DVDizzy Forum

Hey,

I'm one of those people who thinks that "The Black Cauldron" is absolutely amazing. Anyone else wanna join the club?

"Amazing" may be a bit of a stretch, but I did see the film for the first time a couple of years ago and I found it to be quite good. What I find odd is that this is widely considered one of Disney's worst animated films (that's not true, in my opinion), and yet it has much of the same quality that make fanboys and most of the general public gush over the <i>Lord of the Rings</i> films and their fantastic worlds.

Sure, <i>Black Cauldron</i> may be a little too dark/intense for small children, which is probably the only reason it's gathered a stigma for those expecting family fun from 'the latest Disney film.' But I find it in most regards to be a well-made drama, with some strong elements and a great, unique look.

I may not go as far as to say the Black Cauldron is amazing. However i do think it is underappreciated. I think it's main problem is the fact that so many rewrites were done on the script, that the story does not flow at all points during the movie. there are alos minor points that irritate me, for example. Princess Eilonwe's magic ball thing disappears and doesn't return until the end of the film (except for a brief appearance in the witches cottage). However i do not think it is Disney's worst animated film, it has a lot going for it! The story is (on the whole) very strong. The characters are also strong. It has lots of action, interesting characters, and the animation (in cinemascope woo hoo!) is absolutely amazing. I certainly think this is a great movie (not amazing). but i do think more people would like it, if they got a chance to see it.

I'm a fan of The Black Cauldron.

Escapay

its great, but its is very scary

i've never really seen the entire thing yet, since i haven't gotten around to it...maybe i should when i visit my bro since he has it at home...but the bits and pieces i did see appeared quite interesting...although the villain looked way scary...but then again so did malificent.

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 is quite an oddity, especially considering it's a Disney cartoon. It's too dark and scary for younger children, and it's too silly and childish for older viewers to embrace.

ichabod wrote:and the animation (in cinemascope woo hoo!) is absolutely amazing.

forgive me for correcting you, but it isn't Cinemascope, it's even better: Technirama! double whoo hoo!

Technirama, also Sleeping Beauty's format, has more than double the resolution of Cinemascope, more that five times the resolution of LOR.

The images in this site's Black Cauldron review are in the Technirama70 ratio.

In the words of Escapay:"I'm a fan of the Black Cauldron."

ichabod wrote:there are alos minor points that irritate me, for example. Princess Eilonwe's magic ball thing disappears and doesn't return until the end of the film (except for a brief appearance in the witches cottage).

I always wondered what happened to her Bauble and how it magically came back. The problem with this movie is that it has these great characters but they seem to just appear. It was very Wizard-of-Oz-esque with the characters coming along and joining the party. Also, like the general audiences have said for years, it definitely doesn't seem like a Disney movie. It doesn't even fit with the bunch from the 60's and 70's, the 90's nor even the DIsney movies now. Atlantis came close, but it still seemed Disneyish. Had I not known Black Cauldron was Disney, I would've thought it was Warner Brothers or whatever the company was that did All Dogs go to Heavan.

JimmyJackJunior wrote:Tried to be scary and then add in cute characters and lame songs.

What lame songs? I thought the score was good but I don't think they broke out into song at all in this movie. Maybe you're thinking of something else?

Kram Nebuer wrote:I always wondered what happened to her Bauble and how it magically came back. The problem with this movie is that it has these great characters but they seem to just appear. It was very Wizard-of-Oz-esque with the characters coming along and joining the party.

It probably needs an Extended Edition 4 disc box set like another sword and sorcery stories

Movies that studios have second thoughts and are meddled or shrunk don't seem to fare too well and they probably end much worse than if they had been left alone as originally planned or shot! and then they end up being box office and/or critical dissapointments

Like possibly D U N E, Star Trek V, Cleopatra, Greatest Story Ever Told, It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (reportedly much funnier when even longer by some people who saw it) etc, etc. And Black Cauldron.

The ultimate DVD collectors item: The Alternate Universe Version DVD
We will never know.

Although this is not one of the great Disney films, I remember how impressive it was to see on the big screen at the time it was released in theaters. I was lucky enough to see it in a theater with a great sound system, and the surround sound of this film was really amazing. It was a lot of fun. I still remember how haunting some of the score was, and the scenes with the witches were particularly impressive in sight and sound.

JimmyJackJunior wrote:Tried to be scary and then add in cute characters and lame songs

I don't recall any songs in the movie. Anyway, except for The Lion King, this is my least favourite Disney film. Everytime I watch I get the feeling the movie is trying so hard to be something it's not. It's not as bad as critics make you believe though, the good aspect of the movie is that you can see feature animation was shaping up at the time and good things were around the corner. But since Lion King is my least favourite Disney film it'safe to say I have a weird taste anyway

Fefinitely one of my favorite Disney animated films. I love it, and I think it's brilliant. Very dark and daring... this one is a must see. Reminds me a bit of Fantasia's darker moments.

Did you know that you can download the computer game (based on the Black Cauldron movie) for free?

Well, you can, from the author's own website:
http://www.allowe.com/

Since the game is almost 20 years old, you'll have to forgive the simple graphics and sounds. But I still think the game is interesting and challenging to play. The storyline is very close to the film, yet there are many possible variations. You can do things in even more clever ways than in the film, thus getting a better score.

Even though it's possible to run the game in a dos box in Windows, you'll find that the game works much better under Nagi. You probably don't need VDMSound, though. NAGI v2.06 and the SDL library should be all it takes to run the game under Windows.

I own the fanlisting. I think that pretty much says how I love the film.

I don't know how many of you already know this, but The Black Cauldron was the second book in a series of five great books by Lloyd Alexander.
1. The Book of Three
2. The Black Cauldron
3. The Castle of Llyr
4. Taran Wanderer
5. The High King

Since some of the characters had already been introduced in the first book, and others would be expanded upon in the later books, the movie might feel incomplete. I haven't actually seen the movie yet (unless I saw it or parts of it ages ago,) so I can only go by the books right now.

Anders M Olsson wrote:Did you know that you can download the computer game (based on the Black Cauldron movie) for free?

Well, you can, from the author's own website:
http://www.allowe.com/

Hey, Anders M Olsson! Thanks for the nifty link! There are also a lot of other Disney games you can download too that look interesting! I'll try downloading them later when I know what I am doing. Thanks again!

The title for this post is fairly touching. I wouldn't say this is mediocre, let alone bad. I wouldn't go and call it "the best Disney full-length animated movie masterpiece classic milestone feature film", but it's okay. It has some fine moments and although it's not their best movie, it's passible Disney entertainment.

i think black cauldron is great however

black cauldron=lord of the rings

I really like the movie, and I think it's better than many of the other Disney films. Though it's not on my favorite film list, I like watching it once in a whlie, and I always enjoy it.

ehayut wrote: black cauldron=lord of the rings

I do not agree... There is sort of the same mood in both, but it don't remind me of Lord of the Rings.