What These Disney Characters Were Supposed To Look Like

quick think of your favorite Disney character what do you imagine Ariel's red hair Dumbo's big ears perhaps maleficents black robes many of the characters that we know and love today initially looked at nothing like themselves welcome back to the binge of guys over the years the characters from Disney's animated movies have become well part of our world we can conjure up images of these characters our mind's eye as easily as we can our best friends yet many of the Disney characters started out looking very very different before they settle on a final version Disney animators create concept art for each character and often the characters go through remarkable changes between concept art and finished product in this video we're exploring how some of the most popular Disney characters evolved from initial conception to final film [Music] [Music] Elsa is that you originally our favorite snow queen from frozen looked a lot frosty er while her sister Anna always looked kind of like the character we know from the movie Elsa went through some serious transformation that's because she didn't start out as on his sister at all or even a good guy in fact at first she was frozen's villain and because she was a villain she was older and a lot more confident the filmmakers looked at Bette Midler for their inspiration for that version of the character so the concept art for villain Elsa saw her donning fabulous gowns and looking completely sure of her powers plus her blue skin let her wear that icy interior on the outside for all to see eventually Elsa changed completely and evolution that began with the creation of the song let it go this song made the filmmakers realize that Elsa wasn't a villain at all but someone who's been forced to hide from the world because of who she is from that perspective Elsa's a much more sympathetic character so instead of the movies bad guy she ended up becoming Ana's isolated sister and that wasn't the only change Elsa went through later concept art shows that for a while animators envisioned Elsa with jet black hair she sports a spiky updo that's gonna punk rock princess kind of vibe it's really cool but as cool as it looks though we have to say that Elsa's longer softer blond hair that we see in frozen really does suit her and we prefer her blue gown over the blue skin from earlier concept art it's hard to imagine either of these discarded versions of the character belting out let it go with the same conviction even though she was created in 1959 Maleficent is still one of the most purely evil characters ever to appear in a Disney animated movie and part of her evil power comes from her devastating regal look in fact as a whole the movie Sleeping Beauty is one of Disney's most visually stunning but it's Maleficent's character design that really puts it over the top things could have gone very differently though if the filmmakers had gone with early concept art for the character and her original conception Maleficent was an old hag with insect-like antennae instead of the self-assured upright demeanor were familiar with this Maleficent is more bent if anything she looks like an old maid from early colonial America not the force of evil that were used to once mark Davis the animator behind classic characters like Cruella Deville came on board to design the character things started to change he quickly made Maleficent younger and more glamorous in fact in his initial conception of the evil fairy she looked like a queen spiky crown and all davis eventually settled on the horns staff and long dramatic robes that we loved to cower at today yet he originally envisioned Maleficent's costume as red and black to him red represented the fire that defines maleficent still filmmaking is a team sport so Davis had to give in to the whims of production designer Ivan dearl who wanted Maleficent dressed in purple instead of red and that's how Maleficent came to be the iconic character that we know today [Music] Jasmine from Aladdin went through quite a few changes to become the princess that we met in a movie originally Aladdin's story centered on his desire to make his mother proud not to woo Jasmine Jasmine was still a part of the film but her function as a character was different as a result in her earliest incarnations jasmine was designed to be older and more independent she's far from the bright-eyed character of the film instead her look makes her seem more imposing and a slightly later piece of concept art she's given a complete outfit and blue and pink and is made to appear stuck-up eventually the character of Aladdin's mother was cut out of the movie entirely and Jasmine's looks started to soften making her more accessible after that she went through several costume and hair changes initially she was imagined with this amazing aggressively pink outfit while the color is a little hard on the eye the nice thing about the dress is it's more authentic - Jasmine's culture the Jasmine of the 1992 movie wears a very revealing outfit that wouldn't be acceptable in real life this early costume on the other hand covers jasmine up while still having an appealing design of course Disney didn't stick with the look and eventually gave Jasmine the midriff-baring look that she's known for animators continue to experiment with their costumes color and hairstyle oh and one piece of concept art she sports a straight long hairdo that is a lot flatter than the poofy pony that she wears in the movie and another art her outfit is coloured in various shades of purple instead of the powdery blue that we're all familiar with clearly it took a lot of work for jasmine to become Jasmine [Music] it turns out that Ariel from The Little Mermaid always had her signature red hair the rest of her however went through some serious style evolution an early concept art Ariel isn't just different her entire world is Ariel is depicted as a vest wearing laid-back hippy her whole demeanor is different it practically screams groovy man and apparently things are totally psychedelic under the sea the early version of Sebastian the crab scene in the image appears just as worried about Ariel as he is in the final film his totally tubular shell designs undercut his concerned though not to mention it looks like he is in flooring Ariel to care about something anything instead of trying to dissuade her from seeing the sea which if Disney had gone with this design for Ariel the movie would have had an entirely different feel to go with this odd look in later concept art of the character as a human she's a lot closer to the Ariel that we know although this area looks a lot more cartoony than the mermaid who appeared in the 1989 movie her hair is more exaggerated her eyes or bigger her skirt is fuller and she's shorter mostly because she has very short legs by the time the Little Mermaid came out the filmmakers had made Ariel look more realistic well at least as realistic as a mermaid can look in the Lion King the villains scar is manipulative and underhanded instead of directly challenging his brother Mufasa to the throne of Pride Rock he uses duplicity to meet his evil ends he plots behind his brothers back and uses others to do his dirty work for him so in the final version of the film he looks like a weak emaciated lion who isn't much of a physical threat scars original appearance was very different however early concept art shows Skaar has a much more intimidating physical presence his look is far more abstract and unrealistic he bears sharp scary teeth but what really stands out are his green eyes and a mane unlike the mane of a real lion this image makes it look like he's wearing an all-black headdress and just the slits of his eyes can be seen underneath this scar is someone you don't want to mess with that theme is carried over in the later concept art that shows scar is a much bigger and more physically menacing presence than the scar that we know while the story of the Lion King was inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet it wasn't a direct adaptation like many of Disney's films as a result the story and the characters went through a number of iterations before the final film one of those iterations shows scar as a villain who is bold enough to take on Mufasa and threaten Simba directly the artistic style is more realistic which makes this version of scar look a lot more threatening luckily Disney decided to make the Lion King a musical the movie still has grand Shakespearean themes but at least the serious parts are tempered by some humor [Music] Beauty and the Beast is one of the most beloved Disney movies of all time but if the filmmakers hadn't gotten the look of the beasts right audiences may have rejected the film instead of embracing it and concept art shows just how many different versions of the Beast artists tried before they landed on the version seen in the 1991 movie supervising animated Glen Keane look to a variety of animals for inspiration for the Beast those different inspirations were reflected in the sketches of early ideas for the character and one he looks more like a gentlemanly gorilla and another he has the head of a mandrill and in another his animal features are so exaggerated that there isn't a trace of humanity in his face ultimately Kings designed for the Beast was mostly inspired by the head of a buffalo although it did use other animal features as well that version let the beast appear just inviting me human enough that audiences could believe that Belle will fall for him [Music] dumbo recently got the live-action treatment in a splashy big-screen remake that saw the little elephant with the big ears rendered in CGI in his first go-round in the movies in 1941 though Dumbo was a cartoon today it's actually pretty rare to find artwork from the movie that's because at the time the artists weren't really aware of the legacy that they were creating it wasn't until much later that preserving all of the artwork that went into a Disney movie became important fortunately there are a few remaining examples of Dumbo concept art out there and it looks like one of the big challenges for the movies animators was getting the proportions of their titular character just right in one piece of concept art Dumbo's ears were on the smaller and pointy ur side in another his ears and forehead are disproportionately long in yet another his eyes and ears are huge but the rest of him is tiny even with the different looks there's one thing all of these approaches to Dumbo share the underdog elephant is absolutely adorable the Little Mermaid's Ursula is a menacing half woman half octopus temptress her goal is to collect poor unfortunate souls for her garden why who knows what we do know though is that in the movie she has her eyes set on Ariel and she convinces the Little Mermaid to sign on the dotted line Ursula is known throughout King Triton's Kingdom as the sea witch a threat to all mermaid kind yet despite that mer folks still go to her and part of the reason lies in her look which is the perfect combination of terrifying and seductive it's hard to imagine Ursula as anything other than a villain with her full figure black tentacles and short hair but it wasn't always a foregone conclusion that she looked that way for the movie in fact Ursula wasn't even always an octopus artists came up with a slew of incredibly varied options for the character initially her look was inspired by a scorpion fish so she was tall and thin and a mermaid with green hair and red fin later she was reimagined to be bigger in a vampire initial designs imagined her with a spiky red mohawk and pointy teeth and ears believe me it's a look that will haunt your dreams soon Ursula started to look a little more like herself but she wasn't an octopus quite yet instead she was a blue phantom mermaid once she made the transition that eight legs though it was her costume that still needed some work he or she looks more like a flamboyant undersea Queen of Hearts than a sea which luckily animators eventually dropped the loud Ensemble for her more subtle look that we know from the finished film it's that subtle look that's given Ursula to staying power that she's enjoyed since first gracing our screens back in 1989 so did you like any of these Disney characters original looks better than the ones that we saw in the movies oh do imagine what that might have been like in the comments section down below thank you for watching the binge of guys and we'll see you in the next video

Channel: TheBinger

Views: 1,015,820

Rating: 4.37995 out of 5

Keywords: TheBinger, Disney Animated Films, Disney, Disney Concept Art, Disney Animated Characters, Frozen, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, The Little Mermaid, Elsa, Maleficent, Jasmine, Ariel, Scar, Ursula, disney movie, disney theories, disney secrets, pixar, pixar movies, pixar secrets

Id: geWVm4e8nfI

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 27 2019