NEW Disney Movie Club Exclusives 4/20/2021 -- The Black Cauldron 30th Anniversary Edition (1 Viewer)

[darkrock17]

Must every Disney announcement thread turn into a “bashing Disney because of their choice not to release an unrelated film” thread?

Forget it Josh, it's the HTF

 

[MatthewA]

You may be bothered by constantly having to hear it, but I'm ten times as bothered by Disney's unwarranted hostility towards it. I feel the same way any time threads about Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Pete's Dragon get derailed by off-topic umbrella-shaped detours.

 

[Chewbabka]

I guess I’m not familiar with the other titles you mentioned.

 

[MatthewA]

They wouldn't exist without Song of the South but their existence didn't come at its expense at first as they co-existed peacefully well into the 1980s. SOTS actually went 16 years without a reissue: its third and fourth times in theaters were in 1956 and 1972. Two of those films came into existence during that time period. And a whole lot else changed in real life, too, not just Walt dying.

Holding the company accountable for things I think are wrong is not the same as mindlessly bashing them for its own sake. Even so, they get plenty of negative PR without the film being legally available in a non-obsolete video format.

The same mentality at the studio that ostracizes that film is the same mentality that shortchanges films like The Black Cauldron. They think people only want to see the same 15 movies over and over again.

 

[darkrock17]

I guess I’m not familiar with the other titles you mentioned.

You've never seen Bedknobs And Broomsticks or the original 1977 Pete's Dragon?

 

[DaveF]

The topic is The Black Cauldron.

There are other threads for other topics. We’re all adults, so I have no doubt everyone can exert some measure of self-control accordingly.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/song-of-the-south-1946.367612/

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'm happy they are releasing this it was one I expected would probably be an exclusive and it also comes from the time frame where Disney got a bit weird...something I also like about it. It was a big deal at the time and a big deal that it was a PG rated animated feature from the Mouse House.

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For its initial release, the film became the first Disney animated film to receive a PG rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. It was also presented in Super Technirama 70—the first since Sleeping Beauty—and Dolby Stereo 70mm six-track surround sound. The film's initial theatrical release was accompanied by the Donald Duck short Chips Ahoy.

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The next big thing they could release as an exclusive as far as I am concerned is Never Cry Wolf.

Here's an interesting video about the history of The Black Cauldron...

 

[Chewbabka]

if both are Super Technirama 70, Why is Black Cauldron 2.35:1 while Sleeping Beauty is 2.55:1? Where they photographed using different lenses, or were they printed/framed differently in distribution?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

if both are Super Technirama 70, Why is Black Cauldron 2.35:1 while Sleeping Beauty is 2.55:1? Where they photographed using different lenses, or were they printed/framed differently in distribution?

Here are the aspect ratio specs I could find on The Black Cauldron:

Aspect Ratio

2.20 : 1 (70 mm prints) 2.25 : 1 (negative ratio ) 2.35 : 1 (35 mm prints)

And Sleeping Beauty aspect ratio specs:

Aspect Ratio

2.35 : 1 2.39 : 1 (DVD release) 2.55 : 1 (negative ratio) (Blu-ray release)

 

[richardburton84]

if both are Super Technirama 70, Why is Black Cauldron 2.35:1 while Sleeping Beauty is 2.55:1? Where they photographed using different lenses, or were they printed/framed differently in distribution?

It’s been suggested elsewhere (can’t find a specific link at the moment) that Sleeping Beauty may have initially been meant to be shot in CinemaScope like Lady and the Tramp (hence the 2.55 ratio compared to the normal 2.2 ratio of Technirama) before Walt decided to shoot in Technirama.

 

[Chewbabka]

My order with Black Cauldron just shipped!

 

[Chewbabka]

DMC Announcement Email:

“We heard you wanted more of your favorite movies in ‌
high‑def Blu-ray. We’re excited for you to build your best forever library with these new Disney Exclusive Blu‑ray releases! ‌
Stay tuned–more timeless treasures are on the way!”

 

[Lord Dalek]

if both are Super Technirama 70, Why is Black Cauldron 2.35:1 while Sleeping Beauty is 2.55:1? Where they photographed using different lenses, or were they printed/framed differently in distribution?

Sleeping Beauty stated out as a Cinemascope production and composed for that with magstripping only. They changed the photography process to Technirama late in the game to take advantage of its ability to be converted to 70mm (this was pre-blowups mind you) but the art assets were left at 2.55. The original 8-perf sequential exposure neg was slightly matted to preserve that ratio.

Black Cauldron was made at 2.25:1. The absolute last movie to be output that way. Disney never actually made a film in 70mm. It was either 8-Perf Horizontal -> 5-Perf Vertical conversions like this and Sleeping Beauty or straight up OAR blow ups beginning with Little Mermaid.

 

[MatthewA]

Since I was only two when the movie came out and the company spent the rest of the 1980s and most of the 1990s essentially pretending it never happened when even The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver and Company got second chances in theaters, I never really got a chance to see it until the pan-and-scan VHS tape came out. It got no laserdisc. Until then, I had to make do with the Apple IIGS game based on it.

 

[Vern Dias]

And Sleeping Beauty aspect ratio specs:

Sleeping Beauty was released in 70mm at 2.20:1.

 

[Lord Dalek]

If there's anything good that can be said about The Black Cauldron, its that the film marks the defacto end of the Disney Dark Age. It had to be, the film was rock bottom for the studio. It was only up, up, up from here until the studio began another slow downward spiral with Pocahontas that lasted 10 years.

 

[MatthewA]

Since they had much more money to spend on projects that didn't deliver, the post-Pocahontas downturn also saw lower lows since management ultimately got what they wanted and shut down 2D animation even after Eisner's resignation. It has been 10 years since the last one, given the unfortunately generic and indistinct title of just Winnie the Pooh instead of a more descriptive title like The Further Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and even that they buried up against a Harry Potter movie.

If Ron Miller had kept his job for one more year, we might be telling a different story. An unexpurgated cut might have given kids more nightmares than Bambi's mom becoming either a hunting trophy or food, and would still not have appeased literary purists — when did they ever? — but it would have been a more cohesive film and the animation would have been less inconsistent.

The next big thing they could release as an exclusive as far as I am concerned is Never Cry Wolf.

I'm dreading what's gonna happen to it when it reaches Disney+ if it hasn't already. Hopefully, it won't get the same type of digital bowdlerization as Splash.

 

[RichMurphy]

Disney never actually made a film in 70mm.

I know what you mean, but technically some sequences of the original TRON were filmed in Super Panavision 70.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I know what you mean, but technically some sequences of the original TRON were filmed in Super Panavision 70.

Eh that was Lisberger Productions on a Negative Pickup Deal. Point stands.

 

[BRAD1963]

DMC Announcement Email:

“We heard you wanted more of your favorite movies in ‌
high‑def Blu-ray. We’re excited for you to build your best forever library with these new Disney Exclusive Blu‑ray releases! ‌
Stay tuned–more timeless treasures are on the way!”

Good news. Hopefully that means some never released Fox titles will be released also.