While Disney's recent foray into the world of anime may seem entirely new, the company has been intertwined with the world of Japanese animation for years. The movie Cinderella inspired a full-blown anime adaptation of the story in 1996 over the similar Japanese folktale Chūjō-hime. Legendary director Osamu Tezuka always claimed to be inspired by Disney while the company has even been accused of stealing his ideas to create Lion King.
In fact, the company once was considering making a live-action movie for the Sailor Moon series. A director had been chosen for the project and several people were rumored to be cast for the film. With people still discussing the issues of the DiC dub of the anime today, who knows what it would have looked like if Disney had finished the project.
When DiC Joined Disney
While anime fans might remember DiC Entertainment best for bringing Sailor Moon to the United States, others will remember how it worked on cartoon classics like Inspector Gadget, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero among others. In 1993, the company merged with ABC and went on to create a live-action division that produced Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad for the company.
ABC was purchased by Disney just a few years later in 1996. This gave the company access DiC's impressive catalog of properties for adaptation, which resulted in both Inspector Gadget and the far more obscure Meet the Deedles getting live-action movies. During this time, the company explored bringing Sailor Moon to the silver screen as well.
Mr. Magoo Meets Sailor Moon
As Disney was working on what would become a major hit featuring a female protagonist in Mulan, a director named Stanley Tong was also at work to bring the Mr. Magoo cartoon to life as a live-action film. Tong was mostly known for his martial arts movies featuring Jackie Chan at the time like Police Story 3 & 4, Once a Cop, and Rumble in the Bronx. He was brought on board as the director for the potential project with the possible idea that if he could adapt one cartoon into a successful movie that he would be perfect to take on an action-oriented show like Sailor Moon.
Mr. Magoo ended up being a commercial flop, not making back the $30 million budget spent on the film. It was critically panned, so much so that it was nominated for Worst Resurrection of a TV Show and Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy at the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. This may have been a major reason why the movie was dropped despite how appealing it was for Disney to produce.
When DiC eventually went back to being a fully independent company, Disney did keep the rights to a few properties on their hands like Inspector Gadget so it could make a sequel film, but it seems that they decided to let Sailor Moon slip through their fingers.
What Would The Movie Have Been Like?
At the time the film was in consideration, DiC only had the rights to the first two seasons of Sailor Moon. Geena Davis of Beetlejuice fame was reportedly cast as Queen Beryl, suggesting that the film was going to adapt the first season of the show. There were rumors that Heather Graham, Elizabeth Shue, and even Winona Ryder might be called up to play Usagi in the film. Strangely, there were no other rumors about casting the other Sailor Scouts or even Tuxedo Mask, possibly implying that they may not have been included in the film at all.
Considering how their other live-action adaptations massively changed parts of their original stories, it's not entirely impossible that this could have been a movie purely focused on a single superhero. In an era long before the MCU showed the kinds of budgets necessary to make these films profitable, keeping the cast lean and sticking to practical effects would have likely been prudent. It is likely the movie would have been more like Power Rangers, especially since DiC had already produced shows meant to be direct competitors to that series.
With DiC being involved in the series, the kinds of censorship seen from their version of the anime would have likely also been a part of the movie, like Zoisite becoming a woman instead of being in a gay relationship.
Live-Action Sailor Moon's Legacy
Today, the potential Disney film is mostly a curious footnote in the history of the company not known to even its most dedicated fans. At the time, there were further rumors that Joss Whedon would be directing a live-action version of Sailor Moon for Fox with Lindsay Lohan as the lead, but these were all later proven to be completely false. While it is unlikely we will ever see what a company like Disney could do with the iconic franchise, it's fun to speculate just how amazing — or absolutely terrible — the movie might have been.
In Japan, there were not only official musicals and stage plays for Sailor Moon, but a full-blown live-action series as well. Considering that it also had Luna transforming from a cat into her out Sailor Scout, we can only wonder if that kind of wackiness may have happened in an American version.