The Black Cauldron (1985)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Directors:

Ted Berman
Richard Rich

Writers:

Lloyd Alexander (novel)
David Jonas (story) ...

Release Date:

24 July 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Mystery

Tagline:

Seven years in the making - In the celebrated Disney tradition comes our 25th animated motion picture.

Plot:

A young boy and a bunch of misfit friends embark on a quest to find a dark magic item of ultimate power before a diabolical tyrant can.

Plot Keywords:

Cauldron | King | Pig | Princess | Magic

Cast

Grant Bardsley	...	Taran (voice)
Susan Sheridan	...	Eilonwy (voice)
Freddie Jones	...	Dallben (voice)
Nigel Hawthorne	...	Fflewddur Fflam (voice)
Arthur Malet	...	King Eidilleg (voice)
John Byner	...	Gurgi / Doli (voice)
Lindsay Rich	...	Fairfolk (voice)
Brandon Call	...	Fairfolk (voice)
Gregory Levinson	...	Fairfolk (voice)
Eda Reiss Merin	...	Orddu (voice)
Adele Malis-Morey	...	Orwen (voice)
Billie Hayes	...	Orgoch (voice)
Phil Fondacaro	...	Creeper / henchman (voice)
Peter Renaday	...	Henchman (voice) (as Pete Renaday)
James Almanzar	...	Henchman (voice)

Also Known As:

Taran and the Magic Cauldron

MPAA:

Rated PG for some scary images.

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:F (Ontario) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | South Korea:All | Netherlands:AL | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-10 | France:U | Sweden:7 | UK:U | USA:PG | West Germany:6 (w) | Australia:G (DVD rating) | Peru:PT

Filming Locations:

Llechwedd Slate Caverns, Llechwedd Slate Mine, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales, UK

Company:

Silver Screen Partners II

Trivia:

The management team at Disney changed during Cauldron's production. New studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg made several cuts in the film before its release to prevent it getting an R or PG-13 rating.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: Before the film was released, several scenes considered too "graphic" where cropped out of the film. One particular cut involving a Cauldron Born killing a person by slicing his neck and torso created a recognizable lapse due to the fact that the removal of the scene creates a jump in the film's soundtrack.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: Legend has it, in the mystic land of Prydain, there was once a king so cruel and so evil, that even the Gods feared him. Since no prison could hold him, he was thrown alive into a crucible of molten iron. There his demonic spirit was captured in the form of a great, black cauldron. For uncounted centuries, the black cauldron lay hidden, waiting, while evil men searched for it, knowing whoever possessed it would have the power to resurrect an army of deathless warriors...

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Troldspejlet: (#28.13)" (2002)

I wanted to like it. I really did...

For years before I saw this film, I had been a fan of Lloyd Alexander's books. To me, The Chronicles of Preydain rank alongside Tolkien's Middle Earth and Lewis' Narnia as one of the greatest fantasy worlds of all time. Based deeply in Welsh legend and Mythology (many elements come directly from The Mabinogion, almost the bible of Welsh mythology) Preydain is easily one of the deepest, and most developed worlds out there. So, needless to say, when I heard that Disney had a film in the pipeline, I got very excited. Then I saw it...

I can't say that I hated it. More that I was disappointed. This wasn't the Preydain I knew. It was more a fairy tale kingdom than celtic Wales. And what did they do with the characters? Gurgi a cute fuzzy monster? Elonwy turned into a typical damsel in distress? And where were Coll, or Gwydon? I'm sorry, but I didn't know these people. The characters were all different? And what about the rich sense of legend? The books had been based deeply on mythology, but the movie took the first two books, sprinkled bits and pieces of them into a script, and added a ton of fairy tale and fantasy cliches.

I've always wondered what it is with Disney writers that makes them feel it necessary to screw around with anything and everything (witness the amount of "creative license" taken with Pocahantas or Mulan.) I'm sorry, but you don't have to have cute characters or happy endings on everything. But Disney's writers think that you must. And in this case, it cheapened the ending of the film. One of the major plot points of The Black Cauldron is that the cauldron can only be destroyed by a living person sacrificing themselves by throwing themselves into it. This was kept in the film. Yet, when Disney did it, they still copped out to the happy ending by having the three Enchantresses, Ordu, Orwen, and Oregch bring him back to life... Jeeze!

It went on from there. The absence of the true villan of the Preydain chronicles, Arawn, the lord of the dead, the turning of the fair folk (who in celtic mythology were more akin to elves and dwarves) into stock, albeit grouchy, faries.... The list goes on... Disney ruined one of my favorite stories, and I can't ever forget that. Even my love for Disney masterpieces like Beauty and the Beast or 101 Dalmations is tarnished by what they did to some of my favorite books of my youth...