THE BLACK CAULDRON


deviantman

New Member
Hello,
This post is directed toward Randy.....

Being a Disney and soundtrack music fan I have been wondering about future releases of classic Disney animation music, in particular THE BLACK CAULDRON. This is a great score and in the shadow of composer Elmer Bernstien's passing would make a fabulous tribute to him.

I would like to know if the mastertapes still exist (and if they in good condition) and is there any way that Disney Records would release any of it on CD as either a complete score release or a 30 minute CD of highlights. I am well aware of how BLACK CAULDRON has never been a big Disney hit and thus money would prevent such a release, but this music deserves to be issued and it is a great shame that is remains trapped inside "THE MOUSE's" vault.

The re-recording issued by Varese is okay and long out of print. The original recording is superb.

:'(

Anybody else feel the same?
 

atomobile

Member
Yes, I enjoy this soundtrack (actually better than the film!). Disney Records doesn't own the rights to release this CD. On the same token, Disney licensed Pete's Dragon from Capitol for the recent CD release, so anything is possible. I own the Varese CD released which is a re-recording of highlights from the film. I also own a bootleg CD which contains the original, complete movie score. This complete score is very hard to listen to after a while. The soundtrack consisted of countless 1 minute + music cues from beginning to end. I think the is what bothers me about the film. It's like 1 minute of animation, then cut to another scene...one after another. So this score CD consists of a bunch of very short music cues than don't feel complete. This is the only unreleased bootleg I ever bought other than Gremlins. :)
I wonder if I can fit both CDs onto one since the official release is only 30 minutes...
Your friend,
Louis
 

deviantman

New Member
Hi Louis,
If Disney doesn't own this score than who does? I know all about the Varese Re-recording performed by the Utah Symphony which is essentially a thirty minute representation of the complete score. You are also correct about the bootleg which features about 70 minutes of the cues mangled together.

I took the trouble to listen to the CD in tandem with the movie to actually disect the boot into individual tracks and surprisingly about three cues are missing!!! Most of the complete cues do run about a minute and a half each and some up to three minutes, but that is how films are scored... I don't mind.

My interest is seeing the original tracks remastered and presented on an offical release much like Bernstein's classic THE GREAT ESCAPE which was just issued complete at over 90 minutes playing time!!!

So, who has THE BLACK CAULDRON mastertapes????

:eek:
 
I just got the soundtrack on record (unopened!) as well as a cassette. I got the bootleg CD about 3 years ago in NYC.
Not bad, but yes, the CD tracks are all under 2 minutes!
*Tommy

bc.JPG
 

Technirama70

New Member
THE BLACK CAULDRON (b**t) is still interesting to listen to. I always thought the Varese release was a little disjointed, with no cohesion to the LP, more like a "sampler" of music from the film. I always figured Disney licensed out the rights to the re-scoring of the soundtrack to Varese Sarabande since the film did little to no business. Plus when the film came out, they really weren't releasing much in the way of soundtracks on LP, Cassette or CD. During this period they licensed out the soundtracks to Splash! on Cherry Hill Records; Never Cry Wolf and Country on Windham Hill Records; The Great Mouse Detective on Varese Sarabande - to name a few.
 
Thanks Technirama, I've wondered for some time how Varese got to release the music to a Disney film!

It certainly would be a fitting tribute to the late Elmer Bernstein to have this score properly represented on CD. I also happen to have the bootleg, a jumbled mess, with even at least one track repeated; my son went through it track by track, renaming them all appropriately.

I cast my vote, too, towards a new release of this great music.

Michael.
 

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