If there is any game in the history of gaming that you know for an absolute fact would end up making a good movie that could end up as a family classic that game would definitely be any one of the Monkey Island games. The LucasArts and later Telltale Games-run franchise of point and click adventures remains one of the most beloved series, combining action and humor in a way that feels like a good Pixar flick. You could argue that they already are more interactive movies than games.

But we will never, ever see a Monkey Island film, and it's all because of Disney.

I'm not just talking about the fact that Disney bought the rights to all LucasArts titles last year, though that is certainly a part of it. The future of several series and franchises remains up in the air. Telltale games haven't made any new additions to their incredible modern entries into Lucas Arts titles like Sam and Max since the Disney acquisition, nor have any been announced.

Flashback Video Game Atlas: Monkey Island

Still, it's not like Disney to let properties to sit around unused, and most critics in the game industry think it's likely that the company will license those properties to proven developers rather than create an in-house games through Disney Interactive (Who generally focus on causal market games). Electronic Arts has already been granted exclusive development license to future Star Wars titles, and Telltale has proven itself uniquely viable with other people's creations like Back to the Future and The Walking Dead so... fingers crossed.

Weirdly, without Disney there would have been no Monkey Island in the first place. Creator Ron Gilbert had two inspirations that led the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood. The first was a 1987 fantasy novel by Tim Powers called On Stranger Tides (Which might sound familiar and weaves this mess even more tangled.) The book is sort of a modern take on Rafeal Sabatini's Captain Blood, and no less an expert on the subject than Orson Scott Card called it one of the best fantasies ever written.

The other inspiration was Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Gilbert has said in that he through that out the ride as an influence only as ambiance, but a lot of aspects of the games betray him. Le Chuck, for instance, and a dozen other tiny touches. Maybe I'm overreaching a bit, assigning connection to an overall pirate theme, but there's no doubt that Monkey Island the famous ride are at least tangentially linked.

In 2000 there was definitely going to be a Monkey Island movie, Curse of Monkey Island. LucasArts were all behind it (And a Sam and Max flick too, if rumor is to be believed), and concept art was created for a full-length animated feature.

Then it was gone.