Sailor Moon (1995)

Interesting facts

Sailor Moon, also known under the nickname of Saban Moon, is an unaired proof of concept pilot episode that loosely adapts the Japanese manga and anime television series Sailor Moon. The pilot episode featured a mixture of live-action and animation, as well as a diverse cast of young women who secretly fight evil. It was directed by Rocky Solotoff, and a two minute music video was created alongside the pilot.

Development

Plans to develop an American adaptation of Sailor Moon began in 1993. Per Ray Mona, Bandai and Toei Animation wanted to introduce the series to Western audiences and developed "Project Y" towards this end. Possible methods included a live-action film, an unrelated cartoon series, and dubbing the existing series into English. Renaissance-Atlantic Entertainment and Toon Makers, Inc.

Several girls auditioned for the pilot. The girls were individually selected by producers Rocky Solotoff and Steven Wilzbach, who wanted to feature a diverse cast. Solotoff, who served as the pilot's director, stated that he "wanted to keep the flavor of Sailor Moon and make it something where people who had no idea what it was could identify with these characters." Sets from the American television series Saved by the Bell were used for the pilo…

Originally intended to enter full production in 1994 as part of the children's programming on Fox, the series was eventually scrapped in favor of dubbing the original anime produced by DIC Productions (Now WildBrain). Per Rich Johnston, this move was made due to the expense of creating the live-action and animated portions, which would require the use of union workers.

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