Yesterworld's History of "The Black Cauldron"

I've got a soft spot a mile deep for "The Black Cauldron" as you well know.  Here's an excellent recent documentary that finally shows us some of the scenes infamously cut from the production:

Of all the animation history books I've read, surprisingly few of them talk about animated productions in their historical/pop culture context.  I bring this up because I feel like the fact that "Black Cauldron" just happened to be released around the same time as "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" should warrant a mention, if only because that is incredible.

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Art of the Day: Have some jolly toucans.

Links of Interest - Snowed In Edition!

Yeah, you know the drill by now.

* - First off, go help Project Daspletosaurus somehow!

* - Also, help /Filmcast's raise money for FilmAid!

* - Passport to Dreams Old and New has written what may be the definitive last word on "Captain EO".

* - Both Total Media Bridge and The Onion AV Club did recent retrospectives on "Ducktales".

* - Total Media Bridge also revisited "Loonatics Unleashed" so that we don't have to.

* - The AV Club also prompted a lively discussion of media that is hard or impossible to experience.

* - Don Carson's blog has a treasure trove of wonderful Disneyland concept art.

* - Andreas Deja shared some beautiful character design sketches by Milt Kahl of what would have likely been a very different version of "The Black Cauldron".

* - Speaking of "Black Cauldron", according to Parkeology, Tokyo Disneyland once had a unique interactive walk-through attraction based on the film for years and years.

* - As far as new stuff in the Disney parks, after reading this FutureProbe post, I am not looking forward to the fallout from My Magic+...

* - Filmspotting SVU did a terrific episode about mostly-obscure Disney films.

* - I am kind of in love with this Uncanny X-Men cover art by Stuart Immonen.

* - Haven't seen "Cabin in the Woods" yet?  Fix that immediately and then read this Dinosaur Dracula post about its best scene.

* - So... "The Stooge".  I've said this before and I'll say it again, I'll believe that a "Roger Rabbit" sequel/spin-off is actually happening when I am sitting in the theater and actually watching it. 

And here are my results for the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend! Not the most disappointing GBBC I've ever had, but still kind of a bust:

9 species total
2 Mourning Dove
2 Downy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
15 American Crow
2 Black-capped Chickadee
2 European Starling
2 Northern Cardinal
1 House Finch
50 House Sparrow

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Sketch of the Day! A while ago, on Twitter, Brian Switek wondered aloud why he couldn't combine "Downton Abbey" with a simultaneously-airing documentary on giant squids. How could I resist? Ladies and gentlemen, "Downton Squids":

Links Of Interest Number... something, I lost count.

* - First and by far the most interesting one this time: remember The New Dinosaurs? Remember The Humongous Book of Dinosaurs? (Really, who could forget either of them?) Did you know that strange, alternate art of the creatures from New Dinosaurs made an appearance in an issue of the magazine that was edited together to make The Humongous Book? Marc from Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs has the details and, thankfully, lots of pictures.

* - Speaking of science fiction creatures, Topless Robot did a tribute to Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
* - There are a lot of takeoffs on "Pokemon" her in the vast sea of the Internet, but one of the most adorable is Becky Dreistadt's Capture Creatures. These characters eventually have to appear in a real game because I want Tumblehop in my team NOW!!!

* - Everything is Terrible has recently reminded us that, long before there was "Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark", there was the fever-dream-esque 70's "Superman" musical.

* - Awful Library Books just dug up an unsettling little tome for kids that I guess is supposed to teach children about appropriate behavior in class but...?

* - These trailers for the upcoming "How to Train Your Dragon" series make me wonder if the series is going to feel a little like the first season of "Pokemon", showcasing a new creature every episode.

* - /Film also shared an excerpt from the very interesting-looking upcoming book, Tales From Development Hell. Darren Aronofsky's take on the film that eventually became "Batman Begins" would have been... different.

* - Remember Life Before the Dinosaurs, the blog founded by an eight-year-old with a love of Paleozoic critters? Well, he's currently in the middle of a long trip report about his visit to the Field Museum. I'll admit a twinge of jealousy.

* - A while back, toy designer Jason Geyer shared some concept art for "Star Wars" merchandise that never made it past the drawing board. Well, now he's sharing more. Check out their interpretations of certain characters before anyone knew what they looked like (oh wow, JarJar's dreadlocks... Speaking of, all the while you are reading this feature, keep in mind that this fantastically ill-conceived JarJar Binks lollipop did make it past the drawing board.)

* - And finally, Andreas Deja shared a wonderful piece of animation history: a recruitment brochure for Disney Animation, circa the late 1970's. The coolest part of it is all the early concept art I've never seen before. (And yet another tragic case of What Could Have Been for "The Black Cauldron": Caw could have been in the movie. I'll be over here, sobbing quietly.)

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Sketch of the Day! As it happens, inspired by one of the above links:

Let's Watch "The Illusion of Life" and listen to the Animation Podcast!

During extremely busy times when I fear I have no time to write this blog it always makes me happy to stumble upon something that is well worth talking about and bringing to everyone's attention.

I'm sure we're all familiar with Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston's seminal doorstopper on the art and history of Walt Disney studios, The Illusion of Life. What's not so well known is the 1981 television special of the same title. YouTube user YensidTun has kindly uploaded the whole special, and you can watch it as a playlist through this link. (Embedding disabled, but you'll want to watch this fullscreen anyway.)

Originally aired as part of "Walt Disney Presents", the special is hosted by Hayley Mills who was apparently originally meant to voice Princess Eilonwy (the premise of the special is that she is revisiting the Disney studio for the first time in years to see how the animation process has changed.) Yes, this is 1981 and "The Black Cauldron" is just getting started. There's no indication of the spectacular debacle the film's development would become, and make sure you keep an eye out in the very end of the show for some concept art that was entirely new to me (oh my God, Lyon could have been in the movie?! [Cries at What Could Have Been.])

With this in mind, "The Illusion of Life" makes a fantastic companion piece to a wonderful podcast that I just discovered and is sadly long dead but well worth listening to: the Animation Podcast. I'm not going to go too crazy here; just listen to the first three episodes (an interview with Andreas Deja). I guarantee you will be hooked.

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Sketch of the Day!

The DAC: The Dork Age (well, mostly) part two

#54: "Treasure Planet"
As far as I know, this is the last film so far that features animation by Glen Keane. Tellingly, Long John Silver is the most interesting character in the film; his growing relationship with Jim Hawkins is especially poignant. So it has that going for it. Which is nice.
The first hour or so of the movie, full of Wayne D. Barlowe-style creatures and giddy steampunk schizo-tech, is awesome and worthy of the best of the Bronze Age. The effects are amazing and the sheer imagination onscreen is inspiring. It's too damn bad that once the initial "Wee! Space Pirates!" glee wears off, this here movie gets really annoying really fast.
For one thing, this is a Disney movie that saddles it's young hero with three annoying comic-relief sidekicks. Of these, B.E.N. is easily the single most annoying Disney sidekick in the menagerie (finally, the Canon gets it's JarJar.) The cute, pink squishy thing comes a close second.
And, once again, if there's any doubt that we're stuck in a Dork Age, it will vanish when we are introduced to the character who communicates entirely with fart noises.
Seriously.
A character in a Disney film.
Who communicates entirely through farting.


#55: "Brother Bear"
Raise a pint to the Florida Studio. This is their last movie and, certainly, their finest hour.
This movie is gorgeous. So gorgeous. The story is incredibly moving, the characters are adorable (yay Terryl Whitlatch!) and the music is terrific (yay Bulgarian Women's Choir!) I'm glad to see that this has a growing cult following online. It's another movie that's high on my good underrated Disney movies list.
Honestly, if the story of Disney Feature Animation had a happier ending (as of right now), this film would have been the beginning of a second Bronze Age (or whatever metal comes next in this metaphor [E: Iron Age, according to Ovid]). Too bad it's their last traditionally animated film.

#56: "Home On The Range"
Repeat: "Brother Bear" is their last traditionally animated film.
Welcome to the deepest, darkest doldrums of the Dork Age. Remember way, way back when I said that if some of the shorts from the Anthology Films were feature-length I'd have to consider them flops? This is what one of those flops would have looked like. I fell asleep during this movie.
It's about cows for cryin' out loud! They're not even cute; none of the characters are visually appealing at all and it is really REALLY hard to mess up the cute factor in farm animals. These creatures are all weird sharp angles and pointy bits. You're afraid you'll cut yourself.
And did I mention the country music? I'm not a big fan. As in, I abhor it the way old people fail to understand the appeal of hip-hop.
I have to admit, if this was made way back in the early fifties and (let's just talk hypothetical here) Tex Avery was the director, I'd probably be praising it as a lost classic... And then I remember that a hypothetical Tex Avery feature would actually probably be really funny, so forget it.
You know, I really ought to be nice and watch this again, so that it has a fair fight. But isn't it enough to say "I fell asleep during 'Home on the Range'?" Especially considering that I have watched some *bad* movies here, and none of them bored me to sleep. Oi.
Rumor has it that the Disney executives, anxious to shut down the traditional studio and move entirely towards CGI, purposefully switched the release dates of this and "Brother Bear", then moved this release date to an overcrowded market, and basically made a sh**y movie on purpose to prove their point. So, did making their next film in CGI magically get their quality and audience back?

#57: "Chicken Little"
"Chicken Little" opens with a Disney studios logo that is very, very like the one used for PIXAR movies. Nice try, guys.
Because this is very clearly quite a few notches down the quality-o-meter from any PIXAR movie. Again, just because you CAN render with excruciating accuracy every single feather/hair/scale/whatever on your characters doesn't mean you SHOULD (just to get an idea of what I mean, head over to Google video and compare an earlier Geico Gekko commercial to one of the most recent ones. Poor little feller got slapped with the Uncanny Valley Stick.) Also, we're still in the Dork Age. Check out the whole "frozen pee" exchange.
But on the other hand, while this isn't a classic by any stretch of the imagination, I liked it a whole lot more than I expected to. It runs all over town with Furry Confusion based humor (we need more of this), and it's kind of cute. The music is pretty good, if the fact that it's all old songs doesn’t bother you too much. Not sure what's up with the hyper-dramatic Five for Fighting song about twenty minutes in though. Good thing one of my favorite songs ever is right after it.

#58: "Meet the Robinsons"
Rumor has it that, as of right now, this is our best indication of what direction Disney Animation will be going in now that John Lasseter is head of the company. (Long story.) You can really tell right from the studio logos in the opening!
It isn't perfect. The lead characters aren't *quite* likable enough and there's some lag in the story. However, it looks like they're going in the right direction.
Many of the supporting characters are very fun, especially Bowler Hat Guy. He is the most downright fun villain they've had in a long time. The story gets very sweet at times. William Joyce for the waffles!
And was that a W.E.D.-Way Peoplemover/Tomorrowland Transit Authority cameo?

#59: "Enchanted"
It speaks volumes the fact that I still had the songs from this movie in my head since the Oscars. The songs really are terrific, and the "That's How You Know" number is a sheer triumph.
Oddly, the rest of the movie didn't get me as jazzed up. I guess I was hoping for Disney to lighten up and make a seriously funny self-inflicted affectionate parody. "Enchanted" does have some funny moments but for the most part, it holds back too much. I guess it's the same problem "Hercules" had; you can't really parody the Princess line out of one side of your mouth while going crazy with marketing the Princesses out the other side. It is sweet, and it is a fun movie, and it is like a big prize at the end of this project (I got every single reference), but it's not really a laugh riot.

#60: "Bolt"
See, here I am at the end of an animated feature and once again, I'm wondering if it would have been more appealing to me if the producers had the guts to do the entire film in the same style as the closing credits.
Because once again, Disney is in it's "let's render every scale of skin on our characters' faces because we can!" mode. And here, it looked really distracting to me. I think it's because it's the first time human characters were subjected to it. They end up looking freakish and we're stuck with them until the animals finally take over. And it's too bad that this ruined the movie for me, because the story was actually kinda neat.But I came into this movie knowing full well the extreme, shall we say, birth trauma it suffered. I can tell you this. I don't know a single "Lilo and Stitch" fan, myself included, who isn't the least bit curious to see what "American Dog" would have been like.
(Incidentally, it seems there's a special edition DVD release of "The Black Cauldron" coming soon. Sure as heck never saw that coming.)

So... Perhaps I shall pick this thread up later? "The Princess and the Frog"? "TRON 2? "Rapunzel"?

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I'm done? I'm really done! For more posts in this ongoing series, go here, or click the Chronological Disney Animated Canon tag below.

The Disney Animated Canon: The Dark Age, part two

#30: "Pete's Dragon"
Better known as "The Movie That Made Don Bluth Say, 'F*** It.'"
After watching this one for the first time ever, I started to think that I was a little rash in calling the late-90's/early-00's period the Dork Age. This is the "Pretty Woman" of the Disney Animated Canon (stay with me here). The original short story told a very dark, depressing story of a little orphan boy who'd escaped from his abusive foster family and retreated into a fantasy world of magic dragons.
Something obviously got lost in the adaptation here. It's either the fact that Elliot is absolutely real from the first scene or the fact that it's a musical. On the first point, Elliot is actually invisible most of the time for no other reason than saving money on special effects. On the second point, this is the kind of musical where you half expect them to start singing, "The Front Door's a Little Sticky (You Might Have To Give It A Good Kick Open)".
Mind you, aside from the dragon and the songs, the story is still very dark, which makes for a movie that is downright manic-depressive in tone. Fortunately, Don Bluth was in charge of all the animation, and the character animation on Elliot is wonderful. Too bad we only see twenty minutes of it.

#31: "The Fox and The Hound"
If I am not mistaken, this is the very first movie I ever saw in a theater. Having watched it again, I realize that in all these years, I only had the vaguest memories of it. Mostly the fact that Glen Keane (he did much of the last act, including the bear scene) is incredible.
Man, Disney was on some drama-rama kick at this time, weren't they? This time, Richard Rich is listed as one of the Directors. While he isn't as well-known as Don Bluth, he's another Disney animator who later formed his own studio. He's best known for "The Swan Princess". His other films are very eclectic (ranging from Biblical epics to annoyingly cute versions of famous musicals and E.B. White novels), but he loves drama.
"The Fox and the Hound" has got more drama per pound than some live-action movies. It's got very little incidental music and the cheerful songs and comic relief characters are instantly forgettable. It gets lost in the shuffle of other films, but it's well worth revisiting as it may be the most mature film in the Cannon. It is, essentially, "Brokeback Mountain" with cute animals. I kid you not. Watch it again.
Incidentally, it's almost worth it to watch "The Fox and the Hound 2" trailer included on the disk just for the "WTF" factor. (I don't want to spoil it but isn't this plot right out of EVERY Disney Channel sitcom ever?)

#32: "TRON"
Well, first, I need to do the obligatory thing where you sit there and reflect on the fact that you're writing a review of "TRON" on a better computer than the one they used to animate it.
(She does this.)
Duuuude...
While it was an expensive bomb back in the day, "TRON" has since grown into a cult classic and it's easy to see why; it's overall the best out of all the movies in this time period. Thanks to the remastered DVD, it looks and sounds better than ever. Very trippy and cool, it appears as though they used a similar design aesthetic for EPCOT's Future World buildings.
Hey, did you ever notice that this movie is all about gaining evidence for a copyright infringement suit?

#33: "The Black Cauldron"
Better known as "The Movie That Made Tim Burton Say, 'F*** It.'"
Even better known as "The Movie That Almost Killed The Studio. No, really."
In production for nearly twelve years, way over budget, and the first Disney movie ever to fall victim to (dunt-dunt-daa) Executive Meddling right before it's release. New big boss Michael Eisner welcomed himself to the animators by chopping several scenes out of the finished film. (Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of animation's production process, specifically how animated features are meticulously planned from beginning to end well before anyone gets to put pencil to paper in earnest, will see how insane this was.) "Black Cauldron" bombed spectacularly in it's initial release and was kept out of circulation for decades.
When Disney finally released it on video, it was treated more as an obligation than anything. It was barely promoted and given a bare-bones release. The DVD is slightly better. At least the film is in it's original widescreen format - but it isn't anamorphic. You will learn what anamorphic means the second the movie starts, especially if you've got a 16x9 television. You'll also learn the difference between 5.1 surround sound and whatever was available in the 80's, as the soundtrack hasn't been remixed with the new technology and tends to fade in and out (I pumped up the volume to the thirties to hear the dialogue and got the sh*t scared out of me when the guard dog started barking).
For all this… I kind of liked it. Yes, it's obvious that the production was labored and plagued with problems; expect a very episodic movie. But it's a hell of a lot more interesting than the similarly-themed "Sword in the Stone" and has a far more focused plotline. It also (see what a huge difference this makes) has a great cast of villains and supporting characters. It's just bizarre how this is remembered more for what it could have been than accepted for what it is. I like The Chronicles of Prydain too and I do think a faithful film series would be quite good. But really, how come nobody levels the same kinds of "Wah, it doesn't have anything to do with the books" complaints at "The Jungle Book", or "Sword in the Stone" for that matter?
And what's Eilonwy got to do to be a part of the Princesses line?

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Next time: The movies get good again! For more posts in this series, go here, or click the Chronological Disney Animated Canon tag below.