Director: Ted Berman, Richard Rich
Writer: David Jonas, Vance Gerry, Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Al Wilson, Roy Morita, Peter Young, Art Stevens, Joe Hale (Screenplay) Lloyd Alexander (Novel)
Starring: (voice talents) Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Arthur Malet, John Byner
Plot: A young boy and a bunch of misfit friends embark on a quest to find a dark magic item of ultimate power before a diabolical tyrant can.
Tagline – Magic twelve years in the making. Magic that will live forever.
Runtime: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Dark Fantasy Animation
Story: The Black Cauldron starts as we meet young pig farmer Taran, who has been getting trained to take over the care of Hen Wen a pig that is the only creature on Earth that knows the location of the Black Cauldron, the place where the evil Horned King can regain his power.
When the King learns that Hen Wen knows the locations he goes in search of the pig, which leads Taran to go on an adventure across the fantasy world to stop the Horned King regaining his power and bringing a new era of terror across the land.
Thoughts on The Black Cauldron
Characters – Taran is the traditional Disney reluctantly hero, he was a small pig farmer that goes on an adventure to fulfill his destiny by stopping the evil and bringing together a group off unlikely characters. Eilonwy is the princess that joins the adventure, her care free attitude helps along the way and makes for a strong character than we think. The Horned King is the ruler trying to gain his power to take over the land and will do anything to make sure he has this power. These characters are the by the book for this genre and don’t becoming anything overly memorable.
Story – The story follows an unlikely hero that goes on an adventure to hopeful save the fantasy world from an evil ruler. This does follow the idea of bringing unlikely friends together on the adventure and does become very dark for a Disney movie, but does follow the whole traditional ideas we have come to know.
Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Horror – The action goes hand in hand with the adventure as we see how the characters must work together to win and battles with the use of the fantasy world, there are elements of horror too because of certain chase sequences and events that happen around the Cauldron.
Settings – The settings take us on the adventure fantasy world that you could see in any of these movies, which is fine for me.
Animation – The time this movie was made, you would think this is good high standard for the time.
Scene of the Movie – Final moments.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is too dark for a Disney animation.
Final Thoughts – This is a good fantasy adventure that follows everything you need it to, but will be too dark for the younger audience.
Overall: Very dark animation from the Disney brand.
Rating
