Thoughts on The Black Cauldron

via Oh My Disney

"Legend has it, in the mystic land of Prydain, there was once a king so cruel and so evil, that even the gods feared him. Since no prison could hold him, he was thrown alive into a crucible of molten iron. There his demonic spirit was captured in the form of a great, black cauldron. For uncounted centuries, the black cauldron lay hidden, waiting, while evil men searched for it, knowing whoever possessed it would have the power to resurrect an army of deathless warriors, and with them, rule the world."

In hindsight, the summer of 1985 appears to have been the boldest ever for Walt Disney Pictures. A month after Return to Oz, there was The Black Cauldron. Both movies feel like prolonged dares to their audience. Can you engage with this, let alone enjoy it? Alas, few did with Cauldron and fewer with Oz. The two brought the curtain down on Disney's iconoclastic era. 

Loosely adapted from Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain books by a team including directors Ted Berman and Richard Rich, Cauldron is the story of displaying true heroism against evil. The Horned King (voice of John Hurt) desires the cauldron, which would give his skeleton army the ability to be undefeated. The king's enemies are Taran (voice of Grant Bardsley), who dreams of being a warrior; Princess Eilonwy (voice of Susan Sheridan), who (naturally) ends up trading barbs with Taran before (naturally) kissing him in the end; and Fflewddur Fflam (voice of Nigel Hawthorne), whose lie-rejecting harp trades the role of comic relief with Fflam and mischievous woodland creature Gurgi (voice of John Byner).

Clocking in at 80 minutes, Cauldron is fully-formed, yet comes across like a bit of an appetizer. Characters like Eilonwy and Hen Wen the oracle pig receive a decent amount of fanfare, but ultimately end up fading into the narrative. In the end, this is a story about a boy who grows up. Two boys, if you count Gurgi. I was touched by the little monster's good deed against the cauldron, as well as Taran and Fflam outsmarting the witches (Eda Reiss Merin, Adele Maris-Morey and Billie Hayes) in honor of their friend.

Legend has it that Cauldron tested extremely poorly among young audiences. The "Cauldron Born" sequence, with its nightmarish visuals, received much of the criticism. I can understand why the powers that be ended up acting in favor of families, but it makes me appreciate 2020, when "a Disney film" is not a one size fits all idea. Similar to the Everybody Comes to Rick's prank, where a slightly modified script to Casablanca was sent out to Hollywood agents, I wonder if you could show Cauldron to a contemporary audience without them automatically recognizing who made it.

I apologize if this review comes across more as an appraisal of pre-renaissance Disney rather than Cauldron itself, but the movie feels like such a timestamp for its era. It's undisciplined and a bit primitive, but it's also quirky and ultimately succeeds on its own terms. Long live the cult.

"My, what a brave, handsome group. A pig keeper, a scullery maid, and a broken-down minstrel. Perhaps it would interest you to see what fate has in store for you."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- "Hen Wen, from you, I do beseech / Knowledge that lies beyond my reach / Troubled thoughts beyond your heart / Pray you now, those thoughts impart."

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $21.3 million on a reported $44 million budget (according to Waking Sleeping Beauty), this opened at No. 4 and came in at No. 42 for 1985. To the embarrassment of several people at Disney, the significantly cheaper Care Bears Movie (made for $2 million, according to Box Office Mojo), grossed nearly $2 million more than Cauldron.

-- Critic's Corner: "A return to tradition," Roger Ebert wrote. While Walter Goodman, New York Times, found the movie "professionally put together," he acknowledged "many of the ingredients may seem programmed." Paul Attanasio: "Technically brilliant though short on narrative ... a triumph for the (animators)."

-- We've got two more Disney releases on this year's viewing schedule: The Journey of Natty Gann and One Magic Christmas. I've never seen either before, so maybe I'm wrong about Cauldron being the last gasp of the non-traditional era. For what it's worth, you can make an argument that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was also a pretty significant deviation from the norm.

-- Chronicles of Prydain, Chronicles of Narnia ... Disney just can't help but get their fingers in pies they ultimately never digest. Nerds everywhere must be thrilled they ultimately never got their hands on the Tolkienverse. On the other hand, the Marvelverse and the expanded Star Warsverse would suggest a commitment to long-form storytelling.

-- "Oh, poor miserable Gurgi deserves fierce smackings and whackings on his poor, tender head. Always left with no munchings and crunchings."

-- Next: Fright Night and Weird Science. On Deck: Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Real Genius. Coming Soon: Summer Rental and Volunteers (Mega-Post).