The Tub People

The Tub People was a cancelled/proposed animated film set to be produced by Universal Feature Animation. Based on the 1989 children's book of the same name by Pam Conrad, it would have been the studio's fifth feature film.

Alexander Bates was going to make his full-length feature film directorial debut. It was set to star Mel Gibson, Geneva Carr, Spencer Breslin, Betty White, and James Cromwell. The film was originally scheduled to be released in July 2003, but was pushed back to December 2003 before being taken off the schedule.

Despite the film never releasing, it has garnered a cult following. Currently, only a few test clips of the film that shows it throughout various stages of development have surfaced alongside concept artwork.

Plot
During an unseen child's bath time, the seven members of a wooden toy family ride on the floating soap and compete in swimming races. But after the near loss of the tub child, Dilly, down the drain, they are all reunited on a warm bed, where they mountain climb on the ridges formed by soft quilts.

Voice cast

 * Mel Gibson as tub father Kaiser
 * Geneva Carr as tub mother Suzy
 * Spencer Breslin as tub child Dilly
 * Betty White as tub grandmother Nance
 * James Cromwell as tub doctor Tabb

Production
The film was first announced by Universal in August 1998 during the production of their second animated feature Paint World. Maurice Hunt, who previously directed the animated sequences for the 1994 live-action/animated hybrid The Pagemaster, was set to direct the film, with a schedule to be released in December 2001. It was intended to combine traditional and CGI animation. In September 1999, the film was put on hold because of script issues. In December 2000, Universal announced that the film was pushed to July 2003, and in December 2001, to December 2003, replacing another Universal animated film Computeropolis which was later pushed to July 2004. Furthermore, it was announced that Mel Gibson, Geneva Carr, Betty White, and James Cromwell had joined the voice cast as the bathtub toys (who are unnamed in the book) Father Kaiser, Mother Suzy, Grandma Nance, and Dr. Tabb, and that Alexander Bates, a story artist and one of the animators for Miss Maria in Mistress Masham's Repose, had replaced Hunt.

In September 2002, The Tub People was removed from the Universal release date schedule, leading to many to believe that the film was cancelled. By February 2003, it was confirmed that the film was indeed cancelled, mainly due to production issues. According to Alexander Bates, The Tub People was not favored by Universal executives. In 2002, Universal Animation chairman Michael Wildshill was shown a special screening of The Tub People and he had stated how it was not the $90 million movie he had wanted, which led to the film's production shutting down.

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Trivia
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