The Black Cauldron

 

Next month The Black Cauldron will be 40 years old. It was released on July 24, 1985.

I still remember those wonderful pastel color sketches Mel Shaw produced for the film. An enormous amount of gorgeous storytelling illustrations. Come to think of it, they would make a terrific art book.

The story sketches shown here are by Dave Jonas, who also came up with the drawings over the movie's end credits. (Earlier Dave had done the same for the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.)

The maquettes are by Ruben Procopio. The background art is by Dave Coleman.

I have said this before, our inexperience as young film makers really shows in the film. Many of us were straight out of art school with little experience in animation. But...I keep meeting young people who are very fond of The Black Cauldron. 

My design marker drawings on the Horned King model sheet. I still prefer my cool color concept over the red tones used for the final version of the character.

I drew these character poses for a limited edition cel set up. 

Mike Ploog created a to of visuel development art.

Character poses by me for this Taran and Eilonwy model sheet. Followed by a cel from one of my scenes.

A Marc Davis Wire Sculpture

Did you know that Marc Davis experimented with sculpting in wire? Long before his best friend Milt Kahl produced a series of ballet poses in wire, Marc created this magnificent bull. I love that he added a few cut out metal "shapes" for variation, which puts it in the realm of cubism. 

What I don't understand is why Marc left out the bull's male anatomy. It would be easy to add it in wire, and Marc had done so in many of his bullfight depictions. 

Be that as it may, this is a magnificent piece of art. 

Thanks to Chris Merritt for the photos. 

Julie Riehm

Julie Riehm Casaletto is one of the nicest people you could ever meet. She was Disneyland's first  ambassador. Walt introduced Julie in 1965 to a television audience during a show called "Disneyland's 10th Anniversary". They both meet various Disney imagineers like Blaine Gibson, Claude Coats, John Hench, Marc Davis and Mary Blair. The conversation is about upcoming attractions at Disneyland.

I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Julie on a few occasions at D23. Since I had watched this TV episode, I asked her what is was like to share scenes with Walt. She laughed and said that to her surprise Walt went off script quite a bit...as the cameras were rolling. She tried her best to keep up with Walt's improvisatory style throughout the shoot. Julie remembered his sincere enthusiasm for what lied ahead at the park. 

I never thought that one day I might be part of the world of Disney Imagineering, but that's what happened. Currently I am an adviser on a couple of amazing upcoming projects. Who knew.....