Nickelodeon/20th Century Fox Joint Venture movies

From Cancelled Movies Wiki

In 1993, Nickelodeon signed a 2-year contract with 20th Century Fox to make feature films. The joint venture would mostly produce new material, though a Nickelodeon executive did not rule out the possibility of making films based on the Nicktoons: Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show. But none of the movies were produced.

Why The Movies Were Cancelled

  1. Viacom, Nickelodeon's parent company acquired Paramount Pictures in 1994 and they would distribute the movies instead.
  2. Nickelodeon/20th Century Fox joint venture contract expired in 1995.
  3. Doug was sold to Disney in 1995, due to the show's production studio, Jumbo Pictures' sale to Disney and the show being moved to ABC in 1996.
  4. The creatives differences with the creator of Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi (John K.) and an inability to market that property in a family-friendly manner instead of a "cynical and gross humor" scuttled that film.

Results

  • Nickelodeon launched its movie arm, Nickelodeon Movies in 1995.
  • The Nickelodeon's Doug movie was permanently canceled, instead, Disney released its own Doug movie called Doug's 1st Movie in 1999.
  • Nickelodeon released The Rugrats Movie in 1998 and spawned two sequels, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in 2000 and Rugrats Go Wild in 2003, the last one, was a box-office failure in theaters. A live-action/hybrid CGI movie was going to be released in 2021, but it was canceled.
  • The Ren & Stimpy movie was permanently canceled.
  • In 2003, Spike TV (Paramount Network) and John K. tried to revive the episode Life Sucks as a TV Movie/prequel of the episode Ren Seeks Help of Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", but at the time, Adult Party Cartoon was negatively received by the Ren & Stimpy fans, and later, Spike TV canceled the show, only was made 8 minutes of the draft and the voice acting was complete.
  • In 2020, a Ren & Stimpy reboot on Comedy Central was announced, with Billy West returning to voice both characters, but John K. will not be involved with the reboot, due to his 2018 sexual harassment and pedophilia allegations.