Details about the unproduced Disney Animation film inspired by Alfred Hitchcock FRAIDY CAT

In the early 2000s, Disney Animation was developing a film inspired by the films of the legendary director Alfred Hitchcockand it was titled Fragile cat. Disney ended up shelving the project in 2005, and not much information has been shared about it…until now.

/Film recently interviewed Meet the Robinsons director Stephen J. Andersonand was able to provide some insight into the film after screening an incomplete reel of the film’s first two acts.

The story would have centered on a spoiled house cat involved in a tortuous mystery, and the cat character was a Jimmy Stewart-like a Hitchcock character Vertigo. Anderson described: “he was very paranoid, he witnessed a murder and he was trying to unravel what really happened. And it was done in a Hitchcock-style noir presentation in the boards.”

Anderson when he said that “It would have been really great. I wish it had been made, but unfortunately it didn’t make it.”

It sounds like it would have been a lot of fun and might be something that would have been enjoyed more now than when it was in development. Crime thrillers are all the rage right now! The reason it was canceled was also pretty ridiculous.

Not long after the film’s cancellation, Disney blogger Jim Hill wrote, “These empty clothes have chosen to speak ill Fragile cat. [They said] that the premise of the film was too dark. “I mean, who today even remembers who Alfred Hitchcock was? So why should kids in 2009 pay big bucks to see an animated film that pays homage to an old, fat, dead director?'”

When you hear things like this, you can’t help but wonder how these studio execs got jobs making movies, certainly not because they were smart. Yet, for some reason, Hollywood keeps hiring these kinds of people!

Hill explained what the film executives were saying after screening the two-act reel: “They kept whispering and whispering. Saying things like ‘This project has such limited commercial appeal. There’s no way we’re going to get a important manufacturer to make Fragile cat toys’ and ‘How will this film expand the Disney brand? Are there any characters here that we can use for a Saturday morning spinoff? Or for a sequel home premiere?'”

So, that’s a shame. But that’s par for the course at Disney. It looks like it could have been a great animated film! Unfortunately, we will never know.