Creator David Peterson’s Mouse Guard was an award-winning comic series about a group of medieval rodent warriors in a world without humans. Twentieth Century Fox was set to turn into an animated film. But, one giant and more powerful mouse name Mickey was able to fend off the Mouse Guard with one giant wave of his gloved hand, and the animated film was a casualty of the Disney/Fox merger.
Yes sadly, its true. Our #mouseguard movie is dead.
Seems it’s too big a risk. It’s a damn shame really. We had something special. To my hella talented cast/crew: I’m sorry I couldn’t push this one through. The past year with you all has been a blast. May the Guard prevail! pic.twitter.com/MGRq54uI6O
— Wes Ball (@wesball) June 26, 2019
But there was hope that another major studio might pick up where Fox left off, and Mouse Guard could find a new home. Sadly, according to a report in io9, it seems that those dreams have been dashed. Director Wes Ball confirmed the news Twitter, where he showed off early concept art and sculpts, and motion-capture footage of the film. And as you can see, a lot of work had already gone into this film, making its cancellation all the more heartbreaking.
Ball also uploaded nearly ten minutes of early footage, which we have to say looks pretty stunning. Especially for just being very early test footage. In addition, writer Gary Whitta uploaded the entire screenplay to the film on the internet. So now fans can read the whole thing, and weep at the movie that could have been.
Although it seems this is the end of the road for Mouse Guard as an animated feature film, I hope someone eventually revives it in some way. The major studios are seemingly only invested in big IPs now, and Mouse Guard was just a little indie comic. But streaming is a lot more friendly to smaller properties like this. And maybe after having seen all this footage and early design work, someone at one of the streaming services will see it. And then maybe this property can shoot for the stars.
Images: Archaia Studios Press / David Petersen
