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I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I only vote it 6 because of it gave us The Horned King, who really blew me away! I got the chills every time he spoke. I dare even say every time he moved. As I point out in the headline, the movie had a lot of potential, but is badly underdeveloped. The main characters are boring, some of them even annoying and the world is not explored even though fantasy movies should. And the exact plot feels pointless and not fully explained. But over the time it has made up a loyal following and I am kind of fifty-fifty. I can see its flaws, but I find some later Disney films worse than this one. The Black Cauldron is clearly a stand-out in the Disney catalog in several ways. For once it is nice to see a non-musical effort from Disney. I can't tell if the movie would have been better with musical numbers, that is up to you to decide. In my opinion the musical score makes up for that, even though the overall story didn't match the grandeur of it. The fact that it was the first Disney-movie to receive a PG-rating really shows. The scenes with The Horned King are piercingly dark and scary, especially in the time leading up to the majestic climax. This is probably Disney's first take on the horror genre. I would really like to see Disney do more graphic movies in the style of this to this day.The thing which really butchers this movie is the voicework of the main characters. They are the most bland and boring characters in the entire Disney catalog and they lead the movie! John Hurt as the Horned King is the only one to make a solid performance. He is an awesome character, whose threatening appearance and thundering voice really cements that he is a powerful and mercyless tyrant you don't want to mess with! With that said I think that The Black Cauldron has some richly detailed and powerful animated scenes which still hold up to this day. The movie IS worth a watch, but you are warned about the backlashes of it.

For some reason my parents decided this would be a fun movie to let me watch when I was about 7 and home from school because I was sick. Between my fever and the evil skeleton dude I was thoroughly traumatized and had nightmares for weeks. Don't let your kids watch this sketchy movie. I literally made an account to review this because I hated it so much.

Seeing The Black Cauldron again in my 30's, and on DVD (albeit a blu-ray, or in full 70MM, would have been preferred), is a different experience than seeing it when I was 13 or 14 or whenever it was the movie first hit VHS (Disney didn't put it out when I was little, otherwise I would've seen it then). I recognize more references now - the little dog voiced by John Byner is clearly, whether it was from the book(s) or not, an homage/rip-off of Gollum (like the cuter/fluffier/Happy Meal version), and the feeling of Lord of the Rings permeates a lot here. So does the Dark Crystal. Perhaps a lot of fantasy stories feed from the same trough as Tolkien, or it goes back further (from what I've read these books are inspired by Welsh folktales or something like that), and so familiarity is inevitable. Watching it now though, as opposed to when I had less discerning taste, I wish this had a stronger story and was not cut off at the knees as an 80 minute tale (with credits).Maybe Katzenberg was right when he literally took the reels of film, which was unheard of at the time for an animated feature at Disney, and cut into it to remove however many minutes (from what I read it was between 10 and 15 minutes, as though this would make the film more palatable for audiences, though allegedly some of the cuts were to reduce it from a PG-13 or, as one might want to believe the "street cred" of this, an R). What I have is what's before me, and The Black Cauldron is a style over substance piece of fantasy cinema. It's fitting that it's the first (and since, the last) time since Sleeping Beauty that was released on 70MM, the prestige film format, since it is a spectacle to behold and full of the kind of widescreen dark sorcery that a full widescreen gives a story like that or this.It's interesting for me to see the star rating I give this and then for Sleeping Beauty as they're almost the same, but it's about expectations: SB has one of the highest pedigrees in all of Disney, so to see it and be a little let down is where that comes from. With Black Cauldron, this is one of the most ambitious films of the 1980's, animated or otherwise. The filmmakers here (the directors previously had a small success with The Fox and the Hound, the last of the "9 Old Men" animated films at Disney) are shooting for something grander and more serious-minded, at least in some spirit, than their other films; it's the first time that there are no songs to be heard (though one was animated it was cut before release); there's animation of skeletons rising from the dead, the "Cauldron Borne", that likely inspired scenes in Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness. It aims to have the scope of its spiritual influence of Lord of the Rings in its layouts and some of its character designs.But, at the end of the day, it's still a Walt Disney animated film, and it is in an uneasy area. Reading the history of how this got made is fascinating in that the connections to its production extend to Ralph Bakshi (who turned it down) and Don Bluth who was at Disney through some of its development but left the company before it really ramped up as its 25th production. By the time Black Cauldron hit theaters in the summer of 1985, it was three years after Bluth made his breakthrough with Secret of NIMH, which is a "family" film but dark as hell and maintains its tone. The animators and story people and producers of Black Cauldron can't keep a consistent tone, and that's a tricky thing to manage. Hell, Disney just barely was able to maintain it on a razor's edge with Snow White, and here the problem is that the main characters (the young man on his quest, the princess of wherever who joins up with him midway through) are really dull and not given much personality.So mostly what you're left with are some charming animated scenes, but sparingly (the little fairy characters or whoever they are are nice to see, but are a little familiar too), and then a lot of (for kids) dark stuff involving the Horn King (voiced brilliantly by John Hurt) and a character like the talking dog. Its plot is so thin, and I'm not sure if this is due to the many years of it being in production, that it was in a sort of odd slump of the end of that age of Disney animation of those left from those later days of Disney, and right as the new group would come in (I saw Don Hahn in the credits as production manager, and he'd go on to be involved/produce/direct the 90s animated films). And yet, and it's a big yet, I love the LOOK of this film (with a couple of small reservations, i.e. some character animation seeming to be too pencil-drawn like it's still Sword in the Stone, but whatever).This has a ridiculous budget, a lot of imagination in its design, and the money seems to be mostly up there on the screen. The ambition to translate an (sort of, maybe not) unique world from those books to screen is commendable, and near the end the filmmakers do try to make some emotional stakes matter with one character. The Black Cauldron is a miss, but it's a wonderful miss, and I'm glad it got finished in some form, despite its script issues and hit or miss voicework.

The 80s is known for its dark films. And even Disney films of the time are no exception. Their art style is muted, using heavy shadows, stark contrasts and swaying away from the cartoony colours. Their story lines are rather adult and depressing. Well, in comparison at least. And the crowning achievement of this is none other than The Black Cauldron, the most peculiar of the Disney canon films.At the time Disney Animation Studios were not doing so well. In fact the company was seriously considering closing them down and focusing solely on theme parks and merchandise. This movie was originally meant to change that course, but it almost ended up being the sole thing to ruin the whole studio. It wanted to take Disney to a whole different direction, picking as its source material a dark fantasy novel and staying very faithful to its tone, earning the PG rating.And yes, before you ask, the pig is in the book as well. Disney didn't add that to give the movie a mascot. Gurgi is in the book as well. I'm never reading that book, no matter how much you'd pay me.So what went wrong? Well, what didn't. The Black Cauldron is a mess. It was a major flop upon its release, and I can definitely see why. It has since garnered a cult following, but the fact still remains that it simply isn't a Disney film. Families went in expecting a typical Disney experience with fairytale stories, kid friendly messages and all around merriment. Instead they were treated to a medieval fantasy story leaning heavily towards dark and horror.But, that could be forgiven. I actually somewhat like the idea in principle. Great heroics, one scary villain, myths and legends, sword and sorcery, all done by one of the greatest animation studios on Earth. What's not to like? How about the fact that the main character is an unlikable, lazy jerk, the side characters have no, you know, character, the plot wanders around worse than a drunken minstrel, the end twist is unimaginably disappointing, the MacGuffin pig is ludicrous, the villain while certainly scary has no charisma or presence beyond looking like the devil and as a whole I'm simply not feeling the epicness. It's clear Disney had never done anything like this, and had no idea how to adapt to a different kind of storytelling tone. A dark fantasy story differs greatly from fairy tales, though they both certainly utilize the same character tropes and source materials. But whereas fairy tales are about morals and simple lessons about good and evil, dark fantasy is more about the struggle against eternal darkness, the meaning of hope in the midst of despair and about guts and glory. I don't get that from The Black Cauldron.The movie has its upsides, definitely. It looks great, the villain is certainly the scariest Disney has ever done and about one third of the story is actually pretty captivating. But it has flaws, many many flaws. Not my personal favourite, but you should still check it out to see if it speaks to you.