old news from July 1985. celebration of Disneyland’s 30th birthday. plus a short old news on Disney having a special screening of The Black Cauldron for the Hollywood stars and a lawn party at the Disney studios.
Tokyo Disneyland's 1986 Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour
from themeparkart tumblr: Today’s Disney castles tend to feature some kind of place of interest within them, whether it be a lavish restaurant, unique shopping or art exhibits. However, for 20 years, Tokyo Disneyland’s Cinderella Castle featured an expansive, (and dark!) walkthrough beneath it. Set up as a guided tour of the castle that is taken over by the forces of evil, guests traversed past Disney villains, dark dungeons, evil brutes and malicious mirrors, concluding with a showdown with the Horned King from The Black Cauldron. In Disney fashion, the villains are defeated and the mantra of “Good Conquers Evil” is declared. Upon its closure in 2006, the attraction was converted to Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall.
Here is something interesting Disney historians Jim Hill and Drew Taylor talk about an article in Walt Disney Production's inhouse magazine Imagine from April 1981 about a Black Cauldron ride being planned for Disneyland. The ride was going to be like Epcot's Horizons attraction (before they were working on Horizons) the idea for a Black Cauldron ride got shelved.
here is the link to the Podcast Fine Tooning with Drew Taylor: http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/podcast_transcripts/archive/2018/05/06/fine-tooning-with-drew-taylor-episode-3-cinemacon-and-tribeca.aspx Edit: a fellow tumblr user told me that some concept art of the shelved Black Cauldron ride for Disneyland was seen at the D23 expo in 2010. and one of the concept art can be seen in the Progress City blog post Lost Disneylandia also there was a overview and the ride's map, (progress city does not have on their blog anymore)
(snapshot from the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection DVD of The Black Cauldron. It can be found on the French dub. to find it, go to Set Up, then go to Spoken Languages section, then click the word French.)
yeah, Disney also retitled The Great Mouse Detective (1986) as The Adventures of The Great Mouse Detective for the rerelease in 1992.
Jim Korkis Animation Anecdotes #128:
Back in 1984, singer Michael Jackson persuaded the studio top brass to give him a private advance screening of the then-unfinished animated feature, “The Black Cauldron”.
Michael cheered all the way through the film.
(And there is a good story in here somewhere about how Disney tried to remarket the film as “The Dark Cauldron” and then later “Taran and the Magic Cauldron”.)
Jim the only evidences I can find is for Taran and The Magic Cauldron. The alternate title can be found in children’s books, puzzles, a poster for a limited US rerelease from the early 1990′s and a English title card in the French dub on the Gold Classic Collection 2000 dvd.
(Teaser Trailer from the 1985 Walt Disney's Pinocchio VHS)
The Black Cauldron - 1985 Theatrical Trailer (35mm 4K)
probably the most viewed Black Cauldron trailer on YouTube, the "Theatrical Trailer" from the bonus features section on the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection DVD of The Black Cauldron.
This trailer's music, it doesn't sound like the Elmer Bernstein score in this trailer. any information on whose music score in this trailer it is?
"Entire family"?
hmmmmm
Do you mean "Family with teens of the late 1970's and early to mid 1980's who think they are too cool for Disney"?
British VHS Trailer. This is similar to the "Theatrical Trailer"
one of the differences is this trailer it has Elmer Bernstein's music score
A TV promo for a portuguesse dub with the alternate title Taran and The Magic Cauldron
start at the 0;22 mark on the video.
Bing Translate of the description on the YouTube video
"Trailer of the film Taran and the Magic Cauldron presented at the Disney Club Friends of March 19, 1989."
Taran and the Magic Cauldron - 1990 Reissue Trailer (35mm 4K)
Taran and the Magic Cauldron -- Rare TV Trailer
1998 US Walt Disney Home Video trailer for the "Disney Masterpiece" The Black Cauldron VHS
Special Edition DVD trailer for The Black Cauldron.
actually, it is The Black Cauldron 25 Anniversary Edition. it came out in 2010.
I have this on DVD. and a very good remaster.
don't be fooled by the trailer that says "Deleted Scenes" on the DVD there is only one: the deleted alternate fair folk scene.
Floyd Norman: Being back in the Disney family meant I could attend screenings of the ill fated animated feature and each new screening grew successively worse.
The directors began shifting the order of sequences as if that would garner a more compelling narrative.
Sadly, nothing appeared to help and the arrival of new Disney management in 1984 only drove the nail deeper. http://floydnormancom.sq...5/4/1/the-black-cauldron
A video from Dennis
one of the storyboards for the alternate prologue for the film
The alternate narration for these storyboards made it's way to Disney and Sierra's Dos computer game from 1987 and promotional stuff for the film.
Lengthy excerpt from
Mike Peraza's comment to Celbi from the comment section of Mike Peraza's Caulrdron of Chaos article
mike perazaSeptember 9, 2010 at 3:15 PM
"Yes there were multiple openings that were conceptualized by different people.
I worked with Don Griffith (Great Art Director) and Vance Gerry (an outstanding storyman and artist)
on one version that showed the Horned King and his gang burning down a village. Sweeping flames were used as transitions between scenes of destruction.
We wanted a contrast to the peace and quiet of Taran's farm life.
Also worked on a dark version of faire folk that was kind of cool but gave the Horned King and the Witches too much competition by being creepy
(which made sense why they cut that version) along with a bright glowing version that looked like the fairies came off a cereal box."
(James Coleman's concept art. Could this be the "creepy" version of the faire folk scene?)
Mike Peraza's comment continued: "Talk about night and day concepts, lol. I think they kept the glowing faire folk.
I want to also add that we had a very talented layout staff along with story department that created a tremendous amount of beautiful art.
There was a lot of work to be shared and cut into the film as well as cut out."
The Black Cauldron Deleted Scenes Investigation (Part 1) - Soundtrack gaps and Jump-cuts.
a fellow from YouTube named Dennis has put together four videos investigating the deleted trims of Disney’s The Black Cauldron.
Warning: the last one in this video is very Indiana Jones’ Raiders esq violent. it has one the Horned King's barbarians get melted. (Even in the thumbnail picture on the YouTube video)
Excerpts from the documentaries Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009) and The Making of The Little Mermaid (2006)
Jeffrey Katzenberg: In the first couple of weeks I was at the studio, I saw The Black Cauldron. It was a very dark and a very troubled movie.
“This is just way, way, way too violent and too scary. You have to edit some of these things out.” They said, “Well, you can’t edit an animated movie.” I said, “well, of course you can.” And they said, “No you can’t.”
animator Phil Nibbelink: "I had a very complicated scene of one of the huntsmen turning into a deathless warrior landing on the ground and shaking, and all his flesh bubbling and boiling and dripping off. A lot of drawings very complicated.
And they got it all the way to color, and that's when Katzenberg came to look at the movie and the first thing he said, "You got to cut that scene out, my 3-year-old will be frightened by it."
That was a crying shame because so much work went into it. yeah, it was pretty abrupt."
Lengthy excerpt from
Mike Peraza's comment to Chris from the comment section of Mike Peraza's Cauldron of Chaos article
I have to say that I believe the extended gory Cauldron born scenes were cut out for a good reason, they just looked bad.
They were not only on the more grotesque side visually but animated through and into slow holds along with color models that were realistically and unimaginatively stark as opposed to more inventive lighting and color.
I would have liked to seen more shadows of the undead coming to life and then intercut some shocking but sparsely lit creatures that would crawl in and out of shadows.
I wish they had played on the horrified reactions to the undead from their "victims" rather than linger on the creatures themselves.
Sometimes an evil force can be hidden partly from the audience and have a much greater impact in my opinion.
A good example of this would be the monster from Ridley Scott's "Alien" classic which was seen only in snippets here and there but had an enormous chilling effect on the audience.
If it had been held in sharp brightly lit rooms, it wouldn't have had the same effect.
The Black Cauldron Deleted Scenes Investigation (Part 2) another video from Dennis
in the pencil test at the end of this video Fflewddur's voice in the end doesn't sound like Nigel Hawthorne. To me Fflewddur's voice sounds like one of Disney Character Voices International.
Deleted Alternate Fair Folk Scene from the bonus features section of the 25th anniversary DVD of The Black Cauldron a reconstruction of sorts by Disney Home Entertainment. The voice work sounds like Disney Character Voices International. not those of the film's original voice cast.
according to the documentary Backstage at Disney (1983) producer Joe Hale mentions that Jonathan Wintersis the voice of KingEidilleg. In the final film Jonathan was replaced by Arthur Mallet. the work in progress voices are likely lost. (even Jonathan Winters' voice work)
Lengthy excerpt from Producer Joe Hale's comment to Jeff from the comment section of Mike Peraza's Cauldron of Chaos article bevhale September 17, 2010 at 6:53 PM
Jonathon Winters did record the dialogue for King Eiddieg, and it was cut into the work reel. I made the decision not to use him because his voice was too recognizable.
It always bothers me when I can recognize the voice of an animated character. I feel it conflicts with the believability of the character.
Management wanted me to use big stars for the voices of the Witches such as Bette Davis or Lauren Bacall. As you know, I did not use a star, but, rather, I found three ladies whose voices suited the characters.
excerpts from Starlog Magazine Issue 097 August 1985 article: Animating "The Black Cauldron" By Brian Lowery https://archive.org/details/starlog_magazine-097/page/n63/mode/2up Deja worked primarily on the film's opening segment and on Taran throughout. "I also did the final version of the Fairfolk sequence and some of the witches at the end, which was the most fun." he says. The Mention of the Fairfolk sequence draws groans from both animators--as they remember a scene which was done and redone again and again. "There were lots of changes, nothing but changes," Deja acknowledges. "There were whole sequences cut that were halfway animated. There was major surgery throughout the whole thing." It was, undoubtedly, a baptism of fire for nearly everyone who worked on the film. Hale compares Cauldron to the classic Fantasia in terms of difficulty. "It was hard to train animators on this picture," Hale admits. "I wasn't sure we were ready to do it. The new animators not only had to be as good as people with 30 years experience who had just retired, they had to be better, because this is a more difficult picture. "Fortunately, we had enough young animators with that raw talent, but it still took a long time to get them going."
The Black Cauldron Deleted Scenes Investigation (Part 3) another video from Dennis
Bernstein considers his score for The Black Cauldron one of his most important and challenging assignments in his 35 years as a motion picture composer.
This score marks Bernstein's first grand symphonic score in nearly a decade. Before The Black Cauldron Bernstein wrote music for Ghostbusters, National Lampoon's Animal House, Airplane, Stripes, and Trading Places. "One thing that was very attractive about The Black Cauldron, outside the fact that I love the film, was that this project lends itself to an ambitious score," he said. "Many motion pictures have similar requirements; westerns and comedies have their own set of considerations and problems. In any career, The Black Cauldron would be an unique endeavor." When Bernstein first saw The Black Cauldron, it was still in rough form with pencil test footage. Bernstein as still able to get the full impact of the story. "I started working on the themes for the main characters, mostly Taran and the Horned King. Taran is an Assistant Pig-Keeper who wants to be a hero. Hie theme at the very beginning is sweet and light. You would never guess at that point that that theme could become heroic but it begins to sound very different when he has the magic sword in hands. This was donw through orchestration," recalled Bernstein. One of Bernstein's special indredients for adding magic to the score was the use of a rare French instrument called the Ondes Martenot.
Since no one in the United States and very few people in the world for that matter could play this instrument, and English musician by the name of Cynthia Millar was flown over for the recording session. Millar had previously played the Ondes Martenot for the score of A Passage to India.
"This instrument was invented in France in 1928 and was one of the first electric instruments," said Bernstein. "It sounds like maybe everything and nothing exactly. There are times when it might sound like a flute, other times when it might sound like a human voice or a cello.
I used it a lot in connection with the main characters Taran and Eilonwy." Bernstein describes the Horned King's theme as overwhelming and very menacing. The witches were another matter entirely. To highlight their eccentric and comic nature, Bernstein created "weird off-center waltzes with some suggestion of rock and roll."
The Black Cauldron is not the only Disney film that Elmer Bernstein did music for. The 2nd Disney film he did was The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) which was rejected in favor of a new score by James Horner.
here is a YouTube link to the music track from Elmer’s rejected score for Disney’s The Journey of Natty Gann
Elmer's rejected music score for Natty Gann can also be found in the film's trailer
