Remember when Disney looked like this?
The Black Hole. Think: Star Trek meets Donnie Darko.
The late 70s through the mid 80s was a bizarre chapter in the life of Disney, and my favorite by far. This was the pre-Eisner era, when you could make existentialist thrillers where children were tormented by black magic and distopian societies.
Here are just a few of the movies that were greenlit back in those glory days.
Tron (1982)
Who needs to read Orwell when you can play the video game instead?
Return To Oz (1985)
Dorothy gets institutionalized and is prescribed shock treatments, catapulting her imagination back into a now-ravaged Oz.
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Be careful what you wish for—especially if you’re directing them at a guy wearing a top hat with a legion of tiny clowns.
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I can’t wait til one of the Pixar guys goes through a painful divorce or has a kid die from leukemia or something so we can start getting depressing children’s movies again. I’ve been trying to get somebody to watch Something Wicked This Way Comes with me for about ten years.
PS- Dorothy in return to Oz is actress & drug addict Fairuza Balk. Viva la darkness.