Disney Cancelled An Animated Adaptation From The Creator Of Blade Runner — Twice

The Philip K. Dick story "The King of the Elves" was first published in an issue of Beyond Fantasy Fiction, way back in September of 1953. The story involves a lonely, borderline-impoverished Colorado gas station owner named Shadrach who, while enjoying the solitude one night, notices that some elves are standing outside (!). He invites them in and gives them food and shelter, learning that one of the elves is their King. When the King dies in bed, however, the other elves — in exchange for Shadrach's kindness — nominate the old man to be their new monarch. He is told that he must come up with new strategies to help them in a long-fought war with a kingdom of Trolls. 

Much of the story is a push-and-pull between Shadrach's modest, rural lifestyle in Colorado and the allure of being the King of a nation of fantasy creatures. When he tells the other Colorado locals that he has been made King of the Elves, no one believes him, and the readers begin to wonder if Shadrach is hallucinating his elfin visitors. As with all Philip K. Dick stories, there is a twist ending establishing the true nature of Shadrach's elf friends, and the presence of the Troll invaders. 

Dick was best known for his sci-fi tales, and several of his stories have been adapted into successful movies and TV shows. "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "Minority Report," and "The Man in the High Castle" have all been adapted from Dick's works. "The King of the Elves," a magical fantasy story, is a relative obscurity in the author's bibliography. Very few of his fans make references to it. 

It was, however, once targeted by Disney Animation for a high-profile, animated feature film adaptation. In a now-deleted 2008 press release, Disney announced that "The King of the Elves" was in pre-production.

Back in 2012, longtime Disney artist Aaron Blaise — the co-director of "Brother Bear" (a film that marked at least one /Film writer) and supervising animator on films like "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," "Pocahontas," and  "Mulan" — posted numerous elf-like pictures on his website, stating that they were for "a film I was developing a few years ago." He doesn't call out "The King of the Elves" by name, but the implication is pretty strong. It's also substantiated by a 2010 article in Variety, announcing that Blaise had been put in charge of the Digital Domain animation studio. That article said that Blaise was, a few years earlier, slated to co-direct "The King of the Elves," a project he was going to make with his "Brother Bear" partner, Robert Walker. That the project, Variety said, had been shelved in December of 2009. 

Sadly, the reason for the 2009 shelving of "The King of the Elves" isn't clear. Perhaps it was merely Blaise's movement to Digital Domain that forced the project away from active production. 

The thought was tantalizing, however. A fully animated Disney film based on a story by a hard-edged cult author like Philip K. Dick? The mind boggles at the possibilities. It's worth remembering that Disney was moving away from traditional cel animation in the early 2000s, and "The King of the Elves" was likely going to be part of a new spate of CGI-only features that Disney was only just starting. All of the animated films Disney released from 2004 to 2009 were CGI. As such, one could have seen a lot of interesting experimentation at play. If Blaise's website designs were indeed for "Elves," then there was a lot of visual, Brian Froud-like texture at hand. 

But the project wasn't dead. In 2011, Variety announced again that "Elves" was alive. It was in that article that the original release date of "The King of the Elves" was to be 2012. It was also said that "Elves" was delayed after John Lasseter — then Disney's head of animation — wanted to rejigger the concept a little bit. The 2011 version of "Elves" was to be written by Michael Markowitz and directed by Chris Williams, the co-director of Disney's "Bolt." 

The new project transposed the action of Dick's story from a small town in Colorado to the Mississippi Delta. It was to be released in the holiday season of 2013. It's unclear if Blaise's designs were still meant to be a part of the new, reworked version of "Elves." 

The 2013 version of "Elves" fell apart, however, when Chris Williams decided to walk away. This was shared by fellow Disney animation director Clay Kaytis, who appeared on a 2016 episode of the iAnimate podcast. Kaytis (the director of "The Angry Birds Movie," remember that one?) was hired to be the head of animation on "Elves," and he remembers starting work on the project. It seems, though that after a year of development, Williams up and left. It "wasn't the film he wanted to make at that moment." After that, as Kaytis put it, the movie dissolved through their fingers.

As of this writing, there has been no additional movement on "The King of the Elves," and the project seems to be effectively dead. It's a pity because Philip K. Dick and Walt Disney might have made for a fascinating marriage.