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Following many requests from fans, ''The Black Cauldron'' was first released on [[VHS]] in 1997 in a [[pan-and-scan]] transfer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2006/02/10/712.aspx|title="The Black Cauldron" : What went wrong|publisher=Jim Hill Media|accessdate=2012-02-20}}</ref> A [[DVD]] release with a letterboxed [[2.35:1]] transfer followed in 2000, featuring an art gallery, a new game "The Quest for the Black Cauldron", and the 1952 [[Donald Duck]] short ''[[Trick or Treat (1952 film)|Trick or Treat]]''.<ref name="uD">{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdizzy.com/blackcauldron.html|title=The Black Cauldron 25th Anniversary DVD Review|publisher=DVDDizzy|accessdate=2012-02-20}}</ref>
Following many requests from fans, ''The Black Cauldron'' was first released on [[VHS]] in 1997 in a [[pan-and-scan]] transfer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2006/02/10/712.aspx|title="The Black Cauldron" : What went wrong|publisher=Jim Hill Media|accessdate=2012-02-20}}</ref> A [[DVD]] release with a letterboxed [[2.35:1]] transfer followed in 2000, featuring an art gallery, a new game "The Quest for the Black Cauldron", and the 1952 [[Donald Duck]] short ''[[Trick or Treat (1952 film)|Trick or Treat]]''.<ref name="uD">{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdizzy.com/blackcauldron.html|title=The Black Cauldron 25th Anniversary DVD Review|publisher=DVDDizzy|accessdate=2012-02-20}}</ref>


Disney released a 25th Anniversary Edition DVD on May 17, 2005 in the US and UK, containing a new 2.35:1 16:9 widescreen transfer, a deleted scene "The Fair Folk", a new game "The Witches' Challenge", and the extra features of the 2000 DVD release.<ref name="uD" />
Disney released a 25th Anniversary Edition DVD on September 14, 2010 in the US and UK, containing a new 2.35:1 16:9 widescreen transfer, a deleted scene "The Fair Folk", a new game "The Witches' Challenge", and the extra features of the 2000 DVD release.<ref name="uD" />


== Reception ==
== Reception ==

Revision as of 19:13, 4 April 2012

The Black Cauldron
File:Bcposter.jpg
Original theatrical release poster
Directed byTed Berman
Richard Rich
Story byArt Stevens
Peter Young
Roy Morita
Al Wilson
David Jonas
Vance Gerry
Ted Berman
Richard Rich
Joe Hale
Produced byJoe Hale
Ron Miller
StarringGrant Bardsley
Susan Sheridan
Nigel Hawthorne
John Byner
John Hurt
Narrated byJohn Huston
Edited byArmetta Jackson
James Koford
James Melton
Music byElmer Bernstein
Production
companies
Distributed byWalt Disney Pictures
Buena Vista Distribution
Release date
  • July 24, 1985 (1985-07-24)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million[1]
Box office$21,288,692[2]

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released to American theatres on July 24, 1985. The 25th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, 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 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 (Grant Bardsley) is "assistant pig-keeper" on the small farm Caer Dallben, home of Dallben (Freddie Jones) the enchanter. Taran dreams of becoming a great warrior, but must stop daydreaming because his charge, the oracular pig Hen Wen, is in danger. The Horned King (John Hurt), a fearsom, skeletal, undead king who wears antler horns on his head, 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 (John Byner) along the way. Taran leaves Gurgi to sneak 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 (Susan Sheridan), 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 (Nigel Hawthorne), 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 (Arthur Malet) 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 (John Byner) 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 (Eda Reiss Merin), who acts as leader, the greedy Orgoch (Adele Malis-Morey), and the more benevolent Orwen (Billie Hayes), who falls in love with Fflewddur at first sight; they cause a frighted Doli to abandon the group. Orddu agrees to trade the cauldron for Taran's sword, and he agrees, although he knows 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. 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 interrupt, finally reaching the marshes themselves. They seize the cauldron and everyone but Gurgi, and return to the castle. The Horned King uses the cauldron to 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 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 back to Caer Dallben where Dallben and Doli watch them in a vision created by Hen Wen. Dallben finally praises Taran for heroism.

Cast

Production

For The Black Cauldron, a new way to transfer drawings to cels was invented, called the APT process. But as the APT-transferred line art would fade off of the cels over time, most or all of the film was done using the xerographic process which had been in place at Disney since the late 1950s.[3]

The film is notable for its early use of computer generated imagery in its animation for bubbles, a boat, and the cauldron itself.[4]

Edits before release

Shortly before the film's release to theaters, newly appointed Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered several scenes from The Black Cauldron be cut, due to both its length and the fear that the graphic nature of them would alienate children and family audiences.[5] Since animated films were typically edited in storyboard form using Leica reels (later known as animatics: storyboards shot sequentially and set to temporary audio tracks), producer Joe Hale objected to Katzenberg's demands. Katzenberg responded by having the film brought into an edit bay and editing the film himself.[5]

Told what Katzenberg was doing by Hale, Disney CEO Michael Eisner called Katzenberg in the editing room and convinced him to stop. Though he did as Eisner insisted, Katzenberg demanded the film be revised, and delayed its scheduled Christmas 1984 release to July 1985 so that the film could be reworked.[5]

The film was ultimately cut by 12 minutes,[6] including whole sequences involving the world of the Fairfolk. Some existing scenes were rewritten and re-animated for continuity.[5] Some 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.[7] Another scene cut featured a man being dissolved by mist.[3]

The final version was the first Disney animated film to get a "PG" rating by the MPAA.

Release

The Black Cauldron was released in North America on July 24, 1985.[2] The film was also screened at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.[8] It cost $25 million to produce,[1] the most expensive animated feature made to that time. But it grossed only $21 million at the North American box office[2] and even The Care Bears Movie did better than that, much to the chagrin of the Cauldron production team.[5]

The film was the last Disney animated feature completed at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.[9] The animation department was moved to the Air Way facility in nearby Glendale in December 1984, and, following corporate restructuring, became a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios known as Walt Disney Feature Animation (later Walt Disney Animation Studios).[10]

Home video

Following many requests from fans, The Black Cauldron was first released on VHS in 1997 in a pan-and-scan transfer.[11] A DVD release with a letterboxed 2.35:1 transfer followed in 2000, featuring an art gallery, a new game "The Quest for the Black Cauldron", and the 1952 Donald Duck short Trick or Treat.[12]

Disney released a 25th Anniversary Edition DVD on September 14, 2010 in the US and UK, containing a new 2.35:1 16:9 widescreen transfer, a deleted scene "The Fair Folk", a new game "The Witches' Challenge", and the extra features of the 2000 DVD release.[12]

Reception

The Black Cauldron was a failure at the box office and received mixed reviews,[2] with some critics blaming the film's lack of appeal on the dark nature of the book. It has earned a "rotten" score of 57% at Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus "Ambitious but flawed, The Black Cauldron is technically brilliant as usual, but lacks the compelling characters of other Disney animated classics."[13] Roger Ebert gave a positive review of the film,[14] while the Los Angeles Times' Charles Solomon praised its "splendid visuals".[15] 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".[16]

Lloyd Alexander's reaction was complex.[17]

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.

References

  1. ^ a b Magical Kingdoms
  2. ^ a b c d "The Black Cauldron (1985)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  3. ^ a b - The Black Cauldron
  4. ^ Maltin, Leonard (1995). The Disney Films (3rd ed.). Hyperion Books. p. 286. ISBN 0-7868-8137-2.
  5. ^ a b c d e Stewart, James B. (2005). DisneyWar (1st ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 68-70. ISBN 0-7432-6709-5.
  6. ^ "Cauldron of Chaos, PART 3 - Ink and Paint Club: Memories of the House of Mouse". Peraza, Michael. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
  7. ^ Kols, Dan (October 19, 2010). "The Black Cauldron: Is the movie that almost killed Disney animation really that bad?". Slate. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  8. ^ Goodman, Walter (July 26, 1985). "Screen: Disney's 'Black Cauldron'". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2010-11-22.
  9. ^ Crew Picture The Balck Cauldron [sic]. Upload to Creative Talent Network blog.
  10. ^ Hahn, Don (Director) (2010). Waking Sleeping Beauty (Documentary film). Burbank, CA: Stone Circle Pictures/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
  11. ^ ""The Black Cauldron" : What went wrong". Jim Hill Media. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
  12. ^ a b "The Black Cauldron 25th Anniversary DVD Review". DVDDizzy. Retrieved 2012-02-20.
  13. ^ "The Black Cauldron". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  14. ^ SunTimes.com
  15. ^ Solomon, Charles (July 24, 1985). "CAULDRON is a treat for kidvid-sore eyes" (Registration required to read article). Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. p. OC_E1. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  16. ^ Peretta, Don (2008). "The Black Cauldron". In Pym, John (ed.). Time Out Film Guide 2009 (17th ed.). Time Out Group Ltd. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-84760-100-9. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  17. ^ Lloyd Alexander Interview Transcript (1999). Interview with Scholastic students. Scholastic Inc. Retrieved 2011-12-17.

External links

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