And one way to keep it alive was a live-action feature.Īccording to Greg Weisman ( Young Justice), a former Disney executive who oversaw Gargoyles, a live-action feature adaptation of the animated series was talked about almost from the beginning of the series’ run. Still, the core idea of stone gargoyles reawakening in modern Manhattan was too delicious to completely abandon. (It didn’t hurt that the voice cast was littered with Star Trek: The Next Generation alums.) As cool as Gargoyles was - and to be sure, it was really fucking cool - ratings were never through the roof, and after some creatives shuffles and a rebranding attempt, with season 2 dubbed “ Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles,” the show quietly concluded in early 1997. Between rich animation and episodes that tackle adult themes, like an infamous episode involving an accidental shooting, the show lured in both a young crowd and adult viewers.
Incorporating Celtic mythology and Shakespearean grandeur, the show followed a group of mythic Gargoyles (led by Goliath, voiced by Keith David) who were turned to stone 1,000 years ago and wake up in current-day New York City. Gargoyles brought the edginess and maturity of the popular Batman: The Animated Series to Disney Afternoon’s 1994 syndicated programming block. Reading the script and speaking to the creatives who developed the project, it’s clear that the film would have shocked audiences in comparison to what Disney was producing at the time.
In Baker’s collection were sketches, mock-ups, and an intricate, detailed maquette of main character Goliath, with wings gloriously outstretched.īut how close was Disney to producing the Gargoyles movie? Close enough that one of Hollywood’s go-to screenwriters took a stab at writing the blockbuster at the end of his tenure with Disney. Tucked away among the alien costumes and gremlins from Gremlins 2 were some curious bits of miscellanea related to an unproduced project: a live-action adaptation of Disney’s afternoon animated series, Gargoyles. In 2016, Rick Baker, the Oscar-winning makeup artist and creature creator behind Men in Black, An American Werewolf in London, and Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, auctioned off the monsters in his closet.
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