10 Movies That Changed Drastically Midway Through Production

Changing an animated film can be much more difficult than changing a live-action one. While a real scene can be shot in a single day, it can take several days to animate and render even a few seconds of footage.

For this reason, most animated films have a story reel or animatic produced - which is basically the entire film assembled in picture form, often synchronized to a soundtrack - before any actual animation work begins. 1959's Sleeping Beauty was no exception, but after its first reel was put together, it underwent several story changes that involved differing the film from the original fairy tale, as well as tightening up the pace.

Originally, the curse placed on Aurora lasted for 100 years, but the decision was made to shorten this time significantly, in order to cram Philip's rescue mission - fighting through the thorns, battling the dragon - into a shorter time period. That 100 year spell would have lengthened the film significantly, forcing the filmmakers to cram in all sorts of needless scenes, so it was a good idea to change it.

Additionally, several major sequences were flat-out cut. A scene in which Aurora and Phillip met in the forest and danced was scrapped, as was a sequence that would've seen the king organize a treasure hunt. The intent with the latter was to beef up the romance between Aurora and Philip (presumably, they would've been at the treasure hunt together), but, since it bloated the film, it was removed.

It was eventually decided to just have Philip and Aurora meet by chance in the forest, and by slimming everything down and simplifying things, the result was a much tighter, pacier version of the original story.