Disney Does Space Opera!

In this week's post we will visit 1979! In this far away time, Star Wars was HUGE (oh, wait, it still is...) Er....but Disney was NOT. Let me explain...

In the years following Walt Disney's death, the company had pretty much lost its way. The hits just were not happening, and, in fact, things looked a little grim. It was at this point that a little film called "Star Wars" was released and it did fairly well at the box office. Suddenly, Disney decided that since they needed a great original hit, they would follow that time-honored Hollywood tradition and rip off the competition a.s.a.p!
Therefore, they came out with:

...and it pretty much flopped. Still, they had a lot of tie in merchandise with it- such as this album that I found at a local thrift store! Here are some more pictures:

Actually, the movie wasn't so bad. It was a bit of an odd duck, though. It was probably a little dark for Disney fans at the time, and the attempts to appeal to that crowd probably drove off the serious sci-fi crowd. Still, it was enjoyable. I particularly like the model work and design. By the way, there is a whole Estes rocket sub-plot to this story that involves poor luck with licensing and rumored landfills filled with kits.... Some did get released, but that's a story for another day.

Eventually people forgot about "The Black Hole" and Disney made enough money on princesses to just buy "Star Wars" and act like they came up with it in the first place, so everyone is happy.

But I still like Disney's original quirky film...and album.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!