![]() This is one of the few Disney animated films I've actually never seen until now. At first, I was kind of surprised about how under the radar this was to me, considering it was the first of these to be released after I was born (missed 'Fox and the Hound' by about a year). Disney animated features take a big jump here, from 1981 to 1985, and this late-to-the-game, very non-Disney-like feature is often considered one of the worst of the bunch. But is it really that bad? After all, this has developed a cult following over the years. I further have to admit there was a little something about this, and I can't honestly say I found it all that horrible. We meet a young boy named Taran (Grant Bardsley), an assistant pig-keeper at the home of Dallben the Enchanter (Freddie Jones) who dreams of becoming a bigshot warrior. One day, Dallben learns about the evil Horned King (John Hurt) seeking out the "Black Cauldron", which will grant him the ability to raise an invincible army of the dead. Since Dallben's pig, Hen Wen, has oracular powers, Dallben fears the king may come after Hen Wen to use him, locate the Black Cauldron, and set his plan into motion. Dallben then has Taran take Hen Wen to find a place to hide and stay safe. Taran epically fails, however, and Hen Wen is nabbed by Gwythaints - dragon-like creatures working for the Horned King. Now it's up to Taran to keep his promise to protect Hen Wen, and go after him. Along his way, Taran meets a few interesting characters, but perhaps most interesting was a dog-like creature (not a dog though) named Gurgi (John Byner). He's just a lonely critter who wants a friend, and sounds exactly like Gollum from 'Lord of the Rings'. He evn talks like him, saying things like "poor miserable Gurgi deserves fierce smackings and whackings on his poor, tender head". I even paused the movie to check to see if it was Andy Serkis before he got famous. He further meets (mainly) Princess Eilonwy (Susan Sheridan); the princess who the Disney princesses didn't seem to let into their club, and a bard named Fflewddur Fflam (Nigel Hawthorne) who is meant to be a source of comedy relief, but doesn't really deliver many laughs. Taran also comes across a sword that allows him to fight a little better - almost like a cheat code as opposed to him having to learn through trial and error on his journey. So remember way back in the opening paragraph when I said "I can't honestly say I found it all that horrible"? Well, to set the record straight, I still think this is pretty bad. I found it a little boring at times, thought a lot of the journey was sort of handed to our hero (ie the sword, and the fact that Princess Eilonwy basically walks them both out of a prison at one point) and some of the dialogue is a bit tedious. But the film does have its merits as well, like the first time Disney animation tried out that early CG, making a lot of the backgrounds look pretty awesome. Along with that, this is very Bluth-like animation, though he had little to do with this, aside from a few uncredited scenes (he also worked uncredited on 'Fox and the Hound'). It is, honestly, pretty cool to see just how dark this gets, especially for a Disney film. Now, this film does have a pretty big cult following, as I mentioned before, and I can actually understand why. If you were to ask if I recommended it, I would say it depends on the type of thing you're looking for. If you wanna see a Disney animated movie as you know them, I'd say avoid it. But if you wanna see a bit of Disney dark, and appreciate the risks that a film like this can take, then I'd say it's worth checking out. What's far more interesting than the film itself is the film's overall history, but I could be here all day dissecting it, so here's a simple link (some of this, I covered, but there's more). For yours truly, it's not making a favourites list any time soon, and I definitely felt like the bad outweighed the good here. This is similar to so many other things I've seen that have just done it a little better, and I didn't exactly fall into the cult following with it. Although if you did, I can actually understand why, and wouldn't question your choice. 3/5
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