The Making of Mickey's Christmas Carol 1983

excerpts from stevehatguy tumblr's The Making of Mickey Chrsitmas Carol  and Jim Korkis'  MousePlanet Article of Mickey's Christmas Carol

stevehatguy:  Burny transitioned onto the small team of artists doing early story development for The Black Cauldron. 

A few personal clashes with the directors were discouraging for Burny but he vowed that he was going to stick with the project and make the best out of the situation. 
However, things boiled to a head when the directors began to criticize a storyboard sequence of Burny’s - the introduction of Dallben and Taran - saying that it wasn’t ready to go forward into the production pipeline

Feeling that his instincts and abilities were being unfairly challenged,
Burny exploded and told off the directors and the producer.  It was a move that was very out of character for the typically jolly and optimistic Mattinson.
 And a move that made him feel like he’d just jeopardized his career at Disney. 

At home that night, Burny told his wife Sylvia - also an artist at Disney - what had happened that day.  He was certain that he’d ruined his future with the studio.
 But Sylvia reminded him of a project that Mattinson had been excited about, several years back.  Maybe this would be a good time to pitch that.

Jim Korkis:  Mattinson had always wanted to do a film with the Fab Five (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto) and was familiar with the Christmas Carol record album.
He sent it to CEO Ron Miller, along with his suggestions.
Two days later, he was surprised when he was called into a meeting with Miller who started the encounter by grumbling about why Mattinson had sent him this material.

Mattinson felt he had overstepped his bounds and might lose his job. Miller was just joking.
 He thought it was a great idea and gave Mattinson the approval to produce and direct the project.

It was Mattinson’s first directorial assignment,

Stevthehatguy:  By May of 1981, Burny had a complete story reel of the film ready to screen.  The Black Cauldron was also showing their story reels on the same day.
 Christmas Carol screened first and after it was finished,

Cauldron producer Joe Hale, still sore at Burny for telling them off and jumping ship,
turned to Burny and said “To think that this will become the definitive version of ‘Christmas Carol.’”  Hale’s words stung but Burny didn’t let them get him down.

 Ron Miller had asked him to start handing out animation this month and that’s exactly what he was going to do.

more here in these links:

https://stevehatguy.tumblr.com/tagged/Mickey%27s-Christmas-Carol

https://www.mouseplanet.com/11965/Mickeys_Christmas_Carol

https://michaelperaza.blogspot.com/search?q=mickey%27s+christmas+carol

Production Starts in 1980 on The Black Cauldron

excerpt from the interview with Disney producer Joe Hale
http://animatedviews.com/2010/the-black-cauldron-producer-joe-hale-talks-munchings-and-crunchings/

Black Cauldron Producer Joe Hale:

basically, I started on delivering the mail around the Studio.

Then I went on doing animation, notably on Man on the Moon and some TV shorts.

I’ve done a little bit of everything, like story work. Basically, I was a layout man,

but on The Wonderful World of Disney and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color

I got experience in the combination of live action and animated characters.

Walt would be with Professor Owl or Donald Duck or Chip & Dale or whatever.

So, I started kind of jumping back and forth between live action and animation.

Story-wise, I worked on films like Watcher in the Woods.

When I came back, I was given the choice of directing or Story.

At that time there was another person, Rick Rich, who was already kind of directing.

He was kind of a junior director and I didn’t want to get in his way. So, I just stayed in Story.

You know, there was a lot of trouble going on at the Studio.

The Nine Old Men as they called them at that time, Frank & Ollie,

Milt and all those guys were gone and then there was another group

that was very talented and experienced that left with Don Bluth.

Excerpt from: 11 Animators Quit Disney, Form Studio https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/20/archives/11-animators-quit-disney-form-studio-loyalty-is-cited.html
"LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19— A severe blow was struck at Walt Disney Productions’ animation department last weekend when 11 members — over 15 percent of the department — resigned to form a rival company.
As a result, the animated feature on which they were working, “The Fox and the Hound,” may be delayed nearly six months beyond its anticipated Christmas 1980 release."


more about it  here and here


Black Cauldron Producer Joe Hale interview continued

Joe Hale:

"So, we had a bunch of young animators from Cal Arts that had talent but that didn’t have the experience,

and everybody knew I was always eager to bring the young ones along.

Ron Miller called me up and asked me if I would take over as producer on The Black Cauldron.

I think some of the animators did talk to him, or talk to someone, about me taking over the producing,

but I didn’t want to do it because a good friend of mine,

Art Stevens, was the producer and I just didn’t feel right about it.

And at that time, I was more interested in live action

and I talked to Ron about second unit live action directing.

Anyway, Ron finally told me that whether I took the job or not,

Art was gonna be replaced by someone else. So, I took over The Black Cauldron."


Excerpt from:
Animating "The Black Cauldron"
by Brain Lowery
 August 1985
https://www.dix-project.net/item/3061/starlog-magazine-issue-97-animating-the-black-cauldron

"One of the problems we've had in the last few years," Hale admits, "is that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and others have moved in and taken over special effects – they do in live action what we used to do only in animation. If we are going to have any kind of an impact and keep this industry going, we must go farther in animation than they have in live action."

The Black Cauldron's $25+ million pricetag and 70mm Dolby Stereo format boldly brings Lloyd Alexander's fantasy world where Lucas and Spielberg have gone before in the realm of expenditure, and re-asserts the studio's claim to preeminence in the field of fantasy storytelling. An added bonus to the production, Hale notes, was filling a cupboard which had been bare.
"The reason we spent the money on this feature was not only to do a picture but to train a whole new generation of animators. We had good background and layout departments, but really no experienced animators.

"I would say this studio is now set with animators for another 30 years," the producer claims. "At the beginning, I thought, 'If I can make a good picture and leave the studio in as good a shape as it was when I started here in '51, I'll be satisfied.' Now, I would match these animators against anybody from the past."