70/80's Disney

I watched this movie for the 1st time in years last night. It was one of the 1st movies I had ever seen in theatre, along with the Sword in the Stone.

The quality of the movies in this era defiantly aren't up to the Disney standard for the most part. Character animations are actually pretty good in this era , but some of the backgrounds don't have the same care and hand painted vibrant look that Disney of the 40's and 50's had.

I think one thing that most of the Disney movies in the 70's and 80's have in common are the incompleteness of the stories, they never feel like a full movie (The Rescuers excepted), the Fox and the Hound has a good theme but it seems like they couldn't figure out what to do with the story, which is why we get the aside of Boomer and Dinky trying to catch the worm. It feels like a short that was placed in the movie to pad out the length. By the time the movie is over, it doesn't feel like much has happened. I didn't realize how little Tod and Cooper interacted as kids either. In comparison you watch some of the new movies like the Lion King, Beauty and the Best or older movies like Pinocchio and you feel like you have watched a complete story with a satisfying structure.

I don't think the experience level was there in the newer era to create satisfying stories, which is part of the reason that the Black Cauldron was such as mess, which nearly killed the animation division.