom- bie serial killer. I'm all for quirky ideas, but this one had metasta- sized. The movie was still finding its way, to say the least, so John started off the meeting, as he often does, by focusing on the things he liked about it. He also indicated he saw some problems, but he wanted to give the Disney folks the chance to take the lead on those, so instead of digging in and getting too specific, he threw the meet- ing open to the floor. Throughout the meeting the comments stayed at a superficial level, remaining strangely upbeat-judging by the commentary, you would have never known the film was in disarray. Afterward, one of the Disney directors confided to me that many people in the room had major reservations about the film but didn't say what they thought because John had kicked things off so posi- tively. Taking their cues from him, they didn't want to go against what they thought he liked. Not trusting their own instincts, they held back. John and I immediately arranged a dinner with the directors- and told them that if they ever resorted to that kind of thinking. again, we'd be finished as a studio.
Not long after, Disney would have a crisis of its own on Amer- a ican Dog I mentioned earlier the emergence of a serial killer story- line, which while we prided ourselves on always remaining open to new ideas-seemed a tad dark for a family film. Despite our misgivings, though, we decided to give the movie a chance to evolve. Finding a movie's throughline always takes time, we told ourselves. But after ten months of Story Trust meetings-and very little im- provement we concluded that the only option was to restart the project. We asked Chris Williams, a veteran story artist best known for Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove, and Byron Howard, then a supervising animator on Lilo and Stitch, to step in as its di- rectors. Immediately, they began reconceiving the movie. The serial killer was tossed, and the movie was renamed Bolt.
Not long after, Disney would have a crisis of its own on Amer- a ican Dog I mentioned earlier the emergence of a serial killer story- line, which while we prided ourselves on always remaining open to new ideas-seemed a tad dark for a family film. Despite our misgivings, though, we decided to give the movie a chance to evolve. Finding a movie's throughline always takes time, we told ourselves. But after ten months of Story Trust meetings-and very little im- provement we concluded that the only option was to restart the project. We asked Chris Williams, a veteran story artist best known for Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove, and Byron Howard, then a supervising animator on Lilo and Stitch, to step in as its di- rectors. Immediately, they began reconceiving the movie. The serial killer was tossed, and the movie was renamed Bolt.
Chris Sanders: It had a lot to do with rationalizing what this dog was. “Can he drive a car or can he not?” The answer was yes and no. He can make the car go but, no, he can’t drive. And that would become a big sticking point. In my mind, that idea wasn’t that weird, it was pretty simple; in other people’s minds at the studio, it wasn’t making any sense. Ultimately I was asked, “Does he know he’s a dog or not?” The answer I gave was, “He knows he’s a dog, but has a warped idea what a dog is and does.” That answer didn’t sit well. They wanted a “yes” or “no.” Later on I equated it to Buzz Lightyear, who did NOT know he was a toy. So the “yes,” or “no,” on that would have been a simple, resounding, “no.” Very clear. My dog was more subtle, like Stitch. And that wasn’t going to get through their system. So after a long, hard session with the exec, I was without a simple answer, and I was like, “Okay, I don’t know what to tell you.”
The story of Sanders being dropped off of American Dog spread far and wide, with many critiquing the move. No matter if the story is just one of these or a combination of the three, Lasseter needed to comment on why he had to rework the movie.
Asked about the episode, Mr. Lasseter abruptly interrupted an interview to confer with publicists, asking “What can I say here?” After a brief discussion Mr. Lasseter explained that Pixar often added or replaced a director if a film needed help. “Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn’t take it to the place it had to be,” he said carefully. Mr. Sanders, who is negotiating his exit from Disney, declined to comment. “John doesn’t force his solutions on you,” said Brad Bird, who directed “The Incredibles” and is close to Mr. Lasseter. “But that doesn’t mean he is going to go quietly.”
Lasseter said more about the situation afterwards in an interview with slashfilm
Sure, yeah. You know when the merger of Disney and Pixar happened and Bob Iger and Steve Jobs asked me to be the Chief Creative Officer at Disney, as well as Pixar, you know I came in and there was a handful of movies that had been kind of started down here. "American Dog" was one of them. And I always thought that the premise of that had a lot of potential for heart, you know the character that it is a dog that stars in this kind of action TV show. And he thinks he has these real powers, and so he gets separated from the TV show and learns that he, in fact, doesn't have any powers and he's just a regular dog. But he has no idea about how to be a regular dog, and so he's taught how to be a regular dog by a cat. But it's a deeper story about this friendship, and loyalty and unconditional love that dogs have for their owners. And I think that I had put great possibilities. It's one of those difficult situations where we've done this a couple times before with "Toy Story 2" and with "Ratatouille", where the potential of film, it's just we were having kind of creative differences with reaching that potential, and so we brought on Chris Williams and Byron Howard, two young guys here to direct it, because they're so funny, but they also have a tremendous amount of heart in them. And it's always a difficult situation, because I love Chris Sanders. He's a great guy and brilliant talent, and it's always sort of difficult, but it's the right thing to do for the movie.
And so, Chris Williams and Byron Howards were put on to become the film's new directors. Several changes to the project were made afterwards. The first and main one was de-anthropomorphizing the main trio, as making the animals behave more like real animals was seen as key for Lasseter in order to fulfill a compelling suspension of disbelief. Henry no longer starred in a James Bond/Ocean's Eleven inspired spy show, now he was the star of a cheesy superhero adventure. The cat and rabbit also lose their radioactive past. The rabbit changed species into a hamster inspired by Lasseter's pet chinchilla and the cat changed genders. The trio also got new names, no longer were they "Henry", "Spig" and "Mr. Buttons", now they were "Bolt", "Mittens" and "Rhino". The main female characters, Jo Knight and The Lady in Black, were no more. Now the main female character was Penny, a teenage girl that Bolt gained a bond to, unaware that she was just an actor doing her part. This was also seen as important to Lasseter, to give a more compelling reason why the dog would want to return to Hollywood. The mid-west setting was also changed, in order to not cause fatigue with Pixar's own Cars, as both American Dog and Cars would have shared a similar setting with a similar premise around the same release time frame.
In fact, seemingly the only things not changed from the original production were the base concept: a celebrity dog, unaware that the show he's working for isn't reality, has to find the help of two other animals in order to reach home and learns about how real life works along the way. The casting of John Travolta as the main character also stayed, with the other two reported voice actors, Thomas Haden Church and Mario Cantone, being dropped off of the project. It is unknown why Travolta got to stay, but my best guess is that he was too expensive to drop once the project changed. Its also believed the train scene in the final movie
might have been an inside's homage to the train teaser or this piece of concept art.
Fan and animator reactions
Reception to the change within fan circles was full of criticism, not helped by the previews for the reworking, known as "Bolt", giving the animal characters radical redesigns that many felt were generic, especially compared to the art presented for American Dog.
A few of my favorite comments from the aint it cool forums for example:
by Ribbons
Eesh. Bolt! doesn't look anything like American Dog used to. In fact it looks more like Krypto the Superdog than anything else.
Eesh. Bolt! doesn't look anything like American Dog used to. In fact it looks more like Krypto the Superdog than anything else.
by R*tardo_Montalban
Bolt looks like a tool of the man. He's the type of dog that plays off rebellious, but only rebels in socially and politically acceptable ways.
"Let's all have an adventure fellas! But only to attain a lofty yet admirable goal, and we'll make friends along the way."
Bolt looks like a tool of the man. He's the type of dog that plays off rebellious, but only rebels in socially and politically acceptable ways.
"Let's all have an adventure fellas! But only to attain a lofty yet admirable goal, and we'll make friends along the way."
by AndreZX
Had to jump in on this.
I just saw the production still from Bolt, looked it up and found that this is what happened to American Dog!
I was devastated! This new look is 100% generic (although the painterly style of it is very impressive, I'm not impressed with the character designs at all.) I fell in love with the American Dog project the first time I saw that shot of him and the cat with the eyepatch in the convertible, and then they turned around and chopped it into this cookie-cutter crap. Lilo and Stitch is probably one of my favorite Disney movies, and it pains me to think of what they've thrown away to go with Bolt.
Oh well. Only time will tell.
Had to jump in on this.
I just saw the production still from Bolt, looked it up and found that this is what happened to American Dog!
I was devastated! This new look is 100% generic (although the painterly style of it is very impressive, I'm not impressed with the character designs at all.) I fell in love with the American Dog project the first time I saw that shot of him and the cat with the eyepatch in the convertible, and then they turned around and chopped it into this cookie-cutter crap. Lilo and Stitch is probably one of my favorite Disney movies, and it pains me to think of what they've thrown away to go with Bolt.
Oh well. Only time will tell.
By Annabel Cole
This ties in to the point above about boys avoiding Bolt because Miley Cyrus was there. In the past ten years, Disney has shackled itself to highly visible "girly" brands: not brands that appeal to girls first but also draw boys, like Kim Possible, Pepper Ann, and Nickelodeon's Aex Mack before them, but brands that focus on girly-girls in hot pink dancing, dating, preening, shopping, and singing, either in "real life" (some Disney Channel series) or abstract fairy tale worlds.
This ties in to the point above about boys avoiding Bolt because Miley Cyrus was there. In the past ten years, Disney has shackled itself to highly visible "girly" brands: not brands that appeal to girls first but also draw boys, like Kim Possible, Pepper Ann, and Nickelodeon's Aex Mack before them, but brands that focus on girly-girls in hot pink dancing, dating, preening, shopping, and singing, either in "real life" (some Disney Channel series) or abstract fairy tale worlds.
By Charles
And then there was Miley Cyrus. Oh, she did a fine job; that’s not my problem. My problem was that I stood in the theatre lobby watching as Cyrus’ presence caused some older boys to change their minds about wanting to see the film. “It’s got Miley Cyrus; it’s a girl movie.”
And then there was Miley Cyrus. Oh, she did a fine job; that’s not my problem. My problem was that I stood in the theatre lobby watching as Cyrus’ presence caused some older boys to change their minds about wanting to see the film. “It’s got Miley Cyrus; it’s a girl movie.”
Animators who worked on American Dog or saw its production that have spoken about it have been mostly positive. Daniel Chong felt like it was one of the great losses in animation history, but also discussed disbelief looking back towards how anyone would have thought the movie would have "made it" due to American Dog's more adult elements. Specifically the casino scene would have had Henry shot off a gun multiple times and the entire character of Jo Night was seen as questionable. Mark Anthony Austin described American Dog as "the movie that Disney were foolish enough to terminate" and thought its cancellation was "a sad thing". Melody Iza saw a tour of the studio and a slew of concept art for American Dog and thought it was silly, fun and interesting. Dan Platt described one of his models as such: "This high res CG production model of a Ford Thunderbird was originally created for American Dog but ultimately scrapped when the scenes, um…, movie changed." Perhaps I am looking too much/deep into this sentence, but to me it seems like negatively critiquing the film's plot in a way that wouldn't set off too many employer alarm bells.
However, many critics and audiences loved Bolt. The movie was also reportedly amazing in 3D according to wdwmagic. While Bolt had a lousy box office opening with tough competition, Bolt made enough money afterwards in DVD sales to please Lasseter and move forward in the future of Disney. Leading to the Disney revival era. If not downright kick-starting it.
An individual who knows a lot about the situation wrote to take issue with the statement that Chris Sanders felt "relief" at being taken off AMERICAN DOG. Sanders had apparently been informed before last Wednesday that he was no longer going to be the director, and according to this source, was deeply disappointed, hurt and angered. The source also writes, "Chris felt like his heart had been ripped out, and he didn't expect if from someone (Lasseter) who always talks about a director-driven studio model. This was totally Chris' project from the start, he was pouring himself into it, and now he's fired."
Why was he relieved? Well, being kicked off from American Dog was the last straw for Sanders after a long time within the company thinking that the heads of Disney stifled creativity. Sanders would then leave Disney and join Dreamworks, where he would most notably work on How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods. He would then join Fox to work on a film adaptation of The Call of the Wild. During Sanders' free time, he kickstarted the webcomic Kiskaloo, a sort of Lilo & Stitch meets Calvin and Hobbes. Apparently the folks at Disney at least let Sanders keep the rights to the eyepatch wearing cat and the rabbit.
“After ‘American Dog’ changed directions I had breakfast with John Lasseter and we talked about that character and whether or not I could have that character back,” Sanders explained to us. “They actually officially released that character back to me, which had never been done before. We actually filed paperwork on it. It’s hard for me to reconcile that this character would wind up in a drawer somewhere and never be seen again. To me, it’s a living breathing thing. He said, ‘I totally get that,’ and so we figured it out…
-Chris Sanders
-Chris Sanders
Former Hollywood actor. Used to play the pet of an attractive middle-class family. Lost his eye at a craft-services table mishap. After that, he played the companion to an action-movie villain, and found that it suited him better. Once that franchise ran its course he was put up for adoption, but ran away. He began showing up on sets again. By using the pause function on a DVD player, you can find him lurking in the background of big-budget movies. He can be seen eating a cheese sandwich during the climactic volcanic explosion sequence of “The Last Days of Pompeii.” During a love scene in “Terror on Moonbase 12” he can be glimpsed outside a window, cleaning himself in a crater. And he shows up no fewer than seven times in the background of “Natural Corruption” – snoozing on a drawer in the morgue, toasting marshmallows on the beach during a murder, opening the lid of a mayonnaise jar with a letter opener in a police station, sleeping in the serial killer’s freezer, and fishing in a lobster tank during a grocery store shoot-out. After the studio bought a security dog to keep him away, he moved North...
Meanwhile, Bolt has been largely forgotten by most. However, its legacy of kick-starting the revival era of Disney, the Iger era, and its shaky past still lives on within some fan circles.
Would it have been good?
Part of why I brought this to here and tumblr was due to the recent discovery of the Gibby pilot. In many odd ways, there's a lot of similarities to Gibby and American Dog. Both have been built up in fans heads, at least the fans who were aware of their existence, that they would have been the better product than what was released. But once you go deep into finding out more about "what could have been", the more you realize how bad the alternative could have been. While I believe American Dog would have been the better movie over Bolt artistically, it wouldn't have been the better movie story wise, where it really matters. Part of me wants to be wrong, and that Chris Sanders could have made the plot work, but part of me also remembers that the Croods exists.
Part of why I brought this to here and tumblr was due to the recent discovery of the Gibby pilot. In many odd ways, there's a lot of similarities to Gibby and American Dog. Both have been built up in fans heads, at least the fans who were aware of their existence, that they would have been the better product than what was released. But once you go deep into finding out more about "what could have been", the more you realize how bad the alternative could have been. While I believe American Dog would have been the better movie over Bolt artistically, it wouldn't have been the better movie story wise, where it really matters. Part of me wants to be wrong, and that Chris Sanders could have made the plot work, but part of me also remembers that the Croods exists.
The main problem I have with American Dog's plot, from what is out there, is how much of it seems like Sanders throwing whatever he found cool or funny to the wall without thinking of how much matches together. The concept of a celebrity dog, going cross-country with two commoners and finding the truth about reality is a very strong one. I can even see it working with the more anthropomorphized animals American Dog brings, but once you throw in stuff like visiting area 51, zombie girl scouts, and radioactive animals, the more questionable the story becomes. If the overall message of American Dog was an environmental one, where at first the radiation seems to only have cartoony effects on the world, Such as making animals larger than they should be and rising the dead. Then over time you learn the serious effects it has and Henry must choose to either keep pretending the issues don't exist at Hollywood or stay in the real world and help the effort, then it could have been a great movie, better than Bolt. But if it had the same message as Bolt does, about appreciating the real world, then its dampened due to how supernatural the real world is in this movie's world, making the fake world Henry acted in look more normal and realistic in comparison.
I am still very interested in finding American Dog despite story issues, or else I wouldn't have spent so many hours researching this movie and reuploading this story wherever I could. But I am not expecting a masterpiece.
What now?
The next best thing to do, is look more into the credits of Bolt and see if any of the other animators not listed on the Lost Media Wiki's gallery page have anything related to American Dog saved in their portfolios. I suggest not to contact them, as mass contacting causes more pain than discovery more times than not, but it would be helpful to gain more images at least for now for more insight into the lost movie.
According to an interview with Chris Sanders, he is thinking of making a movie based on his Kiskaloo webcomic, so you may see the one-eyed cat star in a feature film in the future. Just like that cat would have oh-so many years ago.
Still, many wonder "what could have been" with American Dog. The chances of any future revival or release of the movie may seem low, but hey this random internet user can dream.
*The movie he is referring to is the first Twilight movie
*The movie he is referring to is the first Twilight movie
