The History of Disney’s THE BLACK HOLE (1979): Too Dark, Too Disturbing
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In 1977 STAR WARS changed the pop culture landscape and everyone was scrambling to find the NEXT Star Wars, including Disney.
They took the BLACK HOLE script, which had been in development for awhile, for a long while, and fast-tracked it. Disney would now have their own STAR WARS in THE BLACK HOLE.
SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Hole_(1979_film)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/we-never-had-an-ending-why-disneys-black-hole-lost-star-wars-1262526/
https://mouseplanet.com/inside-disneys-the-black-hole/7106/
https://ejunkieblog.com/2017/07/19/the-disney-chronicles-part-6-the-1970s/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/392006005/
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/03/when-disney-got-weird/
https://archive.org/details/wdp-annual-report-1979/mode/2up
https://www.newspapers.com/image/384980390/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/385247593/
https://archive.org/details/black-hole-bts
https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Black-Hole-The-(1979)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1223130000/?match=1&terms=the%20black%20hole
https://www.newspapers.com/image/385259271/?match=1&terms=the%20black%20hole
https://www.newspapers.com/image/622725819/?match=1&terms=the%20black%20hole
https://www.newspapers.com/image/1262754913/?match=1&terms=the%20black%20hole
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/1979-disney-wanted-black-hole-846582/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/171580448/
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@SecretGalaxyTV
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
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@darkshadow1966
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
OMG I remember going to the movie to see this and not having $$ for drink/food. Good movie for the time
@mr.dilanger
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
I like that Maximilian's preferred weapon was a blender for people.
@WebbstreMain
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
I saw this at a Halloween sleepover when I was a kid and that freaking robot still haunts my memories
@amanster724
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
Loved this movie as a kid and at 54 today still love it.
@RealSetsuP
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
Maximilian drilling through that book to end the one dude is one of my formative memories 😅
@TalonDunning
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
I’m surprised you didn’t mention that the soundtrack was composed by the late, great John Berry of James Bond 007 fame. I own the score on LP and adopted the rather repetitive main theme as the ringtone on my cellphone.
@mangrove
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
I watched it in Summer 1980 as part of a double-feature with Sleeping Beauty, and LOVED it. Granted, I was 3.
@kaguya6900
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
I saw it in theaters when it came out. I loved the models. They were beautiful. Can't say I was thrilled with the story. There was some cool ideas in there, but not really enough to make me want to see it over and over. Once was pretty much enough for me at the time, and maybe once every 20 years or so now.
@blankseventydrei
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
strangely, as a kid, I like the movie and I always wondered about ending and what it meant. since it had no vision, it has not meaning.. sad.
@t_k_blitz4837
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
“But…”
”ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!”
@cameralabs
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
Hot take – I actually really enjoyed The Black Hole as a 9 year old. Maximillian was terrifiying then and now, Vincent was a fun R2D2 C3PO hybrid, some of the VFX still holds up, the dual-laser guns were cool, while John Barry's score lent it a really classy – and queasy – Bond vibe. Still a terrible ending though.
@LordCastleHail
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
11:53 Reinhardt, not Reinhold!
@LightEqualsDarkness
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
Peeps love THE BLACK HOLE!
@JVF5793
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
I use to rent this all the time when I was a kid. Saw it as an adult and was horrified I used to watch this as a young child because it is nightmare fuel.
@Garch-the-Great
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
I first saw this as the second half of a drive-in double-feature with The Fox & the Hound. Disney was actively trying to freak out and depress little kids.
@LordCastleHail
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
Alltime top 3 movie with the best soundtrack ever!
@ladyrazorsharp
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
As a kid, I had four Disney books that I loved: America, Nature, Adventure, and Fantasyland. Sadly, I only have the America book now, even though Adventure was my favorite. IIRC the story of The Black Hole was in the Fantasyland book. The story intrigued me, but you wanna know what scared the living way out of me? The HUGE STARING EYES of VINCENT and Old BOB. shudders I distinctly recall the line, "The hull of the Cygnus was crushed like an eggshell." In that iteration, the crew of the Palamino (not necessarily on their own ship by that time), goes through the black hole and then enters a galaxy comprised of everything else that was swallowed by the black hole. The crew agree that their mission hasn't changed, that they're out to discover fantastic things, and they do just that.
I admit to having a soft spot for ol' Ernie Borgnine. He was in a few disaster movies, seems like. I guess he had the face of a stubborn everyman. Near the end of his life and career, he was cast in a Hallmark Christmas movie in which he played a retired actor who always lamented that he was cast as the 'heavy,' a gangster or a villain. It was a cute in-joke, because in reality, he won his Oscar as a romantic lead.
@Goose_Willis
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
My mom took me to see this when I was 5. I loved it even though I didn't understand it. I had the toys though!!
@MikeHughey728
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
If there's anything Disney should take away from this general time period, it's not to release movies titled "The Black [object]."
@TheUnbeingPulse
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
A failure, sure. But it has lived vividly in my imagination and memory since I was a child and saw it on VHS.
@johnnycash5858
June 5, 2026 at 10:16 am
Yeah if it made 35 million on a 20 mil production + 6 mil promo budget, it absolutely lost money. Why do people like you always forget the box office takes a cut as well?
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