The Black Cauldron (film)

The Black Cauldron
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ted Berman Richard Rich
Produced by	Joe Hale Ron Miller
Story by	Art Stevens Peter Young Roy Morita Al Wilson David Jonas Vance Gerry Ted Berman Richard Rich Joe Hale
Based on	The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
Narrated by	John Huston
Starring	Grant Bardsley Susan Sheridan Freddie Jones Nigel Hawthorne John Hurt John Byner
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Editing by	Armetta Jackson James Koford James Melton
Studio	Walt Disney Feature Animation Silver Screen Partners II
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	July 24, 1985 (1985-07-24)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$21,288,692

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and originally released to American theatres on July 24, 1985. The 25th in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it is based on The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels that is based in turn on Welsh mythology.

The evil Horned King (see poster image) hopes to secure the magical Black Cauldron and to rule the world with its aid. He is opposed by the youths Taran and Princess Eilonwy, the bard Fflewddur Fflam, and a wild creature named Gurgi.

The film is directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, who had directed the previous Disney animated feature The Fox and the Hound. It features the voices of Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne and John Hurt. A video game based on the film was released in 1986.

Plot

Taran is "Assistant Pig-Keeper" on the small farm Caer Dallben, home of Dallben the enchanter. He dreams of becoming a great warrior, but must stop daydreaming because his charge, the oracular pig Hen Wen, is in danger. The Horned King hopes she will help him find the Black Cauldron, which has the power to restore a kind of life to the dead, as undead slaves called "the Cauldron-Born". Dallben directs Taran to take Hen Wen to safety, but the lad's negligence results in the pig's capture.

Taran follows the Horned King's forces to their stronghold and acquires the small, pestering companion Gurgi along the way. Taran sneaks into the castle and rescues Hen Wen, who flees, but he is captured himself and thrown into the dungeon, soon to be released by Princess Eilonwy, a girl his age who is also trying to escape. In the catacombs beneath the castle, Taran and Eilonwy discover the ancient burial chamber of a king, where he arms himself with the king's sword. It contains magic that allows him effectively to fight the Horned King's minions and so to fulfill his dream of heroism. Along with a third captive, the comical, middle-aged bard Fflewddur Fflam, they escape the castle and are soon united with Gurgi.

Following Hen Wen's trail, the four stumble into the underground kingdom of the Fair Folk, small fairy-like beings who reveal that Hen Wen is under their protection and agree to escort her safely back to Caer Dallben. When the cheerful, elderly King Eiddileg reveals that he knows where the cauldron is, Taran resolves to go destroy it himself. Eilonwy, Fflewddur, and Gurgi agree to join him and Eiddileg's obnoxious right-hand man Doli is assigned to lead them to the Marshes of Morva. At the marshes they learn that the cauldron is held by three witches, the grasping Orddu, who acts as leader; the greedy Orgoch; and the more benevolent Orwen, who falls in love with Fflewddur at first sight. Orddu agrees to trade the cauldron for Taran's sword, and he agrees, although he believes that to yield it will cost his chance for heroism. Before vanishing, the witches reveal that the cauldron's power can be broken only by someone who climbs in alive, which will kill him. None of the companions will do that, so it seems Taran has traded his sword for nothing, and Doli abandons the group in disgust. Taran feels foolish for aspiring to destroy the cauldron alone, but his longer companions show their belief in him, and it appears that he and Eilonwy will kiss.

The Horned King's soldiers interrupts, finally reaching the marshes themselves. They seize the cauldron and everyone but Gurgi, and return to the castle. The Horned King uses the cauldron raise the dead and his Cauldron-Born army begins to pour out into the world.

Gurgi manages to free the captives and Taran resolves to cast himself into the cauldron, but Gurgi stops that and advances himself instead. The undead army collapses. When the Horned King spots Taran at large, he infers the turn of events and throws the youth toward the cauldron, but the magic is out of control. It consumes the Horned King and destroys the castle, using up all its powers.

The three witches come to recover the now inert Black Cauldron. Taran has finally realized the Gurgi's true friendship, however, and he persuades them to revive the wild thing in exchange for the cauldron, giving up his magical sword permanently. Fflewddur goads the reluctant witches to go ahead and demonstrate their powers by the revival, which they do.

The four friends journey to Caer Dallben where Dallben watches them in a vision created by Hen Wen. Dallben finally praises Taran for heroism.

Cast

• Grant Bardsley as Taran
• Susan Sheridan as Princess Eilonwy
• Freddie Jones as Dallben
• Nigel Hawthorne as Fflewddur Fflam
• John Hurt as Horned King
• Arthur Malet as King Eidilleg
• John Byner as Gurgi/Doli
• Eda Reiss Merin as Orddu
• Adele Malis-Morey as Orwen
• Billie Hayes as Orgoch
• Phil Fondacaro as Creeper
• John Huston provides the voice-over at the start of the film

Production

For The Black Cauldron, a new way to transfer drawings to cels was invented, called the APT process. But as the lines would fade off the cels over time, most or all of the film was done with the xerox process in colors. It was the most expensive animated feature made as of its release in 1985. It cost $25 million to produce, but grossed only $21 million at the North American box office.

The film is notable for its early use of computer generated imagery (CGI) in animation for bubbles, a boat and the cauldron itself.

This was the last Disney animated feature that was completed in the former Buena Vista studios.

Censorship

Shortly before the film's release to theaters, newly appointed Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered several scenes from The Black Cauldron be cut, due to the fear that the graphic nature of them would alienate children and family audiences. The bulk of the cut scenes involved the undead "Cauldron Born", who are used as the Horned King's army in the final act of the film. While most of the scenes were seamlessly removed from the film, one particular cut involving a Cauldron Born killing a person by slicing his neck and torso created a rather recognizable lapse due to the fact that the removal of the scene creates a jump in the film's soundtrack. Additionally, a scene involving Taran taking the magic sword and slaying his foes while he escapes the Horned King's castle for the first time was removed, as well as another scene with Princess Eilonwy partially nude as fabric was ripped off of her dress^{[citation needed]} as she is hanging by her hands with Taran and Fflewddur Fflam. Another scene cut featured a man being dissolved by mist. The removal of these scenes was to prevent the film from receiving either a PG-13 or R rating. The final version of the film was the first animated film from Disney to get a PG rating from the MPAA.

Release

The Black Cauldron was released in North America on July 24, 1985. The film was also screened at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Disney released a 25th Anniversary Edition DVD on September 14, 2010 in the US and UK containing new 2.35:1 16:9 widescreen presentation, deleted scene "The Fairfolk" and new game "The Witches' Challenge" along with features from the 2000 DVD release, including "The Quest for the Black Cauldron" game, an art gallery, and a 1952 Donald Duck short called Trick or Treat.

Reception

The film was a failure at the box office, with some critics blaming the film's lack of appeal on the dark nature of the book. It has earned a score of 57% "rotten" at Rotten Tomatoes.

Roger Ebert gave a positive review of the film, while the Los Angeles Times' Charles Solomon praised its "splendid visuals". London's Time Out magazine deemed it "a major disappointment", adding that "the charm, characterization and sheer good humor" found in previous Disney efforts "are sadly absent".

Lloyd Alexander's reaction was complex.

First, I have to say, there is no resemblance between the movie and the book. Having said that, the movie in itself, purely as a movie, I found to be very enjoyable. I had fun watching it. What I would hope is that anyone who sees the movie would certainly enjoy it, but I'd also hope that they'd actually read the book. The book is quite different. It's a very powerful, very moving story, and I think people would find a lot more depth in the book.

Video game

Cover of the video game.

A video game of the same name was designed by Al Lowe of Sierra On-Line and released in 1986. It was made shortly after the first King's Quest game, so it resembled that adventure in many ways. Along with The Dark Crystal it remains one of only a few adventure games by Sierra to be based on films.

The player character is a young assistant pig-keeper, Taran, undertaking a quest to stop the evil Horned King, who sought for Hen Wen, the magical pig of the wizard Dallben, for her visionary abilities. With these abilities, the King would be able to discover the Black Cauldron and rule the land. Taran's first mission is to lead her to the Fair Folk while the King's dragons are looking for them. Should the pig be captured (the game allows either possibility), Taran can go to the King's castle and rescue her. Once inside, Taran will meet and rescue Eilonwy with her magic bauble and Fflewddur Fflam, as well as discover a Magic Sword. The Cauldron is in the possession of three witches of Morva who will trade it for the Sword. Unfortunately a dragon grasps the cauldron and Taran goes back to encounter the evil man himself. The game actually featured plot branches and multiple endings depending on many variables, such as whether Hen Wen the pig was saved, how the cauldron was destroyed, and what reward was chosen afterwards. This use of multiple endings predated the more famous use in Lucasfilm's game Maniac Mansion by a year.

In order to make the game more accessible to children, Sierra used an innovative idea that would not reappear in the genre for the next 10 years: the text parser was removed in favor of the function keys that performed various actions: F3 would choose an inventory item, F4 would use it, F6 would perform "Use" near the character's location, and F8 would "look". The simplification of the two actions "Look" and "Use" was not reused in Sierra's later games. However, it somewhat resembles the control system of other later simpler point-and-click adventure games, such as the King's Quest VII or The Dig whose interfaces only consisted of "Look" and "Use". Being based on a Disney film, the graphics present some relative "flexibility", compared to the monolithic and straight sceneries of previous and later games.

External links

• Official website
• The Black Cauldron at Disney Archives
• The Black Cauldron at AllRovi
• The Black Cauldron at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Black Cauldron at the Internet Movie Database
• The Black Cauldron at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Black Cauldron at Box Office Mojo