Disney cancels Jack and the Beanstalk-inspired movie Gigantic

Disney has announced it is cancelling work on upcoming animation Gigantic.

An original tale inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk, the film was originally set to release in November 2018, but a delay until 2020 signalled the difficulty Disney was having getting the project off the ground.

"It's impossible to know when we begin a project how the creative process will unfold, and sometimes, no matter how much we love an idea or how much heart goes into it, we find that it just isn't working," Disney and Pixar Animation Studios president Ed Catmull told THR.

"With Gigantic, we've come to that point, and although it's a difficult decision, we are ending active development for now.

"We are focusing our energies on another project that has been in the works, which we'll be sharing more about soon, now set for Thanksgiving 2020."

Tangled's Nathan Greno and Inside Out writer Meg LeFauve were set to co-direct Gigantic from the latter's script, about Jack (of beanstalk-climbing fame) befriending a female giant.

Frozen songwriters Robert Lopez and Kirsten Anderson-Lopez were also attached to write original tunes for the film, with Disney hoping to rekindle that Frozen magic that brought them so much success.

The decision leaves just two films on Disney Animation's slate: Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 and Frozen 2, which are set to release in November 2018 and November 2019 respectively.

On the Pixar side of Disney's animation arm there's Coco, set for November, The Incredibles 2 next summer and Toy Story 4 the year after that.

Disney is no stranger to cancelling animated films. King of the Elves, based on a Philip K Dick story, was originally set for 2012 but fell through. Pixar's Newt was also cancelled due to similarities to Blue Sky's macaw rom-com Rio, released in 2011.