The Black Cauldron (1985)

 

Without a shadow of a doubt, this is one of those red-headed stepchildren in the Disney library. For some reason, 'The Black Cauldron' receives a lot of hate for not being Disney enough and it is often called a bad film. But is it, really?

No. Not at all. 

It is however, different from what Disney usually put on the screen and thus most likely suffered a lot of negative backlash. 

Go figure: try something different and get scolded for it. 

The story takes place in the medieval country of Prydain, where Taran, a young assistant pig-keeper is tasked with the care of a lovely pig called Hen Wen. She has those sexy princess' doe eyes by the way and I'm not sure what to make of that at times. Makes a man think about bringing home the bacon. 

Where was I?

Taran wants to be a warrior and defeat the forces of the evil Horned King. But it turns out that Hen Wen is a very special pig, one that can see the future and now the Horned King wants to use her in order to find the Black Cauldron, a weapon of immense power. Why? Well, because if you toss dead warriors in there, they come alive again as a sort of wraiths/zombies and are pretty much unstoppable. 

Those in the know about Celtic legends: yes. *nudge nudge*

He and Hen Wen set off to a secure location, but because Taran is a bit of a dick, he loses Hen Wen. He is met by some goblin-esque fuzzball called Gurgi, because a film needs comic relief and sidekick. In short: Gurgi is here to appeal to the kids and as a sort of last minute resort for resolution. Taran enters the Horned King's castle, but is unceremoniously thrown in the dungeon after helping his pig escape. There he meets up with a feisty girl called Eilonwy, who actually helps him escape, and a bard called Fflewddur Fflamm. 

Yes, more comic relief. Huzzah.

They set off to find the Cauldron, which they do, and then it is back to the Horned King's castle as prisoners. But when this fiend starts to resurrect his army of the undead, Gurgi frees our intrepid band of misfits and it's off to the final showdown and of course some lessons about what is really important in life. 

See, as a Disney-adventure, this has all the makings of a fun ride. Yes, it has the tropes, but they are done rather well and it is fun to see a sort of role reversal between a hero and a princess, as Eilonwy is obviously a lot more heroic than Taran, who starts out as a sort of nagging, spoiled little princess. He just needed a song declaring that there's so much more to him than this. 

You do realize that nearly every Disney princess has a song along these lines, right?

But there are no songs in this film, so there's that.

So why is this film oft maligned? Well, it is a lot darker than what you're used to from Disney. No kidding, some of the imagery and artstyle is more akin to a Ralph Bakshi cartoon (for example 'Fire and Ice' or 'Wizards'), so it isn't all that suited to little children. Heck, the Horned King is a very striking villain, being a desiccated zombielike figure in a red cloak sporting horns. Add to that the sinister voice of John Hurt and you have the fuel for nightmares. He is hardly in this film, but he is very memorable indeed. Scenes of corpses coming back to life, a truly disturbing forest (look for the malformed trees with faces!) and some other choices make this a pretty grizzly adventure. But the head honchos at Disney at the time felt this was too big a risk and forced some light comedy and tones onto the film, which is why tonally, it doesn't always work. I mean, you have this gripping, dark storytelling and then all of a sudden Gurgi and Fflewddur being all jokey and cutesy. It doesn't feel right. It could have, if they kept the kiddie stuff toned down a notch, but unfortunately they didn't. 

But is 'The Black Cauldron' a bad film? Not in the slightest. Sure, it is uneven at best and Taran is a righteously annoying prick the first half of the film, but a lot of the imagery and story are intriguing and the dark tone is very well done. Heck, the castle of the Horned King coupled with some early CG thrown in is abslutely stunning. It deserves way more praise than it gets, especially for the balls it took to try and do something different. The bigshots did water down the end result, but it is still entertaining enough to grant several viewings.