Most Forgotten Animated Film.

I can say that the Hey Arnold movie is pretty much forgotten, but I wouldn't say that the Rugrats movie is forgotten. It was the first non-Disney animated feature to make over $100 million you know.


I agree with both. I remember one time when one of my step-cousins was over at my house she went "eww, what is that thing?" while pointing to a magnet of one of the lemurs. I told her that it was a character from Dinosaur, she gave me a "huh?" look.
 
Not a lot of people remember The Theif and the Cobbler/Arrabian Night, and the ones who do only remember it because of it's long developement.
 
It’s difficult to determine what is truly forgotten, but I seldom see Twice Upon A Time discussed. I’ve only seen the version that aired on Cartoon Network’s Cartoon Theatre back in the day and it’s been years since then, but it was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I’m not the only one who thinks that it fell into obscurity.
 
Despite the money it made, I never hear anybody talk about any of the three. (I actually rather liked Rugrats in Paris, too! The first was meh and the third I haven't seen.)

Ah, I forgot the Wild Thornberry Movie. Fits the topic :P
 
Twice Upon A Time was the first movie I thought of. It was one of the first movies I ever saw in theaters, along with Peter Pan, when I was a preschooler in the late 80s. It used to feel as though there was always a chance you might stumble across it on cable back in the early 90s (HBO, Cartoon Network) but now it feels pretty much forgotten.

Most of Don Bluth's 90s movies seem to be overlooked in my opinion. I can't tell how forgotten it is by the public but Antz is a movie that only came back to my mind a couple of days ago while discussing A Bug's Life and other Pixar movies. I remember that I really didn't care much for Pixar yet when I was a teen and although I thought it looked pretty stupid, I initially thought Antz might get more recognition than A Bug's Life due to the big names involved. It feels kind of weird now knowing that I ever thought this. One movie that was a favorite of mine as a kid but I wouldn't be surprised if it were forgotten now is Bebe's Kids.
 
with the Rugrats and The Wild Thronberrys? I never saw it, but I remember when it was released. However, very few people seem to talk about it!
 
Ah, I remember that movie. I've seen it in the theater too but you're right, I don't think it's aired on TV. Or maybe it did. Disney Channel? Toon Disney?
 
I've seen clips from 'Twice Upon A Time', and the paper cut out style was not only unique, but way ahead of it's time. (In fact, it's more elaborate that 'South Park' in some ways.) I've learned how difficult it was to make the film since there was no Flash, and computer animation was still in it's infancy. It also had Lorenzo Music as Ralph The All Purpose Animal.

Another film that's probably forgotten is 'Rock & Rule'. Which was Nelvana's first animated feature. A 'reworking' of their earlier TV special 'The Devil & Daniel Mouse', and much darker, too. It had great animation, great music, and a good story to boot. While Nelvana has become A big player in animation since then, 'Rock & Rule' tends to get overlooked at times. Had it been more successful, it probably would've gotten it's own 'Guitar Hero' inspired game.

Two more forgotten animated films I'd like to throw into the ring are 'A Mouse & His Child', and 'Peter No Tail'.
 
Heh. Twice Upon a Time is one of my favorite movies. I completely identified with Ralph and Mumford. They did the "unlikely fairy tale hero" thing decades before Shrek.

I'll also toss in a lot of the later Don Bluth and Warner Brothers films: Rock-A-Doodle, Thumbelina, Anastasia, Quest for Camelot, The Pebble and the Penguin and A Troll in Central Park. If it weren't for people like the Nostalgia Critic ripping on these movies, I wouldn't know anything about them other than their titles. They all seemed to come and go so quickly.

Also, Chuck Jones' 2 feature film efforts: Gay Purr-ee and The Phantom Tollbooth. I wasn't crazy about the former, but I found the latter to be delightfully idiosyncratic. The Phantom Tollbooth aired a couple of times on Cartoon Network's old 'Mr. Spim's Cartoon Theater', while Gay Purr-ee seems to be largely forgotten today. (Could be because of the title. Who knows?)
 
I got five for ya!

Raggedy Ann and Andy's Musical Adventure- This movie was visually stunning given how detailed and moving the animation style was. It also descended into pure crack but the last act. Also done by Richard Williams of Thief and Cobbler fame.

Journey Back to Oz- A semi-sequel to the Wizard of Oz featuring quite a few of Hollywood's classic stars (not the original ones from the movie but Margaret Hamilton of Wicked Witch fame did play Auntie Em this time around, and Liza Minelli (Judy Garland's daughter) played the lead role of Dorothy. Animated by Filmation in the early 70's

Brave Little Toaster- If there was EVER a Walt Disney film that really was the one that time forgot it's this one. Makes you wish Belldandy was present during the film (only anime and maga fans would get the in-joke).

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland- It's the hybrid film that the folks at Ghibli kinda-sorta worked on but not really. Still this film had some nice animation and a decent if not overly coherent plot.

Jetsons: The Movie- I think this is like the second movie Hanna Barbara tried to get in theaters and it BOMBED. Unfortunately this was right before George Jetson and Mr. Spacely voice actors died, Elroys actor just passed before this film went into production, and Janet Waldo was skipped over to play Judy Jetson in favor of then-pop sensation Tiffany (even though I gotta admit I loved her little song in the film). This film is also known for having the revised opening theme and complete re-imaging the Jetson's world in CGI (which was impressive for it's time).


The common thread the first three of these movies is that they all had multiple airings in the mid-80's as afterschool specials and on the Disney Channel.

O-chan
 
Huntsman beat me to posting Twice Upon A Time. I was lucky enough to find it online a few years later, and loved it. Not only is the art style neat, but even in terms of the writing, it's a very funny and charming film.

I'll toss in Richard Williams' The Thief and The Cobbler, A.K.A. Arabian Knight. If you Google it or check on Wikipedia, you'll see it has a crazy production history that ultimately culminated in Williams being kicked off his film for not finishing it on time, and a lot of much lower-quality animation and musical numbers added to finish it. One guy tried making his own fan edit that was closer to the original vision, and you can find it if you search a bit. The story and characters aren't fantastic, but the movie itself has some absolutely jawdropping sequences that make it worth watching at least once.
 
This is quite a broad topic. Are we only counting films released in theaters in the U.S. and just failed to find an audience, whether it be opening against a major blockbuster or having bad marketing or just being of poor quality? Or can it be on a much larger scale, including home video, where movies slip into obscurity much easier?

If so, I've got a film that beats anything mentioned in this thread when it comes to obscurity: Samson and Sally, a Danish movie about two whales searching for Moby Dick. Before you say, "of course nobody remembers it, because it wasn't released here", don't, because it was released in America with a dub, but only on video. I even remember renting it once as a kid.

Strangely, despite not having seen it in, gosh, probably over a decade and a half, I remember the general look of the movie and certain scenes in the recesses of my mind. Definitely different from the Disney fare of the time.
 
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