{"id":16961,"date":"2011-05-11T11:03:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T18:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16961"},"modified":"2021-01-10T00:20:28","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T07:20:28","slug":"black-cauldron-the-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16961","title":{"rendered":"Black Cauldron, The (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Soon the Black Cauldron will be mine!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Poster-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16962\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Poster-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Poster.jpg 490w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA young pigkeeper named Taran (Grant Bardsley) is sent on a mission to locate and destroy a magical black cauldron coveted by the evil Horned King (John Hurt).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Animated Features<\/li>\n<li>Coming of Age<\/li>\n<li>Fantasy<\/li>\n<li>John Hurt Films<\/li>\n<li>Search<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary begins his review of this &#8220;25th cartoon feature&#8221; by Disney &#8212; its &#8220;first 70 mm cartoon since <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16921\"><em>Sleeping Beauty<\/em><\/a>&#8221; &#8212; by noting that &#8220;critics overpraised&#8221; it &#8220;out of appreciation for the studio&#8217;s attempt to return to old-style, ambitious animation&#8221;. He argues that it &#8220;doesn&#8217;t have the subtlety of the Disney classics&#8221;, but notes that &#8220;while the backgrounds are lifeless&#8221;, obvious &#8220;care was taken in animating foreground action, as well as character movements and facial expressions&#8221;. He accurately points out that &#8220;the human characters are a bit innocuous&#8221; (indeed, they&#8217;re imminently forgettable), and that &#8220;the plot has few surprises and many weak points&#8221;. However, he argues that kids &#8220;won&#8217;t be bored&#8221;, that it&#8217;s a &#8220;pleasant diversion&#8221; for adults, and that it &#8220;makes the refreshing point that loyalty and friendship are more important than heroism&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>These days &#8212; especially knowing that a handful of neo-Disney masterpieces (i.e., <em>The Little Mermaid<\/em> and <em>Beauty and the Beast<\/em>) were yet to come &#8212; <em>The Black Cauldron<\/em> definitely strikes one as more of an innocuous &#8220;miss&#8221; than anything worth celebrating as a come-back. Indeed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-black-cauldron-1\">Time Out<\/a> calls it a &#8220;major disappointment&#8221;, while many others note that it simply recycles a number of cliches from earlier Disney films while failing to bring any charm or originality to the proceedings. Meanwhile, Richard Scheib of <a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/fantasy\/black-cauldron-disney-animated-1985.htm\"><em>Moria<\/em><\/a> points out that the film&#8217;s timing was unfortunate as well, given that it was conceived right around the time when <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=9345\"><em>Star Wars<\/em> (1977)<\/a> was enjoying tremendous popularity, but not released until the mid-80s, when &#8220;the genre had moved on&#8221;. Ultimately, then, this one is only must-see for Disney completists. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> The &#8220;cowardly half-human-half-creature Gurgi&#8221; &#8212; erroneously labeled by Peary as &#8220;cute&#8221; and &#8220;cuddly&#8221; &#8212; has got to be one of Disney&#8217;s most annoying sidekicks EVER. (&#8220;Oh, poor miserable Gurgi deserves fierce smackings and whackings on his poor, tender head. Always left with no munchings and crunchings.&#8221; Arrgh!). He&#8217;s eerily reminiscent of Andy Serkis&#8217;s Gollum in <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em> trilogy (which in itself was a clearly an inspiration for Lloyd Alexander&#8217;s original <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Chronicles_of_Prydain\">children&#8217;s fantasy series<\/a>, upon which this film was based). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some effectively creepy animation<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Animation.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Animation.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16966\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Animation.png 1280w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Animation-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Animation-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Black-Cauldron-Animation-1024x576.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, unless you&#8217;re a Disney completist. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0088814\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/index.php?page=review&#038;id=113\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stomptokyo.com\/movies\/black-cauldron.html\">Stomp Tokyo Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/fantasy\/black-cauldron-disney-animated-1985.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdizzy.com\/blackcauldron.html\">DVD Dizzy Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1985\/07\/26\/movies\/screen-disney-s-black-cauldron.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/the-black-cauldron-1985#:~:text=%22The%20Black%20Cauldron%22%20is%20a,a%20bottomless%20source%20of%20evil.\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-black-cauldron-1\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Soon the Black Cauldron will be mine!&#8221; Synopsis: A young pigkeeper named Taran (Grant Bardsley) is sent on a mission to locate and destroy a magical black cauldron coveted by the evil Horned King (John Hurt). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Animated Features Coming of Age Fantasy John Hurt Films Search Response to Peary\u2019s Review: Peary begins his review of this &#8220;25th cartoon feature&#8221; by Disney &#8212; its &#8220;first 70 mm cartoon since Sleeping Beauty&#8221; &#8212; by noting that &#8220;critics&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16961\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16961"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62684,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16961\/revisions\/62684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}