Chapter 1: The beginning of the end
This TL starts in 1966.
Walt Disney died on December 15th 1966 and that day America wept, but little did people know it was only the beginning of the end; 1967 was filled with flops such as Monkeys Go Home and The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin but a saving grace came with the Jungle Book. The Jungle Book runs the same as OTL but with Ringo voicing Flaps, Mick Jagger voicing Dizzie, Eric Clapton voicing Buzzie ,and George Harrison voicing Ziggy; the film received positive reviews and made $37,500,000 at the box office. The last profitable picture that Disney released during the 60's was The Love Bug, which grossed 51 million dollars against a 5 million dollar budget.
But during the 70's everything went to hell, though you wouldn't have guessed that at first; Aristocats, released on December 11th 1970, grossed $28,000,000 dollars worldwide, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Blackbeard's Ghost were successes at the Box-Office, and Walt Disney World had a massive opening. However Roy O. Disney passed away on October 11th 1970 and the company was passed on to Donn Tatum and Card Walker, their tenures caused the collapse of the Disney company; first Disney turned down American Graffiti, released by Warner Bros. on August 11th 1973 the film grossed $140,000,000 and received positive reviews, instead Disney pumped out their standard live action fare all of which weren't notable and flopped.
Robin Hood's release, on November 8th 1973, was a bit of hope as it did gross 32 million dollars against a 5 million dollar budget, which destroyed Hanna-Barbara's Charlotte's Web which only grossed $3,000,000 worldwide; Disney began spending a lot of money on an adaption of The Chronicles of Prydain which was scheduled for a December 1978 release. However whilst Disney was making The Chronicles of Prydain Hanna-Barbara was adapting Escape to Witch Mountain, HB bought the rights to said book in 1971; the next year (1974) Disney also had an adaptation of the Book Miss Bianca in the Arctic planned, it was a B-scale picture with Louis Prima attached to it. The budget for Chronicles of Prydain by the end of 1974 was up to $12,000,000.
Whilst Miss Bianca had its production go smoothly, The Chronicles of Prydain didn't as its budget ballooned; many at Disney either wanted to sell Prydain, co-produce it with another studio (the most commonly mentioned were EMI, Columbia, United Artists, Warner Bros., and Paramount), or cancel it. However neither of the choices were made and on May 8th, 1976, after Prydain's budget rose to $28,000,000, it was decided to cancel Bianca and lay-off several animators, Don Bluth was one of them.
On June 22nd 1977 Escape to Witch Mountain, produced by Hanna-Barbara, directed by John Pomeroy, and released by Columbia Pictures in the USA and by Columbia/Warner/EMI internationally. The film's plot is much more close to the book ITTL and features the following voice cast
Mike Evans: Father O' Day
Kim Richards: Tia Malone
Ike Eisenmann: Tony Malone
Ray Milland: Aristotle Bolt
Escape to Witch Mountain grossed $25,000,000 against a $7,000,000 dollar budget and received positive reviews.
Walt Disney died on December 15th 1966 and that day America wept, but little did people know it was only the beginning of the end; 1967 was filled with flops such as Monkeys Go Home and The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin but a saving grace came with the Jungle Book. The Jungle Book runs the same as OTL but with Ringo voicing Flaps, Mick Jagger voicing Dizzie, Eric Clapton voicing Buzzie ,and George Harrison voicing Ziggy; the film received positive reviews and made $37,500,000 at the box office. The last profitable picture that Disney released during the 60's was The Love Bug, which grossed 51 million dollars against a 5 million dollar budget.
But during the 70's everything went to hell, though you wouldn't have guessed that at first; Aristocats, released on December 11th 1970, grossed $28,000,000 dollars worldwide, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Blackbeard's Ghost were successes at the Box-Office, and Walt Disney World had a massive opening. However Roy O. Disney passed away on October 11th 1970 and the company was passed on to Donn Tatum and Card Walker, their tenures caused the collapse of the Disney company; first Disney turned down American Graffiti, released by Warner Bros. on August 11th 1973 the film grossed $140,000,000 and received positive reviews, instead Disney pumped out their standard live action fare all of which weren't notable and flopped.
Robin Hood's release, on November 8th 1973, was a bit of hope as it did gross 32 million dollars against a 5 million dollar budget, which destroyed Hanna-Barbara's Charlotte's Web which only grossed $3,000,000 worldwide; Disney began spending a lot of money on an adaption of The Chronicles of Prydain which was scheduled for a December 1978 release. However whilst Disney was making The Chronicles of Prydain Hanna-Barbara was adapting Escape to Witch Mountain, HB bought the rights to said book in 1971; the next year (1974) Disney also had an adaptation of the Book Miss Bianca in the Arctic planned, it was a B-scale picture with Louis Prima attached to it. The budget for Chronicles of Prydain by the end of 1974 was up to $12,000,000.
Whilst Miss Bianca had its production go smoothly, The Chronicles of Prydain didn't as its budget ballooned; many at Disney either wanted to sell Prydain, co-produce it with another studio (the most commonly mentioned were EMI, Columbia, United Artists, Warner Bros., and Paramount), or cancel it. However neither of the choices were made and on May 8th, 1976, after Prydain's budget rose to $28,000,000, it was decided to cancel Bianca and lay-off several animators, Don Bluth was one of them.
On June 22nd 1977 Escape to Witch Mountain, produced by Hanna-Barbara, directed by John Pomeroy, and released by Columbia Pictures in the USA and by Columbia/Warner/EMI internationally. The film's plot is much more close to the book ITTL and features the following voice cast
Mike Evans: Father O' Day
Kim Richards: Tia Malone
Ike Eisenmann: Tony Malone
Ray Milland: Aristotle Bolt
Escape to Witch Mountain grossed $25,000,000 against a $7,000,000 dollar budget and received positive reviews.
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