The 1980s was a boom period for fantasy cinema. Everyone was hoping they'd find the next Star Wars and pretty much always failed, but at least succeeded in producing a lot of cult classics. Now, there's two types of cult classics. There's the genuinely brilliant films that just never managed to find a wider audience, and then there's the genuinely bad films that many enjoy because of how entertainingly bad they are.
I'm not sure which group I would put The Black Cauldron in.
Based on the first two books in The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, which were inspired by Welsh mythology, The Black Cauldron was something of a major change of pace for Disney. While fairytales had been the backbone of their animated films since the very beginning, this was the company's first real stab at not only high fantasy, but a PG rating. The big wigs were looking to widen their audience by tapping into the growing teenage market and thought this would be exactly the sort of thing to lure them in.
It suffered through a slow development and a troubled production, and things didn't get any easier when it was finished. Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had recently took over as Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios motion picture division, felt the finished film was too scary and violent and ordered major changes, even editing the film himself at one point. This caused the film's release to be pushed back by up to eight months. In total around 10-12 minutes of footage was cut, and not all of it seamlessly. The Black Cauldron ended up being a massive flop at the box office, making only $21 million off of a then record $44 million budget. It put the studio's animation department near bankruptcy and languished in the Disney vault until 1998.
When a film is hidden away for that long all sorts of stories are spread about it. Some will say it was an abomination best left lost in the dark, others will say it was a masterpiece audiences just weren't ready for at the time. The Black Cauldron is neither of those things, but something far worse.
It's just depressingly average.
As a fantasy adventure it is thoroughly middle of the road, employing all the classic tropes without once trying to do anything new or interesting with them. The animation is fine, very much typical of Disney at the time, but looks less impressive compared to the sort of things they'd be doing a few years later. As an adaptation of the books, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Putting together the first two books was a smart choice because the first one basically has no plot and is really just a load of episodic mini adventures that bring all the main characters together before leading to a rather limp confrontation.
Many of the characters have been tweaked to make them even more conventional than they already were. Taran is your typical Luke Skywalker type, a whiny kid stuck on a farm who does nothing but whine about being a kid stuck on a farm when he wants to be off having adventures. His journey towards being a hero is slow and covers all five books. He's effectively useless in the first one, often reprimanded by other characters for his frequent screw ups, and little better by the second. This film obviously wants to make him a traditional hero more quickly so a lot of the other heroic characters are cut so he can take their place and do all the fighting, in part thanks to that magic sword, which was originally taken by Eilonwy. She's served the worst by script, having many of her rougher edges filled off so she can be more of a traditional Disney princess who is headstrong, but still relies on the boy to do all the heroic stuff.
Arawn the Death-Lord was the main villain of the books, but the movie merges him with one of his minions (probably because he has a cooler name). The Horned King, wonderfully voiced by John Hurt, is one of the scariest villains Disney has ever come up with. And also the most ineffective. Sure, he looks terrifying, but he never actually gets to do anything truly villainous. Even when he finally gets hold of the Black Cauldron and makes his zombie army, he never does anything with them. That's partly because what he did do with them was considered far too graphic and scary for the kids and got cut out. Despite being more serious and not nearly as camp as the average Disney villain, the film still lumbers him with the typical bumbling comedy sidekick, who is about as funny as being stuck in line at the post office.
Myths and Legends
--Would remain the most expensive animated film until The Lion King nine years later.
--The film's score was composed by Elmer Bernstein and is one of the first Disney animated films not to include any songs.
--This was the last film Tim Burton worked on before he left Disney to start his directing career.
--Tinkerbell can be spotted amongst the Fair Folk.
--Hayley Mills was considered for the voice of Eilonwy. The role eventually went to Susan Sheridan.
--Disney re-acquired the rights to the books in 2016 for a planned live action series, but so far nothing has been produced.
--This was the first Disney animated film to use the classic castle logo, although a silent version of it had already been used for Return to Oz.
Eilonwy: “I'm Princess Eilonwy. Are you a lord, or a warrior?”
Taran: “Uh, no. Uh... I-I-I'm an assistant pig keeper.”
Eilonwy: “Oh, what a pity. I was so hoping for someone who could help me escape. Oh, well, if you want to come with me, you may.”
Taran: “What does a girl know about swords, anyway?”
Eilonwy: "Girl? Girl? If it wasn't for this *girl*, you would still be in the Horned King's dungeon.”
Eilonwy: “Aren't you charming?”
Gurgi: “And pungent, too.”
Taran: “I'm not afraid of the Horned King.”
Dallben: “Then you are a very foolish lad. Untried courage is no match for his evil. Just remember that.”
The Black Cauldron wants to be a dark and mature fantasy adventure as well as a charming Disney film for all the family and never succeeds at being either. ⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
Fascinating. I've never heard of this movie. Thank you for a very interesting review, Mark.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: This movie got beaten by Care Bears Movie opening weekend
ReplyDeleteThe mistreatment of Elionwy in the film is legendary - even down to changing her hair colour so its more normal. (she is part of the heroes prefer redheads movement). FFlewddur FFlam is also almost as badly served - he should be much younger.
ReplyDeleteWhat this actually needs is a live action adaptation filmed in Wales - some of the places are exaggerated, but still recognizable. (The Marshes for example). With Bad Wolf currently teamed up with Disney, I can dream.
I've been curious about this one, as I've heard of it, and the Horned King was added to the Disney Villainous board game in the 'Despicable Plots' stand-alone expansion, and he looks awesome. Then I see the shots you've shared here as well and it looks so cool at first, until one reads your review, which makes it sound like such a lost opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI think I saw this as a kid? Or at least half of it? I remember the skeleton army for sure, but I might also just be confusing it with The Sword and the Stone? They're both Disney movies that no one really realizes are Disney movies. (I actually thought that they came out around the same time but Google tells me otherwise.)
ReplyDeleteBeen a long time since I've seen it, but I don't recall any skeleton armies in The Sword and the Stone, which I thought everyone knew was a Disney movie, even if it isn't one of the more regarded ones.
DeleteI read the books as a kid and remember loving them, being hardly able to wait to get my hands on the next one in the series from the library. I confess, however, that at this point I only very vaguely remember anything about them. Perhaps The Lord of the Rings has simply overwhelmed any existing memories of this sort of thing.
DeleteI never saw the film, and now doubt that I will ever bother. As noted, it does sound as though a new version could be good, if handled by someone competent — which also seems doubtful.
Meant that as a standalone comment, not necessarily a reply to An Honest Fangirl's comment; just hit the wrong button/link/whateveronecallsthesethingsthesedays.
DeleteI think it's an objectively weak movie but I still have some fond memories of watching it as a kid, most likely due to the fact that plenty of the dark, creepy vibes of the original version still trickled down to the watered down version we got.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny/sad that studio executives will sabotage movies like these in the hopes that making them more generic and kid friendly will supposedly make them more popular, yet the opposite happens: we get movies with a lot weaker sense of identity and appeal and audiences respond to that.
Something of a digression, but in line with the discussion.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time after grad school, I got a grant job cataloging a collection of old and rare children's books at a University. What I noticed was how incredibly violent the really old stories were, often resulting in children dying. They've been so toned down over the years. It just seems ironic that the current regime wants to go back to the "good old days" to protect kids, but the older the version, the more violent it usually is.
I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for the first time last month and was shocked by how messed up and brutal the Tin Man's backstory is.
DeleteIt wasn't really that long ago that life was, for most people, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Still is, for many people on this planet. The rest of us seem likely to find out what that's like in the coming decades.
DeleteMark, I read the entire series when I was young and I remember what happened to the Tin Man. It was indeed very messed up.
DeleteThis was my favorite series of books as a child and teen. I probably read each book twenty times or more (not an exaggeration). On its own terms, the movie is undistinguished. As an adaptation of any of the books in the CHRONICLES OF PRYDAIN, it's atrocious.
ReplyDelete