Black Cauldron Rant (Spoilers?)

They escape, with awkward cartoon animation that seems like an 80s trademark, but at least the sword is interesting and then there’s a bit of a nice scene afterward- the arguing between Taran and Eilonwy was true, I believe- before Gurgi returns; at that point, they reach the pond, and after the dramatic whirlpool, they hit a low point with the Fairfolk- were they in the book? And were they like that, these ‘little fairies’ that are all so sweet and cute and almost useless, even the king and the grouchy old janitor- I think Disney had used grouchy and/or befuddled old men too often by this point. After that, they leave for the swamp…and the witches, those horrible witches, especially that Orwen and her attraction to Fflewddur-like the pudgy squirrel had for Merlin in ‘the S in the S’-and then we get what must be the most embarrassing scene in Disney animation; the frog in the bosom. Can you imagine the animator who had to draw that, groaning at the pathetic attempt for humor in what should have been a kids’ movie and above that sort of gag?

The good thing after that was the witches in the clouds, the downhearted scene between the characters, their capture, and then we get back to the Horned King castle and the final climax of this affair; there were some great moments here, the Undead army arising and then Gurgi’s sacrifice- which reminded me, taking place on that stone beam, of the volcano scene in the LOTR movies- before it falls apart. The scene with the boat was a little awkward, but nothing compared to what happened on the shore- Fflewddur stood up to those witches, and Taran had finally learned some humility in admitting that “Gurgi had been the hero,” before the bargain had been made and the seemingly dead creature was returned to them. That moment was a little too long, for the animators to draw sad, sympathetic faces with all of the other characters, before Gurgi came back to life- there was much rejoicing and the kids got to kiss; their ‘attraction’ had been one of the most awkward things about this whole production. So they go off, ‘tra-la-la’, and Dallben briefly appears to smile down on them; the end.

Well, there were some good bits and there were some bad bits, but still it seems a disappointment to the Disney legacy compared to some of the great animated films that came before or since, and also a disservice to Lloyd Alexander’s classic series- they didn’t do a faithful adaptation, they just took the story and used their own elements to make it their own. As a result, it went downhill, and in spite of all the years they spent perfecting this movie, or else just perfecting the technology and ignoring the rest, it failed on so many levels of character, humor, animation and redundancy that it turned into a flop- word of mouth must have gotten around. Part of me wonders what was going on at the studio during this time, I’m pretty sure there must have been some trouble during the making of this, but there certainly must have been a back-lash after this so that Disney had to clean up their act. By the early 90s or so, we’ve got some of their best animated movies with a return to form in their own way-not as a mere caricature- and with some of their most original stories/adaptations, but ‘Black Cauldron’ should be remembered as an example of what can go wrong even when dealing with two classic entities. Rant over, thank you for reading, and please excuse me- I’m not usually the sort that does this.


As long as there is space, I'm going to stare off into it.

I'm with you. I loved the original books. This is my least favorite Disney animated movie. I think they were trying to be Ralph Bakshi?

To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.--Jean Genet