The film is directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, who had directed Disney's previous animated film "The Fox and the Hound" in 1981, the first Disney animated film to be recorded in Dolby Stereo. Disney acquired the rights to the books in 1973 with production beginning in 1980, set for a Christmas 1984 release. During production, it had a severe editing process, particularly for its climactic sequence, which proved to be disturbing to children. The newly appointed Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered those scenes to be cut, fearing that it would alienate children, and as a result it was delayed to 1985. It features the voices of Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Arthur Malet, John Byner, Phil Fondacaro and John Hurt.