He was responsible for painting many of the cels for scenes that he had worked on — highly detailed work that gave the young animator an appreciation for what had been accomplished. Apparently finishing the cels was a huge issue, especially as the production was running out of time. Due to the cumbersome nature of the 70mm and the sheer size of everything, Hahn had to look elsewhere to complete work on the film. It was kind of a disaster. We had to ship these huge boxes of cels, in huge wooden crates, to Korea and back again and shoot them in Los Angeles.
Bossert arrived on the film during what was supposed to be the final year of production, but another huge curveball came in the form of the installation, in , of new executives Michael Eisner and Frank Wells , with Eisner subsequently bringing Jeffrey Katzenberg on to oversee the film output, including animation.
It was the first time anyone from outside of the Disney family had run the company, and it followed an incredibly fraught time when corporate greenmailers threatened a hostile takeover of the studio, with different divisions being sold for parts. The staff was nervous and had little to go on.
Bossert remembers rumors flooding the hallways of the studios, with animators keeping a close eye on the daily newspapers.
None of the new executives had ever worked in animation before. They were in shock, both of them. And it costs how much? This is going to be a live-action studio only. The Black Cauldron was nearing completion when Katzenberg asked to see the film.
He was shocked. Katzenberg also made some personnel changes. Additionally, the building where the animators had worked on Black Cauldron was going to be converted to splashy new offices for production companies for the live-action slate. Animation was getting kicked off the lot to a rambling industrial park down the street.
Roy loved animation and Eisner and Wells were happy to let him oversee the unit. And then, finally, in the summer of , The Black Cauldron was released. There are some reports that Disney had wanted to outfit theaters with special holographic technology, to enhance the film and add a little sizzle to the marketing. But Bossert asserts that he never heard anything about that and assumes that it came from Imagineering, which following the completion of EPCOT Center and Tokyo Disneyland was facing a massive reduction in the workforce.
But there are some generally thrilling sequences, like an early moment where giant, dragon-like beasts come after the pig and anything involving The Horned King, malevolently voiced by the great John Hurt.
Some moments, like the deadly goo released by the black cauldron and the shimmery swordplay, seem directly inspired by live action fare of the period, things like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Star Wars. Critically, the to The Black Cauldron was mixed. Financially, it did much worse.
And it seemed like the severe underperformance of The Black Cauldron could have signaled the end of Walt Disney Animation. It came out on DVD, complete with special features including special features, but was never released on Blu-ray. While Hale later claimed that an unedited cut of the film existed ReleaseTheBlackCauldronGoreCut , in the early s, then-head of animation Peter Schneider tasked Hahn and editor Arthur Schmidt with delivering an improved cut of the film for home video.
Now, pig-keeper, you shall die! He attempts to throw Taran into the Cauldron, but suddenly, the wind issuing from the Cauldron turns on him, and he cannot escape. He screams in anger as he is violently sucked in. Once he's gone, Creeper begins to mourn for his master but then realizes he is now free and will never be throttled again and starts laughing. The Cauldron sinks into the ground, and the castle begins to crumble.
Taran finds his friends waiting for him. They escape in a longboat as the castle explodes and falls into the water. Creeper, still laughing, flies away on a Gwythaint. Taran and his friends have just made it to shore when the Cauldron rises from the water. Again in the form of clouds, the witches reappear, decide the heroes have no more use for the Cauldron, and prepare to take it back.
But Fflewddur reminds them that they always keep a bargain by trade. Orddu doesn't want to give up the sword, but Orda and Orwen do.
Orwen gives it to Taran. Taran no longer wants the sword but will trade it instead for Gurgi's life. Orddu deems it impossible, but when Fflewddur starts goading them, they take away the Cauldron and the sword and leave a lifeless Gurgi in the Cauldron's place.
The heroes look tearfully at Gurgi, and Taran picks him up to hold him. But suddenly, Gurgi reaches for munchies and crunchies, and everyone is ecstatic to see him alive again. Furthermore, he pushes Taran and Princess Eilonwy's heads together when they are staring at each other, and they share a kiss.
They all head home together. Back at the farm, Dallben, Doli, and Hen Wen are all watching the heroes through a vision. They all agree that Taran did very well on his first adventure. Walt Disney Productions optioned Lloyd Alexander's Newbery Medal -winning and widely acclaimed five-volume The Chronicles of Prydain series in , and pre-production work began in when the film rights to Alexander's books were finally obtained.
According to Ollie Johnston , it was he and Frank Thomas that convinced the studio to produce the motion picture adaptation of the series. As fans of the book series, the two animators hoped that if the film would be done properly, it might be "as good as Snow White ". Because of the numerous storylines and with over thirty characters in the original series, several story artists and animators worked on the development of the film throughout the s, where it was originally slated for release in Miller considered to be too advanced for the animators.
Therefore, in August , the studio pushed its release date back to Christmas due to the animators' inability of animating realistic human characters; its original release date would later be assumed by The Fox and the Hound. During its development limbo, one of those writers was veteran storyboard artist Vance Gerry who was chosen to create beat storyboards that would outline the plot, action, and locations.
Having set up the three principal characters, Gerry adapted the Horned King into a big-bellied Viking who had a red beard, fiery temper, and wore a steel helmet with two large horns. Desiring an experienced British screenwriter to write the screenplay, the studio signed Rosemary Anne Sisson onto the project.
The first director attached to the project was animator John Musker after he was proposed the job by production head Tom Wilhite. As director, Musker was assigned to expand several sequences in the first act, but they were eventually deemed too comedic. When Miller decided too many people were involved, he decided Stevens was not appropriate to supervise the project so he contacted Joe Hale, who was a longtime layout artist at Disney Studios, to serve as producer.
With Hale as producer, actual production on The Black Cauldron officially began in He tossed out visual character artwork submitted by Tim Burton and along with The Fox and the Hound directors Richard Rich and Ted Berman, they desired a Sleeping Beauty -style approach and brought Milt Kahl out of retirement to create character designs for Taran , Princess Eilonwy , Fflewddur Fflam , and the other principal characters.
He and the story team including two story artists David Jonas and Al Wilson that Hale brought to the project revised the film, capsulizing the story of the first two books and making some considerable changes which led to the departure of Sisson who had creative differences with Hale and the directors. Displeased with Vance Gerry's concept for the Horned King, the Horned King became a thin creature donning a hood and carried a spectral presence with shadowed face and glowing red eyes where Hale decided to expand his role, making him the composite villain of the several characters from the books.
Taran and Eilonwy eventually acquired elements of the past designs and costumes of earlier Disney characters, especially the latter who was drawn to resemble Princess Aurora. The production of the film, which initially lasted from to , represented the rift between the studio management of Walt Disney Productions and the newer, less-experienced animators of the studio's animation department. The second group - the newer, less-experienced animators - had always dreamt of working at Disney's animation department, were very enthusiastic about the film project, and really wanted to prove their worth by creating the film that would hearken back to the glory days of great Disney storytelling and filmmaking, as well as pushing the envelope of what can be accomplished in animation.
They also felt that they're continually bogged down by the old guard i. The first group - the studio management - on the other hand, felt that the animators are spoiled brats and commanded them to follow orders and do as they were told. This has resulted in many instances of creative differences between the two groups and the final result is that neither may have gotten exactly what they wanted.
Invented by David W. Spencer from the studio's still camera department, the animation photo transfer process shorten as the APT process was first used for The Black Cauldron , which would enhance the technology by which the rough animation would be processed onto celluloid. First, the rough animation would be photographed onto high-contrast litho film, and the resulting negative would be copied onto the plastic cel sheets that would transfer lines and the colors which eventually eliminated the hand-inking process.
But as the APT-transferred line art would fade off of the cels over time, most or all of the film was done using the xerographic process which had been in place at Disney since the late s. The Black Cauldron is notable for being Disney's first animated feature film to incorporate computer-generated imagery in its animation. The CGI was utilized for a lot of the film's special effects, which includes the bubbles, a boat, a floating orb of light, the Cauldron itself, the realistic flames seen near the end of the movie, and the boat that Taran and his friends used to escape the castle.
The dimensions and volume of the animated objects were fed into a computer and then their shapes were manipulated through computer programming before they were transferred as physical outlines the animators could work on. Despite The Black Cauldron being released a year before The Great Mouse Detective , both films were in production simultaneously for some time and the computer graphics for the latter were done first.
When producer Joe Hale heard about what was being done, the possibilities made him excited and he made the crew from The Great Mouse Detective project create some computer animation for his own movie. For the other effects, animator Don Paul used live-action footage of dry ice mists to create the steam and smoke coming out of the Cauldron. The Disney sound editors began experimenting with newly-recorded sound effects, beginning with this film, to replace many of the classic effects heard in many Disney animated films up until after The Fox and the Hound.
This included newer, more-realistic thunderclaps to replace the " Castle Thunder " sound effect used on most animated Disney features , newer crashes and explosions, and more. A rare trailer of this film , however, did use many old Disney sound effects in it particularly "Castle Thunder" , and The Great Mouse Detective released the following year made heavy use of the old Disney sound effects.
After that film, the classic sound effects including "Castle Thunder" were officially retired from Walt Disney Feature Animation. The Black Cauldron is the first Disney animated feature film to have closing credits since Alice in Wonderland. This film was shot using the Super Technirama 70 widescreen 70 mm film process, and is one of only two Disney films to have been produced in such a manner, the other being Sleeping Beauty. Shortly before the film's initially planned Christmas theatrical release, a test screening for the rough cut of The Black Cauldron was held at the studio's private theater in Burbank, California.
After the film, particularly the climactic "Cauldron Born" sequence, proved to be too intense and frightening for the majority of the children in the audience most of whom fled the theater in terror before it was even finished , the then-newly appointed Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered certain scenes from The Black Cauldron be cut, as a result of the film's long length and the fear that the film's graphic nature would alienate children and family audiences.
Since animated films were generally edited in storyboard form using Leica reels later known as animatics : storyboards shot sequentially and set to temporary audio tracks , producer Joe Hale objected to Katzenberg's demands. Katzenberg responded by having the film brought into an edit bay and editing the film himself.
Though he did what Eisner insisted, Katzenberg requested that the film be modified, and delayed its scheduled Christmas release to July , so that the whole film could be reworked, even though the film itself had just been completed. The film was ultimately cut by twelve to fifteen minutes, all of which were fully animated and scored.
As a result, some existing scenes were rewritten, reanimated, and reedited for continuity. Many of the cut scenes involved the undead " Cauldron Born ", who are used as the Horned King's army in the final act of the film.
While most of the scenes were seamlessly removed from the film, one particular cut involving a Cauldron Born warrior killing a person by decapitating him and another one killing another person by decapitating his torso created a rather recognizable lapse because the removal of the scene creates a jump in the film's soundtrack.
Other deleted scenes include mostly shots of graphic violence such as the ones where Taran kills some of the Horned King's guards with the magic sword Dyrnwyn, while he and Eilonwy escape from the castle ; shots of Princess Eilonwy being partially naked with her dress torn, as she's hanging for her life with Taran and Fflewddur Fflam ; whole sequences involving the world of the Fair Folk ; scenes of the Horned King with a flowing cloak; one scene featuring one of the King's henchmen being mauled by one of the Cauldron Born warriors, which causes him to form horrifically detailed lacerations and boils, before he rots away to become one of the Cauldron Born warriors himself a couple of animated cels of that particular scene can actually now be found on the Internet ; and a more action-oriented, dramatic, and intense climatic fight scene between Taran and the Horned King before the latter is sucked into the Cauldron.
After months of hard work, the final film ultimately received a PG rating from the MPAA, the first ever for a Disney animated feature film and the only one until Dinosaur , fifteen years later, in A version of the film with more cuts has appeared on the Disney Channel and Toon Disney.
In July , Pinocchio was released on home video for the first time. The videotape that was released in features the trailer for The Black Cauldron , which contains one of the cut scenes from the original version of the film. In this trailer, three Cauldron-Born warriors jump up, as opposed to the film, where only two jump up - this is also the scene where the soundtrack jumped in the film, but in the trailer it is intact.
It was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein and originally released in The tracks were performed by Utah Symphony Orchestra. Unlike most other Disney animated films, the film contained no songs. At the time, Bernstein just came off the success of his Academy Award-nominated score for the film Trading Places as well as the score for the film Ghostbusters. Like in the latter of the two, The Black Cauldron saw the use of the ghostly ondes Martenot to build upon the dark mood of Prydain.
Because of the film's last minute revisions, much of Bernstein's score was cut and unused. At least I'm not lactose intolerant to great stories. Ahmad Sharabiani. Spencer Orey. A slight retread of book 1, but with a sharper driving quest, higher stakes, and bigger character moments for almost everyone.
Except for the looming shadow of the big bad villain, the smaller villains are far more nuanced and morally interesting. There are more of the lovely thoughtful moments that I prize, where people have to consider the price of heroism and reflect on what makes for a good life. Looking forward to the next book. Author 4 books 1, followers. In these uncertain, fraught times, I am comforted by the wisdom, warmth, wit, and courage depicted in these pages.
Simply delightful. Mike the Paladin. Heavier than the first novel The Book of Three with a lot more on the ball teaching wise and lesson wise.
This includes lessons on everything up to self sacrifice. This book is the one that gave the Disney film from the 80s its name--you know, the one nobody saw that was a complete box office disaster--right before The Little Mermaid came out and ushered in Disney's Golden Age.
I saw the film once and wasn't impressed with it. It bears almost no resemblance, aside from its characters sharing the same names and a few select characteristics, to the books. As stated in my review for The Book of Three , I was not very impressed with this series to start off with, but about a third of the way in to The Black Cauldron , it became clear that Alexander had turned his storytelling around a little.
Instead of focusing on plot movement and having things happen to the characters all the time, The Black Cauldron is instead a very character-motivated story. Most of the conflict doesn't come from fighting bad guys, but instead from the difficult choices the characters must make. Although, yes, there is a plot. Taran and his friends join the massive effort to retake the titular Black Cauldron from Arawn, Death Lord of Annuven, so that he may not make any more of his Cauldron Born warriors basically magical deathless zombies.
Only one problem: when they get to Annuven, the Cauldron has already been stolen, so the companions set off again in search of it, to prevent Arawn from making more Cauldron Born, so that when the final inevitable confrontation that is sure to come does occur, they may at least have a chance in defeating him.
They are honestly delightful a great example of Alexander's skill at combining humor and actual pathos and more importantly, they pose Taran his greatest challenge yet. Taran, who wants to be a hero, but doesn't actually know what that means. This was probably my favorite of the five books, mostly because the enchantresses were so sassy, but also probably because it was such an unexpected improvement over its predecessor.
Meg Cabot.
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