Movie fans have generally been surprised by how much they enjoyed the new ultra-meta kids movie starring Chip ‘n’ Dale, especially spotting all of the cameos and references. Most of the cameos come during an action-packed scene at a Fan Expo, which contains Peter Pan all grown up, the ageless Paul Rudd, He-Man and Skeletor, and Sonic with Teeth. But nearly all of these cameos were different in earlier drafts.
Storyboard artist Simeon Wilkins recently shared an animatic of the scene, which has the same ‘bones’ as the finished version, but with many of the characters swapped out. In the storyboard version, He-Man and Skeletor are replaced by Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc, and Paul Rudd is replaced by Chris Evans. Evans recently made a cameo in Free Guy, so he may not have wanted to do something similar so soon after.
At the end of the storyboard version, Chip ‘n’ Dale are rescued by Mushu from Mulan breathing fire instead of Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast blowing his flames. Perhaps the most significant change though, is that instead of the ugly version of Sonic with teeth, a maybe even more maligned character appears – Jar Jar Binks.
While the Star Wars prequels have had something of a reappraisal recently, ahead of the new Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus show, no one can quite bring themselves to come around on Jar Jar. He was a mistake of giant proportions, and we can forgive George Lucas for a lot, but Jar Jar is a bridge too far.
You can see the early storyboard version of the scene containing Jar Jar below;
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If seeing Jar Jar has whet your appetite for more Star Wars content, check out our guide to the best characters.