Shannon Tindle, creator of Kubo and the Two Strings, released a trailer via his twitter this weekend of a Haunted Mansion Animated Series that he had developed at Disney. The trailer actually looks really intriguing, but unfortunately the teaser was as far as project made it, since Disney decided to scrap the project.
Tindle, with a deal from Disney Television Animation and a small creative team, developed the project last year. Two different pilots were written for the possible Haunted Mansion animated series. One for a limited series and one for a longer running series. For a look at what could have been, take a peek at the trailer for the series below.
In a report from Cartoon Brew, Tindle said, “My goal was to take inspiration from all the backstories created by the artists at WED (Disney’s Imagineering division) and stitch it into one, giant narrative. The story would span several years and focus on different characters, but add up to one big, interconnected story.”
Tindle’s initial tweeted contained a link to the video on Vimeo, but he later deleted it “in case Disney has issues with it being posted.” He is no longer with Disney but said of the project that he had received “nothing but support” from the team at Disney Television Animation, even though it was eventually scuttled.
Although Disney isn’t picking up the series, the reactions from Tindle’s Trailer Tweet was very well received online. Tindle’s show now has a passionate group of fans who want to see the series produced and finished for all audiences to view.
Disney could have canned the series any number of reasons, one possibly being they just recently released an animated Haunted Mansion Special of their own, which aired on Disney XD. Who knows though? Deadpool, though not owned by Disney at the time, also had a “Leaked” trailer which received such an enthusiastic response that it finally spurred its reluctant studio into making the film. Here’s to hoping!