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Jake's Team Pirate - The Full Lost Pilot to Jake and the Never Land Pirates

A discussion between @pixiedust-poppers and @preciouslittletoonette and I about the Lost Boys' absence in Jake and the Never Land Pirates lead into this thread about forums that revealed some interesting tidbits about the lost pilot episode of the show, which according to forums, supposedly had Nibs and Movie!Cubby in the series.

Well, on Twitter, some madlad leaked more than 20 DTVA series bibles, pitches, and art-books for a multitude of shows under the past 12 hours before Disney finally put a stop to it (which as far as I'm concerned, didn't destroy or remove any of the content on the archive where it was leaked). Among those was the series bible for Jake and the Never Land Pirates, originally named Jake's Team Pirate.

I couldn't download it because my computer is ass but you can find it here [and archive that link in the wayback machine because it won't be long until DIsney comes at ya]

However, this also lead me to a rabbit hole to discover the full lost pilot of the JTP. This pilot episode was essentially an early version of what would later become Season 1, Episode 8b, Race to Never Peak. At the time that I'm posting this (on my birthday, yay!!) it has been 15 hours since the video was up on YouTube. Again, I'd suggest you download it if possible and/or save this to the Wayback Machine in the Internet Archive just in case (I'm fairly certain this thread will not survive the night, which again, is why we should be prepared)

But here it is!

youtube

I am typing this out whilst watching the pilot in real-time to give you my disjointed thoughts because this is crazy. Anyways, away we goo!

So There was a Fourth Pirate Member? AND HE WAS NIBS????

Yeah, that's his name! Nibs! But he's clearly not the Nibs from the movie, at least not design wise. Was this a deliberate change of the character, was this a different character with the same name or a coincidence? I'm leaning towards #3, but even in spite of my confusion, Nibs is actually okay.

So Jake's crew was supposed to have four members! Pretty nifty.

Damn, Skully had an Eyepatch?

They were going all out on this pirate thing, huh?

I prefer the finalized design of the Jolly Roger

For those who don't know, the design for the Jolly Roger in the series was recyced from a dropped design for Hook's ship in the film. The filmmakers thought it didn't fit in with the world they wanted to present, but the showrunners thought it to be appropriate for the younger demographic and their portrayal of Hook.

I mainly agree with this sentiment, but also because Hook's signature color is red. So a red and black ship with warmer colors fits well with his aesthetic and character. Far more than this odd mix of yellow and tannish brown from the pilot. And again, in a show aimed at preshoolers, color theory is a major priority. I'm 18 and even I find appeal in the visuals, so it was a good step in the right direction.

What the fu-

Ok the more I look at it the less uncanny it is (actually it's lowkey cute) but I 5 year old me probably would've died laughing looking at that. It's so goofy looking and it feels like it borders on uncanny but not too much. Again, aimed at kids so they probably wanted a more cartoonish look and I wouldn't blame them. The face also kinda blends in with Bucky's model, given that he's a CG character in a 2D animated world (like Rocket from Little Einsteins, Carpet from Aladdin, the Wildebeest Herd from Lion King, or Forte from Beauty and the Beast 2). What do I think about the CG itself though? It works. It really does and I have to give props to the animators for their neat crafting and blending of 2D and 3D (obviously this is a pilot so you can't walk in with high expectations of Fantasia-level quality animation, especially knowing how much hell animators can and will go through just to put something out onto the small-screen, that being said, the animation in the pilot is pretty easy on the eyes).

Let's talk about Character Design.

There are a lot of things to like about Nibs, especially if you choose to divorce the movies from the show, but one thing in particular I like is his design.

You see, there's this thing called the color wheel. In art class, we learn about where colors lie on the color wheel and what relation they have to each other. Purple and yellow are a good example of complenetary colors, which are colors that creates high contrast when blended together.

Being a kids' show, high contrast is something that will be frequent in the art-style. If the finalized version of Captain Hook's ship works because it blends in, Nibs' outfit design works but for the opposite reasons. It stands out, making him noticeable both in his own shots and with the other characters. And it's appropriately placed. He has a purple vest and hat, but yellow lines along it, along with a yellow sword to make the contrast not too subtle, but not too overt. All combined with a cyan patch on his right sleeve that will be eye-catching enough.

The color direction of this show is really damn impressive!

This is pretty cool!

It's hard to tell with screengrabs and the poor quality of the video, but this is clearly supposed to be an early version of the "Pirate Password" sequence from Seasons 1-3.

I like this! It's pretty unique and a fun way to introduce the show. I prefer the final version, but had this been what they gone with, I would've had a damn good time seeing this as a kid.

Also, I have no screenshot for this, but Izzy's original name was Reddy. Don't ask me why.

I miss Season 1

Like, this episode really makes me nostalgic for the show and most of its simple, yet neat qualities like Jake's team actually being a team [instead of S4 making it Jake + Other Guys: The Series], Hook and Smee's fun little dynamic and the classic adventures. I'd argue that this should've actually been an episode.

Also Burton and Bennet's performances are really good, you can tell that they loved playing their characters again after 9 years in spite of Return to Never Land's financial flop. They really are worthwhile successors to Conried and Thompson.

The Team Treasure Chest was Way Different

So in this version, the Dubloons were just silver coins. Not gold. And there was a specific amount of Dubloons that you could earn after solving Pirate Problems, which would unlock a treasure at the end. (Also obvious reference to the pieces of eight).

I think they probably should've kept that, it would've added more variety to the show with every differet treasure being earned.

Holy shit there's LORE?

Izzy explains to Nibs that she made a promise to Tinker Bell in accordance to the 'order of the fairies' to use Pixie Dust as a last resort, after Nibs asks her why they can't just fly to Hook themselves.

Like, not only does she outright mention Tinker Bell when in the actual show, it takes 2 seasons for the character to appear, but there's this legit backstory behind it, which I guess was the prototype for "Only for emergencies!"

Nothing in the show contradicts this, and we do get some dialogue similar to this in later episodes, but man this was quite the surprise for a test pilot.

Oh yeah, Bucky talks!

The VA for Sharky also voices him. It's actually kind of sweet, and it implies that it's Bucky, not Sharky, singing the theme song (especially since Sharky and Bones aren't in the intro of this pilot).

I think I'm getting the idea of why Nibs was a character in the first place,

A recurring gag in this pilot is that Nibs attempts to solve the pirate problems on his own only to struggle and require Team Pirate's help. The message being that teamwork, especially with your friends is more effective and better than trying to solve every problem on your own. Obviously this show isn't the first or only show aimed at children to have this message, let alone a Disney show, but I think the idea with Nibs (and this is speculation) was to have him be a stand-in for the audience so they could learn the message along with him. That's a very good sentiment.

And I guess maybe they thought they could accomplish this lesson without this forumula with Nibs which may have been the reason he was cut, and yeah, the show pulls this off pretty well without him. But this does put things into perspective; They had a lot of good ideas that wound up not being used, but the actual show doesn't really suffer with the loss of said good ideas because they are able to pull it off efficiently. So yeah, this show still rocks. Personally I would've included Nibs just because of the 'character being a stand-in for the audience to take in the moral with them' thing being pretty smart.

I also like the dynamic between the four pirates. It's clear he's the overcompensating 'little brother' figure of the group. I guess that role went to Cubby once Nibs was phased out but you can appreciate how these kids feel like a genuine friend group.

The Team Treasure Chest Song is Sung Too Early

After getting the 8th dubloon, the pirates sing the Team Treasure Chest Song. And then it cuts to Hook cornering the pirates in the cave.

It definitely makes sense to do what they did in the actual series, save the song for the end when the pirates have actually completed their adventure and earned their victory/huzzah.

Hi Skully

I guess there's another reason for why Nibs' was cut was to allow the story to balance the characters easier. Since Skully barely had any lines here, or a role, and seems to be written in the stereotypical parrot way. Again, one thing that was improved in the finalized version.

CONCLUSION:

It's so interesting to see how different things were, how they could've been and how it could've worked. There were a few things here and there that I think deserved to be tweaked, but overall, it's a really pleasant viewing experience and even though I'm sad a few things, Nibs included didn't make the cut, it's nice knowing that the show was able to hold its own even without those elements.

God I really hope other show pilots/series bibles like Lion Guard or Elena of Avalor come to light because this is legitimately intriguing. Like, finding fossilized remains of extinct animals type intriguing.