Do Warner Bros. and Disney still dominate the TV toon market like they did in the late 20th century?

I also watched the animation documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty.

It was about Disney Animation Studios during its dark period in the early 1980s, which included
*veteran animators retiring
*Don Bluth leading an exodus of artists to create their own studio
*Roy E. Disney (Walt's nephew) resigning from the Board of Directors
*The Fox & The Hound and The Black Cauldron flopping
*the rough early leadership under Jeffery Katzenberg
*The closure of the original Animation building.

Then it moves to the late 80s and early 90s, which included:
*Michael Eisner and Frank Wells taking leadership roles
*Disney creating their home video line
*the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit revitalizing the animation department.
*the success of the early Disney Renaissance films
(Apparently it was Katzenberg who coined the term Renaissance era)

The doc then goes into detail the production of the first Renaissance films: The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.

The doc makes use of archival interviews and recordings as well as candid videos filmed by Disney animators in the 80s and 90s.

The title refers to Jeffrey Katzenberg wanting to "wake Sleeping Beauty" during the production of The Black Cauldron, meaning he wants the studio to be more creative like in the days of 1959's Sleeping Beauty.

There was a real push for sword and sorcery films back then, none of which seemed to gain much traction. I think Conan was the only one to get a sequel. I went to the cinema to see a film called The Sword and the Sorcerer, and that, like James Bond, gave the name of the next film at the end.

They never made another one. There was also Hawk the Slayer, Dragonslayer, The Beastmaster, loads of others, including The Dark Crystal, but none seemed to go anywhere.

I liked The Black Cauldron, it’s The Kid’s favourite Disney film.

I think it was a victim of being part of a trend as opposed to something in its own right. If it came out now it might do a lot better. I wasn’t too happy with the idea of a magic pig either, seemed a bit too left field.

Disney does have new plans to produce a live action adaptation of The Chronicles of Prydain (The Black Cauldron).
https://insidethemagic.net/2020/06/live-action-black-cauldron-kc1/

Funny enough, the new film will again be part of a trend, this time the new fantasy craze trying to fill the hole left by Game of Thrones. Amazon has The Wheel of Time and the Lord of the Rings series, Netflix has The Witcher, HBO has the GOT prequel, etc.

However much things change.......

DC has characters like Raven, Black Flash and Lobo.
Marvel has characters like Ghost Rider, Blade and Nightcrawler.

These characters are otherworldly. I keep forgetting Raven is half-human.

We have discussed before.

You know about all of these characters but you keep talking about them despite them being offensive to your beliefs.

I know we talked about this before. I don't know about every otherworldly character DC and Marvel has.

The documentary had a particularly sad moment.

Howard Ashman, who worked on The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, and Aladdin, was dying of AIDS. He told the Disney crew the news the same night he won the Oscar for Best Original Song (Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid) with Alan Menken.

Ashman was working on Beauty & The Beast until his death in 1991, almost one year after winning the Oscar. He never saw the completed film, but Ashman said he knew it would be successful. Disney dedicated the film to Ashman:
"To our friend, Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice, and a beast his soul. We will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman: 1950–1991."

The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse is a classic Saturday morning children's cartoon show that originally aired on CBS back in the late '80s. The series was chock-full of innuendos, adult jokes and references, which is not surprising since Ralph Bakshi produced the series.

Oh my! I won't be able to watch the new Harley Quinn series. I'll survive.

You said you don't watch many shows anyway (all you watch are clips on YouTube), so I had no expectations that you would ever see the series.

Even if you looked past the violence and magic elements and watched the series, you would probably stop watching halfway through Season 2 for obvious reasons.

I was being sarcastic.

It's always hard to tell with you if you are genuinely sarcastic.

Anyway, have you seen the "Waking Sleeping Beauty" documentary? I'm assuming you didn't see the "Into The Unknown" documentary.

Looks like someone isn't growing up with Michael Mouse.

“I go by Michael now.”
From this week's New Yorker mag.

Does he hang out on ice cream vans?

The new animated series Close Enough has premiered on HBO this week. The first episode is available to watch on YouTube.


Plus, Disney also posted several clips from their Into The Unknown documentary. Here is a clip where the directors and songwriters, joined by actress Idina Menzel, oversee the orchestration for the song Into The Unknown.

The video in your first link was rendered private.

I guess the episode was free for the first 24 hours.

Might as well post the trailer.


The creator JG Quintel also did a Ask Me Anything session on Reddit on Thursday.
https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/ho6sh9/im_jg_quintel_creator_of_regular_show_and_close/

I've heard about the show.

Disney has announced a new animated series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which will be a spinoff series from their Clone Wars series.

"The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch – a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose."

Longtime Star Wars producer (and fan-favorite creator) Dave Filoni will work on the series.
https://deadline.com/2020/07/star-wars-the-bad-batch-new-animated-series-ordered-by-disney-1202984190/