Review: The Black Cauldron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOpRmYPqX84 - The Black Cauldron Theatrical Trailer

Recently thanks to my sister I have the wonder that is Netflix installed on my phone. This is down to the fact that a number of people have persuaded me to watch Breaking Bad, which I haven't done yet. Oops guys! Soon I promise!

I'm not really a huge fan of horror films or thrillers, this is mainly due to the fact I'm really jumpy and I detest gore (however some films and programmes I've seen recently are trying to desensitize me). I am a huge fan of comedies however and fantasy films. The one genre I love the most though is Disney (which can be counted as a genre, right?) I was flicking through the Children's Films section (you can tell I'm a grown up) and I stumbled across a Disney film which I heard of, but never seen called The Black Cauldron (1985). I remember going into the Disney Store in Aberdeen as a child and seeing the film being re-released on video and I tried to persuade my mum to buy it for me, however the shop assistant warned that it was very scary for children. So that was the end of that and a disappointed Rachel left the store.

Fast forward a few years and I'm watching the film on Netflix for the first time. I now totally understand the shop assistant. Within the first eighteen minutes of the film I had already jumped out of my skin about eight times (which is unusual for a Disney film). Most fantasy films are based on books and The Black Cauldron is no exception. It is based on the first two books of The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. The book series itself is based on Welsh mythology and many of the characters in the book series have Welsh names. Reading the reviews on Amazon the books are much, much better than the Disney adaptation so I am tempted to have another sneaky fantasy book buy from there - sorry I'm waffling too much, back to the review.

The Black Cauldron follows the story of a young boy called Taran (or Taran the Wanderer as he's known in the books) an assistant pig-keeper who dreams of being a hero. He works on Dallben the Enchanter's Farm and then learns that Dallben's magical pig Hen Wen is in danger. Taran has to take Hen Wen to safety, however both Hen Wen and Taran are kidnapped by the villain of the piece, The Horned King who wants to revive the dead and rule the world using a mystical, magical Black Cauldron. While escaping from The Horned King's lair, Taran befriends Princess Eilonwy, who is also trying to escape, Fflewdurr Flam, a court jester who has also been imprisoned by the Horned King and Gurgi, a creature who is a cross between a "man and a beast". Taran and his friends must retrieve the cauldron before the Horned King gets his hands on  it and rescue Hen Wen, whose magic involves seeing the future, the events which will take place. Apart from the devil and skeletal like Horned King, there is an annoying goblin-like sidekick, who always gets strangled by the Horned King whenever he let Taran and his friends escape.

The Black Cauldron was different from any other Disney film that I have seen. Firstly, it is very dark - for an animated Disney film. If you think this is some happy-go-lucky musical Disney film like I thought it was going to be, then I'm afraid you're in for a disappointment. If the film scared me as a a 23-year old woman, then how scared would a 3-year-old child be? I admit I do sometimes like dark films, however this particular film I just did not enjoy at all. It doesn't have any songs in it, but I am pretty glad it doesn't, as it really would not fit in with the film's nature. The storyline is very disjointed, but this could be due to the fact that 12 minutes of footage ended up on the cutting room floor, mainly graphic scenes which included the revived skeletons (called the Cauldron Born) killing off The Horned King's living soldiers. Apparently on it's first screening, mothers stormed out of the cinema with their wailing children and the film had to be cut twice in order to avoid a PG-13 (equivalent to a UK '12' rating) or an R (UK '15 rating). That was very unusual for a Disney film at that time and The Black Cauldron has been known as "the film Disney tried to bury." It is not surprising that on it's release the film only made half of it's $44 million budget.

The Black Cauldron is a film which I would avoid watching again and it is a shame as I love fantasy stories and it had great potential, but unfortunately the storyline and the very dark nature made the film fall flat on its face. If you enjoy Disney animated films then I would not recommend it, but if you want something that's a little different, then give it a try. Instead I will read The Chronicles of Prydain to see if the books are better than its Disney counterpart.




Left: The Black Cauldron (1985) - original theatrical poster

Fun fact: Princess Eilonwy, the heroine of the film was not inducted into the Disney Princess line due to the film's poor performance.