17 Deleted Scenes From Your Favorite Disney Films That Would Have Completely Changed Them
These scenes on this list may have been left on the cutting room floor, but if they had been included, they would have changed some of your favorite Disney films.
Disney movies often feel seamless on screen, but plenty of scenes never made it past the editing room. Behind the magic, filmmakers are constantly balancing story, runtime, tone, and studio expectations, and that can mean cutting moments that might have changed everything.
Some of those deleted scenes would have shifted character arcs, deepened emotional beats, or even changed how audiences saw the heroes and villains. In a few cases, the original ideas were so different that the finished film barely resembles what was first planned.
Here are 17 deleted Disney scenes that could have taken these movies in a very different direction.
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3. In the original plot for Toy Story, Woody pushes Buzz out of Andy's window out of jealousy, thinking that Buzz might be taken to Pizza Planet instead of him.
That would have made Woody look a lot darker right away.
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5. In Lady and the Tramp, there was originally a whole sequence where the dogs imagined what the world would be like if the humans and dogs reversed roles.
6. Coco was also supposed to have an opening musical feature that would have explained El Día de los Muertos.
7. In The Lion King, there was an alternate ending where, instead of being eaten by the hyenas, Scar was engulfed by flames after his battle with Simba.
8. Before the final version of the movie, Pocahontas had a scene where John Smith and Pocahontas sing "If I Never Knew," which reveals that they love each other.
Some of these cuts clearly changed the emotional tone of the final films.
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10. Beauty and the Beast originally had an 11-minute musical montage titled "Human Again."
That’s the same kind of tension as when one Redditor covered their sister’s last-minute cancellation expenses.
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12. The original opening scene for The Incredibles was less child-friendly. It involved Bob accidentally chopping off his own fingers at a neighborhood barbecue and not feeling a thing, thus revealing he's a superhero.
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14. Mulan originally featured a scene where Shan Yu burns down an entire village and reveals he can see through his falcon's eyes.
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16. In Monsters University, Mike and Sully were originally supposed to meet in elementary school when Sully got picked for scare ball instead of Mike.
17. In Coco, viewers were supposed to meet Hector when Miguel accidentally stumbles upon a celebrity bus tour in the Land of the Dead.
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19. In Zootopia, there was actually a heartbreaking scene where Judy and Nick stumble upon a "taming party." In the scene, a bear is sadly being fitted for his first collar.
20. In Cars, there was supposed to be a scene where Lightning McQueen stumbles upon a graveyard of old cars while trying to find his way to the interstate.
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23. While stuck inside the whale's stomach in Pinocchio, there was a scene where Geppetto originally contemplates eating Cleo, his goldfish.
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25. In Frozen, Elsa originally had a little villain moment where she tortures two of Hans' guards who come looking for Anna.
26. In the original plot of Moana, Moana was supposed to learn to sail from six older brothers.
27. The original storyline for Lilo & Stitch featured a scene where Lilo gets annoyed at some racist tourists at the beach.
28. In Dumbo, there was supposed to be a scene where Timothy tells an elaborate tale to Dumbo about why elephants are so afraid of mice.
A lot of these scenes would have made many of these Disney films much more emotional, and many of them would have actually changed our perception of certain characters. We can understand why some of them had to be left on the cutting room floor, though.
Still, it's fun to imagine where our favorite Disney stories would have gone had they been included. Which one would you have loved to see make it to the final cut?
Some of these deleted scenes are wild enough to feel like alternate movies.
Want more jealousy-fueled family chaos, read what happened when a sister canceled last-minute and left expenses behind in this AITA about skipping a trip after the sister bailed.
