33 Disney Characters That Were Supposed To Look Completely Different

Disney animated movies have brought audiences some of the most iconic characters in the world. Pretty much everyone has a favorite Disney princess or Disney villain that helps to shape a beloved classic movie. From the bad guys to the sidekicks, what makes Disney classics actual classics is about all the characters that make up the stories. Still, we rarely think about how much the characters’ designs actually affect who they are, how we feel about them, and the stories they tell. Similarly, it’s difficult to imagine how minor changes to the designs could alter the characters entirely. As is true with many different aspects of making movies, the character designs rarely end up exactly as they first started out. From tiny details to big, overarching design choices, the original appearances of our favorite characters are rarely the same as the ones we’ve come to know and love. And, imagining these iconic films with different versions of their main characters changes the way the movies would’ve been entirely. From a young, glamorous version of Cruella De Vil to an entirely different cast of characters in Aladdin, seeing the original designs for Disney characters shows us just how unrecognizable early versions of our favorite protagonists and antagonists really are. Seriously – we couldn’t even recognize Sebastian… So, if you want to see the alternate universe versions of everyone from Toy Story’s Woody to Moana, herself, get ready for a wild trip through character design history. We assure you – you’ll never be able to look at Maleficent the same way again…

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:14 Let’s talk about Bruno
00:37 Sisu
00:58 Sadness
01:22 Ian Lightfoot
01:37 Laurel Lightfoot
02:11 Luca
02:29 Mei Lee
02:50 Elsa
03:44 Jerry
04:01 Moana
04:42 Ariel
04:59 Ursula
05:28 Mulan
05:56 Tinker Bell
06:24 Cruella De Vil
06:46 Maleficent
07:16 Scar
08:01 Sebastian
08:24 Mushu
08:44 King Triton
09:12 Aladdin
09:39 Jasmine
10:00 Sully and Boo
10:21 Woody
10:44 The Genie
11:15 The Beast
12:00 Hades
12:25 Aurora
12:47 The Aristocats
13:08 Alice in Wonderland
13:27 Jane Porter
13:51 Snow White
14:24 Dumbo
14:46 Outro

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Written by: Lauren Waters
Narrated by: Curt Turner
Edited by: Gabrielle Alves

[roachmorphine]

Cruella isn't old, she's emaciated. Which makes sense considering her perfectionist attitude towards appearance and fashion. Bear in mind that as Roger stated, she and Anita were in school together. Therefore Cruella can't be more than a few years older than Anita, but they are most likely the same age.

[lillyvandendikkenberg]

"She was originally a fashion designer."

Cruella the origin story movie thing: *write that down!*

[Jherick]

Ursula's first look is a lot like her sister in Little Mermaid 2. As a kid I wondered what inspired that character's look. Now we know!

[DamonNomad]

One you left out was Gaston! While I've never seen early art of what his character was supposed to look like, I've read descriptions. He was originally designed as a scruffy, older outdoorsman with a giant mustache, (which makes me imagine him as a more old-timey version of Amos Slade from "The Fox and the Hound") only later being adapted into the arrogant, muscular hunk he ultimately ended up as. What stayed consistent were his profession as a hunter and his determination to woo Belle and "kill the Beast".

[Codyystewie]

Ursula was based upon a famous dragqueen named Divine who was popular during the creation.

[brianaschmidt]

As a historical fashion buff I feel the need to point out that Pocahontas is put into Victorian undergarments (1840-89ish) when she was alive in the 1600's (they had a different skirt shape and the torso would look straight but thin ). Historical fashionistas were masters of disguise and that's why they look like they have tiny waists. (It's why the live action Cinderella looked like she had a tiny waist) although young ladies of high status did tend to over-cinch their corsets to try to get a man (but they didn't really have any other good options at the time either.) It's where the term "she let herself go" comes from. Because by then they no longer cared to catch a man and were more concerned with their kids and comfort than what a man who was apt to beat her or cheat on her had to say.

[Weee-ppfw]

Ariel wasn’t always a red head. She was Sketched as a blonde. They changed it because it clash with the background.

[annabunovsky]

Fun fact Ariel wasn’t always destined to be a redhead! There was a push to make her blonde from execs because they wanted her to resemble Daryl Hannah in Splash, which had recently been a big hit. There is concept art of blonde Ariel, but the animators went with her now iconic bright red hair for a few reasons. One was that they, in some clashing with execs, didn’t want her to look like other popular mermaids in order for her, and by extension the movie, to stand out. The others were the decision that red hair would look better than blonde when shaded for darker lit scenes, and they realized they could use complimentary colors by combining red hair with a green tail to create an instantly iconic character design, and boy did they!

[AngelJD]

As a person that enjoys discovering the design process of animation and more it's not shocking for 1 character alone and even the story itself to eventually have 50 different versions before the final.
Always enjoy seeing the journey and what inspired the changes plus the many directions taken. Some designs I like but can understand after discovery why changes happened and some I wish still remained or at least grabbed my wonder of "What If".

[superzilla]

This reminds me that Sora from Kingdom Hearts was going to have even spiker hair and a lion's tail. he almost looked like Goku from the original Dragon Ball. makes me wonder what would have happened if that was kept?

[seymourbones]

i feel like Ursula's skinny scary type was given a new life in the little mermaid 2 as her crazy sister

[theodorwilliam]

I really wouldn’t say that Moana used to be thin, her old design just made her look younger, more like Julia from Luca

[carabarabonanza]

The Moana concept art was clearly her as younger, she looked like a normal 6-10 year old

[andrewallyeno]

Why is nobody talking about how gorgeous the original tinkerbell concept was! Sooo fashionable!

[r.achel]

fun fact: the guy who designed the characters for hercules was gerald scarfe, a political cartoonist who also animated pink floyd: the wall. you can really tell when you see hercules' concept art

[_ThatFangal_]

One thing:
If aerial thought a fork was a hairbrush, did she think her father ruled the ocean with a giant golden hairbrush…?

[AnoukhHellstream]

Beast in beauty and the beast is just a furry who took off his suit in the end xD

Edit: OG snow white wasn't 14. She was 7. The queen tried to kill her 3 times. First by lacing her bodice too tightly, second time with a poisoned comb and lastly with the apple. But because of the last two times, she didn't trust the apple (it was half red, half white. red was the poisoned side) so the queen cut it in half and ate the white side to prove it wasn't poisoned. Once "dead", she laid in that glass coffin for "a long, long time" until a prince stumbled across the dwarf house and saw the coffin, wanted it for himself and begged the dwarves to have it (i know, creepy guy wanted a dead girl). The dwarves dropped the bloody coffin which dislodged the apple and woke her up.
So snow white, woke up years later, with the mind of a 7 year old, to become the wife to a prince she had never met before xD

Old stories are wacky as shit.

[cheyblake]

Genie also had a concept art that made him look scary. And Shan Yu, he had one that made him look like an actual MONSTER!

[FujishimaAkiko]

Ursula's final look is based on Divine. Though, I'm guessing that more punk-like one was as well.

[cbismarck]

Little Mermaid die-hard fan here, still I think some of the concept art for Ursula (especially Glen Keane's) look more interesting than the final version.