Episode 73.2: Dr. Jack & Dr. Andrew's Case Files #4: Disney's THE BLACK CAULDRON

The Wages of Cinema

Double, Double, Boil & Trouble! It's... that rarity of a Walt Disney Animated Feature that's a disaster? How much so? What if we told you it cost $44 million dollars to make over a period of 5 years (actually 14 when you count when it was optioned for development)? The BLACK CAULDRON represented a point when the old guard and the new age began at the Walt Disney studios, right after the retirement of the "Nine Old Men" and just before all of the films to come that would usher a golden period for family entertainment. The Black Cauldron: ambitious, non-musical, rated PG (and cut down from a PG-13, allegedly even an R!), loaded with talent and aimed to be the first animated studio film shot and released for widescreen 70MM film in 6-track dolby sound. What went wrong? The Doctors are in to open up the patient and see what's in the organs of this adaptation of The Chronicles of Prydain (and they may be joined, if only briefly, by a former guest to the show and long-time supporter Gabe Rodriguez - at least in one form). [e-mail] clip taken from Trailer to Black Cauldron. Podcast owned by us.