When Disney Did Dark: Seven Films from Disney's Dark Age (1979 to 1985)

The Black Hole (1979)

     Disney's first PG rated movie - the beginning of the end. With a production budget of $20 million, plus another $6 million for advertising, The Black Hole was (at the time) the most expensive picture ever produced by Disney. It received mixed reviews from critics and ultimately grossed only $38.5 million at the domestic box office - not a disaster, but not the Star Wars size hit Disney was hoping for, either. Despite the somewhat disappointing box office, The Black Hole did receive nominations for two Academy Awards (Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects), though it won neither. 

     Director Gary Nelson had made the decision to omit the Disney logo from the film and use the "Buena Vista Productions" logo instead, illustrating the growing disconnect between Disney's desire to create more adult-oriented and mainstream films and its squeaky clean image. This schism eventually led to the creation of Disney's Touchstone Pictures, a label under which Disney could release films considered too mature for their Walt Disney label. 

     Bonus Trivia: The Black Hole was one of the last mainstream Hollywood films to have an overture at the start of the film.

The Watcher in the Woods (1980)

      "Walt Disney Productions ushers in a new decade of motion picture entertainment with the following invitation to spend ninety minutes on the edge of your seat."  - Title card at the beginning of the trailer for The Watcher in the Woods

     Disney makes a horror movie. The Watcher in the Woods had its premiere in New York City on April 17, 1980, but was pulled from release after ten days. Future screenings were canceled by the studio in response to the overwhelmingly negative response from critics and audiences. Changes were made thereafter, including the removal of a pre-credits sequence, as well as the filming of an entirely new ending directed by Vincent McEveety without the input of original director John Hough. Disney re-released the revised cut of the film on October 9, 1981, and it grossed only $5 million against a $9 million budget. It remains unavailable to stream on Disney+.

Condorman (1981)

     Disney makes a superhero comedy before the superhero genre is really a thing. Condorman was slightly more racy than the movies Disney normally produced, as evidenced by Disney's then-president Ron Miller saying that Barbara Carrera's character was "the sexiest in Disney's history". It's worth noting, as well, that Oliver Reed as villain Krokov gives a performance that seems way too intense for the movie that surrounds it, perhaps another example of the movie's somewhat atypical approach. Did it work? Well... not really.

     Condorman was heavily panned by critics when it premiered, and it performed poorly at the box office. Disney reportedly lost $9.5 million on the picture against a budget of $14 million. It's currently unavailable to stream on Disney+.

Dragonslayer (1981) 

     Despite disappointing box office, Dragonslayer is arguably the most wholly successful movie of Disney's Dark Age. It was a Disney/Paramount co-production, which is probably why it's the only one of these movies to have a 4K release. It was the second joint production between Paramount and Disney after Popeye (1980), and it's more mature than most contemporary Disney films, boasting violence, adult themes and brief full-frontal male nudity (a Disney first). The film received generally positive reviews from critics, but it performed poorly at the box office, grossing $14.1 million worldwide against a production budget of $18 million. 

     Dragonslayer was nominated for the 1981 Academy Award for Best Original Score, which it lost to Chariots of Fire. It was also nominated for that year's Best Visual Effects Oscar in recognition of the groundbreaking work of Industrial Light and Magic in bringing the movie's dragon, Vermithrax Pejorative, to life. It was the first time ILM was utilized outside of a Lucasfilm production. Amusingly, Dragonslayer ultimately lost the Best Visual Effects Oscar to Raiders of the Lost Ark, another ILM production. Regardless, Vermithrax Pejorative remains one of the most convincing realizations of a dragon ever committed to film, even decades after Dragonslayer's initial release. Dragonslayer is yet another Dark Age movie unavailable on Disney+.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

   Something Wicked This Way Comes had a troubled production. First, director Jack Clayton had a falling out with screenwriter Ray Bradbury over an uncredited script rewrite. After test screenings of the director's cut failed to meet the studio's expectations, Disney sidelined Clayton, fired the original editor, and scrapped the original score. The studio spent $4 million and a great deal of time and effort re-shooting, re-editing, and re-scoring, delaying the film's release by five months.

     Ultimately, Something Wicked This Way Comes won two 1984 Saturn Awards (Best Fantasy Film and Best Writing) and was nominated for five others. It also garnered generally favorable reviews. Accolades notwithstanding, it grossed only $8.4 million at the domestic box office against its $20 million budget. Bradbury referred to the film's final cut as "not a great film, no, but a decently nice one", which seems a fairly accurate assessment. It remains noticeably absent from streaming on Disney+.

Return to Oz (1985)

     Having missed out on the film rights to L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz over a
decade prior, Walt Disney Productions later made the decision to purchase the film rights to all of the rest of Baum's Oz books in 1954. After several unrealized attempts to make use of the properties over the ensuing decades, Disney found themselves in danger of losing those film rights in 1980. Enter director Walter Murch, who innocently suggested making another Oz film just as Disney was about to lose the rights, and Murch's Oz pitch - the pitch that would become Return to Oz - was greenlit. 

     Thing is, Baum's Oz books were significantly darker and weirder than MGM's The Wizard of Oz, the version of Oz with which filmgoers were most familiar. Then the project fell behind schedule during production, and following a management change at Disney, Murch was briefly fired. He was subsequently reinstated to finish the picture only after high-profile director pals George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola lent their support to Murch's discussions with the studio.

     Return to Oz was released in theaters on June 21, 1985, and it performed poorly at the box office, grossing only $11.1 million domestically against a $28 million budget. It received mixed reviews, with critics praising the visual style, special effects and faithfulness to the books, while taking the film to task for its terrifying imagery, deemed too intense for what was ostensibly a children's film. 

     While Return to Oz is available to stream on Disney+, it has only seen HD home media release once, way back in 2015. That Blu-ray edition is long OOP, bears absolutely no special features, was only ever available through the Disney Movie Club and now goes for upwards of $250 on eBay. Smells like cult, huh?

The Black Cauldron (1985)

    The Black Cauldron was Disney's first animated film to receive a PG rating. Based upon a test screening, several scenes, particularly the film's climax, were deemed too disturbing for children. Newly appointed Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered the scenes be removed, which resulted in a delayed 1985 release. Ultimately, twelve minutes were cut. 

    The Black Cauldron cost $44 million to produce, making it the most expensive animated film ever made at the time. It grossed only $21.3 million domestically, putting the future of the animation department in jeopardy and earning it the nickname "the film that almost killed Disney". It never received a home media release until thirteen years after its theatrical release, and unlike most animated Disney features, it was not re-released to theaters every seven years. You can, however, stream this one on Disney+ (presumably because Disney is still trying to recoup their investment).