DVDizzy Forum

Rumpelstiltskin wrote: ↑Mon Jul 28, 2025 1:35 pm There were a lot of countries in Europe and other parts of the world where the movie was never released. Not sure if it was even available on VHS, or if you had to wait till it was released on DVD. So for many The Black Cauldron feels like one of Disney's unwanted children (like Glago's Guest).

(As for recycled animation, it is apparently a myth that Woolie Reitherman did it to save time and money. He just did it because he wanted to, for some reason)

I believe I've read that this movie was hit in France and Japan, especially Japan. In Japan seems like they had an attraction at the parks that lasted like 20+ years too. I've even seen some legends state that The Legend of Zelda was loosely based on this film too. Wonder how true this is.

as for recycled animation, yeah it looks like a myth.
Kahl: "It doesn't. The funny thing is that most of the time they spend more money trying to figure out how to re-use it than they would [animating the scene from scratch]. I'd rather see it animated from scratch; even if it's a little bit amateurish, at least it's fresh and new."

what Flyod Norman stated: “It’s actually harder and takes longer to redraw an existing sequence,” Norman told me, “it’s a lot faster and easier to just do new animation, and it’s a lot more fun for the animators. But Woolie liked to play it safe and use stuff he knew would work. That’s all it was.”

my bet is like what Norman stated that he wanted to use what already works. If you have a scene where you want Wart from Sword in the Stone to be licked by the dogs and then want a similar scene with Mowgli getting licked by the Wolves, it would make sense to rehash. Heck even in design Mowgli looks like a riff off from Wart too.

Considering much to the anime that is popular in Japan, it is not surprising if the was popular there. And if it was a hit in France too, it only proves that it could have done much better in Europe if given a chance and been released in more countries.
I have no experience with Legend of Zelda, so I don't have any opinions about that one.

Sounds like Woolie Reitherman liked reusing some of the animation because it made parts of the storyboarding easier or something. And then the animators had to struggle with copying some of the footage from earlier films.

carolinakid wrote: ↑Sun Jul 27, 2025 7:57 pm Sleeping Beauty was # 1 at the box office for the weeks of February 25, 1959, March 11, 1959 & March 18, 1959.

Sleeping Beauty was # 10 in theatrical rentals for 1959 grossing $4.3 million.
Even though it never ranked # 1 at the box office, The Shaggy Dog was # 2 in theatrical rentals for 1959 with a gross of $7.8 million. (# 1 for 1959 was Auntie Mame.)

Exactly. The film was massive at the time. Unfortunately, they had put so much money into making it--and largely thanks to mismanagement because Walt was checked out at the time, which lead to development stagnation--even being a huge hit with audiences couldn't cover the costs. But at least SB had something to show for its huge cost as far as design and all go, unlike Tangled.

That makes sense about re-used animation though. I always found it a bit confusing how that would save money, but it's one of those things that's often been given as the reason he justified doing it, from what I recall. In reality, it was creative laziness, I guess.

I really don’t mind all the recycled animation, but recycling Snow White’s legendary iconic A Silly Song dance for Maid Marian’s dance in the Phony King of England is blasphemous, imo.
I’ve never accepted it.

I don't like the recycling of animation either.

Well, regarding my own opinion about this underrated movie: I remember buying the DVD a while ago when I was younger. And when I saw it, I found it to be pretty meh, generic and forgettable. But when I saw it again this summer, it was a lot better than I remembered. It certainly had it`s perk and charms. Sure, it`s not the very best Disney has done, but it`s still charming and engaging enough. Surprisingly enough, I could tolerate Gurgi. He was grating, but still not as grating as he could`ve been. My gripes with it is how the story could`ve been more developed. And how the comedy is simply grating and juvenile. Taran himself was also a minor gripe, as he came across as a brat. But to his credit, he had an subtle arc of his own.

Btw, here`s my latest addition to my blog for this movie, if you want to take a read: https://mydisneyanimationanalysis.blogs ... issed.html

UmbrellaFish wrote: ↑Fri Jul 25, 2025 6:48 am What a lovely ornament! I hope Amy sees this.

I'm late, but I just did- thank you! And thank you for posting it, Thumper_93! It's not on the Disney Store website but WDWNT says that it's in the Magic Kingdom Christmas shop and it might be at others.

blackcauldron85 wrote: ↑Sun Aug 03, 2025 7:16 am

UmbrellaFish wrote: ↑Fri Jul 25, 2025 6:48 am What a lovely ornament! I hope Amy sees this.

I'm late, but I just did- thank you! And thank you for posting it, Thumper_93! It's not on the Disney Store website but WDWNT says that it's in the Magic Kingdom Christmas shop and it might be at others.

This shop is amazing. I went crazy the second time that I visited it because they had all the ornaments that were sold out on the website and many more.