The Black Cauldron (film)


The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation in association with Silver Screen Partners II and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 25th Disney animated feature film, it is loosely based on the first two books in The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels that are, in turn, based on Welsh mythology.
Set in the mythical land of Prydain during the Early Middle Ages, the film centers on the evil Horned King who hopes to secure an ancient magical cauldron that will aid him in his desire to conquer the world. He is opposed by a young swineherd named Taran, the young princess Eilonwy, the bard Fflewddur Fflam, and a wild creature named Gurgi who seek to destroy the cauldron, to prevent the Horned King from ruling the world.
The film is directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, who had directed Disney's previous animated film The Fox and the Hound in 1981, the first Disney animated film to be recorded in Dolby Stereo. It features the voices of Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, John Byner, and John Hurt.
It was the first Disney animated film to receive a PG rating as well as the first Disney animated film to feature computer-generated imagery. The film was distributed theatrically through Buena Vista Distribution on July 26, 1985. With the budget of $25–44 million, it was the most expensive animated film ever made at the time. The film grossed $21.3 million domestically. Because of its commercial failure, Disney did not release the film on home video until 1998.

Plot

In the land of Prydain, Taran is a teenage boy and an "assistant pig-keeper" on the small farm of Caer Dallben, home of Dallben the Enchanter. Taran dreams of becoming a famous warrior. Dallben learns that the evil ruler of Prydain, 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 Horned King will try to steal his pig Hen Wen, who 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 Gwythaints, Horned King's dragon-like creatures.
Taran follows them to Horned King's castle. Along the way, he encounters the pestering, dog-like creature Gurgi, who wants to be Taran's friend. Frustrated by Gurgi's antics and fear of the castle, Taran leaves him. He sneaks inside and rescues Hen Wen, but although she escapes, Taran is captured 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 to effectively fight Horned King's minions and so to fulfil 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 goblin, Creeper, to send the Gwythaints to follow Taran.
Following Hen Wen's trail, the four companions stumble into the underground kingdom of the Fair Folk who reveal that Hen Wen is under their protection. When the kindly King Eidilleg reveals that he knows where the cauldron is, Taran decides to destroy it. Eilonwy, Gurgi and Fflewddur agree to join him and Eidilleg's obnoxious right-hand man Doli is assigned to lead them to the Marshes of Morva while the Fair Folk 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. Orddu agrees to trade the cauldron for Taran's sword and he reluctantly agrees, knowing 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 when someone climbs in under his own free will, which will kill him. Doli angrily abandons the group. Although Taran feels foolish for aspiring to destroy the cauldron alone, his companions show their belief in him; and Eilonwy and Taran almost kiss. Suddenly they are interrupted by Horned King's soldiers who have followed them to Morva. Gurgi runs away before they seize the cauldron and take the companions back to the castle. Horned King uses the cauldron to raise the dead and his Cauldron-born army begins to pour out into the world.
Gurgi manages to sneak into the castle and rescue his friends. Taran decides to cast himself into the cauldron to save everyone, but Gurgi stops him and jumps into it himself. The undead army collapses. When the Horned King spots Taran, he infers the turn of events, says that Taran has interfered for the last time, and throws the youth toward the cauldron; however, the cauldron's magic is out of control. It consumes Horned King in a tunnel of fire, killing him and destroying the castle, using up all its powers forever. The three witches come to recover the now-inert Black Cauldron. However, Taran has finally realised Gurgi's true friendship, and he asks them to revive his friend in exchange for the cauldron, choosing to give up his magical sword permanently. Fflewddur challenges the reluctant witches to demonstrate their powers, and upon hearing Fflewddur's remarks, the witches honor the request, returning Gurgi to them. At first, Gurgi appears to be dead but is resurrected. After they reunite, he pushes Taran and Eilonwy into a kiss. 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.

Voice cast

Development

Walt Disney Productions optioned Lloyd Alexander's five-volume series in 1971, and pre-production work began in 1973 when the film rights to Alexander's books were finally obtained. According to Ollie Johnston, it was he and Frank Thomas that convinced the studio to produce the movie, and that if it had been done properly, it might be "as good as Snow White". Because of the numerous storylines and with over thirty characters in the original series, several story artists and animators worked on the development of the film throughout the 1970s, when it was originally slated for release in 1980. Veteran artist Mel Shaw created inspirational conceptual pastel sketches, which Disney CEO Ron W. Miller considered to be too advanced for the animators. Therefore, in August 1978 the studio pushed its release date back to Christmas 1984 due to their inability to animate realistic human characters; its original release date would later be assumed by The Fox and the Hound. During its development limbo, one of those writers was veteran storyboard artist Vance Gerry, who was chosen to create beat storyboards that would outline the plot, action, and locations. Having set up the three principal characters, Gerry adapted the Horned King into a big-bellied Viking who had a red beard, fiery temper, and wore a steel helmet with two large horns. Desiring an experienced British screenwriter to write the screenplay, the studio signed Rosemary Anne Sisson onto the project.
The first director attached to the project was animator John Musker after he was proposed the job by production head Tom Wilhite. As director, Musker was assigned to expand several sequences in the first act, but they were eventually deemed too comedic. When production on The Fox and the Hound had wrapped, several feature animation directors Art Stevens, Richard Rich, Ted Berman, and Dave Michener became involved in The Black Cauldron. When Miller decided too many people were involved, he decided Stevens was not appropriate to supervise the project so he contacted Joe Hale, who was a longtime layout artist at Disney Studios, to serve as producer. With Hale as producer, actual production on The Black Cauldron officially began in 1980. He tossed out visual character artwork submitted by Tim Burton and along with The Fox and the Hound directors Richard Rich and Ted Berman, they desired a Sleeping Beauty-style approach and brought Milt Kahl out of retirement to create character designs for Taran, Eilonwy, Fflewddur Fflam, and the other principal characters. He and the story team revised the film, capsulizing the story of the first two books and making some considerable changes which led to the departure of Sisson who had creative differences with Hale and the directors. Animators John Musker and Ron Clements, also citing creative differences, were removed from the project and began development on The Great Mouse Detective. Displeased with Vance Gerry's concept for the Horned King, Hale turned the Horned King into a thin creature donning a hood and carrying a spectral presence with shadowed face and glowing red eyes, his role expanded into a composite villain of several characters from the books. Taran and Eilonwy eventually acquired elements of the past designs and costumes of earlier Disney characters, especially the latter, who was drawn to resemble Princess Aurora.

Test-screening and editing

Shortly before the film's initially planned 1984 theatrical release, a test screening for the rough cut of The Black Cauldron was held at the studio's private theater in Burbank, California. After the film, particularly the climactic "cauldron born" sequence, proved to be too intense and frightening for the majority of the children in the audience, the newly appointed Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered certain scenes from The Black Cauldron be cut, as a result of the length and the fear that their graphic nature would alienate children. Since animated films were generally edited in storyboard form using Leica reels, producer Joe Hale objected to Katzenberg's demands. Katzenberg responded by having the film brought into an edit bay and editing the film himself.
Informed of what Katzenberg was doing by Hale, the newly appointed Disney CEO Michael Eisner called Katzenberg in the editing room and convinced him to stop. Though he did what Eisner insisted, Katzenberg requested that the film be modified, and delayed its scheduled Christmas 1984 release to July 1985 so that the film could be reworked.
The film was ultimately cut by twelve minutes, with existing scenes rewritten and reanimated for continuity. Many of the cut scenes involved extended character interactions, but other trims involve violent content, including the undead "Cauldron Born", who are used as the Horned King's army in the final act of the film. While most of the scenes were seamlessly removed from the film, the Cauldron Born sequence contains rather recognizable lapses because the removal of the scenes of the Cauldron Born mauling the henchmen, as well as one of them being dissolved by the mist, creates a jump in the film's soundtrack.

Animation

Invented by David W. Spencer from the studio's still camera department, the animation photo transfer process was first used for The Black Cauldron which would enhance the technology by which the rough animation would be processed onto celluloid. First, the rough animation would be photographed onto high-contrast litho film, and the resulting negative would be copied onto the plastic cel sheets that would transfer lines and the colors which eventually eliminated the hand-inking process. But as the APT-transferred line art would fade off of the cels over time, most or all of the film was done using the xerographic process which had been in place at Disney since the late 1950s. Spencer would win a technical Academy Award for this process, but the computer would soon render the APT process obsolete.
The Black Cauldron is notable for being Disney's first animated feature film to incorporate computer-generated imagery in its animation for bubbles, a boat, a floating orb of light, and the cauldron itself. Though The Black Cauldron was released a year before The Great Mouse Detective, both films were in production simultaneously for some time and the computer graphics for the latter were done first. When producer Joe Hale heard about what was being done, the possibilities made him excited and he made the crew from The Great Mouse Detective project create some computer animation for his own movie. For other effects, animator Don Paul used live action footage of dry ice mists to create the steam and smoke coming out of the cauldron.

Soundtrack

The Black Cauldron: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the film. It was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein and originally released in 1985.

Composition

Unlike most other Disney animated films, the film did not contain any songs. At the same time, Bernstein had just come off the success of his Academy Award-nominated score for the 1983 film Trading Places as well as the score for the 1984 film Ghostbusters. Like in the latter of the two, The Black Cauldron saw the use of the ghostly ondes Martenot to build upon the dark mood of Prydain.

Original release

Because of the film's last minute revisions, much of Bernstein's score was cut and unused. In its minority, the score was re-recorded for the album original release by Varèse Sarabande in 1985, with the composer conducting the Utah Symphony Orchestra. The album soon fell out of print and many of the film's tracks did not resurface until a bootleg copy entitled "Taran" was supplied to soundtrack specialty outlets in 1986.

Re-release

The film tracks received their premiere release in 2012 as part of Intrada Records partnership with Walt Disney Records to issue several Disney films soundtracks.

Critical response

The score received positive reviews from music critics, and today is regarded as obscure but one of the best works by Bernstein and for a Disney animated film. Jason Ankeny from AllMusic gave to the soundtrack a positive review, stating that "Bernstein's bleak arrangements and ominous melodies vividly underline the fantasy world portrayed onscreen, and taken purely on its own terms, the score is an undeniable success". The film score review website Filmtracks wrote: "The score for The Black Cauldron was for Bernstein what Mulan was for Jerry Goldsmith in the next decade: a fascinating journey into a fresh realm that required its music to play a more significant role in the film".

Release history

Release

For its initial release, the film became the first Disney animated film to receive a PG rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. It was also presented in Super Technirama 70—the first since Sleeping Beauty—and Dolby Stereo 70mm six-track surround sound.
The film was re-released in 1990 in selected markets under the title Taran and the Magic Cauldron.

Box office performance

The Black Cauldron was released in North America on July 26, 1985. The film was also screened at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. While officially budgeted by Disney executives at $25 million, the film's production manager, Don Hahn, said in his documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, that it cost $44 million to produce the film. The $44-million budget made it the most expensive animated film ever made at the time. The film grossed $21.3 million domestically. It resulted in a loss for Walt Disney Studios and put the future of the animation department in jeopardy. It was so poorly received that it was not distributed as a home video release for more than a decade after its theatrical run. Adding insult to injury, the film was also beaten at the box office by The Care Bears Movie, which was released several months earlier by Disney's much-smaller rival animation studio in Canada Nelvana. The film was however more successful outside North America notably in France where it had 3,074,481 admissions and was the fifth most attended film of the year.
The film was the last Disney animated film to be completed at the original Animation Building of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. The animation department was moved to the Air Way facility in nearby Glendale in December 1984, and, following corporate restructuring, eventually returned to the Burbank studio in the mid-1990s at a new facility.

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 31 reviews, with an average score of 5.56/10. The critics' consensus stated "Ambitious but flawed, The Black Cauldron is technically brilliant as usual, but lacks the compelling characters of other Disney animated classics."
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave a positive review of the film, while Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times praised its "splendid visuals". Walter Goodman, reviewing for The New York Times, praised the animation and John Hurt's performance, but believed "eople old enough to recall their delight at earlier feature animations, no doubt burnished by memory, are not of course the audience at which The Black Cauldron is aimed. Nor, apparently, is it aimed at youngsters who have had a taste of more sophisticated animation of the Star Wars breed of movies." London's Time Out magazine deemed it "a major disappointment", adding that "the charm, characterization and sheer good humor" found in previous Disney efforts "are sadly absent". Jeffrey Katzenberg, then-Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, was dismayed by the product and the animators believed that it lacked "the humor, pathos, and the fantasy which had been so strong in Lloyd Alexander's work. The story had been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it was heartbreaking to see such wonderful material wasted."
Lloyd Alexander, the author of the books on which the film was based, had a more complex reaction to the film:
First, I have to say, there is no resemblance between the movie and the book. Having said that, the movie in itself, purely as a movie, I found to be very enjoyable. I had fun watching it. What I would hope is that anyone who sees the movie would certainly enjoy it, but I'd also hope that they'd actually read the book. The book is quite different. It's a very powerful, very moving story, and I think people would find a lot more depth in the book.

Home media

Following many requests from fans, The Black Cauldron was released on VHS in the United Kingdom in 1997, and in the United States on August 4, 1998, as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, in a pan-and-scan transfer, thirteen years after its theatrical release. The film received a DVD release with a 2.20:1 non-anamorphic widescreen transfer in 2000, as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection line, featuring an art gallery, a new game The Quest for the Black Cauldron, and the 1952 Donald Duck short Trick or Treat.
In 2008, Disney announced a Special Edition DVD release of the film to be released in 2009, but it didn't come out. It was re-advertised as a 25th Anniversary Edition and released on September 14, 2010, in the US and UK. It contains a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, the new Witch's Challenge game, deleted scenes, and all of the features from the 2000 DVD release.

Theme parks

Costumed versions of the characters from the film have made occasional appearances at the Disney theme parks and resorts.
In 1986, the eatery Lancer's Inn at Walt Disney World, was renamed Gurgi's Munchies and Crunchies. Eventually, in 1993 it was closed and then remodeled into Lumiere's Kitchen, The Village Fry Shoppe, and currently The Friar's Nook.
On July 11, 1986, Tokyo Disneyland opened Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour, a walk-through attraction in which the Horned King makes an appearance. The attraction was in operation until 2006. To tie in with the attraction's opening, a 14-day special event and castle show The Mystery of Cinderella Castle was featured on the Cinderella Castle Forecourt Stage, featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy, with Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. During the battle against Maleficent's forces by Goofy, Donald, Phillip, and Aurora, a cameo appearance is made by Creeper with other Disney villains.

Video game

The video game The Black Cauldron was designed by Al Lowe of Sierra On-Line and released in 1986. It was made shortly after the first King's Quest game, so it resembles that adventure in many ways. Along with The Dark Crystal it remains one of only a few adventure games by Sierra to be based on films.