The Film Proper…
This intricate, distinctive medieval-looking font lines up with what the crew behind this film wanted. A return to the big, expensive Golden Age Disney animated feature that wasn’t afraid to go down some dark and spooky corridors. Something not too dissimilar to Sleeping Beauty, which was – much like this film – shot in 70mm and had a very similar title card. What I really love about this logo are the ornamental symbols, and how they are worked into the letter forms… It’s too bad that the film itself is one of the only places where we see this complete logo!
The original release poster…
The release of The Black Cauldron occurred shortly after a major regime change occurred at the stagnant Walt Disney Productions. Now rechristened The Walt Disney Company and lead by ex-Paramount executive Michael Eisner, would we see changes to the company’s ways of marketing right away?
The answer is yes.
The Black Cauldron was nearing the end of production when the management shift occurred, and would be the first Disney animated movie not to open with a “Walt Disney Productions” title card, but rather the then-new Walt Disney Pictures castle logo. The Black Cauldron‘s poster would also make use of the now-dominant corporate Walt Disney font, and the heading would say “Walt Disney Pictures presents”…
Perhaps because of ever-emerging digital technology, the poster designers were able to plunk the title card from the movie into the poster. Novelizations and video game tie-ins also used this font, too, so there was no backup title card… But they got rid of the cool ornaments and such! This is perhaps a first for a Disney animated feature, which the poster shares the title card that’s used in the movie, and not its own unique logo.
Repainting the film’s title to red adds a nice touch. Despite the fact that little effort was put into advertising this picture (the new executives wanted to clean their hands of it, they treated it like bad spillover from the previous guard), the poster at least didn’t pass it off as some run-of-the-mill kids’ film. This would also be the last poster to show the film in such a dark, epic fantasy-like manner.
The Black Cauldron flopped on its initial release, and Disney never theatrically re-released it in the United States. The executives ripped the band-aid, and they buried it, looking at it as an out-and-out failure. It had nothing to do with the film’s dodgy PG rating (back in the 1980s, it took a lot to get you a PG rating, you had to earn it back then), or the spookier parts… No, Disney’s executives simply felt the movie itself was a disaster.
The Planned Re-release…
What’s often not brought up is the fact that Disney *almost* theatrically re-released The Black Cauldron in the US sometime in mid 1989. In fact, I heard that prior to this planned re-release, they did some test screenings across the country. They supposedly screened a recut version of the film (which was already censored in post-production to begin with) with a new title: Taran and the Magic Cauldron. Much friendlier-sounding.
Here is solid proof that the re-release nearly happened. They prepared… A one-sheet poster for it! (My full analysis of this cancelled re-release can be viewed here, my obsessive Disney VHS-centric blog…)
Now that font isn’t as exciting, though it still retains a fantasy feel to it.
The movie was theatrically re-released worldwide, though. Disney’s international arms used this colorful poster and font scheme to promote it.
In America, Disney forgot about it and moved on. No airings on the Disney Channel, no video release, no nothing for a long, long while.
Home video…
The Black Cauldron was finally given an American video release in 1998, and was part of the dwindling Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. For a bone-toss, this cover is actually very, very nice… And is shiny and embossed with little details!
The font is also very suitable, too! Even the “Masterpiece” heading is done up in a mythical, medieval-like look. Disney did put some effort into this release, and it paid off, The Black Cauldron‘s first VHS release – fun fact – actually sold quite well. Roughly five million units were moved. Multiply that the times the typical $25-ish price for these things at the time, you get a roughly $125 million gross! No longer the flop, yet Disney still ignores it.
I’m also going to give the UK VHS cover a shout-out. The film actually debuted on VHS outside of America first!
That’s a very cool font as well! It works well against the red scroll backdrop, almost makes it feel like a printed document from the middle ages, with some added flair. I honestly wish Disney used it here, because the font they used for the next stateside video release… Well…
There is a strong hint of medieval fantasy in the letter forms, but on the whole this one doesn’t excite me as much as the other ones. It’s one of those “it does its job” logos, for me. This comes from the 2000 Gold Classic Collection release.
Yet the font used on the UK VHS is used on the DVD menu… Along with the UK’s cover art…
Strange…
10 years later, Disney gave the film another DVD release. They were supposed to release it in 2009, there was even a preview for it on various early 2009 Disney DVD releases… They sported this somewhat questionable logo.
I like the font a lot. It’s a step up from the Gold Classic Collection release’s font, though the spacing inside the octagon shape is what’s throwing me off. That being said, it’s successful as a 3D, dark fantasy font.
The actual released product uses an equally-neat logo…
Not confined to a shape, this script-like one works well. Definitely more ripped paper in its look, yet unique on its own.
Disney has no plans to release The Black Cauldron on Blu-ray. I reckon that if they did a few years back, it would’ve used this cover. In 2010, The Great Mouse Detective was released on DVD, the Blu-ray edition reused the same cover, name, bonus features, and transfer… So I was thinking the Blu-ray for Cauldron would’ve done that. Oh well…
Speaking of The Great Mouse Detective…
The Film Proper…
You know, for many years, you could not see the film’s original title card.
Quite frankly, I think it’s a little basic. The font is nice and all, kinda mighty-looking for this kind of mouse adventure, but it doesn’t quite scream the film’s aesthetics, namely the Sherlock Holmes-esque protagonist and setting.
It doesn’t help that The Great Mouse Detective just isn’t a good title. The movie is based on the book series Basil of Baker Street, and that was going to be the title… Until a then-new Jeffrey Katzenberg, at the time chairman of Walt Disney Pictures and overseer of the animated features, rejected it. His excuses for changing the title: It’s “too British”, kids won’t understand it, Young Sherlock Holmes flopped last year…
So I guess they didn’t want to do anything fancy with the new title. The Disney animation team certainly wasn’t happy with the title change, and that infamous joke memo suggesting similar title changes to the previous Disney classics made the rounds.
The Original Release…
The marketing campaign for this one was very minimal, and they didn’t use the font that the film’s title card uses.
Definitely more ritzy 1930s/Golden Age of Hollywood than the damp alleyways of 1897 London! Well, it’s still pretty to look at. Perhaps the logo for Walt Disney Home Video’s The Classics line was in the designers’ minds? Thanks to Cartoon Research, I recently learned that the poster itself was a mockup that was made, and they just… Had the mockup become the official poster. That explains the minimalist white background.
Unlike The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective made its money back at the box office. Though, in reality, they grossed around the same amount of money… Mouse Detective just happened to cost half of what Cauldron cost to make. Since it did fine and was mostly the work of the new executives, there was no shame. The picture was re-released in 1992.
The “Adventures of” Re-release…
Similar to the scrapped re-release of The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective was retitled. Unfortunately, it wasn’t called Basil of Baker Street, but rather… The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective…
Here’s the in-film title card…
While spaced nicely, the font is not as eye-catching as the 1986 one. I guess you could say it’s closer to the movie’s setting than the previous one, but something about it doesn’t jump out. At least the letterforms are nice-looking, I’m particularly digging the semi-asymmetrical work on the “M”. This font would also be used in the re-release’s trailer, but it’s nowhere near as bold, and as a result, I like it a little better. Book-like, kind of universal.
The poster used a much more extravagant and eye-popping font…
Everything about that font is just right… The cursive on “The Adventures of”, and the main font, it’s very pretty and almost opulent in a way, I think it successfully sets the tone of the picture. A Victorian adventure from the perspective of mice, hence everything’s massive and big. Why didn’t they use this in the actual film?
Home video…
Now, here’s where things get a little complicated.
The video premiere of the movie immediately followed that brief Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective re-release. The cover says The Great Mouse Detective, using the font from the re-release posters. Very nice, very nice…
The trailers for the video release (excepting the one seen at the end of the spring 1992 VHS release of 101 Dalmatians, which was just the theatrical one but slightly re-edited) also said “The Great Mouse Detective“… But when you pop in the tape, you see that the re-release print has been used.
The re-release “Adventures of” print of the film was used on every American home video release up until 2010, while all the covers just used the original 1986 title. Confusing to say the least!
Here is the 1999 VHS release, an unusually epic cover indeed…
… But the font is just kinda there, again. The bold letters align with the cover design, suggesting big epic action-adventure. Great Mouse Detective does have a bit of that vibe, despite being a low-budget film, so it makes sense that this design scheme was chosen. Perhaps it was all an attempt to reposition Basil (“Starring Basil of Baker Street”) as one of Disney’s action heroes? To appeal to the audience Tarzan was going for that same year? I don’t know, maybe I’m just reaching.
The 2002 DVD cover’s logo, I feel, is less successful.
Just generic, really, to these eyes.
Now we get to the 2010 DVD, the “Mystery in the Mist” Edition. (Ooooh, fancy!)
… And that’s another “ehh” font, to me. No need to show the Blu-ray cover, it’s the same exact thing but with a different border.
Come to think of it, The Great Mouse Detective really seemed to get the shaft in terms of fonts. Not that any of these recent ones are bad, but they just aren’t striking the way a font for a Disney film should be. Maybe the day it gets a new kind of video release, we’ll see a font for the film’s logo that will be pretty good? I think they should just use the 1992 poster one. To me, that’s easily the best of the whole bunch.
The Film Proper…
Not much to say here. It suits the movie, for sure. A contemporary 80s-looking logo for a very contemporary, dated, 80s movie. Big, loud letterforms, neon sign-like cursive. It’s pretty cool.
The theatrical releases…
Posters and print materials barely deviated from this one, early on.
The original release poster uses the one that you see in the film.
The 1996 re-release poster uses it, too.
Home Video…
The home video premiere, also from 1996, uses a modified version.
It’s… Not as nice-looking. “Company” is left untouched, but “Oliver” – aside from the O – is even. I liked the bouncy, asymmetrical quality of the one in the movie/from the posters. I guess this was done to make it fit inside the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection arch shape?
After this video release, the original film logo was pretty much out the window…
The 2002 DVD uses this type…
While I appreciate the attempt at replicating the asymmetry of the film’s “Oliver”, I feel it’s boring. I have little to say. I guess the intent was to move away from the 80s qualities of the old logo? Perhaps that’s why “Company” is not in cursive?
Oliver & Company is usually not one of Disney’s hot sellers when it comes to home video, and it’s because the movie is very much a 1980s film. It was very dated not even five years after its initial release. So for future releases, Disney just kinda marketed it as this run-of-the-mill cute animals comedy. When you rip away all the hip 80s edge and the soundtrack, that’s pretty much what you’re left with.
See, my ideal cover would embrace the 80s-ness of the movie. (Future design project of mine? Maybe!) Not like the movie’s gonna sell, sell, sell with a tackier-looking cover anyway. But it hasn’t been the late 80s for thirty years, so it makes sense that Disney would forsake that kind of aesthetic, as their video release covers aim to say “Look! Cute, funny animals and stuff!” Not so much, “Yeah, check out this 80s to the max movie!”
The font used for the 20th and 25th Anniversary editions is a little nicer, but not much to write home about.
Again, just kind of the typical “hey, it’s a fun cat-and-dog movie” kind of thing. Little else.
Really, I think with Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company, you see quite basic covers that don’t have much fun with the type or the visuals. Long after the heyday of VHS, Disney treated these titles with little care when it came to packaging. They’re usually seen as bottom-of-the-barrel titles anyways. These are some of the weakest I’ve seen, right down there with some of the home video releases of the package features. Again, these aren’t bad. They certainly do their job, but I feel there’s better treatments out there.
When you see something like Great Mouse Detective‘s re-release poster logo, you know more can be done with logos for these kinds of Disney animated films…
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