DVDizzy Forum

blackcauldron85 wrote:^ Nope...There was The Emperor and the Nightingale, which was turned into a book with the concept art, and Swan Lake, and The Swan of Tuonela for Fantasia, but none came to be...

Andreas Deja wrote:Way back toward the end of production of "The Black Cauldron" there were a few new animated projects in development at Disney. One of them was "Mistress Masham's Repose", based on a 1946 book by T.H.White (the guy who also wrote "The Sword in the Stone"). I forget now how long I worked in pre-production on the project, but I did enjoy doing this early character development. I even sent copies to Milt Kahl for possible input. He said he liked them OK as far as early concept art goes, but he feared that the studio would probably reuse some of the mice business from "Cinderella" for situations with the Lilliputians. He obviously still felt burnt because of all the reused animation during the 1960ies and 70ies. As far as style goes, I had Ronald Searle and Milt Kahl in my head, and I think you can tell, for better or for worse.

Floyd Norman: Andreas, do you remember the late Disney artist, Roy Morita? He was also doing development work on this film project. Roy's office was on the third floor of the Animation Building. I used to visit him a good deal while he was working on this film.

Andreas Deja: I do remember Roy Morita. At that time I had no idea about his rich animation career.

Susan Morita: My father, Roy Morita, was the Disney artist Floyd referred to working on this project as well, right before he passed away in 1984. He was assigned to develop this project and worked on storyboards and character sketches the last few years before his death. He pitched the project it before the current CEO of the time (Ron Miller, I believe.) It was not good timing and the idea was rejected.for this project. They are detailed and amazing sketches which bring the story to life, as are the sketches that you have shared on this website. How he worked on this project, hoping it would be made into an animated movie. Thank you, Floyd, for remembering him and that he had a part in the project. I have long wondered if his storyboards, sketches and notes are in some vault at the Disney studios, gathering dust.

The studio is also at work on a Sherlock Holmes mystery played out by some mice who live in an apartment below the famous detective. This $13 million movie, ''Basil of Baker Street,'' will follow ''The Black Cauldron'' into theaters in 1987. A year and a half later, there will be another animated feature. Two top candidates are a version of ''The Three Musketeers'' starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Jose Carioca, and T. H. White's ''Mistress Masham's Repose.''

It is a wonderful story and once was set to become a film itself. Walt Disney liked the idea, possibly because White had written 'The Sword in the Stone', the novel about the boyhood of King Arthur which his company made into a successful animated film in 1963. But after Disney died in 1966 the project was shelved.

Joe Hale wrote:Because of the budget limitation $10-12 million dollars for future animated features, Mistress Masham's Repose must be shelved for the present time. I continue to believe that it would make a financially successful picture, but it would cost at least $20 million.

Joe Hale wrote:When The Black Cauldron was winding down, I began to work on another picture called Mistress Masham's Repose. It was based on a British book [by T.H. White]. It was about a little girl who was an orphan girl and lived on a big English estate that belonged to her family. Her aunt and her uncle were her cruel guardians. There was a little lake on the estate that had an island in the middle of it. On the island were the same little people from Gulliver's Travels. They had set up a little civilization on this island in the middle of the lake, and the only one who knew about it was this little girl. I don't remember her name. Somewhere along this timeline, Michael Eisner took over at Disney and Ron Miller was deposed. Roy E. Disney came back to work in Animation. Jeffrey Katzenberg was working directly under Eisner. Katzenberg didn't like Mistress Masham's Repose. Roy liked it and he kept renewing options on it.

Sotiris wrote:

Andreas Deja wrote:Way back toward the end of production of "The Black Cauldron" there were a few new animated projects in development at Disney. One of them was "Mistress Masham's Repose", based on a 1946 book by T.H.White (the guy who also wrote "The Sword in the Stone"). I forget now how long I worked in pre-production on the project, but I did enjoy doing this early character development. I even sent copies to Milt Kahl for possible input. He said he liked them OK as far as early concept art goes, but he feared that the studio would probably reuse some of the mice business from "Cinderella" for situations with the Lilliputians. He obviously still felt burnt because of all the reused animation during the 1960ies and 70ies. As far as style goes, I had Ronald Searle and Milt Kahl in my head, and I think you can tell, for better or for worse.

Source: http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2012/02 ... epose.html

Unknown February 10, 2012 at 9:41 AM
This reminds me that one of the other projects they were developing at the same time was Piers Anthony's Ogre, Ogre (which I had suggested to Rick). Did you do any of the development on that one? I can't recall offhand.
If they'd gone ahead with that one they would have caused DW to look at Shrek since both featured an Ogre love story and had a very tongue in cheek take on fairy tales

Andreas Deja February 14, 2012 at 12:44 PM
I didn't work on the Ogre project, Steve.
But I did spend some time on "Dufus". Remember that one?

Unknown February 14, 2012 at 1:29 PM
God yes! Doofus the police dog....named after Eisner's dog. That was the direction he saw for animation ...between that and Oliver things looked grim

Back in the 1960s, our morning was interrupted by a special meeting. It was held in a small conference room just off A-Wing in Disney's animation building. I honestly don't recall everyone in the meeting. But I do know that production boss Ken Peterson and Andy Engman were present.

Why this special meeting? Well, Disney's animation department was still recovering from the "failure" of "Sleeping Beauty" at the box office. Disney Studios, and Walt Disney in particular, began to explore the idea of producing less expensive films. Hardly a new idea, Hollywood studios had their A-list productions, along with other shows that became known as "B" movies. These were films produced at a lower cost and provided a training ground for up & coming actors and directors. Live-action produced "B" movies, why not animation?

By the arrival of the '60s, Disney movies were usually considered top tier motion pictures with large staffs and a considerable budget. However, the Old Maestro began rethinking this idea. There were also projects that did not necessarily require all the resources of Disney Studios, and Ken Peterson actually had a list of stories Walt Disney considered exploring as low budget features.

You're probably wondering what stories were on Walt's list back in the 1960s, right? What were the movies that would compliment the big budgeted A-list feature films at Disney? Well, I wish I had taken better notes, because I can't remember all the stories Ken put on the table as possible feature films. However, I can tell you that one story was based on the Native American, "Hiawatha." This had been an idea Walt Disney had been thinking about for years. He probably intended to make the film back in the 1940s before the advent of World War II suddenly changed things. Another story on the table was a children's novel by Margery Sharp entitled, "The Rescuers."

You might be wondering what was the purpose of this morning meeting at the Disney studio. I'm only speculating, but I think the studio wanted to put to rest rumors of an animation department shut down. Clearly, Walt Disney still had stories to tell whether those stories proved to be big or small. I can tell you that after the disastrous "Sleeping Beauty" layoffs, this good news was extremely encouraging.

The first "B" movie was underway. Writer/artist Bill Berg began developing "The Rescuers" as a feature film. Unlike most features that spend years in development, Bill quickly had his boards completed, and ready to show to Walt Disney.

I was in A-Wing on the day of the big meeting.
I moved toward the story room just in time to see the Old Maestro himself walk past me and down the hallway. The look on Walt's face, and his overall attitude told me all I needed to know.

When Bobby Moynihan brought this up, it was in response to a question about working with Jim Cummings on Star Wars: Resistance. While it never made headlines, it appears that Disney at one point attempted another TV series based on the characters from the Hundred Acre Woods that would’ve been somewhat of a reboot. “I once got cast as the new Winnie the Pooh and I was terrified because Jim Cummings is a genius,” Moynihan explained. “It got canceled before it came out and I was never so happy in my life.” We can only guess as to what the series would’ve been like as this is the first we’ve heard of it.

Ciro Nieli wrote:2005. After Robot Monkey ended, Disney Television Animation asked me if I wanted to develop Power Rangers or TRON as a TV series. My Tron pitch went well but ultimately it wouldn’t work out. My initial idea was a reimagining of an original pitch I had called POWERCADE about 2 kids who inherit electrical powers and a strange energy creature named GLITCH.