The Cal Arts Brigade … and Tilting at Windmills
“Chief has to DIE. The picture doesn’t work if he just breaks his LEG. Copper doesn’t have enough motivation.”
Ron Clements looked at me intently, shaking his head. Ron was a supervising animator on “The Fox and the Hound” who was in the process of making a jump into the story department. He was also something of a perfectionist and (for some reason) wanted the story to be better.
Ron had worked for a season at Hanna-Barbera and then entered the Disney training program, apprenticing with Frank Thomas. Within a decade he would be co-directing Disney’s breakout blockbuster “The Little Mermaid,” but just now he was unhappy with the story arc of “The Fox and the Hound.”
I agree with you, Ron,” I said. ” Agree completely. But do you think Art Stevens will buy a change like that?”
“I don’t know. But we have to try. The picture needs to be stronger.” ...
The rest of the tale here. ...
I've learned over the course of time that studio politics is much the same no matter what era you're talking about: Back-stabbing and defending territory are the order of the day, whether it's the 1930s, 1990s, or the 21st century.
The end of the seventies and beginning of the eighties was an interesting time at Disney Feature Animation. Much of the old guard had exited, and a lot of young, eager employees from the California Institute of the Arts had entered. The above is the story of when the Cal Arts brigade tried to flex its muscle ... and met stout resistance.
It's also the story of how pictures end up with less than great stuff in them.
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5 comments:
Ron was absolutely right. I remember feeling ... well, betrayed , when as a 18 year old wanna-be animator I saw "The Fox and the Hound" in the theater and could not believe that they set up Chief's death in the story so that he very clearly was killed by that train , and then it turns out that oh, well , actually good ol' Chief (the "IN-valid") has just broken his leg . (and now for some reason Copper wants to kill his dear childhood friend , Tod ... why? ) This took all the guts out of an otherwise fine movie. I had seen cartoon rabbits bleeding and dying on the big-screen in "Watership Down" the year before and had somehow managed to see Bakshi's "Fritz the Cat" and "Heavy Traffic" by then so I knew that cartoon characters could DIE. This lame-ass pulling of punches in 'The Fox and the Hound' was very disappointing.
Would have been a much better movie if the old dog had died.
A lot of us knew it. Art Stevens, backed my Ron Miller, refused to do it.
The flick still made a lot of money. But it could have been much more than it was.
Steve...5 simple words....YOU CAN'T KILL A DOG!!! I agree with Mr. Miller on this. I can't stand dogs dying! If you wanna see dogs dying in a movie...see Kenneth Brannagh's version of "Frankenstein". YOU...CAN'T...KILL...A...DOG!!!
Dan,
In that regard, you should see "What Just Happened?" with Robert de Niro. Killing a dog in a movie is a big plot point.
@Dan - you might also want to avoid Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows.
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