The Black Cauldron

The film was a huge flop, you see. I've since read interviews with Disney animators and executives who claim, to this day, that the mere mention of The Black Cauldron casts a dark shadow across the company offices. I recall some controversy at the time over the first-ever PG rating for a Disney film, and later I learned the subject matter was deemed too dark for children. It looked as though The Black Cauldron would languish forever in the Disney vaults (and in the memories of a lucky few kids who actually saw it) and that I would never get a chance to see it.

But now, surprisingly, thirteen years later Disney has finally released the film to home video--and equally surprising, given its cursed reputation, the company has given it a big marketing push. Which means I finally got to see The Black Cauldron, after all these years of wondering.

And the verdict? Well, very few things could live up to that much expectation, but I enjoyed the film. It is dark, and that's one of the things I liked about it. Certain scenes felt like The Evil Dead for children; being a fan of the macabre, I appreciated those scenes, but I imagine certain impressionable young children--especially those who cried very hard in the theater around me when Quasimodo was ridiculed in The Hunchback of Notre Dame--will have a hard time of it.

The story might seem familiar to children who have seen the Star Wars films, although they may not make the connection with the mythic Hero's Journey. Young Taran is an assistant to the wise old sage Doli. The boy daydreams of being a great hero and embarking on wonderful adventures, while his daily duties force him to look after a pig, Hen Wen. It turns out that Hen Wen isn't just an ordinary pig; she is an oracle who can project images of the future in water when the proper incantation is recited. Hen Wen's first vision reveals the evil Horned King's plan to find the legendary Black Cauldron and use its powers to conquer the kingdom, the world, or wherever--but first he has to find the Cauldron, and for that he needs the pig. Taran is charged with protecting Hen Wen, a job he botches when she's kidnapped by the King's winged Gryphons.

Taran sets out to the Horned King's castle and along the way he encounters Gurgi, a furry little creature who speaks in rumbles and has a weakness for apples. Later, after rescuing Hen Wen, Taran is captured and tossed into the Horned King's dungeon where he meets Princess Eilonwy who is able to conjure glowing magic baubles (a gift that is rarely utilized to much service). They find an amazing sword that can destroy almost any weapon and enables Taran to be a great fighter.

And how about that Horned King! He really does have horns, protruding out of his grim reaper-like hood. And inside the hood is a death's-head face that ought to provide plenty of nightmare material for easily frightened children everywhere. But me, I loved the look of the monster and I would have loved him when I was a kid, too.

There are other colorful supporting characters, of course (this being Disney). Taran and Eilonwy free another prisoner, a balladeer named Fflewddur whose harp has a tendency to break strings when he lies. Later they meet some Fairfolk that are simply the finest renditions of fairies I've seen outside of Brian Froug's "Pressed Fairy" illustrations. Along with the Gryphons and some brutish soldiers, the Horned King has a creepy little goblin servant who provides much of the film's comic relief from his utter terror at displeasing his master (in a lot of ways he reminded me of Dukie's simpering ogre, Toadie, from Disney's Gummi Bears TV series a few years back).

The supporting characters are fun, which helps pick up the slack from the dull leads. In appearance and attitude, Taran greatly resembles young Arthur from The Sword In the Stone. I think The Black Cauldron is a much better film, but Arthur was more charming and headstrong than Taran. The romance between Taran and Eilonwy isn't very convincing either, but it's a kid's movie, so who's going to notice?

Well, the kids, actually.

The Black Cauldron is an exciting, well-made adventure film that has some excellent animation. Looking back, it seems to me that in its time of release it was a major artistic step forward for the Disney team (despite the several steps backward they took following its failure), especially coming off the lazy, sketchy art style of The Rescuers and The Aristocats. It doesn't quite have the polished look or feel of masterpieces like The Little Mermaid (which came four years later) or the triumphant Beauty and the Beast, and its adventure sequences aren't as thrilling (nor its humor pieces as funny) as those in Aladdin or Hercules.

Kids who have grown up on these later Disney films will no doubt find The Black Cauldron a bit slower and less memorable. Some may be truly disturbed by the images of the Horned King's undead army or some startling moments with a fierce dog. And there is a sacrifice at the end made by one of the characters that literally caused my jaw to drop; that this sort of thing appears in a Disney film (even considering its reconciliation in the denouement) is nothing short of alarming.

Which is one of the things I liked about it. The Brothers Grimm told fairy tales which were dark and sick and involved a lot of deviant behavior. Disney has made millions cleaning up these stories, sanitizing their content for wholesome children everywhere. The problem is, they're undermining the imaginations of kids--and the need for children to be afraid, to view an adult world they don't understand through trembling eyes. Fear can be as cathartic for children as it is for adults. And personally, even as a kid, I seriously dug the darker, more twisted stories from Washington Irving and Poe. I imagine other kids will, too, especially the ones who fast-forward through those Celine Dion songs in the other Disney movies.

The Black Cauldron feels experimental, particularly in light of the formula Disney has embraced since Aladdin. There are no long, irritating, badly written, and sloppily performed songs; in fact, there are no songs, period. I found that refreshing. The cliffhanger scenes are engaging and give the sense of real danger. The ending is very much inspired by the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the comparison is a favorable one, and Cauldron holds its own as spectacle.