Shortly before the film's initially planned 1984 theatrical release, a test screening for the rough cut of "The Black Cauldron" was held at the studio's private theater in Burbank, California. After the film, particularly the climactic "cauldron born" sequence, proved to be too intense and disturbing for the majority of the children in the audience (most of whom ran out of the theater in terror before it was even finished), the newly appointed Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered certain scenes from "The Black Cauldron" be cut, as a result of the length and the fear that their nature would alienate children. Since animated films were generally edited in storyboard form using Leica reels (later known as animatics: storyboards shot sequentially and set to temporary audio tracks), producer Joe Hale objected to Katzenberg's demands. Katzenberg responded by having the film brought into an edit bay and editing the film himself.