The Black Cauldron (1985)

 

Genre: Family/ Adventure 

Time: 1hour 20 mins

Directors: Ted Berman, Richard Rich

Quick Summary: A young boy and a group of misfit friends embark on a quest to find a dark magic item of ultimate power before a diabolical tyrant can.

There are many good things to love about this, unfortunately, it falls a bit flat in a lot of places. 

This isn't your usual Disney film, there are no songs for a start which actually I'm glad about as the tone of this would be very different. It's a lot darker and more gritty as well. 

It has a wonderful pacing to it with some fantastic action scenes that are incredibly engaging. Wonderfully adventurous and manages to tell its story, though unfortunately, it drags out a lot of things meaning it gets very boring at times. 

Being someone who loves hand-drawn animation, I adored the art and style in this. It reflects the dark atmosphere perfectly, having a dark palette and "scary" backgrounds that occasionally flows into whimsical and magical that all give it a wonderful fantasy core. 

The villain is the main thing I love about this, he is truly terrifying. A horned king who plans to bring back the dead for an army. It is very simple, but it works. It doesn't need to be overly complicated and I liked that. The way he is drawn and his delivery of lines makes him all the better as well, having an air of genuine evil. Granted this may end up being too scary for young children, though the film has plenty of light-hearted moments to counter this. Sadly, I was very disappointed by the climax of this film and how the villain is defeated, it was all very anti-climax even if it did look pretty cool to watch visually.  

Another thing is the characters were sadly very flat and one note, there wasn't really much to them aside from being a bit charming. Which isn't always bad, it's just there wasn't much else to them. In retrospect, none of them actually did much in terms of story, aside from the main character but even then it wasn't much. They honestly felt a bit like arch-types, especially the comedic relief character. At times I found them funny, but at others it was annoying, and without spoiling too much, their contribution to the ending just didn't feel justified to me or gave me any type of emotion towards it. 

Even though they were a bit flat, I enjoyed moments from all the characters. Princess Eilonwy is one of them as I found her sharp-natured humour really funny at times, and Taran's naivety cute. It was just a shame that wore off once I realised there wasn't much else there aside from some witty dialogue between characters now and then.

I think this is something to watch if you want to see something that isn't quite Disney or want something to give you that fantasy feel, but don't expect much from this.

5/10

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

"Eilonwy: I'm Princess Eilonwy. Are you a lord, or a warrior?

Taran: Uh, no. Uh... I-I-I'm an assistant pig keeper.

Eilonwy: Oh, what a pity. I was so hoping for someone who could help me escape. Oh, well, if you want to come with me, you may."

"Taran: What does a girl know about swords, anyway?

Eilonwy: "Girl"? "Girl"? If it wasn't for this *girl*, you would still be in the Horned King's dungeon."