‘Mouse in Transition’: Goodbye Disney (Chapter 18)
The first sign that you might get laid off at Disney: the bosses won’t give you a new computer.
The first sign that you might get laid off at Disney: the bosses won’t give you a new computer.
When the Disney strike of 1982 ended and the story artists returned to their respective work spaces in the animation building, “Basil of Baker Street” was still running along two sets of tracks. There were storyboards filled with gags and character bits, and boards filled with plot points.
Steve Hulett on everything from “Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore” to “Katy Caterpillar.”
“Basil of Baker Street” by novelist Eve Titus was an illustrated children’s book centered on a mouse who fancied himself an ace detective. The mouse resided (naturally enough) inside the walls of 31 Baker Street in London, home of a human-sized ace detective, the name of whom escapes me.
Steve Hulett recounts his role in the the confusing and chaotic production of Disney’s most un-Disney-like feature, “The Black Cauldron.”
My wrestling match with Ken Anderson now over, I returned once more to Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman and Larry Clemmons, working on the story end of “The Fox and the Hound.”
I was back in Don Duckwall’s office, exchanging insincere smiles with him. I had been on “The Fox and the Hound” with Larry, Woolie, and everybody else for half a year. But now Don wanted me to go on another assignment.
Larry had me writing sequence scripts for “The Fox and the Hound,” which turned out to be my assignment for the next six months. Part of the package was attending Woolie Reitherman’s marathon story sessions, which often left me drained and dazed. There were also Woolie’s marathon take-selection meetings, which left me drained and bewildered.