The Black Cauldron is one of the Walt Disney Company's most controversial films and for all sorts of reasons. Based on the Chronicles of Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander, it follows the adventures of Taran, an apprentice pig keeper who seeks to realize his fantasy of becoming a great warrior. In order to do so, Taran embarks on an epic and magical quest involving a Black Cauldron, magic swords, elves, the malevolent Horned King, the spirited Princess Eilonwy and a variety of other characters and creatures. However, the film -- which received a PG rating; heresy for a Disney flick -- was deemed far too dark and violent for younger moviegoers and too lightweight and kid-centric for teens an adults. Even last-minute pre-release cutting of supposedly egregious scenes didn't help, as the film was released to bad buzz and worse reviews. The result? A total $21 million cume at the box office,...
- 10/4/2010
- by ianspelling@corp.popstar.com (Ian Spelling)
- PopStar
Disney is well known for its ability to create innovative and creative animated movies. While films like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast enjoy huge notoriety, there are still a lot of Disney films that are not as widely known to the public. The Black Cauldron is one among many films being repackaged and released to a new audience, especially with the widespread usage of digital and Blu-Ray media. Its release is especially important to Disney, as it marks the company's 25th full-length animated film, as well as the 25th anniversary since its original release.
The story of The Black Cauldron, centers around a naive pig keeper's assistant Taran (Grant Bardsley), and his quest to destroy a magical black cauldron to thwart a devious ruler, the Horned King (John Hurt). In this film, he is teamed up with a young princess, an old minstrel, and a psychic pig named Hen-Wen,...
The story of The Black Cauldron, centers around a naive pig keeper's assistant Taran (Grant Bardsley), and his quest to destroy a magical black cauldron to thwart a devious ruler, the Horned King (John Hurt). In this film, he is teamed up with a young princess, an old minstrel, and a psychic pig named Hen-Wen,...
- 9/20/2010
- by Simone Grant
- JustPressPlay.net
Fantasy author Lloyd Alexander was beloved for his imaginative series, the Chronicles of Prydain so anyone who read the series, originally released between 1964 and 1968, were no doubt apprehensive to see the entire story collapsed into an 80 minute animated feature from Walt Disney.
The filmmakers decided to focus on the second book, The Black Cauldron, and substantially altered characters, settings, and events so when it opened July 24, 1985, fans of the material were not happy. Worse, people unfamiliar with the source material were not particularly entertained leading to a box office collapse. That this film came at the tail end of a period where creativity was clearly lacking meant that it looked and felt like a generic Disney animated film. Jeffrey Katzenberg arrived on staff just prior to the film’s release and he could merely nip and tuck sequences, but recognized their most expensive feature to date, and the first to use computer-generated animation,...
The filmmakers decided to focus on the second book, The Black Cauldron, and substantially altered characters, settings, and events so when it opened July 24, 1985, fans of the material were not happy. Worse, people unfamiliar with the source material were not particularly entertained leading to a box office collapse. That this film came at the tail end of a period where creativity was clearly lacking meant that it looked and felt like a generic Disney animated film. Jeffrey Katzenberg arrived on staff just prior to the film’s release and he could merely nip and tuck sequences, but recognized their most expensive feature to date, and the first to use computer-generated animation,...
- 9/16/2010
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
The Walt Disney Company adapted the Newberry Award winning novel by Lloyd Alexander and that sounds like a good combination. However, the film would be a flop and develop a poor reputation . though it.s not that bad. In times past there was an evil king so vile that he could only be killed by being flung into molten lead. That lead was in turn formed into a black cauldron that can raise the dead into an invincible army. Taran (Grant Bardsley) is an assistant pig keeper on the farm of enchanter Dallben (Freddie Jones). His job is to take care of the pig Hen Wen, but he.d rather be an adventurer and not a pig keeper.
- 9/14/2010
- by Jeff Swindoll
- Monsters and Critics
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