I have written plenty about The Black Cauldron over the years. This was my first project at Disney when I started there in August of 1980. The studio was finishing The Fox and the Hound, and I was asked to help design characters for the next feature film. At first it was just Tim Burton and myself, then Phil Nibbelink joined the the design unit.
After a while management decided that Tim's style would not work for this film, and that a more conventional look was in order.
I came up with the final design for The Horned King (as well as Creeper, his little henchman.)
But I did not animate any scenes with those characters. The problem was with the concept. The Horned King was just bad, that's it. In order to make your villain interesting though an only evil personality isn't enough. There need to be eccentricities, sarcasm, a weird sense of humor...or even intelligence.
Later on for future projects we would craft more rounded villains that became interesting because their personalities were richer and unique.
Ursula is the ultimate camp, Gaston is ridiculously vain and Scar really enjoys being cruel.
Actually this applies to any character in an animated film. In order to connect with an audience the main personalities have to be complex and multifaceted..like real people.
Danke fürs Posten! 😃
ReplyDeleteAls ich mir das letzte mal Gedanken darüber gemacht hatte, warum Antagonisten so unglaublich beliebt sind, hatte ich im Vorfeld mit Genuß "Der Besuch der alten Dame" gelesen und mir die Faustinszenierung von Gründgens angehört.😃
Der Joker hat schon lange in seiner Popularität Batman überholt. 😊
Schon mehrfach wurden mir die Romane zu den jeweiligen Vorgeschichten von den Disney Villians empfohlen. 👍😊
Ich bin freudig gespannt wie lange der Trend anhält und wohin das alles führt. 👍😊
Very cool art. I should watch this movie
ReplyDeleteI think my favourite animation in the movie is that little green guy, this shot is really nice: https://youtu.be/vWAq4w1h--M?t=212
ReplyDeleteThere's still a lot of nice work in the movie, and cool looking scenes, nice BGs, effects and colours, etc. it's just that some weak points let it down at times
Were any of the 9 old men involved with The Black Cauldron? There is nice backgrounds and artwork, its really the story that lets it down imo.
ReplyDeleteHere's some drawings by Marc Davis
Deletehttps://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/concept-art/the-black-cauldron-character-studies-concept-art-by-marc-davis-group-of-5-walt-disney-1985-total-5/a/7193-97485.s
and Milt Kahl
http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/2013/02/milt-kahls-black-cauldron.html
Very cool to see their designs and drawings!! It makes you wonder why they retired when they could have been still been involved...does anyone know if it was their choice or were they forced out? When you think about someone like Miazaki who is still making films, youd think they were still capable of it at their ages then, but I guess they had been working so long maybe they wanted to retire.
DeleteHello Andreas! Just wanted to say Hi and that I have always admired your work from afar, felt inspired by you and ever since my granddad Leo showed me a signed version of your first work: "Taran und der Zauberkessel", I believe that we are distantly related as I am Leonhard Wilner's grandson. I believe he was your uncle?! As a kid I always wanted to become a Zeichner myself, that didn't work out. Ganz viele liebe Grüße von Hamburg St. Pauli, Jonas Höfer
ReplyDelete