Favorite Disney Animated Classic from the 80s?

[robinhood21]

My order is:

1 Oliver and Company
2 The Fox and the Hound
3 The Little Mermaid
4 Basil the Great Mouse Detective
5 The Black Cauldron

[blackcauldron85]

My favorite era!

1. The Black Cauldron- This movie has held up for me over the years, it's always an extreme joy to watch for me, I get excited, I'm into their journey; it'll always be my favorite. I've talked a lot about it on the forum, but the story, characters, adventure, creepiness, the look of the film- I love it. I'm obsessed with musicals, but it doesn't bother me at all that it has no songs.

2. The Little Mermaid- In my Top 3 DACs. The music is phenomenal, Ariel is an engaging heroine, the sidekicks are super fun, Ursula is a great villain. So good.

3. The Fox and the Hound- In my Top 10 DACs. I've talked about this one a lot, too. I love the somberness, the heartbreak ("Goodbye May Seem Forever" </3), the changes in Tod & Copper's friendship. I think the movie looks awesome- I like dreary, I guess! I totally agree that besides "The Best of Friends," the songs are lacking, but I love the story.

I'm just going to tie The Great Mouse Detective & Oliver and Company (I cheat). I really love them both. I love the music in both films. I recently watched TGMD again- it's my husband's favorite- and it's just such a fun movie. Basil is very clever and I like that we experience his warmth grow during the film. I do like the side characters, and Ratigan is one of my favorite villains- he's over-the-top and him interacting with the other characters is funny. Olivia is one of the cutest Disney characters IMO. O & Co is very moving, and I really enjoy the differing personalities of the dogs & Oliver. I think it's a nice story of friendship, of banding together. The soundtrack is one of my absolute favorites. As a rescue dog mom, Oliver's journey makes me super emotional.

[Farerb]

I watched The Great Mouse Detective today and I thought it looked relatively good and not sketchy like the other Xerox films and it made me wonder why Oliver looks terrible, it really baffles me that they made it possible to make a good looking film in Xerox only to return to the sketchy look and then we have The Little Mermaid which doesn't look like Xerox at all. Was this a creative choice in Oliver?

[blackcauldron85]

it made me wonder why Oliver looks terrible, it really baffles me that they made it possible to make a good looking film in Xerox only to return to the sketchy look and then we have The Little Mermaid which doesn't look like Xerox at all. Was this a creative choice in Oliver?

Browsing through my books, there's not too much information, but I do have info from two sources. I'll try looking for more info online.

Disney A to Z: the official encyclopedia
Smith - Disney Editions - 2016
p. 559

To give the backgrounds a contemporary and hard-edged look, Xerox overlays were used, the first time for this approach since One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

The Disney films
Maltin - Disney Editions - 2000
p. 289

Another facet of the film's look harked back to the early 1960s, when Xerography influenced the style of 101 Dalmatians. Xerox overlays were used over the painted backgrounds of New York City to give the urban backdrop a modern, sharply defined look.

[Farerb]

Thank you

So I guess it was intentional...

[blackcauldron85]

You're welcome! It definitely is curious, though, because you're right- Oliver does have a different look than The Rescuers or TGMD.

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2014/05/xerox.html

When the studio produced The Rescuers, it was Milt again who championed the use of a Xerox line, this time in grey, which softened the drawings somewhat.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055254/trivia

Art director Ken Anderson came up with the idea of overlaying cels of line drawings over the painted backgrounds to match the Xeroxed cels of the characters. For the next twenty years, all Disney features - with the exception of The Jungle Book (1967) and the animated segments in Mary Poppins (1964) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) - would use this technique for their backgrounds. With The Fox and the Hound (1981), Disney returned to fully painted backgrounds, with a brief reprise of the cel overlay for Oliver & Company (1988).

https://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2017/0 ... olors.html

Milt was a big proponent of the grey xerox line. To him it resulted in a slightly softer representation of the character animation. (During night scenes Medusa's cels were xeroxed in black, which makes perfect sense.)

https://www.silverpetticoatreview.com/2 ... -rescuers/

The Rescuers was the first of the Disney films to elaborate on the Xerox process. Not only was it the first of the Disney films to use color-xerography. Where the earlier Disney films used only black toner (giving it a sketchier look), The Rescuers used a lighter gray, to make the lines softer.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076618/tr ... tt_trv_trv

The first of the Disney classics to improve the Xerography process considerably. While its xeroxed predecessors had a much sketchier look and used a black toner, this movie used a medium-gray toner for a softer-looking "line" (the cel artists added some color inks, too, but Xerography handled most of the inking). The Rescuers was also the first one where purple outlines (for Miss Bianca) was used (color-xerography). Later, other colors were developed.

(Oliver)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095776/tr ... tt_trv_trv

The last animated Disney Classic to use line overlay, also called cel overlay, a technique used to make the backgrounds match the lines of the xeroxed objects in the film.

[Farerb]

Thank you for all that great information.
I think it's kind of ironic that they wanted the film to look contemporary, cause by doing that they sort of made it look outdated.

[blackcauldron85]

So, internationally, Warner Bros. released Oliver & Co. theatrically, & I've been trying to find out why. There's practically no info out there. I'm going to keep looking, but the only "explanation" I've found so far is:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... AndCompany

In North America, this film has always been with Disney; however, in most international territories, it was originally released in theatres by Warner Bros., and in other international territories this was handled by United International Pictures. This is due to output deals Disney made for international theatrical distribution.

IMDB shows countries where WB released it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095776/companycredits

And BBFE shows WB as the distributor: https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/oliver-company-4

If I found out more info, of course I'll post it.

[blackcauldron85]

^
https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/116608

Walt Disney Pictures distributes most of their own films internationally, via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (formerly Buena Vista Distribution), with a few excepted movies to Canada. A very select amount of films by Walt Disney Pictures are distributed in Canada by another billion-dollar franchise known as Alliance Films with DVD rights to Universal Studios Home Entertainment, typically for films under Miramax Films, which was recently sold by Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group to investors.

In Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, Walt Disney Pictures films had been distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment.[3][4]

In Turkey, Walt Disney Pictures films had been distributed by United International Pictures.

In UK and Ireland, Walt Disney Pictures films had already been distributed by Warner Bros. in 1988-1993, until it made its own label in the UK (Walt Disney Videos).

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9301

I believe that Disney/Buena Vista (whatever you want to call them) had no UK based distribution outfit in the 70s and early 80's. After all, there were only a few Disney movies made each year at this time. It was only with the creation of Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures and the VHS boom that made Disney open up a Buena Vista UK (or http://www.filmfactory.co.uk as they call it on the web ).

I do not know when this was opened, but it could have been in the early to mid 80's (or perhaps even later keeping Touchstone in mind). I suppose they had agreements with other distributors at this time, which could have been Warner Bros.

http://www.closinglogos.com/m/page/Buen ... ernational

Buena Vista International was the international distribution sub-arm of Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. In the mid-80s, Disney signed a distribution deal with Warner Bros. to release its pictures theatrically in some overseas territories such as U.K and Ireland, Benelux, Scandinavia, and parts of South America, where it did not have any current distribution arrangements with other companies. In 1992, Disney opted to end the joint venture with Warner and reactivated the Buena Vista International name to handle operations in countries that did not have any ongoing distribution arrangements. When the Buena Vista name was phased out in favor for the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Branding around 2007, international distribution in most countries went through the Disney branding and its subsidiaries (Miramax, Touchstone, etc). However, like United International Pictures, Buena Vista International is still active as in-name-only in some developing countries such as Latin America, and parts of South Africa. The label is also used as an international distributor of films made by independent studios and a distributor of films made in foreign countries.

https://glassball.fandom.com/wiki/Walt_ ... n_Pictures (looks like it got some info from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disn ... prov=sfla1

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International was formed in 1961 as Buena Vista International[5] On May 4, 1987, Disney signed a theatrical distribution agreement with Warner Bros. International, for the release of Disney and Touchstone films in overseas markets after Warner dissolved a previous overseas distribution partnership with Columbia, with Disney retaining full control of all distribution and marketing decisions on their product.[36] In 1992, Disney opted to end their joint venture with Warner Bros. to start autonomously distributing their films in the aforementioned overseas markets. In those territories from 1993–2007, Disney reactivated the Buena Vista International name, and also sent distribution under it in countries that did not have any current arrangements with other companies.Template:Citation needed

In Taiwan, MGM first handled Disney's distribution followed by Fox and WB. A local distributor called Era Communications took over distribution from 1992 to 1995. At that time, Buena Vista began its Taiwanese operations. Columbia ended its joint distribution unit with Fox and switch to Buena Vista in 1999.[37]

Beforehand, distribution rights in West Germany were given to MGM (under CIC in the early 1970s) and later to 20th Century Fox (that Disney acquires) before the Warner Bros. joint venture.

Disney and Sony Pictures Entertainment formed in 1997 a film distribution joint venture in Southeast Asia.[38] By December 2006, 14 joint distribution ventures with Sony Pictures Releasing International were formed and exist in countries including Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. In January 2007, their 15th such partnership began operations in Russia and CIS.[39] In February 2017, Sony starting leaving the Southeast Asia venture with the Philippines. In August 2017, Sony terminated the joint venture agreement for their own operations.[38]

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html
Warner Bros. and Disney have a distribution pact.
MAY 4, 1987

The two entertainment companies announced that they have entered into a long-term agreement under which Warner Bros. International will be the theatrical distributor of all Disney and Touchstone pictures internationally. The agreement follows Warner’s and Columbia Pictures’ joint announcement of their agreement to dissolve their Warner-Columbia overseas distribution partnership. Under the new arrangement, Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. will exercise full control of all distribution and marketing decisions on their product, all of which will be distributed by Warner. Touchstone is a unit of Disney.