Well it looks like we have a new entry for the "let's see what classic show/cartoon/comic from the good ol' days we can reinvent" trend. ALF...
Yes, that's right. Sony Pictures Animation has acquired the rights to ALF, as they're already developing a live action/CG hybrid film. The show's creator, Paul Fusco, will produce the film alongside episode producer Tom Patchett and The Smurfs' producer Jordan Kerner.
What do you think? Do you think it'll be another terrible half-CG schlockfest like The Smurfs? Or something that's faithful to original source material, like The Muppets? I can't say at the moment, I'm just tired of most of these animation studios trying to modernize childhood icons and classic shows from the past, though I will give Sony Pictures Animation a lot of credit, since they have a lot of upcoming projects that do sound promising. Only time will tell with this one.
We have now begun the fourth decade through the annals of Best Animated Short. And so far I have reviewed all but one of the nominees. Since we are going backwards we have arrived at the year 1981, a year that I seem to remember being as pretty tumultuous, not that I was alive for any of it.
The year began on a rather high note, as 52 American hostages were freed after being held for well over a year in Iran. This happened just as Ronald Reagan was being sworn in as President in the US. However, only two months later Reagan is shot by an insane murderous psycho who was hopelessly in lust with Jodie Foster. Thankfully, emergency medical care was much improved since the James Garfield assassination 100 years earlier and Reagan survived. The Space Shuttle program launched in April when Columbia lifted off, but only after three workers died from asphyxiation during a test run. The first reports of a strange form of pneumonia immunocompromised homosexual men came out. The disease would later be classified as Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. 114 people were killed when a walkway collapsed in the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated in October. He wasn't as lucky as Reagen. And two months later 900 civilians were killed by the El Salvadore army during the Salvadorian Civil War. And MTV is unleashed upon unsuspecting viewers of cable television. On the brighter side of things, Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first female justice of the Supreme Court. And Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer for the largest royal wedding until 30 years later.
DreamWorks recently announced that Kung Fu Panda 3, which was already in development for quite some time, will be a co-production with the newly established Oriental DreamWorks. The plan is to have it ready by around 2016 or 2017. In addition to that, the third How to Train Your Dragon film is planned for 2016.
Personally, I'm looking forward to Kung Fu Panda 3, despite my initial disapproval of DreamWorks' knack for making more sequels than Pixar or anyone else, though other studios are starting to jump on this bandwagon as well. Fox has another Rio coming in 2014, and they'll probably have another Ice Age film after that. Sony has a Smurfs trilogy planned, plus a Cloudy with a Chance with Meatballs sequel, and so on...
Why would I be excited for this, though? Simple. Kung Fu Panda 2 was surprisingly good and arguably superior to its impressive predecessor, plus the ending was a slight sequel hook. If it's a quality film and it brings in the bucks for the company, then I'm content with that, seeing how it will support the more original projects in the pipeline. With all this expansion (DreamWorks acquiring Classic Media recently), we can only imagine how big their upcoming slate will be...
One of the most interesting sections of Beatles history for me is the mid-to-late 1967 period, following the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The band's manager, Brian Epstein, had died on August 27th. The glue that held the Fab Four together wasn't there anymore. What could the band give listeners after the release of Pepper? The Beatles were slowly straying from the two-album-a-year routine, which began in 1966 with Revolver. Since EMI needed an album for the Christmas market, their best bet was a greatest hits compilation. So what could the four give listeners for the holidays of 1967?
It was none other than Magical Mystery Tour... The film is certainly an oddity on its own, if the soundtrack itself isn't. The Beatles basically went on a mystery tour (cheap weekend getaways in the UK, where you would be taken to a mystery location) and filmed one big home video. Perhaps this was a way of taking off the pressure following the recording of Sgt. Pepper, the singles and Epstein's death. Of course, the next year would prove to be a tough year for the four, so this was a bright spot of fun before the storm.
Magical Mystery Tour can be summed up in many words. When it was shown on BBC-TV on Boxing Day in 1967, it received terrible reviews from the press. The reception was so bad that ABC refused to show it in the states nor did any other network. It must've been that bad...
Actually it isn't... It's a silly home movie. It's not a typical made-for-television film, it's just a good fifty minutes of The Beatles goofing around. A Hard Day's Night and Help! have a lot of goofing around and silliness, but something about this film didn't cut it. Was it the deliberate unprofessionalism of it? Was it because it didn't have much of a plot or was just aimless? It could be that it was just too weird, whereas A Hard Day's Night and Help! were at least conventional. What's not to like, though? Magical Mystery Tour is just fun, because there's actually nothing more joyful than seeing the four lads having a good old time. Plus, the soundtrack is really good too!
I always wished that I had seen this film as a child, because this film seems perfect for children more so than their other films. The madcap antics and vacuous tone of the whole film would've been a real joyride for me, since the album itself was one I always loved as a young boy. The Beatles are acting like children here, and there's nothing really wrong with that, but it was certainly frowned upon after mature albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver. Perhaps if Magical Mystery Tour was something they did during the early years, would it get better reception?
It never fails to make me smile, because there are so many sequences in it that are just plain nonsensical. My favorite sequence would have to be the race, where everyone runs for the finish line but it ultimately results in everyone getting into a vehicle. Paul McCartney is accompanied by an army officer on one scene, bumbling a mile a minute. The banter between Ringo and her fussy Aunt Jessie? All the weird daydreaming sequences? They may not be comedic gold, but the randomness is enough to make me smile.
Now what about the song sequences? They're good, but not great. Two standouts are "The Fool on the Hill" and "Flying". "Flying" is set to colorful tinted imagery of landscapes, which look similar to the Star Gate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey. "The Fool on the Hill" is Paul either standing still or running around in the countryside, with delightful results. The rest are passable, though they are memorable. "I Am The Walrus" shows all the Beatles in their animal costumes, while "Blue Jay Way" is effectively blurry and hazy like the song itself. The best sequence however, is "Your Mother Should Know", where The Beatles dance their way down a spiral staircase. We also get a sequence at a strip show where the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band performs "Death Cab for Cutie".
Yes, the film is essentially an hour of nonsense. There's a scene where Aunt Jessie dreams of having mounds of spaghetti shoveled onto the table in front of her. The whole race scene makes no sense at all, yet it isn't supposed to. The Beatles dressed up as animals? Enough said. I can only imagine what it was like being a critic in 1967, seeing this for the first time. This obviously must've really turned a lot of people off.
Magical Mystery Tour gained a cult following the mid 1970s, as it became a midnight movie of sorts much like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 1978, it was released on videocassette, making it widely available to Americans for the first time. It definitely has its fans, and deservedly so. To call it a film or a work of art may be a bit of a stretch, but as a silly fun home movie, Magical Mystery Tour is quite enjoyable. Sometimes you might need a little unbridled joy...
What went on to be the bigger success was the music. Of course, in 1967, no one could resist the latest Beatles product, even if it was for a universally panned film. In the UK, the six songs recorded for the film were released by Parlophone as a double-EP set, something Capitol Records probably wouldn't have been able to pull off in the States. Instead, they put the film's songs on the first side of the album and then put all the 1967 singles and their B-sides on the second side. It made for an excellent palette of The Beatles' creative years, all defined on a single disc.
There's so much that has been written about The Beatles' music and this album is no exception. Magical Mystery Tour was actually one of the first Beatles albums I've ever listened to when I was young, as my mother had the CD along with several other albums. There are some rather dark undertones to some of the music, like the muted eerie psychedelia of "Flying" or the even more ominous "Blue Jay Way". For some reason, however, these two songs never creeped me out. In fact, the album was always comforting to me as a child. I have no idea why, but to this day, I love it on a sentimental level.
"The Fool on the Hill"'s soft and peaceful flutes and the unabashed old-fashioned dance fun of "Your Mother Should Know" are certainly winners. "Magical Mystery Tour" and "I Am The Walrus" are more bombastic. The former is brass-driven and rip-roaring, while the latter is a mural of surreal visions. What more can you say about these songs?
The second side is of course composed of the great singles The Beatles released throughout 1967. "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" may very well be the best single ever, showcasing the unsurpassed songwriting of Lennon and McCartney while also showcasing how the band used great production on each, which is miles above the horde of psychedelic artists who followed, experimenting but not always being successful at it. "Hello Goodbye"? A fine pop song that's like every other Beatles pop song, it'll never leave. "Baby You're a Rich Man" may be regarded as a throwaway piece, but how can one not like the thumping beat and the strange clavioline sound? I felt that sound was weird back when I was young. "All You Need Is Love" is another fantastic Beatles single that has gone down in history...
I could write a book about why these songs are so special, but so many reviews and books about The Beatles have already picked every song in their catalogue apart so it would seem to be a bit redundant here. They're special to me because, as a child, I was already inspired by what I was hearing out of their music. My mother also tended to play the CD quite a bit, along with the CDs of Abbey Road and 1967-1970, which had several tracks from Magical Mystery Tour. My uncle is a huge Beatles fanatic, and of course I'd hear a lot and find out a lot about the band through him. Like the numerous Disney films I watched as a child, their music inspired me to look into the past. I was somewhat out of touch in the world of the late 1990s and early 2000s as a young boy, even though I did like a lot of what other people liked in the decade, I was constantly fascinated with the past. Later on, the music of The Beatles would have an impact on the way I wrote and how I drew. To this day, the music on the album plus every other Beatles album has had some form of inspiration for my writing and goals. It may sound sentimental and sappy, and there's probably several others out there in the world that may have had the same experiences, but this album was the reason why I became to love The Beatles, and why I seek out other music from the past.
My love for the album today doesn't stem from nostalgia... Not at all... When I discovered every Beatles studio album at the age of fourteen, I loved them all. I admire Magical Mystery Tour for the songwriting, the production techniques and some of the fun qualities of certain tracks. The film and the songs are basically The Beatles' last try at something innocent and lighthearted, before the earthquake of tension that surrounded the recording of The Beatles. The movie is decidedly silly, while the music is a continuation of what we heard of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was the door closing, the era had come to an end.
~
For all you Beatles fans out there, which Beatles album had an impact on your life when you were young? Why did that particular album (or albums) inspire you? What album (or songs) got you into The Beatles?
Well, we have gotten through the third decade of reviewing Oscar nominated shorts. And you know what that means, don't you? It means G-men! To be shot down like a...okay, I guess we're getting ahead of ourselves. Actually, it's time for yet another super special awesome post where I rank the nominated films in the ten year period we just finished, just like what I did for 1992-2001 and 2002-2011. Anyways, I just think it's fun, even if you'll probably disagree with almost all of the list.
So the era we just finished established a record for fewest nominations in a ten year period, one that may never be broken. After all, the rules state that the minimum number of nominees in a year is three. Even if less than three meet the scoring minimum, they just take the three films with the best average score and name them the nominees. So I don't believe it's possible that there would be a year with only two nominees, like Best Makeup did in 2002 or Best Original Song did this past year. (Embarrassing.) Every single year in this ten year period had exactly three nominees, so there were exactly 30 nominees to rank. And I'm able to rank them all, because this was the first ten-year period where I was able to watch all of the nominees. And how do they rank? Let's get started and find out.
Here's a new Disney VHS collection update for you...
When I got my current YouTube channel back in February of 2010, I immediately filmed myself demonstrating the collection all over again like I did on my old account. Then I filmed a much more in-depth series in December, but during that time, I didn't really get any new VHS tapes or Beta tapes for the collection. I only got the super rare 1986 Walt Disney Classics box set and two more other Classics editions after that. I did an update for the box set, of course, but for the other two VHS tapes, they just appeared in a video where I showed the entire collection...
So this is my first real Disney VHS update that's done like a Blu-ray or DVD update would be done. Suffice to say, I'm glad I went to that yard sale. I also scooped up a non-Disney animated classic too, so enjoy. More updates should come later on this month if I find anything.
A little more about the tapes themselves:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1994 VHS - For many years, Disney refused to release this film on home video since it was one of their highest grossing titles of all time (adjusted, it's the highest grossing animated film of all time) and it continued to do extremely well when theatrically re-released. They had the same attitude towards Fantasia as well, but they finally released that film on video in 1991 and it became the best-selling home video of all time until One Hundred and One Dalmatians hit home video months later. So with that, Disney re-released theatrically one last time and had this begin the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, replacing The Classics. - Originally released on October 25, 1994
Fantasia 1991 VHS - One of the only Disney films actually packed in the black clamshell case (not counting the first four releases in the Classics line, and the Limited Gold Editions). The version of the film on this video release was the 1990 50th Anniversary print which added end credits to the film. The cut itself is the same as the 1946 "general release" version, running 120 minutes. This would also be the first release of Disney animated classic that came as a part of a deluxe box set. - Originally released on November 1, 1991
Old Yeller 2002 VHS - Made a big mistake in the video, accidentally saying it came out in 2004. Not much to say about this one, considering that Old Yeller was one of those titles that didn't go back in the Vault. - Originally released on May 7, 2002
The Rescuers 1999 VHS - Of course, we all know the controversy surrounding this video release. Oddly enough, the VHS uses the 1989 theatrical re-release version of the film on here. It doesn't open with the Buena Vista logo, but instead the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures logo. The Buena Vista logo appears at the end, much like it did for the 1991 theatrical re-release of One Hundred and One Dalmatians and very early printings of the 1992 VHS (without the previews that follow). - Originally released on January 5, 1999, clean version released March 23rd
The Little Mermaid 1998 VHS - The version of the film used on this video release is that of the 1997 theatrical re-release, with some minor alterations to the end credits plus the priest's knee altered since that also caused a lot of controversy. - Originally released on March 31, 1998
The Secret of NIMH 1994 VHS - Not much to comment on here, as the film had been released on home video twice before this was released. In fact, there were plans to theatrically re-release it sometime in the late 1980s. If that happened, maybe the film would've gotten more popularity.
With Disney losing Don Bluth and several young animators during production of The Fox and the Hound in 1979, the studio was beginning to undergo some revisions. The live action output significantly changed. While Disney had delivered great live action films over the years like Treasure Island, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Pollyanna and several others, there were also a lot of goofball comedies that were polluting the 1970s: The Boatniks, The Million Dollar Duck, No Deposit, No Return, Gus, The Cat from Outer Space, Love Bug sequels and a whole lot more.
Fun, slapstick-riddled comedies weren’t a bad thing. They pleased family audiences, and that was it. Disney was beginning to become labeled as “kids only” fluff by teenagers and young adults. After years of harmless G-rated live action fare, Disney began venturing in to the PG territory (this was before PG-13 existed, so PG was the equivalent to what that rating is today). First they bought the rights to a small film called Take Down, which they distributed in early 1979 without the Disney name on it, but it came and went. Later that year, they released the science fiction film, The Black Hole. Since the release of that film, more and more PG-rated Disney films began appearing: Midnight Madness, The Watcher in the Woods, The Devil and Max Devlin, Condorman and Night Crossing. So what impact did a couple film that got a certain rating have on the animation studio? Well, the next animated feature, which would be The Black Cauldron, would be the first Disney animated feature to garner a PG rating. Disney owned the rights to Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain as far back as 1971, as development on a feature film based on the five-book series began shortly afterwards. Over the course of the mid 1970s, it didn’t take off. It just sat around the studio, while the then-new animators worked on The Rescuers, and the less risky projects like Pete's Dragon and The Small One. With the animators now gone, and Disney’s slow transition to win the teenager and adult audience in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was time to get started on the project.
While this was going on, Don Bluth was ready to make a splash in the world of feature animation. The late 1970s and early 1980s brought more PG-rated animated endeavors, some of which actually did well at the box office such as Martin Rosen’s Watership Down, Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards and The Lord of the Rings and the Bakshi-esque Heavy Metal. Other films were still unique and game-changing none-the-less: Sanrio’s Metamorphoses, Martin Rosen’s The Plague Dogs, the cut-out animated Twice Upon a Time, and Bruno Bozzetto’s Allegro non Troppo. Other studios played it safe, Hanna Barbera continued to trip up with films like Heidi's Song. Warner Bros. cheated audiences with Looney Tunes “compilation” features like The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie and A Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie.
Don Bluth first entered the ring when he and his crew finally completed Banjo the Woodpile Cat in 1979, which would get good reception. A two-minute sequence was also created for the 1980 musical Xanadu, being one of the better things about that film. With that behind them, they were ready to tackle a full-length feature film. Bluth joined forces with Aurora Productions to bring forth an animated adaptation of Robert O’Brien’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Bluth’s plan was to make a film that was worthy of the Golden Age Disney animated classics, mainly Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio.
The Secret of NIMH was a breath of fresh air for its time, much superior to the highly flawed The Fox and the Hound, which Disney released the year before, along with a good number of the other animated films that were out at the time. The Secret of NIMH displays Bluth’s greatest strengths, but also some of his weaknesses that would come to plague his later films. It seems like most of the enthusiasm and ambition went into the visuals, more so than the writing. The film has beautiful art direction, and a lot of vibrant colors. Special effects are everywhere, with lots of flashes and shines, but it’s to the point where it feels gimmicky. Did Nicodemus’ eyes really have to be so shiny and laser-like? The rose bush scene is loaded with tons of sparkles and flashes. Rotoscoping is used for other special effects, which sometimes don’t look good. The work done on the tractor and plow makes what should be an intense scene less exciting. The character animation is great, very reminiscent of the older Disney animated films.
Its story, however, isn’t all that strong. It presents us with a believable conflict, and the first act is undeniably great, but it begins to plod and plod as it progresses. The story takes a backseat to the visuals, and the third act has the character Jenner revealed to be conspiring against the NIMH rats, despite the fact that we don’t really get to know him that well. Mrs. Brisby receives a magical amulet from Nicodemus that only serves as a cheap deus ex machina during the climax. Jeremy is turned into a clumsy crow who has too many pointless “comic relief” scenes centered around him and Mrs. Brisby’s children. Mrs. Brisby is a likable protagonist, as she is a brave and determined mouse who goes to great lengths to solve her dilemma.
The Secret of NIMH was still a good film, but it wasn’t the masterpiece the critics made it out to be. Most critics gushed over the film, as it did out-Disney many of Disney’s then-recent efforts, and was more like the Golden Age classics rather than something like Robin Hood. Some elements are right up there with classic Disney moments, particularly the sequence where Mrs. Brisby meets the Great Owl. The combination of dark imagery, eerie sound editing and an overall gloomy atmosphere make it a winner. The voice cast certainly does a fine job too, Elizabeth Hartman gives Mrs. Brisby her brave and dedicated qualities while also balancing that out with her innocent and motherly side. Dom DeLuise gives a rightfully obnoxious performance as an obnoxious character. John Carradine steals the show as the Great Owl, with an ominous and booming voice.
Released in the summer of 1982, NIMH’s unanimous critical reception didn’t translate to box office success. Spearheaded by low-key marketing by United Artists and caught in a sea storm with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial along with other big blockbuster films, NIMH could only cough up not even half of what Disney’s last few animated films took in at the domestic box office. When released on home video in 1983, it began to get the audience it deserved and lived on as an animated classic.
The Secret of NIMH certainly had an impact on the animation industry and the critics, and it would be a signal to the directionless Disney studios. That same summer, Disney released Steven Lisberger’s science fiction adventure Tron. Like the previous PG-rated Disney output, this film was another attempt to reach out the teenage movie-goers. Tron contained groundbreaking use of computer generated imagery to depict the dark and strange world inside the computer. Wendy Carlos’ ominous score certainly fit the setting very well, almost playing out like a gloomy Atari 2600 game. The plot was good, and the action scenes were standout moments. Critics panned the often corny screenplay, and audiences most likely didn’t understand the computer jargon and the film’s themes. Tron wasn’t an outright flop, just a financial disappointment in the eyes of the Disney executives. Nevertheless, it was proof that Disney was willing to step up their game, even if they were going about it the wrong way. Tron certainly would've fared better years later, and the fact that it did so well on home video, spawned successful video games (a first for a Disney film) and even got a sequel many years later (and a subsequent franchise!) goes to show that Tron was ahead of its time.
In 1983, animator Glen Keane and then-newcomer John Lasseter worked on test footage for a planned adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, one that seamlessly combined computer generated imagery and hand-drawn animation. It was a glimpse into what the future of the medium could be, and ultimately would be...
While this was going on, The Black Cauldron was just getting out of dormancy despite being green lit in 1980. After Tron’s release, production finally moved forward. The suits were hoping for an effects-laden spectacle that could possibly get Disney back on the map and actually compete with the likes of the fantasy films of the era. What they ignored was the story, which would turn out to be a real mess.
The Black Cauldron’s main protagonist, Taran, is a rather bland character that’s almost like the story crew’s attempt at giving audiences a Luke Skywalker-esque lead except he's not as interesting. Taran basically wants to be seen as a hero, being a rather bored young man who doesn’t want to spend his life taking care of the magical pig, Hen Wen. It’s hard to root for him because there’s not much to him to begin with. The Horned King is after the Black Cauldron, a deadly weapon that can resurrect the dead. He wants to turn the dead into an army, the Cauldron-Born, and rule all of Prydain. That’s about it, though. All he wants to do is rule the world, and nothing more. Despite how frightening he looks and sounds (John Hurt provides a great raspy, shadowy voice), he’s cardboard as far as villains go with not much motivation. He learns that the pig knows where the cauldron is, so the enchanter Dallben tells Taran to take Hen Wen to a cottage in the forest. Taran daydreams, and the pig runs off, getting swept away by the Horned King’s gwythaints. The story collapses in the second act when Taran is imprisoned. Taran meets a stolen princess named Eilonwy and a captured bard named Fflewdurr Flem. A cutesy sidekick who shows up early on returns, a dog-like monster named Gurgi, who is doesn’t add much to the story. Most of the film is marred by mediocre dialogue, and it can be a chore to sit through. Our leads aren't very interesting, and the things they encounter only make the story plod until its climax fires up.
Had The Black Cauldron not been in development hell for so long, the film could’ve had a much better story. Too many writers worked on it, trying to make a film based on the first two books, thus creating a convoluted near-catastrophe. Early concept art suggests that The Black Cauldron could’ve been a very engaging epic. It does try some new things. For starters, there are no musical numbers or songs. Lots of creepy visuals and material that could be too frightening for children defined the tone of the film, along with some violence. Elmer Bernstein provides an eerie, spectacular score. But The Black Cauldron wasn’t a dark film, but rather a film that “looked” dark. There was no genuine horror like there was in the Golden Age Disney films, and visuals alone can't generate great creepy moments.
Some sequences are knock-outs, such as the Horned King’s introduction and the chase where the gwythaints capture Hen Wen. Taran fighting his way out of the castle with the magic sword makes for a pretty solid action sequence. Most of the film’s first act is very well handled too, moving at a considerable pace. The use of special effects pays off here and there, but still, with better writing, the film as a whole would’ve been a real thrill. This was also the first Disney animated film to make use of computer generated imagery, for small things from time to time like the boat the trio use to escape the crumbling castle. The animation itself is somewhat bland, feeling as if the artists tried to replicate the look of the previous Disney animated films, but the dark fantasy film look is welcomed. Some character designs are solid, such as Gurgi, Hen Wen, the Horned King and Creeper. Others are just expected and quite frankly, uninteresting, almost coming off like "Disney stock" characters.
The Black Cauldron’s road to release was quite bumpy, as Disney was having several issues. The company was fighting off any possible takeovers while also facing hard times financially. Roy E. Disney ultimately put a stop to this, and a new regime took over after Ron Miller’s resignation in 1984. Coming from Paramount, Michael Eisner became the CEO of the company and Jeffrey Katzenberg became the Chairman of the studio. Roy took a look at The Black Cauldron, which was on its way to completion. He didn’t like what he saw, a cluster of story problems and ill-defined characters.
When Jeffrey Katzenberg saw it, he wanted it to be edited for time constraints. Originally thought to be a roughly 90-minute film (Disney’s longest since Fantasia), Katzenberg wanted ten minutes cut and gave producer Joe Hale hell if ten minutes weren’t cut (“Is that ten minutes?”). The film was delayed from its planned Christmas 1984 release to the summer of 1985. A musical number with the Fair Folk thankfully got the ax, and Taran’s trip through the woods after he loses Hen Wen was significantly shortened. You can see that the animators simply recycled the scene from Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too where Rabbit is lost in the woods, for when Taran searches for the oracular pig. With all of that gone, The Black Cauldron was almost ready. Elmer Bernstein’s score had been completed, and the animation was completed by early 1985.
A screening was held in the studio shortly afterwards with disastrous results, angry parents objected to the film’s third act, where the Horned King uses the cauldron to resurrect the dead soldiers. Scenes where the skeletons slaughter some of the Horned King’s goons caught the attention of Katzenberg, who demanded the fully animated scenes be cut and even asked for “outtakes” to use in their place. Katzenberg didn’t realize at the time that no coverage was done in animation like it was in live action. He took the finished film into an editing room, and cut out two minutes of graphic violence that could’ve gotten the film a PG-13 or R rating. With these scenes missing, Elmer Bernstein’s score skips, and it’s very noticeable.
Jeffrey Katzenberg believed that Disney animation was for young children first and foremost, and this was the first of many atrocities he and Michael Eisner did to Disney animation that would lead to the animation studio’s misfortunes following the Renaissance. The film was finally released to theaters in July of 1985 with barely any marketing behind it. The film garnered mixed reviews and disappeared quickly. The film was a box office dud, being labelled as a massive flop. For years, Disney acted as if the film didn’t exist. It was even recut to be more kid-friendly. This version was released internationally as Taran and the Magic Cauldron in the early 1990s, but Disney finally released the original film on home video years later.
Perhaps the early to mid 1980s could be called the “Dark Age” of Disney, but to call it that is somewhat unfair. It only lasted for a brief period of time, and films like Tron have gone on to become very successful years later. The Black Cauldron sold incredibly well when released on home video stateside in 1998, and let’s not forget that Disney successfully launched The Disney Channel during this “Dark Age” while also releasing their films, little by little, on home video formats. Animation itself on the other hand had its troubles. The early 1980s wasn’t a good time to release a full-length animated feature given how toxic the medium’s reputation was. More and more Saturday morning cartoons dominated the airwaves, most of which being extremely successful toy commercials, only convincing audiences and executives that animation was only for children. Consider this, The Care Bears Movie outgrossed The Black Cauldron and every other animated film released from 1982 to 1985. No new animated film was even released theatrically in the United States in 1984!
The next Disney animated feature would be completed quickly with a much smaller budget, The Great Mouse Detective. Based on Eve Titus’ Basil of Baker Street books, a young mouse named Olivia is alone after her father, a toymaker, is kidnapped. Her and the kind-hearted Dr. David Q. Dawson go to find Basil of Baker Street, a Sherlock Holmes-esque detective. The crafty sleuth finds out that Olivia’s father’s kidnapper is a wily bat named Fidget, who is the lackey of the nefarious Professor Ratigan. Ratigan plans on using Olivia’s father to build a robotic version of Queen Mousetoria and take over England. It’s a simple and coherent plot that is packed with enough sparkle to delight the young and old. It doesn’t aim for the heights that the last three films aimed for, but it knows that.
All told briskly in just 74 minutes, The Great Mouse Detective has the good humor that defined a lot of the earlier Disney films, but at the same time, it never goes beyond what it is. It stays within the confines of a simple narrative, so trying to stack it up next to the Golden Age films or even something like The Rescuers would only make it seem inferior by comparison. As a delightful romp, it succeeds. The characters are likable, and the animators seemed to have a field day with some. Ratigan steals the show, a comic menace voiced by a gleefully evil Vincent Price. The rat may seem sophisticated, but he’s really trying to keep his animal in check much like Shere Khan.
Fun action scenes are sprinkled with good humor and slapstick that works, given the cartoon-like nature of the story. Its animation is a mixed bag, with some neat backgrounds that evoke a foggy, dark atmosphere with nods to Sherlock Holmes films. Most of the film, however, looks more in line with a Saturday morning cartoon. This isn’t the animators’ fault, since they had to work with a smaller budget and meet a deadline, they try to make the most of it. The character animation is loose and impressive, unlike the frustrated and often rote work seen in The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron.
The film’s climax takes place inside of Big Ben, an elaborate chase scene where computer generated imagery was used to create all the gears and mechanisms. The scene is so beautiful and detailed, it clashes with the rest of the visual style of the whole picture. The camera swoops through gears as Ratigan gives chase to Basil, showcasing how the use of computer generated imagery could take the medium to new heights, much like the Wild Things test scene. Basil and Ratigan fight on the clock hands, showcasing some powerful animation that’s nothing short of thrilling.
While not an ambitious film that would be worthy of Disney’s best, The Great Mouse Detective is a satisfying endeavor on its own. Its a lighthearted treat that was a breather from the last two films, films that could’ve been great but spoiled by bad blunders. This certainly paid off, as The Great Mouse Detective hit theaters in the summer of 1986, getting good reviews and making a tidy profit for Disney. This gave the animation world some hope, as it had outgrossed The Black Cauldron by a considerable amount.
Then... In November... The light came at the end of the tunnel...
The record-breaking success of Don Bluth’s An American Tail, produced by Steven Spielberg, was an unexpected smash for the medium. The film might not have gotten great reviews, but its success was what convinced Disney executives that animation wasn’t dead and could in fact be extremely profitable. Eisner and Katzenberg were close to phasing out the feature animation studio, favoring future endeavors like Touchstone Pictures, a brand name for Disney to release adult-oriented films without scaring teenagers and adults away. An American Tail’s success and the record-breaking home video sales of the Disney animated classics were what got Disney to go back to animated films and immediately usher the Second Golden Age of Animation...
The rest, they say, is history...
~
So were the 1970s and 1980s the "Dark Age" of Disney animation? No.
Sure, it wasn't a Renaissance, but Disney had a lot of financially successful films released at the time. Films like The Rescuers showed that Disney was indeed aiming high at times, and not everything released was truly abysmal. The Aristocats and Robin Hood have their faults, but they are by no means terrible. Tron and a few other live-action films demonstrated the changes Disney was willing to go through in an attempt to catch up with audiences. It was more like a transitional time. Without Walt Disney, the company had to move on but yet they were close to just plugging along...
The changes that took place at Disney and in the world of feature animation shaped the medium. The rise of adults-only animation from filmmakers like Ralph Bakshi were certainly groundbreaking, and stateside releases of foreign animated films certainly grew during this time. Young artists showed that animation was still alive, and these very artists would help take animation to successful heights in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From the Second Golden Age onwards, the idea of the animated feature film has never gone away, and you can say it all started with the talent Disney hired in the 1970s and 1980s...
A "Dark Age"? No. Were there tough times? Certainly. There were tough times during the Renaissance and even the First Golden Age. Instead, the 1970s and 1980s was a phase where animation had to stand on its own despite what was working against it, and it certainly did...
