Revisionist History – The Black Cauldron

Features

Directed By: Ted Berman & Richard Rich

Notable Cast Members: Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, John Byner, Nigel Hawthorne, John Hurt, John Byner

Summary: Taran is a young man who’s life is turned upside down when he is given the task of protecting Hen Wen, a magical pig that knows the location of the mysterious black cauldron. Taran is in over his head, as The Evil Horned King will stop at nothing to get the cauldron. But with the help of a stubborn princess and a bothersome creature named Gurgi, Taran may yet prove to the hero he’s always wanted to be.

Initial Thoughts: This movie was released in 1985. I was seven and at the time this was the most amazing movie I’d ever seen. It was the first Disney movie to be rated PG and not have any annoying songs in it. It also had an army of spooky skeletons. It terrified and enthralled me. VHS had not quite taken off as a viable industry so I couldn’t just have the movie three months after seeing it in the theater like a kid could today. Instead I had a read along book on cassette that I listened to all the time. In fact The Black Cauldron was pretty much my favorite Disney movie ever.

Further Thoughts: Fast forward to 1998. I was now in college and I’d spent 18 years building up the greatness of this film in my head. Now Cauldron was finally being released for the very first time on VHS. My friends and I were ecstatic! I bought it the day it came out and we went straight home to watch it. It was mere minutes into the film when we all realized that this cartoon wasn’t half as good as we remembered. The story was slow, the dialog was stupid and all the characters were super annoying, especially the “cute” fury sidekick, Gurgi. Oh how that creatures voice grated on my like nails on chalkboard. In fact, the only part of the film that I still enjoyed was the super creepy army of skeletons at the end of the film. But it was agonizing getting there.

Illumination: It’s amazing what 18 years can do to change one’s perception of a movie. In one fell swoop The Black Cauldron went from being one of my favorite films to one of my least favorite. Looking back I wish I’d never seen it again so I could keep that idyllic memory of the film from my childhood in my head. Alas was not to be the case. Many films from my childhood survived as great films: The Goonies, Ghostbusters, Labyrinth. Sadly, The Black Cauldron was not one of them.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years