You might have seen the 2005 animated Candy Land movie; but did you know that we almost got a Lord of the Rings style Candy Land adventure, and Adam Sander was going to be the star?! From production Hell to fractured partnerships and legal battles, this is the story of the Candy Land movie that never was!

Candy Land is one of the most iconic board games of all time. Often being the first board game that many children ever play. Invented by a retired school teacher named Eleanor Abbot, Candy Land was created to give hope and comfort to polio stricken children. In 1948 Eleanor herself was recovering from polio in a hospital in San Diego California where she shared a ward with a number of small children. She designed Candy Land to be playable even if a child could not read or didn’t have enough energy to play very long. It provided a sweet escape that culminated with the children returning to Home Sweet Home at the end of their journey, such as they would after recovering from their illness. 

The beloved game was first released by Milton Bradley in 1949, and has seen many changes over the decades, most notably in 1984. Hasbro purchased Milton Bradley in 1984 and set to work re-invigorating some of the brand’s most iconic games. The 1984 edition of Candy Land is unique in that it is the first in the series to introduce a cast of colorful characters for the children to meet in their new, more story driven adventure.

Along with introducing such iconic characters as Plumpy, Queen Frostine, and Lord Licorice, the 1984 edition of Candy Land introduced lore to the game as well. An illustrated insert in the game box features a story wherein King Kandy, the benevolent ruler of Candy Land, has gone missing. Though the cause of his disappearance is a mystery, certain denizens of Candy Land appear less savory than others, and may not be trusted. The cast of characters, and the game’s story have evolved and changed over the years, yet none of the modern versions ever managed to capture the imagination quite like the 1984 edition. 

In 2009 Universal Pictures partnered with Hasbro to bring a number of their classic board game franchises to the big screen. Notable titles like Clue, Battleship, Ouija, and Candy Land were slated for development. The Candy Land movie attracted the talents of writer Etan Cohen, known for the 2008 hit comedy Tropic Thunder, and director Kevin Lima from Disney’s 2007 film Enchanted. At first it seemed like the duo would be perfect for the project, but after three years of production stalls, the script was handed over to Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger in 2011. 

Aibel and Berger, probably best known for their work on Kung Fu Panda and the Trolls series, had a bold vision for the Candy Land movie. As they put it, “We don’t see it as a movie based on a board game, although it has characters from that world and takes the idea of people finding themselves in a world that happens to be made entirely of candy where there are huge battles going on. We are going for real comedy, real action, and real emotions at stake.” They envisioned an epic adventure similar to Lord of the Rings with a more family friendly tone.

By the end of 2011 the partnership between Hasbro and Universal Pictures was beginning to fracture. Rumblings of losses and lack of production progress eventually came to light with Universal shedding a number of Hasbro licenses, notably Candy Land. In 2012 Columbia Pictures and Happy Madison stepped in to partner with Hasbro on a new Candy Land movie, starring none other than Adam Sandler. 

This new film adaptation would still boast Kevin Lima as director, but the script writing would now be in the hands of Robert Smigel. Yes, the voice of Triumph the insult comic dog was literally slated to write the Candy Land movie that would star Adam Sandler. With this new team, Columbia Pictures and Happy Madison intended to take the story in a more light hearted direction. Considering the level of talent and the nostalgic IP, this movie might have finally had a chance at success, but it was not meant to be. 

Production on the film was brought to an abrupt halt with the filing of Case No.: 2:14-cv-05539 Landmark Entertainment Group vs. Hasbro. This preliminary statement from Landmark for this case is paints a heck of a picture, so I’m just going to read it:

Landmark has been required to file this action to enforce its contractual and intellectual property rights in its original creative works consisting of the iconic characters, locations, storyline, artwork, and environmental elements that make up the renowned world of the famous children’s board game Candy Land, as depicted on the game board, box, thematic playsets and toys. Hasbro has infringed and is willfully infringing Landmark’s rights by, among other things, making a feature film based upon Landmark’s Candy Land characters and other creative works without authorization, attribution or compensation. In addition, Landmark has learned that Hasbro has produced merchandise and animated features using Landmark’s intellectual property without authorization, attribution, or even disclosure to Landmark, and has failed to report or pay royalties on sales of other merchandise falling within the scope of its license agreement with Landmark. When confronted with Landmark’s assertion of its rights, Hasbro has refused to provide information about its exploitation of Landmark’s intellectual property and wrongfully claimed ownership of Landmark’s characters, despite a license agreement to the contrary.

Essentially, Hasbro not only got caught using the Landmark’s intellectual property designed for the 1984 edition of Candy Land without compensating them, but also got nabbed for the production of the 2005 animated film. This case brought to light Hasbro’s rampant use of the Candy Land characters and assets developed by Landmark Entertainment Group across multiple products over the course of many years. 

The case proved to be the final blow to the already troubled production of the movie. Now, more than ten years later, it seems hard to imagine how close we came to having an epic adventure starring Adam Sandler and written by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.