The Black Cauldron

"The Black Cauldron" was, in its time, one of Disney's biggest failures ever. Hyped up before its release to be the start of a new animation revolution, the movie was poorly received by critics and audience alike, and only brought in about ten million dollars at the box office, when it had cost twenty-five.

The movie's biggest problem is that it tries to be two things at once, and as such fails to fully be either of them. It tries to be a little more "grown-up" and mature than previous Disney features, and it certainly contains some of the darkest and scariest moments in any Disney movie (it was the first Disney animated feature to ever get a PG-rating); but it lacks the wit and intelligence to truly speak to adults, and is also bogged down a bit by overly-saccharine scenes (just about any scene with the Fair Folk in it) that seem pretty over-the-top even for Disney.

It doesn't help, either, that the plot is all over the place and doesn't really seem to know where it wants to go. This is partly because "The Black Cauldron" is based on two separate books with entirely different plotlines ("The Book of Three" and "The Black Cauldron," the first two in the Prydain Chronicles series by Lloyd Alexander), and the combination of the two isn't particularly successful, leading to quite a few plot holes and events that don't quite make sense when you stop to think about them. Add to it that the pacing of the movie could have been much better -- some scenes seem to run on forever and others rush by much too quickly -- and you can see why the movie failed. Despite some quite good technical achievements, it simply isn't up to the task of being the "start of a new animation revolution" that the creators promised. (The real new animation revolution came years later, with "The Little Mermaid," but that's another story altogether.)

All that said, "The Black Cauldron" isn't a BAD movie, because if you get over the most obvious problems, there is actually quite a lot here to be charmed and entertained by. The animation is smooth and fluid, as you'd expect from a Disney feature, and there are some pretty nice-looking special effects which are even more impressive when you consider that this is the first animated movie on Disney's roster to make excessive use of CGI. The characters, while perhaps lacking in depth, are entertaining enough -- the best example of this is the villain of the piece, the Horned King: He has absolutely no personality beyond being "evil," but he's so expertly pulled off in both looks, animation and voice (John Hurt) that he still comes across as memorable. Of course, reviewers often wish bloody death on comedy-relief critted Gurgi (John Byner) whose "unforgiveable crimes" include being cute and cuddy and referring to himself in third person (I never quite got why this is so horrible), but personally I found him to be the most endearing character of the bunch; certainly the one to get the most character growth and development -- i.e. he actually had some.

All in all, "The Black Cauldron" probably promises more than it actually delivers, but what it DOES deliver is fairly decent entertainment, and if you like fantasy, you could do worse than checking it out. And then, check out the books on which it's based -- which are definitely superior.