This is a list of unmade and unreleased animated projects by Paramount Pictures. Some of these projects were, or still are, in development limbo. These also include the co-productions the studio collaborated with in the past (i.e. Fleischer Studios, MTV Animation, Nickelodeon Movies, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, DreamWorks Animation, and Paramount Animation) as well as sequels to their franchises and one-off films. __NOTOC__ Contents: 1990s: 199319951998

2000s: 200220042006

2010s: 2010201420152016201720182019 2020s: 2020

See alsoReferences

1990s 1993 Series Title Description Feature films Film deal with Nelvana In the fall of 1993, Canadian animation studio Nelvana signed a multi-year deal to produce five animated feature films in collaboration with Paramount Pictures, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall producing; the first two began production the following summer, at a cost of over US$20 million each.McRoberts, Kenneth (1995). Beyond Quebec: Taking Stock of Canada, p. 175. McGills-Queens University Press. . Retrieved June 22, 2006.Maddever, Mary (September 11, 1995). "Nelvana boosts feature involvement". Playback. Retrieved July 2, 2006. Three of the projects were based on books by E. B. White (The Trumpet of the Swan), Clive Barker (The Thief of Always) and Graeme Base (The Sign of the Seahorse); an original production called Mask Vision was also in the works.Tolusso, Susan (March 28, 1994). "Nelvana joins the public procession..." Playback. Retrieved June 30, 2006. However, none of the films were produced in this deal. However of the projects, one project based on the book, The Trumpet of the Swan, would end up being produced for TriStar Pictures by Richard Rich in 2001, only for it to be a critical and commercial failure.

1995 Series Title Description Feature film Elmo Aardvark film adaptation Shortly after the release of the 1995 Elmo Aardvark album, Will Ryan was approached by Nickelodeon Movies about starring the Elmo character in a feature film. Ryan and writer Phil Lollar developed a film treatment for a mockumentary tracing Elmo's fictional history as a cartoon character, from pre-film origins to the present day some hundred years later. The mockumentary, potentially titled The Elmo Aardvark Story, would feature live-action interviews with figures who would add historical credibility, such as golden-age animator Ward Kimball; these would be interspersed with clips of the Elmo cartoons that had supposedly been produced through the ages, animated in period-appropriate styles. Designer Leslie Cabarga prepared promotional art, while Fayard Nicholas, Joanie Sommers, and "Weird Al" Yankovic were in talks to contribute to the soundtrack. However, negotiations with Nickelodeon administrators became slow-moving, and after a lengthy "development hell" period, the project fell through.

1998 Series Title Description Feature film Bone In August 1998, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies acquired the rights to produce an animated film adaptation of the Bone comics. Jeff Smith, author of the Bone comics, stated in a 2003 interview that Nickelodeon had insisted on the Bone cousins being voiced by child actors and wanted the film's soundtrack to include pop songs by the likes of N'Sync. Smith's response was that nobody would insert pop songs in the middle of The Lord of the Rings or The Empire Strikes Back and therefore pop songs should not be placed in Bone either. (The relevant part of the interview is also quoted at the Boneville.com official website, here .) The film was then developed at Warner Bros. under their Warner Animation Group banner instead. However, in 2019, Netflix purchased the rights to turn Bone into an animated series, which was later cancelled in April 2022 during a reorganization of Netflix Animation. Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie In 1998, Nickelodeon offered Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett a chance to develop two feature-length films based on the series: one as a TV movie or direct-to-video and another slated for a theatrical release. Nickelodeon asked Bartlett to do "the biggest idea he could think of" for the theatrical film. Albie Hecht, who was president of Nickelodeon at the time, suggested to Bartlett about making the theatrical feature as a spiritual sequel/follow-up to the episode "Parents Day", and have Arnold try to solve the mystery of what happened to his parents. Though after successful test screenings of the made-for-TV movie titled Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, it was decided that it would instead be given a theatrical release in 2002, under the title of Hey Arnold!: The Movie to attract the attention of the public. Around this time, Hecht also asked Bartlett to produce a special one-hour 'prequel' episode titled "The Journal" that would serve as a lead-in to the second movie. The episode debuted on November 11, 2002. But due to the disappointing box office results of the first film, Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie was cancelled and ended up leaving the original series with an unresolved cliffhanger ending. The project was later revived as a two-hour TV film that debuted on November 24, 2017.

2000s 2002 Series Title Description Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Jimmy Neutron 2 In February 2002, a sequel for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was reported in development for a summer 2004 release. Producer Albie Hecht reported to The Los Angeles Times that the sequel "would be made on the same budget as the first, but with a new batch of inventions and adventures in Jimmy's town of Retroville." On June 20, 2002, The Hollywood Reporter reported that writer Kate Boutilier had signed a writing deal with Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures to write a sequel, but it never materialized. The film was cancelled because the writers could not agree on a story and Alcorn later stated in an interview that "once the TV series came out, there was not a lot of incentive to make a movie when fans could simply watch Jimmy Neutron for free at home." Feature film Imaginary Friend In March 2002, it was announced that Nickelodeon Movies would produce Imaginary Friend, a Gary Ross-helmed live-action/animated hybrid about a boy and his imaginary friend who takes him from the real world to an animated fantasy world. Written by Anne Spielberg, the film would’ve reunited Ross and Spielberg after scripting the 1988 Oscar-nominated Big. Would have been produced by Nickelodeon and Ross' Larger Than Life.

2004 Series Title Description Mighty Mouse Untitled Mighty Mouse animated film adaptation As early as 2004, Omation Animation Studios and Nickelodeon announced their intention to bring Mighty Mouse (a property held by CBS Corporation) back to the big screen with a CGI feature film with Steve Oedekerk of Omation Animation Studio to produce and direct that was tentatively scheduled to be released sometime in 2013. This film never materialized and the project's fate was unknown until in 2019, when it was confirmed that the project would be revived by Paramount Animation, and that Jon and Erich Hoeber were announced to be the writers for the film, and in November 2024, Ryan Reynolds confirmed he will be co-writing and producing it under his own production company, Maximum Effort.

2006 Series Title Description The Fairly OddParents Untitled Fairly OddParents animated film In 2005 or 2006, Butch Hartman considered making a theatrical adaptation of his animated television series The Fairly OddParents after the show's initial cancellation in 2006, to be produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures. The film was to be animated much like the series as well as previous Nickelodeon fare such as the Rugrats trilogy and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, but was scrapped due to a management change at Paramount although the script was already written. Despite this, Hartman expressed interest in releasing the film for DVD someday, and stated that the script could serve for another TV movie of the show. The series ended on July 26, 2017, and Butch Hartman left Nickelodeon in early 2018, seemingly ending any chances of the film happening. Smurfs The Smurfs In 2006, Paramount obtained the film rights to The Smurfs comics by Peyo and were planning to make a film based on the characters with Nickelodeon Movies. It was described to be an "epic-comedic fantasy", like The Lord of the Rings meets The Princess Bride. Early animation footage was leaked on the internet in early 2008. The film never came to be until Sony Pictures Animation bought the rights thus turning it into the 2011 live-action animated film of the same name, followed by a sequel in 2013 and a fully animated film, Smurfs: The Lost Village, in 2017. After the release of The Lost Village, Sony's film rights had ended and in February 2022, it was reported that Lafig S.A. and IMPS, now known as Peyo Company, the owners of the Smurfs brand, had agreed to a partnership with Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies to produce multiple animated Smurfs films, with the first project being a musical. The film ended up becoming the critically panned Smurfs that was released on July 18, 2025, and starring Rihanna.

2010s 2011 Series Title Description Feature film The New Kid Announced on June 2, 2011, Paramount Pictures had acquired the rights to produce an animated film, via Paramount Animation to make this, of the Penny Arcade one-off strip The New Kid which was published on October 29, 2010. The strip was one of three mini-strips which featured a cinematic opening to a larger story left unexplored. The New Kid is about a boy who is moving to a new planet with his family because of his father's career. The script was written by Gary Whitta and would have been produced by Mary Parent and Cale Boyter.

At PAX Australia in 2016, during a Q&A session, Holkins revealed that changes at Paramount resulted in the movie rights being returned to Penny Arcade and the project canceled. He did note, however, that Whitta's script was complete and the project could move forward with another production company in the future. The Adventures of Tintin The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun In November 2011, Steven Spielberg announced a sequel to the 2011 film The Adventures of Tintin and was planned to be released sometime in the future. In 2019, there have been little to no info about the film, but Peter Jackson is still involved with the project. As of 2026, Jackson confirmed that the film was still in development, that he would direct it and that he and Fran Walsh were working on the script.

2014 Series Title Description Feature film Shedd/Fin In January 2014, it was reported that former Disney and Pixar animator John Kahrs would direct for Paramount Animation an animated film titled Shedd, which was based on an original idea by Adam Goodman. Ren & Stimpy Untitled Ren & Stimpy short film Bob Camp and William Wray revealed in an April 2016 panel discussion that Kricfalusi was developing a new Ren & Stimpy short that would be shown in theaters with the third SpongeBob SquarePants film, and later said that they were "not invited to that party" and would not be involved with the short's production. However, Kricfalusi later denied making such a cartoon on Twitter. Despite this, an animatic of the short that was originally made as a promotion for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water before being cancelled was released as a bonus feature on the Cans Without Labels DVD in May 2019.

2015