The Black Cauldron Appreciation Thread

[Disney Duster]

Hope you haven't seen this concept art before already...

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1926

[blackcauldron85]

Great find, Mike! The concept art's Horned King kind of looks like someone wearing a mask, so I think it's safe to say that the movie's version looks scarier. I love how the article mentioned all those movies in production or pre-production...things like that excite me! I so wish that the article had the concept art of Gurgi that was mentioned...I know that I've seen concept art of Gurgi, but I'd still like to see what picture the author was referring to!

[depooter]

any news on the special edition DVD?

[goofystitch]

It sounds like it is coming out in early 2010. Hopefully an announcement will be made soon.

[Kraken Guard]

The Kraken Guard wanders in and pulls out a spell book and says a magic word.. Revive!


Just to bump the thread into the light, so far from what i've read, a DVD is hopefully coming out September 14th with deleted scene called "The Fairfolk" and.. Well, that's pretty much it..


I dont mean to be making posts just for the sake of making posts. Just trying to spark conversation I am new and i've been wanting to watch this movie for a long while now and it has gotten me frazled.. I fear i'll be turning into a Horned King(Queen actually since im a girl..) if i dont get my hands on the movie..

[Coolmanio]

This movie will definitely be coming out on September 14th. One of our members (Goofystitch) has already acquired a copy, and has posted some screens. For that and more about this soon to be released DVD, please go to the link I have provided

http://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic. ... &start=480

I too am excited for this movie. I have never seen it, but have heard some bad things about it, but then again, the worst disney can beat out some of the drivel that comes out nowadays.

[Kraken Guard]

This movie will definitely be coming out on September 14th. One of our members (Goofystitch) has already acquired a copy, and has posted some screens. For that and more about this soon to be released DVD, please go to the link I have provided

http://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic. ... &start=480

I too am excited for this movie. I have never seen it, but have heard some bad things about it, but then again, the worst disney can beat out some of the drivel that comes out nowadays.

Lucky! I read that a few days ago before i joined.

Honestly though, i dont think the movie was as bad as they say it was. To me, it was just like any other Disney movie and i always thought it was good. Undead skeletons roaming around wreaking havoc and destruction never bothered me when i was little, but that is coming from someone who loved watching Jurassic Park..

[JustOneBite87]

Hmmm. Gotta say its my 44th favorite of the animated classics. Tried to be scary and then add in cute characters and lame songs. Totally inconsistent in mood and feel. If they had just gone all out to try and make a dark feeling movie it might have worked but it didnt.

A bad movie in a period where Disney didn't have many good animators. The nine old men were pretty much retired, Don Bluth was gone and the new generation really didn't start to cut their teeth until the Great Mouse Detective.

Got this review off of the Black Cauldron and it hits the nail on the head

The Black Cauldron (August 10/01)

The Black Cauldron didn't include any characters in the film that were not also in the original book except for the goblin named Creeper...who I personally found to be rather amusing.

Also, I am going to whole-heartedly disagree with you on the animation as well. One of the most fluid and detailed animated films I have ever seen.

[Goliath]

I watched the new special edition today and I appreciated the film more than I've ever did before. The cleaned-up, widescreen version looks beautiful. The animation is gorgeous. It's easy to see why this film was so expensive. After the rather bleakly animated Robin Hood, The Rescuers (still a favorite of mine, but very low-key animation) and The Fox and the Hound, this film finally looked like a true classic from Walt's days again.

The story is engaging enough, and it even had two or three scenes where I jumped out of my chair because of a surprise shock moment. It's the only Disney film to have that. It was only this viewing (I've seen it before many times) that I realized how scary it really is. I wouldn't show this to a very young child. It's definitly not 'Disney'. While I think it's a fine animated film, I doesn't feel like Disney. It could've easily been made by, for example, Don Bluth (who around that time made the more mature 'Secret of Nihm').

I adore all the characters, but I think the Horned King is a very weak villain. He has no personality. Even Malificent, who was a similar 'static' character who did nothing but give monologues, had far more personality. The animators tried to accentuate the King's evilness by making him as ugly and scary as possible, at least fysically. But the result is a bit over-the-top and overdone. The result is a very bland villain. We know he's evil, but only because we've been told.

I still think it's a shame Disney didn't try more to promote this film. Disney has just given up on the 1967-1989 films. But in Walt's days, many of his films weren't very succesful upon their first release, but he would release them over and over again and nowadays, some of those films are considered his best efforts. Why not trying to make money from the 'dark age' movies, instead of leaving to collect dust on the shelves? I bet The Black Cauldron could have made a lot of money, had they re-released it on dvd at the time when the Lord of the Rings-movies and 'Harry Potter'-books were so popular. 'Fantasy' was big business back then, and Disney missed a real opportunity there.[/code]

[Disney Duster]

Some stuff about The Black Cauldron that some peeps here should love, though it's from Jim Hill Media:

http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief ... ffice.aspx

His assesement of why the Horned King's not on the cover is bull though. They had dragons and Maleficent on other covers. It would also probably be best to warn parents...he's in there. Or does Disney think if parents are upset, they won't complain? They'll just buy it unknowingly thinking it's a good babysitter for their kids. That's probably true, and a way of tricking parents into showing their kids something that could scare the crap out of them and give them night terrors if they're too young. Way to go Disney.

[Heartless]

Some stuff about The Black Cauldron that some peeps here should love, though it's from Jim Hill Media:

http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief ... ffice.aspx

His assesement of why the Horned King's not on the cover is bull though. They had dragons and Maleficent on other covers. It would also probably be best to warn parents...he's in there. Or does Disney think if parents are upset, they won't complain? They'll just buy it unknowingly thinking it's a good babysitter for their kids. That's probably true, and a way of tricking parents into showing their kids something that could scare the crap out of them and give them night terrors if they're too young. Way to go Disney.

ANYTHING could give kids nightmares. Rafiki gives kids nightmares and by golly he was on the cover of the DVD. The Cave of Wonders gives kids nightmares and by gosh, that was featured on the cover as well. Pinocchio, Snow White, Chernabog, Maleficent, even Beast can be scary. Same goes for anything really.. It really doesn't matter if they're featured on the cover or not. The point is, anything and everything will scare some kid somewhere. It's the parents' responsibility to know what they let their kids watch, not Disney's.

[Disney Duster]

You are so absolutely right, I mean, the Horned King is exactly the same as those two not very scary things you mentioned! Why, of course Disney would think of those things as equally scary! And of course there hasn't been an unfortunate past with this movie being too dark for kids that would make them think the Horned King is too scary at all! And of course parents are going to know the Horned King is so scary just reading the back of the box where there might not even be a picture of him there either! Golly gee!

[Heartless]

You are so absolutely right, I mean, the Horned King is exactly the same as those two not very scary things you mentioned! Why, of course Disney would think of those things as equally scary! And of course there hasn't been an unfortunate past with this movie being too dark for kids that would make them think the Horned King is too scary at all! And of course parents are going to know the Horned King is so scary just reading the back of the box where there might not even be a picture of him there either! Golly gee!

The Horned King is prominently featured on the back of the box. Like I said, it's up to the parent to know what their kids are watching, it isn't Disney's fault if a kid get's scared (even if it ISN'T pictured on the box..).

And by the way, Disney provides a warning, just as any movie does...
Directly from the back of the Black Cauldron box:

PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
Some Material May Not Be Suitable for Children
For Some Scary Images

Golly gee!

[Disney Duster]

Those things are exactly what Disney should do.

You see, there's not always a way for a parent to find out much about a movie. Especially this one which is so obscure and forgotten. She can find some things on the internet, but not much of it will tell her exactly how scary it is for little kids, or how appropriate it is for her child specifically.

But since Disney put all the stuff you said, that actually is probably all they need to do/can do. Golly gee!

[King Louis 2010]

Well I just watched this for the first time and all I can say is WOW! What an underrated movie! I'd say it's even more underrated then The Fox and The Hound [which I still prefer, but is a bit generally better liked]. Despite having a lot of fans on this here board, I still expected a rather mediocre film for some reason!

First thing that struck me was the incredibly detailed and realistic backgrounds, some of the most complex of any Disney film to that date. In fact the whole film looked to me like it had been made ten years later, though maybe some of that was due to the restoration. The animation is fantastic and some very strong 'film-like' editing used, including even some 'jumps' which certainly got me! It seems to be that some of the film's imagery was used by Peter Jackson in The Lord Of The Rings films!

The plot is maybe a little weak and has a few holes but it serves it's purpose. The characters are mostly strong [I loved Lurgy!], though The Horned King, whilst scary, is a bit one note. The pace is fast and the film speeds by. I will say though that the 'U' certificate which this films has here in the UK is wrong- it ought to be a 'PG'. It probably is Disney's darkest animated film, especially with the striking scenes of the skeleton army, though I don't see anything wrong with that as long as it has the right rating. Here in the UK, Bolt and Lilo And Stich are both 'PG's, so they are rated higher than The Black Cualdron! Madness!!

Still, a really fine film and certainly no disgrace to the legacy. It's a minor classic!

[ajmrowland]

^this, though without the "thinking it was made 10 years later" bit.

Also, it was rated back in 1985, so it's rating will be different if it were made today. There are PG-13 rated fantasies that are less visually frightening.

[DisneyJedi]

So... anyone wish Taran hadn't given up the sword in exchange for the Cauldron and used it in the final battle against the Horned King?

[Barbossa]

The Prydain series needs to be revisited again. Maybe as a live-action series? However, I don't think Disney would touch it again given how they want to distance themselves from this one - which I still don't get.

[Rudy Matt]

The Prydain series needs to be revisited again. Maybe as a live-action series? However, I don't think Disney would touch it again given how they want to distance themselves from this one - which I still don't get.

It is standard practice for new executives to sandbag the work of the outgoing execs, all the better to cow the old employees into accepting the new directives of the new executives. This is what happened to Cauldron, and other films. Fixing the Black Cauldron is tantamount to Disney admitting they made some big mistakes in how the film was treated, and politics and sensitive fragile executive egos are all in play once a topic like that is ever floated. In other words, you'd be surprised how reluctant anyone at corporate is when it comes to publically embarassing Jeffrey Katzenberg, to this day.

[blackcauldron85]

So... anyone wish Taran hadn't given up the sword in exchange for the Cauldron and used it in the final battle against the Horned King?

And have THK killed by the sword instead of the cauldron? No thanks. I love how he dies because of the one thing he wants so bad.