The Black Cauldron (1985) 77m
I can't believe it took nine writers to script what turned out to be an essentially simple story for this $25 million animated Disney feature. THE BLACK CAULDRON tentatively tried some variation in approach for the studio, which hadn't produced any equal to its past classics for many years. A younger generation of animators worked on the film for five years, included computer enhancement for the first time, and released it in 70mm. It attracted some interest but didn't appeal to the public as much as the studio's future hit THE LITTLE MERMAID, which resulted in Disney sticking to its tried-and-true musical adaptations of fairy tales and folk stories. It's annoying, because it would have been intriguing to see what new direction THE BLACK CAULDRON might have encouraged had it been successful.
THE BLACK CAULDRON is a combination of the first two books of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series. The darker hues of these stories make them an unusual choice for Disney, but the film is effective entertainment for children and the animation is of the standard you'd expect so it seems churlish to grump about it as an adult. Still, the characters aren't that engaging and the story could have done with more action. The only sequence which really contains a sense of movement is the one in which a pig is chased by a pair of gwythaints (dragonlike creatures), but this appears early in the film and even then it's too short. It's also obvious that the writers couldn't really avoid including characters that, while central to the original stories, become superfluous in the film. In the end, only the hero Taran, his pig Hen Wen, and a creature known as Gurgi (who is included for comic relief and sounds like Donald Duck calling long distance) are essential for the quest to find and destroy the evil cauldron of the title.
Given the nature of the story (which features lots of skulls, skeletons and demonic imagery), the film-makers may have wanted to keep the film from appearing too scary for their younger viewers - in my mind it looks like an edited version of a putative longer film. THE BLACK CAULDRON hitches up its pants, says good-bye to Mom at the door, but then decides to go no further than the front yard. Like Taran, the pig-keeper who wants to become a warrior, THE BLACK CAULDRON is a film that wants to show us that it's growing up (it's one of the very rare Disney animations in which no animals talk and no characters sing) but it can't shake loose the Disney trappings it is garbed in. Even though it is one of the least remembered efforts of the studio (unless it made an impression upon you as a youngster), it's still worth noting as a possible turning point. Imagine, in a parallel universe, that this film was greeted with acclaim and success. Imagine what new, daring projects this may have encouraged the studio to develop. It didn't happen, but THE BLACK CAULDRON did help promote Alexander's well-crafted fantasy novels, so its investment wasn't altogether unprofitable.
sburridge@hotmail.com
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