Oceanic

Oceanic was a planned animated musical film produced by Universal Feature Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. Based on a pitch by producer John Cohen, Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi were set to direct it before Brad Silberling (Casper) took over, and it was initially scheduled to be the second feature film produced by Universal Feature Animation, following the release of Ama and the Mysterious Crystal in December 1997. In June 1996, Universal announced that the project had been cancelled in favor of Paint World.

Plot
The story was set in Atlantic Ocean, in which a young fisherman befriends a humanoid sea creature.

Development
The film was officially announced on October 13, 1994 by Universal Feature Animation alongside The Sisters and the Crystal of Jewels and Mistress Masham's Repose. The film was set to be a musical, with songs written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who would later write the music for the 1997 Fox Animation Studios film Anastasia. French twin brothers Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi were announced as the directors of the film.

In June 1995, the Brizzis left the project and Casper director Brad Silberling was announced to be the new director of the film, which would have mark his first project to be fully animated. Following MCA's acquisition of Multimedia in January 1996, Universal announced that the release date had been pushed up to December 1998, from its previous release date of June 1998. However, due to creative difficulties for Oceanic and Paint World gaining more favorability among executives in Universal, the studio wanted to make Paint World their next animated feature following Ama instead and as a result, Universal announced in June 1996 that they decided to pull the plug on Oceanic and simply release Paint World on the December 1998 release date initially given to Oceanic.

In a November 2000 interview, Universal Feature Animation founder Michael Wildshill stated that Oceanic was an idea that was not working in pre-production. When the project was passed to Arlo-Avocha Vernon, the creator of the Gingo animated series Funky Fu! Pop Star Fighter, he pitched an idea that Universal thought was better, and that concept became Going Francisco.

Some of the characters and elements were later reworked into a CGI-animated short film called The Sounds of the Ocean years later.

Trivia

 * Oceanic was originally rumored to be released in 1997 as Universal Animation's first feature film. However, in 1995, Universal announced that Ama and the Mysterious Crystal would be their first animated feature for release on November 26, 1997 instead, and Oceanic would launch on June 5, 1998, thus making Universal Animation's second film. The film would be delayed again for a late 1998 release, after Maze of the Castle took the previous June 5, 1998 release, until eventually being pulled from Universal's film slate and replaced by Paint World.

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