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.
I'm really inspired by the work of Dave Jonas. That feeling of both "Bedknobs" and "Black Cauldron" having an epic medieval feeling with an epic score, but both from different composers (Kostal and Bernstein), really makes my skin crawl with inspiration.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if the film had a rebirth, even if at the time it was a flop at the box office over time it has had a legion of fans who love fantasy, the film and their books. In fact I can see an Artbook for Disney fans!
ReplyDeleteAn extended version of the film would still be very nice (I would like it if they edited the full scene of the warriors born from the cauldron when a guard was killed)
ReplyDeleteAndreas – thank you so much for sharing all this!
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that so many of the team's intentions, including yours, got watered down in the final film.
Did that tall painting of the castle (the black and deep blue one) make it in? The colors are absolutely stunning... reminds me of Walt Peregoy's work but with much higher contrast.
I always loved the poster! I remember seeing it in Brazil when I was 15 and had just started my career in animation, I was blown away by it!
ReplyDeleteDo you mean, James "Jim" Coleman, for backgrounds?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteWow, what a treat! Thanks for posting all these wonderful pictures.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, I had often heard about the reputation surrounding The Black Cauldron as the "Black Sheep" of Disney, how badly it bombed and how it was like the first Disney animated feature that was PG rated and had no songs and all that, but when I rented it and saw it in my mid-teens, I remember finding it to be rather underwhelming. I admire some of the art and animation as well as what it tried to do, but ambition is one thing, execution is something different, and it was pretty easy to see why it got the reputation it did, since, while it did attempt to do something new and different for the Disney canon, the final results didn't quite live up to the hype.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, though, for all its faults, the movie does have some nice art associated with it. Thanks for sharing some of it.