First Concept Art for Disney and Activision’s Canceled Smash Bros-Style Fighting Game Finally Surfaces

Disney has flirted with the idea of putting its characters into direct combat with each other more than once over the years, but most of those pitches never made it past internal presentations. For over a decade, one particular attempt has existed mostly as internet folklore, a rumored crossover fighter that fans have pieced together from scattered mentions and old portfolio postings rather than any official confirmation.

That project, reportedly called Disney’s Action Figure Face Off, was pitched as Disney’s own take on the genre popularized by Super Smash Bros, with Activision attached to bring it to life. Back in 2013, outlets like Siliconera and Nintendo Life wrote about the concept after stumbling across images posted to former Disney Interactive concept artist Ken Christiansen’s portfolio site, though the artist himself stayed silent on the project for years afterward.

Now, the original concept art for that shelved fighting game has resurfaced, giving fans their clearest look yet at what could have been. The drawings depict Disney characters clashing in battle, including a warrior mouse squaring off against a towering Beast and other action-figure versions of classic characters locked in combat poses.

According to Christiansen, the entire concept traces back to Disney’s cautious relationship with character crossovers before ‘Kingdom Hearts’ proved audiences would embrace it. He explained that Disney had been deeply hesitant about letting worlds like ‘The Lion King’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ intersect, calling it the studio’s biggest hangup at the time, even though the creative team pushing the idea was fully on board.

Once ‘Kingdom Hearts’ became a hit, that resistance reportedly softened considerably. Christiansen described how producers began pitching the idea of treating Disney characters as action figures in the spirit of ‘Toy Story,’ but having them fight one another instead, pulling in figures from ‘Tarzan,’ ‘The Lion King,’ and ‘Treasure Planet’ for a roster that would give the game its distinct identity.

Despite reaching the prototype stage, Disney’s Action Figure Face Off was ultimately dropped in favor of safer bets tied directly to existing films and television shows. Christiansen recalled that Disney’s usual approach to green-lighting games often depended on whether a title was tied to a major theatrical or TV release, pointing to projects like ‘Treasure Planet,’ ‘Atlantis,’ and ‘Kim Possible’ as examples that secured funding specifically because of that built-in connection.

He noted that despite pitching numerous concepts throughout his four years at the studio, very few made it beyond internal discussion, largely because Disney struggled to decide what to do with such a massive library of standalone properties. That uncertainty wouldn’t fully resolve until years later with the arrival of ‘Disney Infinity,’ which finally embraced the character-mixing approach the earlier pitch had been built around.

Beyond Christiansen’s recollections, corroborating details remain thin. A handful of LinkedIn profiles belonging to former Activision employees, including a software engineer and an associate producer, reference the project, though they disagree on which platforms it may have targeted, with one listing PlayStation 2 and PC while another cites PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox.

With ‘Disney Infinity’ having since come and gone and rival crossover fighters like ‘Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl’ and ‘MultiVersus’ proving the format still has an audience, Disney’s Action Figure Face Off stands as one of the more intriguing what-ifs in the studio’s video game history.

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