The Black Cauldron
Short description
The Black Cauldron follows Taran, a young assistant pigkeeper in the land of Prydain who longs to prove himself as a warrior. His charge is Hen Wen, a pig with the gift of prophecy, and when the Horned King seizes her to locate the Black Cauldron, a relic said to raise an army of undead soldiers, Taran sets out to rescue her. His path crosses that of the princess Eilonwy, the wandering bard Fflewddur Fflam and the furry creature Gurgi, and together they must keep the Cauldron from the Horned King's grasp.
The film was directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, following their earlier collaboration on The Fox and the Hound; for Rich it was the second of thirteen directing credits, ahead of The Swan Princess. Joe Hale produced, and the voice cast includes Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, John Byner, Nigel Hawthorne, John Hurt and Freddie Jones, with 21 credited cast members and 69 credited crew. Made for about 25 million dollars, it returned roughly 21 million worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 6.3 from around 45,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.4 from about 1,474 votes. A film critics' rating of 5.8 from 36 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Work on the film continued for a full 12 years (preparatory work began as early as 1973).
- Directors Ted Berman and Richard Rich also created the previous Disney animated film – "The Fox and the Hound" (1981).
- While heavy work was underway on "The Black Cauldron" (1985), Walt Disney Studios was able to fully create and release "The Fox and the Hound" (1981), which was originally intended to follow "The Black Cauldron".
- The animated film is a loose adaptation of the first two books in the cycle of novels by American writer Lloyd Alexander, "The Chronicles of Prydain" (1964-1968): "The Book of Three" (1964) and "The Black Cauldron" (1965).
- The first Disney animated film to use computer graphics to some extent during its production.
- Walt Disney Studios acquired the rights to adapt Lloyd Alexander’s novel cycle “The Chronicles of Prydain” (1964-1968) as early as 1971.
- The first Disney animated film with sound recorded in Dolby Stereo format.
- The film was originally planned for release in 1980, but by August 1978 it became clear that it would not be ready by that date due to the extremely complex work the animators were doing on the human characters. Therefore, a decision was made to postpone the release of the film until Christmas 1984.
- The release of "The Black Cauldron" for Christmas 1984 was also delayed due to the fact that during test screenings in the fall of 1984, the cartoon seemed too scary for children. As a result, "The Black Cauldron" was sent for a lengthy re-editing process, which reduced the runtime by a full 20 minutes (100 versus 80), and the final release of the long-suffering cartoon was scheduled for July 1985.
- Lloyd Alexander generally liked the film, although he noted that the story was more profound in his books.
- The first Disney animated film to be given a PG rating (parental guidance suggested).
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