Wow.

I never realized that "The Black Cauldron" had such haters!

The basics of the movie: Taran, an assistant pig-keeper, learns that the pig he's caring for has a secret - she's a magic pig that can see things like an oracle! However, the evil Horned King would do anything to have her to find the most evil item ever made: The Black Cauldron (hence the name of the movie). After losing Hen Wen the pig, Taran goes on a series of adventures and meets several new friends that help him on his way to save the world from eternal darkness.

Gah . . . I make the movie sound better than what it really is . . .

I do have a couple of cons about this film, but let's stick to the pros for a moment.

PROS:
- Wonderful character design and special effects (yes, I feel it was worth the 12 years to make . . . and yes, most of the characters do remind me of characters from "Adventures of the Gummi Bears" . . . more especially Princess Eilonwy and Taran for Cavin and Princess Calla - I love Gummi Bears too . . . but I digress.)
- Did I mention the special effects? (Gah, that was the best part of the movie!)

CONS:
- Crap story (yeah, yeah - we've all read this story before: boy longs to be a hero, boy becomes a hero, boy changes his mind about being a hero, boy still gets the girl in the end. Boooooooring.)
- Annoying Characters (mainly Gurgi and Eilonwy . . . Seriously, Eilonwy is so bad, she didn't even make it into the Disney Princess line! And although throughout the beginning and middle of the film Gurgi is one of those annoying characters, he truly becomes the real hero due to his self-sacrifice)
- Horned King = Worst Disney Villain ever . . . Hands down (if you don't believe me, I'd like to see you name one Disney villain that's worse than him! I dare you!)

Other than that, I liked the film. It had a slow start, but for Disney's first PG rated animated film, it felt more like a total G to me. It was still good though.

Three stars.

I disagree that is this film is in the Top Worst 5's,and I was shocked and surprised by the negative reviews; I thought this film was AWESOME!and I have also read the "Chronicles of Prydain" book series too (from which this film is based on; which was book #2 with the same title).

I love Princess Eilonwy, she is beautiful and cute as button and a brave little lady, and her kiss with Taran at the end knocked me for a loop (*sigh* you know, she and Taran do make a cute couple in my books),and I also love Gurgi, he is SO cute (and talks funny too); so this film film is an Awesome Disney Fantasy.

I found my old VHS copy of this today and watched it just for the heck of it. I heard very poor reviews about it and I'm sorry to say that most of the poor reviews are very true. It's a combination of poor editing and storytelling caused by the interference of a certain person *COUGH*Jeffery Katzenberg *COUGH*

I will say now, that I have not read the books that this movie is based on so I cannot judge it from that perspective.

The story, in my opinion, has a ton of potential near the beginning, it starts out nice enough. Then we meet Gurgi (who seems to be a forerunner of Jar Jar Binks...) and get into the Horned Kings castle and the whole thing falls apart.

The story and characters have about as much depth as an 80s Saturday morning cartoon and the Horned King distinctly reminds me of Skeletor from He-Man or Thundercats or whatever the hell he's from.
I REALLY wish they had kept Tim Burton's realization of the Horned King.

And what the heck is with the little fairy guys? The king literally reminded me of Papa Smurf...

The animation, while pretty sloppy at parts for a Disney film, is the films strong point.
It holds up fairly well when the characters are sitting around talking but the action scenes, to me, seemed sloppy.

The only scene that I really enjoyed in the whole film was the scene with the three witches which featured some nice animation.

The characters that I thought had the best animation were probably Dallben (Tarans mentor), Fflewder Fflam (The minstrel), Hen Wen the pig, and the 3 witches.

The other characters were animated fine but those, to me, stood out.

So, all in all, I cannot recommend the Black Cauldron. It's a pity, they spent twelve years on this thing and put so much time into it that it turned out so... blah.

Ugh! Negative 4,000,000 stars! This was a horrid and ghastly film I took NO pleasure in watching! I can't say much, most of it has already been said. Besides, there is nothing much to say.

Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck Yuck

times infinity!

I was very shocked when I found out that THIS was a Disney film. All my young life my parents somehow protected me from it, until years later as a teenager, I stumbled across it on the Disney channel one evening. And oh how I regret it...

Many reviews have already stated the same thing over and over again. The characters are weak and the story is equally weak as well. But what bothered me most was the animation. It was just ghastly to look at. So murky and dirty for a film produced a little more than 20 years ago. The fog/mist effects were ugly beyond imagination, and none of the characters were very nice to look at.

Overall, this film deserves to remain unknown or better yet, hidden in the same black cauldron the whole thing revolves around.

I watched this movie just out of sheer curiosity. I had heard how it was so horrible and it is just a big waste of time. Well, I watched the movie and became very surprised when it was over. It actually...wasn't that bad.

I really don't think this movie is as bad as its reputation. Its just not everyones cup of tea is all, so you are either gonna love it or hate it. I didn't think this movie was great, of course, but I was pretty entertained. The good side is that it had some charming scenes and the animation is spot on. On the bad side the main characters, though likeable, seem a bit one dimensional, and fans of the books will not enjoy it.

It was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Tons of things I liked and likewise for the things I wasn't too crazy about. Will NEVER be in Disneys classic movies, but in my opinion, not quite the bottom of the barrel either.

On July 24, 1985, Disney released their most unusual animated feature. Based on The Chronicles of Preydain by Lloyd Alexander, The Black Cauldron features a dark story (so much so that it was given a PG rating, a Disney first!), no songs and some impressive animation.

Our hero, Taran, a teenage pig-keeper discovers one of his pigs, Henwen, is a prophetic pig who reveals the location of a powerful weapon known as the Black Cauldron. But adventure soon follows as Taran must prevent the Black Cauldron from falling into the hands of The Horned King who wants to use its black magic to raise an army of the undead!

This movie was shot in 70mm widescreen format, unusual for Disney, which gives it a real treat to look at as the backgrounds and sets are more elaborate as a result. Note: This is one of Tim Burton's early animation gigs.

The Black Cauldron did quite poor in the box office. Too scary for kids, too different for Disney fans and too unfaithful to the book for fantasy fans this film is one of the least known Disney films.

I would recommend checking it out for the art. It does have some of the best art that Disney pulled out in the 80s. Too bad they couldn't figure out that cute characters don't work in a dark fantasy adventure.

I first saw this movie in the theatre back in 1985, and have always remembered how "cool" it was. Watching it now I can't really remember what specifically was so cool about it though. While I doubt anyone would praise this as a great movie, it certainly does have some good parts. And I suppose to a kid, plot and character development are less important than cool designs and action. The Black Cauldron was Disney's attempt at something different. Unfortunately is was a bust. Sandwiched between the forgettable The Fox and the Hound and The Great Mouse Detective, Cauldron's take of about $21 was only half of either of those other two box office disappointments.

The story begins with our hero Taran, a pig-keeper, given the task of hiding a magical pig Henwen who holds the key to finding the titular cauldron. Now this isn't your typical pot for feeding large parties, this cauldron allows its owner to command an army of the dead. Unfortunately, that is just what the evil Horned King hopes to do. Now, if I were Taran, rather than hiding the pig, I would just kill him. Thus the secret would be safe and I would have me some delicious bacon. But, Taran decides differently and begins a quest in which he meets up with (you guessed it) a princess, an old man, and a wired furry creature. He also finds a magical sword that allows him to become a pretty decent warrior. But where is the Han Solo type? Maybe he is the pig?

Since this is Disney, you can count on a happy ending. But unlike most Disney movies, there are no songs, and this is also a bit more intense than usual, scoring Disney Animated's first PG rating. Although The Black Cauldron did not meet box office expectations, it certainly isn't the embarrassment that Disney has made it out to be (at one point Disney vowed not to release this film on video). For one, the horned king is one bad dude and one cool visual. Also, the furry little Gurgi is a neat little guy,although he reminds me a lot of Glomer from the animated Punky Brewster (please tell me I'm not the only one that remembers that show). Even Rotten Tomatoes certifies this movies as fresh, but just barely with a 60 fresh rating. Still, if you haven't seen it, its worth checking out, and while it may not be your favorite, i bet you won't hate it neither. And kids will always remember that it was cool, even if they can't explain why. Overall, Cauldron scores a C+.

How would you like to spend 12 years making a film? How would you like to spend 12 years making one of Disney's worst films? I really have to feel sorry for whoever was involved in creating this piece, because ultimately, and very quickly, it was a known failure(that took over a decade to ruin.) The entire movie feels like it was made with chin scratching uncertainty, and every other scene is self-conflicting, and sometimes even out of place. It really felt(but it certainly didn't look) like a Saturday morning cartoon stretched to 80 or so minutes. As much as I couln't help but like Taran, with his rather wobbly personality(a *live* man made wobbliness) he appeared physically thicker than most scrawny heros in other Disney films of the same age *compare to Wart from Sword in the Stone or Mowgli from Jungle Book* but it could have been a trick of lighting or angle.

Now I gave a small list of cons, or semi-cons. Is there a pro? Of course, the animation and use of some real-life footage and techniques can't be ignored. And during so, we clearly see that this isn't a normal Disney film. Fluff and happy songs don't exist, only violence and darkness. An interesting change right? Perhaps...if it were pulled off decently. I mean, the movie FELT like it took twelve years to create. Only the main characters are halfway likable. Because of their appearence and status, you WANT to like them...but you'd have to do a pretty good job of convincing yourself of that. And now that I've reached the end of this little summery, I must at least mention the end of the movie. *Ack!* man, just thinking about it makes me wonder, "What the heck? Wait...did that just happen? Now what?--oh...it's the end...the end?" There was potential in certain strains of the scenes that you hoped the movie would follow, but a 180 degree turn was taken on every oppotunity to make the storytelling, and the characters better, and even superior to previous disney films. In my worthless opinion, if it was going to look this bad on screen, I think they should have taken those twelve years writing and drawing the storyboard alone, before touching any key frames.

I started watching this, got about 20-30 minutes in, and then turned it off. It's Disney's worst in my opinion. It's not worth even renting.