The Black Cauldron

Plot synopsis:
In the land of Prydain, Taran is an "assistant pig-keeper" on the small farm of Caer Dallben, home of Dallben the Enchanter. Dallben learns that the Horned King is searching for a mystical relic known as the Black Cauldron, which is capable of creating an invincible army of undead warriors, the "Cauldron-Born". Dallben fears the Horned King may try to steal his pig Hen Wen, which has oracular powers, and use her to locate the cauldron. Dallben directs Taran to take Hen Wen to safety; unfortunately, Taran's foolish daydreaming causes Hen Wen to be captured by the Horned King's forces.
Taran follows them to the Horned King's stronghold. Along the way, he encounters the small, pestering companion Gurgi, who joins Taran on his search. Frustrated by Gurgi's antics, Taran leaves the former to sneak into the castle and rescues Hen Wen, but although Hen Wen escapes from the castle, Taran is arrested and thrown into the dungeon. A fellow captive named Princess Eilonwy frees Taran as she is trying to make her own escape. In the catacombs beneath the castle, Taran and Eilonwy discover the ancient burial chamber of a king, where Taran arms himself with the king's sword. It contains magic that allows him effectively to fight the Horned King's minions and so to fulfill his dream of heroism. Along with a third prisoner, the comical, middle-aged bard Fflewddur Fflam, they escape from the castle and are soon reunited with Gurgi. Upon discovering that Taran has escaped, the Horned King orders his dwarf companion Creeper to send the Gwythaints to follow Taran and bring him back alive.
Following Hen Wen's trail, the four stumble into the underground kingdom of the Fair Folk who reveal that Hen Wen is under their protection. When the cheerful, elderly King Eiddileg reveals that he knows where the cauldron is, Taran resolves to go destroy it himself. Eilonwy, Fflewddur, and Gurgi agree to join him and Eiddileg's obnoxious right-hand man Doli is assigned to lead them to the Marshes of Morva while the Fair Folk agree to escort Hen Wen safely back to Caer Dallben. At the marshes they learn that the cauldron is held by three witches—the grasping Orddu, who acts as leader; the greedy Orgoch; and the more benevolent Orwen, who falls in love with Fflewddur at first sight, which causes a frightened Doli to abandon the group. Orddu agrees to trade the cauldron for Taran's sword, and he reluctantly agrees, although he knows that to yield it will cost his chance for heroism. Before vanishing, the witches reveal that the cauldron is indestructible, and that its power can only be broken by someone who climbs in under his own free will, which will kill him. Although Taran feels foolish for aspiring to destroy the cauldron alone, his companions show their belief in him; and it seems that Eilonwy and Taran will kiss. Suddenly, the celebration is interrupted by the Horned King's soldiers who have finally reached the marshes themselves. They seize the cauldron and arrest everyone but Gurgi, and take their prisoners back to the castle. The Horned King uses the cauldron to raise the dead and his Cauldron-born army begins to pour out into the world.
Gurgi manages to free the captives and Taran decides to cast himself into the cauldron, but Gurgi stops him and jumps into the cauldron himself. The undead army collapses. When the Horned King spots Taran at large, he infers the turn of events and saying that Taran has interfered for the last time, throws the youth toward the cauldron; however, the cauldron's magic is out of control. It consumes the Horned King in a tunnel of fire and blood, as well as destroying the castle, using up all its powers forever. The three witches come to recover the now-inert Black Cauldron. However, Taran has finally realized Gurgi's true friendship, and he persuades them to revive the wild thing in exchange for the cauldron, forcing him to give up his magical sword permanently. Fflewddur challenges the reluctant witches to demonstrate their powers by the revival, and upon hearing Fflewddur's remarks, the witches honor the request, restoring Gurgi back to life. The four friends then journey back to Caer Dallben where Dallben and Doli watch them in a vision created by Hen Wen, and Dallben finally praises Taran for his heroism despite the fact that he prefers to be a Pig-Boy.

Tags: fantasy, paranormal, cult, horror, good versus evil, psychedelic, romantic

Review:
"The Black Cauldron" certainly doesn't fall into the genre of animated Disney family favorite, but instead feels much like the more grim and complicated fantasy films that were made in the eighties.
Well, although not as complex as the aformentioned, this film is not without its charm.The story of Taran, the pig-keeper's journey from gawky boy to gawky boy-hero apparently works better as told through the course of five books, and indeed it is the plot that feels put together, with a lot cut out of it for it's slim 1:20 running time.
This is especially true for the cutsey character of Gurgi, who is much more tollerable than almost all other Disney sidekicks and especially more tollerable than a certain J*r J*r B*nks that we have all been over exposed to lately.So I would recommend "The Black Cauldron", it's a fun and well animated adventure film.
At the same time, Disney Studio's full-length animated features continued their descent from the heights scaled in 1959's "Sleeping Beauty", at first downscaling the subject matter, then progressing to less and less impressive animation, and finally combining the first two trends with boring storytelling (see "The Fox and the Hound" - 1981).It was in this context that pre-production began on "The Black Cauldron" in the late 1970s.
Lloyd Alexander's "Chronicles of Prydain" are fantastic works of fantasy for the young adult - I loved them as a middle-schooler in the mid-80s, and the choice to film the story in 70mm widescreen harkened back to the glory days of "Sleeping Beauty." Unfortunately, not much else worked.
Maybe not as good as I thought as a kid, but still great.Sure, some of the animation isn't as polished and crisp as the likes of 'The Little Mermaid' or 'Beauty and the Beast' (2 of my favorites) but it still looks great (especially the cauldron scenes near the end).
I owned the Gurgi and Hen Wen plushes, got excited by the preview on the "Pinocchio" video, etc.,etc.After seeing the movie, I remember being entertained (maybe not enthralled) by the film and was saddened by Gurgi's sacrifice at the end.Years passed.
And people seemed to have forgotten "Black Cauldron" in the wake of "Little Mermaid" and her successors.I must admit that I became somewhat obsessed with finding out why Disney thought of the film so poorly and why everyone gave me "blank stares" when I mentioned it.
No, Disney's film does not even begin to compare to the books, but what movie does?On its own terms, "Black Cauldron" stands as a remarkable achievement in animation, and a film for those people who don't just think cartoons are "babysitters for kids.".
This is a grade A Disney animated film from the so-called Dark Ages of the studio and I feel that is an unfair label overall but is especially unfair when it comes to this film which is one of the studio's darkest and most enjoyable.The plot concerns would-be warrior Taran who sets on a quest to stop the evil Horned Kig (voiced magnificently by John Hurt) from getting his hands on a mysterious object which could unleash all supernatural hell on Earth.
People who have a problem with the darkness of the film let me put it this way, "Don't watch it and don't show it to your young children!" If you think they can handle it later on than go ahead but don't knock the movie just because it's not what you think Disney should be.The Black Cauldron is geared more towards a male audience but I am sure some girls may enjoy it as well.If you haven't seen The Black Cauldron and your a big Disney fan at least give it a shot..
The books had been based deeply on mythology, but the movie took the first two books, sprinkled bits and pieces of them into a script, and added a ton of fairy tale and fantasy cliches.I've always wondered what it is with Disney writers that makes them feel it necessary to screw around with anything and everything (witness the amount of "creative license" taken with Pocahantas or Mulan.)  I'm sorry, but you don't have to have cute characters or happy endings on everything.
And despite what some nay-sayers here may have typed about it, I believe in and can take it for what it is, regardless of whatever changes are made and differences there are from the books, because it wouldn't really be much of an adaptation nor could one truly call it that if it followed the original source as it is, that's how I look at and think of it except for maybe depending on what was changed, and to what degree.Anyway, I like how it stood out from most other, Disney animated films that were the norm at the time and it was groundbreaking in a sense, but at the cost of being a win-lose situation: On the one hand, it attracted some teen audiences as it was intended.
The Black Cauldron, probably Disney's most interesting and worst grossing film, tells the story of Taran, a young pig keeper who dreams of fame and glory as a famous warrior.
Although characters like the Horned King and his undead army, may frighten younger viewers, the movie's dark side may be appreciated by some children (we forget that they too may appreciate the darker sides of things).The story is slow-moving for a Disney movie, but involving nonetheless.
Although it is not the best movie, it is different from their usual gooey-mess of a film, while still having a fantasy-theme and does not seem like a Disney movie whatsoever (in a good way!)..
Indeed, the second time I watched the DVD I threw the English subtitles on, and not just for Gurgi.Other problems with voicing include an exceedingly dull lead actor for Taran (he simply can't emote), and an overly chirpy female lead for Eilonwy.Most other elements of the film proved passable if predictable in the Disney mold of plot, hero design, sidekicks, etc.
Although it has been edited many many times, in fact i believe that it is the first movies to be edited my Disney, the dark part is still there, but not to scare the kids away, just to make them aware of the kind of evil lingers there.
I found this to be an excellent film!The voice acting was brilliant.The music was brilliant.The main characters (good and evil) were brilliant.The action was brilliant.Capable of making you feel emotion - happy, sad, baleful, hilarity, you name it.And I do love the fact that this is one of Disney's darkest.It's my favorite Disney film ever.And if you're gonna tell me "Read the Books!" don't bother.
Even though the series of books that The Black Cauldron was based on, the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, is one of my favorite childrens series, I was disappointed with this movie.
If I were a child, he would give me nightmares.Of course it had the typical humorous sidekick on both the villain side and good side (what Disney movie doesn't have one?) and the happy ending.I can't say that I have ever read the books, and I am sure that had I read them, I might have been somewhat disappointed in the film.
(I'm not too fond of movies like Lion King or Little Mermaid, well until the Toy Story series, but that's another story.)  I first heard of the Black Cauldron when my younger brother got this on a book and tape, and I found that I loved the story so much, I memorized the book and sometimes snagged it.
When I heard it was coming out on video, I got really excited.The Black Cauldron does have a deliciously "dark" theme to it, which makes it so much better than a normal Disney "light and happy" film, and the cast of characters is much better than usual.
Man, why can't Disney make more films like "The Black Cauldron"?
They made a few interesting choices, like reviving multi-planing (a very good idea) and using widescreen for the first time since Sleeping Beauty, but these don't make up for all the other blunders made by this film.The story is quite typical of Tolkien-inspired fantasy.
Lloyd Alexander's series of adventure books (Including "The Book of Three, "The Black Cauldron", "The Castle of Llyr", "Taran Wanderer" and "The High King") are a kind of "introduction" for younger people into larger and more adult and complex fantasy/adventure authors like Tolkien.
And also I have read the "Chronicles of Prydain" book series too from which this film is based on; well actually book #2.I love Princess Eilonwy, she is beautiful, cute as button and a brave young woman; her kiss with Taran at the end knocked me for a loop.
I will agree with over reviewers that the film is dark and mature but it is a film that kids CAN watch - there is nothing vulgar within the film - but it does have an adult feel to the movie.If you liked Disney's "Sword in the Stone", "Fantasia" or "Alice in Wonderland" then you might enjoy this film.Live-action films similar to The Black Cauldron: "Eragon", "The Brothers Grimm", "The Sword and the Sorcerer", "Maleficent" and "Dragonslayer".9/10.
"The Black Cauldron" is the fascinating, stunning tale of a brave but foolish boy, a precognitive pig, and an evil Horned King who will stop at nothing to become immortal.I always include this with my "Best of '80s Fantasy" marathons-- "Ladyhawke," "Willow," "Krull," and so forth, with no "Excalibur" or "The Neverending Story"-- because it was such an amazing, imaginative movie that it deserves recognition as such.
Now I chose to watch the film for some reason, and I must say: Don't.The animation has not withstood the test of time and the story is very poorly written.That's not even mentioning the fact that I want to maim and kill every last bastard on the writing team for so completely ruining the best piece of children's literature in the world.Read the books..
I disagree.Although i have nothing per say against light princess stories or the animal fun Disney usually goes in for: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Fox and the Hound, The Jungle Book, Cinderella...
From the moment the film opens you see this terrifying black pot with this deep dark voice over which is then contrasted with the introduction of Taren, the central character and his pig, Hen.It turns out the horned king is searching for the black cauldron which will give him the power to raise an army from the dead and to find the black cauldron the king will come looking for Hen, a pig with strange divining powers so Taren (who dreams of adventure and the like) must take Hen to the cottage on the other side of the wood and keep her hidden there.On the way however Hen is stolen by some terrifying flying dragon monster things and Taren had to follow them to the horned kings castle and get hen back.The Horned King is as frightening as for once he should be and voiced by the immensely talented John Hurt.
Taran ( voiced by Grant Bardsley)is an assistant pig-keeper who lives with his mentor Dallban ( voiced by Freddie Jones) with a magical pig who can create visions especially of the Horned King's desire for the mysterious Black Cauldron leads Taran to go on the adventure of a lifetime with new friends like a beautiful princess named Ellionwy ( voiced by Susan Sheridan), a lovable hairy critter named Gurgi ( Voiced by John Byner) and a broken down musician named Ffluder Flem ( voiced by Nigel Haththrone) as they search for the legendary Black Cauldron and must destroy it before the Horned King gets his hands on it.Considered the biggest flop in the history of Disney films, this movie was given a "PG" rating for dark content and themes and took 9 years in the making for a dark animated fantasy adventure flick.
While it doesn't exactly follow the books well but it does have stunning animation, some early CGI for it's time and offers a lot of great fun for older viewers but not really for younger kids.Also recommended: "The Dark Crystal", "Sleeping Beauty", " The Great Mouse Detective", " The Fox and The Hound", "The Last Unicorn", "The Secret of NIMH", "Fire & Ice", " Bambi", "Rock & Rule", "Heavy Metal", "Starchaser: Legend of Orin", " Oliver & Company", " Pinocchio", " The Wizard of Oz", "Return to Oz", " The Princess Bride", "Willow", "Wizards", " The Lord of the Rings ( 1978)", "Harry Potter movies", "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory", "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory", "Conan The Barbarian", " Mulan", "Aladdin", " Beauty and The Beast", " The Aristocats", " The Emperor's New Groove", " Atlantis The Lost Empire", " The Hunchback of Norte Dame", " The Lion King", " Lord of the Rings Trilogy", "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe", "Vampire Hunter D", "Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust", Princess Mononoke", " Spirited Away", "Howl's Moving Castle", "Castle in the Sky", "Nausicca: Valley of the Wind", " Hercules", " Army of Darkness", " The Hobbit", "Return of the King", " Blade Master", " Conquest", " Legend", " Record of Lodoss Wars", " Excalibur", "King Arthur", " The Fifth Element", " The Iron Giant", "Transformers The Movie" and "The Prince of Egypt"..
After his beloved pig is kidnapped, a young boy enters the kingdom of the dreaded Horned King, he meets a princess and must save everyone from the King's wrath.The Black Cauldron deviates entirely from any other film from the Walt Disney Animated Studios canon.
Knowing the story behind the film would lead me to believe that Disney's biggest mistake was condensing the plot line to an extent were it lost heart and depth, it unfolds too quickly so that character relationships aren't properly developed (especially between the Princess and Taran), I also felt no connection to the protagonist.
The 'Horned King' also didn't live up to the usual terrifying standards of a Disney Villain, using a skull-faced, cloaked figure is a far too obvious move, other more successful figures such as Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, evokes fear through her malevolent aura, and ability to charm others as opposed to the blatant attempt in this film to create an evil character by giving them the face of a skull, the most stereotypical imagery of fear and death.
This film had so much potential, they had a great story and could have created a dark, twisted tale that audiences connected with as much as the books, looking now at the success of the Lord Of The Rings movies, it just shows how badly Disney missed the mark in this poor attempt to reach out to teenage fantasy fanatics..
There was very little frightening about it that was actually supposed to be, and I have to agree with the quote I heard from someone that it was the first animated Disney feature to be "completely without heart".This movie is good for one thing, however:  if you're really interested, watch this, then watch The Little Mermaid (again, I'm sure), and marvel at the fact that those two movies were made only a couple of years apart (Little Mermaid was apparently already in the production pipeline when Black Cauldron was released; otherwise, we might never have seen it!).
I love this movie, the storyline is from one of my favorite books, the animation is good and its what I like, fantasy.
The story feels like a rushed epic, but in the end, the movie remains as something that, in the world of animated films, Disney never attempted again, and it is a shame..
It's fitting that it's the first (and since, the last) time since Sleeping Beauty that was released on 70MM, the prestige film format, since it is a spectacle to behold and full of the kind of widescreen dark sorcery that a full widescreen gives a story like that or this.It's interesting for me to see the star rating I give this and then for Sleeping Beauty as they're almost the same, but it's about expectations: SB has one of the highest pedigrees in all of Disney, so to see it and be a little let down is where that comes from.
Hell, Disney just barely was able to maintain it on a razor's edge with Snow White, and here the problem is that the main characters (the young man on his quest, the princess of wherever who joins up with him midway through) are really dull and not given much personality.So mostly what you're left with are some charming animated scenes, but sparingly (the little fairy characters or whoever they are are nice to see, but are a little familiar too), and then a lot of (for kids) dark stuff involving the Horn King (voiced brilliantly by John Hurt) and a character like the talking dog.
Instead, it is based on a novel by Lloyd Alexander, a story about pig-keeper Taran who attempts to find his future-foretelling pig so that the evil Horned King would not capture and use her to pinpoint the whereabouts of the Black Cauldron.
The Horned King plans to use the Black Cauldron to spread untold evil and power.The film has splendid hand-drawn animation and a catchy music score.
Bad. Need to say, the only good thing about The Black Cauldron it's good quality of backgrounds animation, a quality that was not seen in the Disney studio since "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).
The thing about The Black Cauldron is that it was shown to be dark and scary, but I think they could've have given the Horned King (John Hurt) a better portrayal evil.I enjoyed the characters, mostly.
Yes, of course it's a classic Disney cartoon, however it is rather dark and there are some moments in there that may actually creep out really young children in a way that other similar films like Snow White and Cinderella don't.However, if you're looking for purely great animation and a decent enough little fairy-tale then this is definitely worth a watch.