If Disney wants to remake animated films into live action films, why not remake the Black Cauldron? This film deserves a remake to fix all the problems from the story and characters. Now this could actually work. And make it better and try to find a perfect director and writer to make this live action remake way better.
Well they did buy the rights to the book series that the movie was based on and it is rumored that they are planning it to make them as live-action features akin to things like The Chronicles of Narnia or the Lord of the Rings so in a way it's possible that anyone who enjoyed this movie or enjoyed the book series The Chronicles of Prydain can get their wish to see these books given the justice that is deserved in a thematic film format
I actually would like to see a remake of it. Maybe flesh out the characters more, add more conflict, and hey I'd be interested to know what the Horned King would look like in real life.
joyunicycle you might be slightly disappointed in what he really is in the books but I guarantee you it would be awesome. seriously just Google horned King book image and see what he looks like as an illustrated book character then imagine that in real life
The characters have amazing development over the course of the book series - particularly Taran. My friends hate Taran beyond belief just from watching the movie, when in reality, disney didn't have the time to branch Taran as much as 5 books do, one of which is completely dedicated to his self discovery.
Bryant Wolford I do plan to read the books. And I know that aside from Disney changing the original stories that few movies ever are better than the books. I will look into it :)
The Horned King is one of the most interesting villains in Disney. I wish they can remake the film and stay true to the original book series that it was based on. Also, R.I.P. John Hurt.... You will be missed....
Gola245 I feel like Horned King is more or less a mashup of Horned King (the name) Aarwan (the actual evil ruler of Prydain) and Achren (Eilonwy's imprisonment.) I wanted a remake with John Hurt as Dallben, I thought it would've been cute to have him reprise a role.
I know he did, it was heartbreaking, i guess i was a little unclear with my comment of me wishing he could be in a remake. I had the same reaction when the author Lloyd Alexander had passed away about 10 years ago.
Fun fact: this was the very first Disney animated movie to be rated PG, and according to some of the behind the scenes stuff, it was very close to getting a R rating, resulting some of the scenes being cut to bring it to PG.
Also it's the first Disney movie to show the universally famous Disney logo of the Sleeping Beauty castle in a blue background with the "When you wish upon a star" fanfare. The second Disney movie filmed in Technirama wide-screen format (the first one being Sleeping Beauty)
Brenda Rivas the Walt Disney Pictures Logo was of 1985 to 2006... i prefer that logo over the current logo... For that logo for Sleeping Beauty castle that was the 30th anniversary of Disneyland
*If anyone has questions about The Black Cauldron I literally know almost everything about it* That being said, if you know the rules of how the cauldron think of this: The cauldron can only be powered and then stopped by the sacrifice of a living being, then why is the Horned King placing a dead skeleton in the cauldron to awaken it during the climax of the film? The reason is that what was originally going to happen in the scene was way too dark for a PG audience and therefore changed. When we first meet Fflewddur we are seeing him being tied up by a dumb guard, and this guard is never seen again in the film - but during an early trailer for the film he is introduced as a villain named Moose. Why would they put a character that has literally 15 seconds of screen time, as a key foe against our protagonists? My theory is that he was the original living sacrifice to the cauldron, because of his stupidity, and would've easily climbed into the cauldron per the Horned King's request.
The ages for Taran and Eilonwy are not disclosed in the series or film at all except for a vague approximation in the novels, and when you do some digging through interviews. Eilonwy was described initially as being 1 -2 years younger, but just as tall as Taran. During production the animators decided to make Taran around 14 and Eilonwy around 12. In the case of the novels, the author in an interview said the story begins when Taran is about 15-16 (Eil is 13-14) and ends when he's around 21 (Eil is 19). :)
My main gripe with The Black Cauldron as a film is it doesn't pay any homage to my mother country of Wales (sorry, I'm not sure how mamwlad would translate). The characters in The Black Cauldron don't keep the names from Stori Branwen, but their names either are Welsh or mimic it successfully. My heart breaks at how the pronunciations were butchered in the film and how the characters had English or American accents. I was also slightly irritated at how Mat pronounced "Prydain" (the Welsh word for Britain) as "Praedein" (an English interpretation would sound more like "pruh-dye-n"). Welsh is one of the oldest Indo-European languages and the oldest on the British isles so Prydain is actually the origin of the word, "Britain".
I'm personally a fan of this movie. I love Welsh mythology and even though they watered the movie down a lot (I wish they would of kept the gore and the mature themes) it would of been a better movie. If they can make Pirates I'm sure they could reboot this as a better film.
Cassius Jin Considering the time it was created, it was best to handle the themes a bit more delicately. Overall it was a good movie, I love it! I think if they redid it now they would really do great! I totally agree, they’ve made some dark stuff recently so it wouldn’t be a problem to make it more accurate to the boom 🖤
I agree that he's not that great a character either way, but you're missing the point of Taran. He's supposed to be a subversion of the old "Farmboy Fins his Calling as a Hero" trope. He *doesn't* become a hero - he does what he can throughout the film, but does indeed keep messing up, and the conclusion of his character arc is admitting he never *was* the hero and Gurgi was the truly heroic soul.
Kayley from Quest for Camelot is exactly like Taran. She dreams of becoming a knight like her deceased father, but throughout the movie she doesn't develop as a character, either; instead, she ends up being an incompetent and defenseless little lady who's constantly in trouble and somebody has to rescue her, unlike Garret who has better knight aptitudes than she does, in spite of his blindness. Kayley may have good intentions and great aspirations, but let's be real, she was never meant to be a knight.
I think it's sort of obvious why the care bears were more successful than this, The Black Cauldon was made around the time when violence and horror in children's entertainment was being shamed. It was most likely the over protective parents who gave this film such a bad name and instead took their children to see the Care Bears instead. Sad actually, I think it was both ahead and after it's time
@@jge8144 Probably. Also, An American Tail, while being a box-office hit, recieved mixed reviews. And that's funny because The Secret of NIMH was praised, despite being a dark movie, while An American Tail had a polarized reception (similar to Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Some critics loved it, but others thought that the movie was too depressing and dark for a children's film; even Roger Ebert pointed out that kids wouldn't care about the fact that Fievel and his family are Jewish, and thought it was the most depressing and downhearted movie since Return to Oz.
@@brendis16851 I have to see that movie through one day. I love The Great Mouse Detective and was a little bummed when I heard American Tale beat it at the box office.
Aren't we forget that Care Bears has a lot of villains being dark? Dang! Even the Horned King was the biggest influence to most vile villains in a saccharine show these days.
@@jge8144 The Great Mouse Detective, on the other hand, is a better movie than The Black Cauldron. It has some dark moments, yes, but the story and characters are very well written, not to mention the excellent voice acting.
alexis martinez Well Disney has bought the rights to the Chronicles of Prydain and it's rumored that they're planning on doing live action epics. The problem with this movie is they CRAMMED first two books, The Book of Three & The Black Cauldron, together which ended up being so average it's ok.
I thought that this movie was kinda ok. However, I blame Jeffrey Katzenberg for this movie's failure. He had the animators cut a LOT of the film, which really hurt the film, because it took away a lot vital character development. Now, had Katzenberg just let the animators do their jobs, I don't think that the film would have been as big of a success in the likes of something like say, Snow White or The Lion King, but, I do think it would been spared from bombing. And, furthermore, when Katzenberg left for Dreamworks, he gloated about this film's failure, even though the failure was HIS fault.
Movie Maniac Not only that, he also tried to take the credit when lion king turned out to be a big success, even though he had little to no involvement with its production!
I heard this movie was originally going to be Disney's first attempt at an R rating. However, one screw-up with the managing of a test audience resulted in the more explicit scenes to be removed.
@@MrGabeanator It's been said that Jeffrey Katzenberg tried to edit the film himself to remove the more intense scenes, until Micheal Eisner stoped him.
A highly underrated film! I really enjoyed it nonetheless. I actually had a video called "This is Halloween!" with a Horned King image in it. But I had to private it due to a copyright claim. Darn you RU-vid!
While this wasn’t Disney’s best movie but it has great animation and a scary, dark villain who look like a cross between Satan and the Grim Reaper, not to mention that demonic voice. Can you review the Good Times adaptation of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer by the way?
Honestly I loved the Black Cauldron, but I also feel there was so much potential that Disney missed out on with it. Hopefully it'll get the remake I feel it deserves.
Out of all the Disney movies that need a live action remake. *THIS IS ONE OF THEM* We just need a well written characters and keep the Horned King just as badass.
I mean, it's not GROUNDBREAKING, but it's not so bad that it deserves to be one of Disney's worst failures. I personally think it was a pretty unique Disney film for it's time. In the sense that it was sort of a novelty to see a Disney movie that was so dark at the time. However, movies like Hunchback and Zootopia are probably better go-to films in that category. Disney, I say give this film a second chance. Remake it, release it under the Touchstone banner and give it a hire rating, and finally give Tim Burton the reigns. Let him use his original concept art and give this his own spin. Or let any number of known fantasy directors work on this! Or...maybe rerelease it on Blu-Ray?
Full Voice Actor List Grant Bardsley: Taran - Susan Sheridan: Princess Eilonwy - John Byner: Gurgi, Multiple Males - Nigel Hawthorne: Fflewdurr Fflam - John Hurt: The Horned King - Freddie Jones: Dalben - Susan Blu: Hen Wen the Pig, Multiple Females - Arthur Malet: King Eidilleg - Phil Fondacaro: Creeper - Billie Hayes: Orgoch the Witch - Adele Malis-Morey: Orwen the Witch - Eda Reiss Merin: Orddu the Witch - John Houston: The Narrator - Peter Cullen: Multiple Males - Frank Welker: Multiple Males - Peter Reneday: Multiple Males - Corey Burton: Multiple Males - Joan Gerber: Multiple Females - Phil Nibbelink: Multiple Males - Linda Gary: Multiple Females - Clive Revill: Multiple Males
Animat's Classic Reviews 2017 rankings: #1 9.6 Road to El Dorado #2 9.6 Fantasia #3 tied 9.3 The Castle of Cagliostro #3 tied 9.3 Song of the Sea #4 9.3 Coraline #5 9.2 The Hunchback of Notre Dame #6 9.0 The Adventures of Prince Achmed #7 8.0 Pocahontas #8 8.0 Ice Age #9 7.7 Hercules #10 7.5 All Dogs Go To Heaven #11 6.7 Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear! #12 6.6 Antz #13 6.3 Rock & Rule #14 5.6 Black Cauldron #15 5.0 Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch #16 4.6 We’re Back! A Dinosaur Story #17 3.6 Surf's Up 2: WaveMania #18 2.7 Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer
What do you mean JUST A CASTLE, JUST A FOREST, JUST A CAVE? That's something I'm not understanding, cause they look well detailed and gritty, so I don't get where you're coming from.
Gotta disagree here. This is one of Disney's boldest movies. The story is loosely tied together but no less than others of it's time or genre. Taran does grow through the story learning about duty, self sacrifice and contentment. He gives up his cherished sword and therefore what he considers his best chance at being a great warrior. Gurgi goes from being an appetite-driven nuisance to dying for the sake of his new friends. Eilonwy is easily the strongest Disney female lead at the time. She takes charge and expects others to obey the way a real princess might. She also completely breaks away from the idea of a damsel in distress. She rescues a scared and defeated Taran from the dungeon of the Horned King. These characters are actually deeper than others of it's genre. Sword in the Stone, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, etc. really don't do much to develope their characters at all. They are completely one dimensional yet everyone praises these films even though they are mostly the same. Very few of those old characters learn anything or grow in any way. But they are beautifully animated and entertaining. The Black Cauldron gives you much more before the Disney rennaisance came along. There were many problems behind the scenes and in promoting the film. It was the first Disney animated film to use computer animation which cost more. It took longer to make than other Disney films. It was the first animated Disney movie to get a PG rating yet was still marketed to young kids, many of whom were too scared of the imagery of the Horned King and his army. The comparison to the Care Bears is really not fair. Of course parents of the early eighties took their kids to see Care Bears instead of the Black Cauldron. The Care Bears we're at the height of their fame and it was marketed at young kids with a G rating. My aunts took us to see the Care Bears movie. There was no way they were taking us to see The Black Cauldron. BTW the difference at the box office was only around a million dollars (21.9 million vs 22.3 million) domestically. The Black Cauldron did much better outside North America. I own the DVD along with many of the old classic Disney movies such as sleeping beauty, snow white, Bambi, and the fox and the hound but I watch the Black Cauldron far more often. Tried to show it to my niece, fiance and her daughter but it was still too scary.
Kieran Stark Sleeping Beauty wasn't bad in the least to me. Those stories are more simpler and reflect the time and audience at that current time. Doesn't make them bad. Dated, yes. Bad, no. Actually, Sleeping Beauty was the first Princess film to feature the whole "I don't want to marry X, I want to have a relationship with Y". Both Aurora and Philip want to be with "The peasant girl" and the "Stranger". Of course, neither of them know the others true identity but that isn't the point. Aurora likes The Stranger. Hell, she has met The Stranger. She knows him, not this Prince fellow her faries want her to marry. She has never met this Prince and doesn't even want to. Same goes with Philip. He developed a relationship with a commoner. He likes this commoner girl. He has never met this Princess chick. He wants nothing to do with some girl he has never met before. Both Philip and Aurora are interested in real people they have met and have come to know, not this far off person that their parents (and faries) insist on marrying. What makes this movie a happy ending isn't that the Princess and the Prince were married, but that the Peasant girl and The Stranger reunited with one another and were able to be happy with the person that they wanted to be.
Love this comment and I touroughtly agree with the parents at the time. That skeleton was the scariest shit I've ever seen when I was little. I remember my first nightmare was about him. Literally asked my mother what had just happened after I woke up crying and she told I wasn't going to be seeing that movie anymore. But I loved it!
I like this. Had it on vhs as a kid and despite it flaws its interesting to see disney to a fantasy movie rather than fairy tale. Also the horned king is one of the best disney characters ever made
I really enjoyed this movie as a kid. One thing I find so hilarious about this film (and still do today) is the fact that Tauran lives basically in the same "neighborhood" as the Horned King. There was no quest to venture for days to go and stop the Horned King like a villain in LOTR, instead the Horned King "just so happened" to be located next door to the farm. How convenient! So the Horned King can technically come knocking on your door demanding sugar for his undead gingerbread men whenever he feels like it, no need for a pair of guards or his dragons to escort him, he can literally just walk through them doors and sit at your table like "So THIS is where you live? Seems cozy."🤣🤣🤣🤣
Funny how this Chronicles of Prydain, let alone The Black Cauldron, is based in my home country, Wales. Albeit possibly North Wales, as opposed to South Wales, where I am from. I can tell by the names, which are proper Welsh. Plus, the name ‘Prydain’ is Welsh for ‘Britain’.
The animators copy pasted a huge chunk of the art work from other movies, disney and non-disney. The horned king seems least copy pasted. The main character copy pastes a lot from peter pan. The world art seems to be the most original, but some of the art work is just to work in the copy pasted characters. Almost all of them I found stolen animation frames and trace work even from older disney titles. The horned king wasn't even the original villain, All of his frames I couldn't find anywhere else, nothing lifted, it is too bad he was rushed and you do see some concept art frames slipped into the actual film in certain parts. The biggest plot twists is skimmed over and only stated by the villian and as soon as it is stated it is forgotten by both the movie and the fans and everyone seems to skim over. The "princess" is a lie, she is a hand maiden. This should have been the point when the hero goes all anti-hero in the movie complaining that she is a liar, a deceiver and their whole relationship is built on a lie. The movie started in the late 70's. The movie was in development hell for years and scrapped several times.
I keep forgetting the Black Cauldron existed. It was from a time when fantasy movies were still widely popular, but around the same time science-fiction was emerging with the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Alien films, ET and more, as well as horror films, so interest in fantasy was waning a bit in favor of sci-fi and horror. Also, music at the end that hints at the next review sounds familiar.
I used to love this Movie! To me it's a Shame this Movie didn't Turn out better as I like its Concepts and it's Villain as he reminds me of Mumm-Ra The Ever Living and a more Intimidating Skeletor.It's a shame it didn't do better....and from what i hear this movie had 30 minutes of Content Cut to make it Child Friendly
Thank you for giving credit to the witches! Last time I got to watch this, I found myself amazed by their designs, voice work, and animation. Kind of wish they had more screen time.
I remember watching this movie all the time on VHS when I was a real little kid. All the magic effects would be super bright in my room with all the lights off at night. One of the first films to really get me into fantasy, to be honest!
Kieran Stark first of all, you missed highlighting songs, in other words cats don't dance, quest for Camelot and brave little toaster are requests that are now sent by me
Kieran Stark right, although i sent them in a large list of requests about last year, this apparently will require patience (since this year what it got out from the hat what I requested was ice age, hey there it's yogi bear and this latest one so far)
7:52- He was a necessity in the Disney franchise- with the villain roster gradually getting goofier and more inept as the 60s and 70s went on, a completely macabre and grim character that lacked any of the traditional conventional bombast of previous villains, being an intimidating threat with a truly intimidating goal- which became the template of future Disney villains going forward- retaining the bombast and comedic charm while having an underlying deadly threat. Hopefully, Disney will once again aspire to create another villain like this, but they really need with their current standing. On a personal level, he's sort of a sinister menace that as the scenes with him drag on, you get something very omnious that becomes very apparent with his uncanny lich appearance and goals of a necromancer demi-god.
Believe me or not, but on my list, The Horned King is my third best voiced performance by John Hurt, right next to Hazel from 'Watership Down' and the Dragon from 'Merlin'.
This is unpopular opinion but I like this movie. I mean you considered it's Disney's most blade and forgotten movie next to Home on the Range. But the story based on original adaption is the saving grace to the movie. I also had the same feeling to The Emperor's New Groove which I thought it was forgotten as this but Disney sometimes kept the reminding New Groove to people who remembers that movie. There's one good thing about movie was saved, is the best villain it have. And now she all gets what she deserves never to be forgotten but Dark Horned never get that chance.
As a 7 year old watching this in the cinema I loved it. It holds a special place in my heart as my second animated fantasy movie. Bakshi's LOTR being the first!
I recall seeing this back in childhood when my dad rented it and all I can remember is The Horned King. Btw, should The Horned King be in Kingdom Hearts? imo he should.
This movie to me is FAR from boring! I get it that it's his opinion, but ever since I was a kid I always felt like this movie was a whole lot of fun for me and when he says to only watch it once, man, I've watched it so many times in my life ever since I was a kid because of how much I love this movie. I'm not even afraid to say that it is my eighth favorite Disney movie of all time. I never understood why it was the black sheep of Disney. People got weird opinions and maybe I do too. Lol
They're not the greatest characters, but I disagree with the idea of them being as simplistic as the video implies. Taran does indeed have an arc. He's aiming for heroism through combat and valor, and as Eilonwy and you both point out, it's usually the sword or luck. The culmination of his arc in the movie comes with my other point of contention: Gurgi and his sacrifice. How can you mention Gurgi, call him comic relief, and ignore his loneliness, cowardice, eventual loyalty and bravery, and his literal suicide because he thinks he's a burden and annoyance to everyone? Taran realizes that it's not glory or some magic sword that makes someone a hero, it's their decisions and convictions.
Even though I totally get why this movie leaves a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths, I still remember watching it a lot when I was a kid. Gurgi always annoyed me, but I think I just liked the dark tone the movie had. It interested me when I was younger and it made it stand out from other Disney movies.
While watching this review, and listening to your comments about the animation...I feel like I have a right to brag! This was my husband's uncle's first movie he worked on in the animation department. He was part of the xenography team through his career there, but he was not credited in this movie. He's been credited in everything until he retired after "Home On The Range." Bragging done! :P Anyone else have people they know that worked on Disney movies? Feel free to brag! :)
I enjoyed the movie when I recently watched the DVD. It is a shame that Katzenberg cut out those scenes which make it choppy. I liked the character design and the animation was very good considering those animators were all learning how to animate while working on this film. It served as a training vehicle for them and they went on to animate on movies like the Lion King,, etc. I miss hand drawn animation. The French made a good hand drawn animated film this year, "The Bid Bad Fox" and other barnyard tales which I really enjoyed.
the behind the scenes of this movie makes for a very nice documentary, because it almost destroyed Disney Animation, seriously the pre-production/production of this thing was a nightmare. And if this almost destroyed it "The Great Mouse Detective", saved it, so do a video about it please! :)
I can see this next film being Yo-Kai Watch: The Movie for one major reason. The way AniMat is saying the hint is in a similar vein to how Whisper checks up on his tablet to know the info of the Yo-Kai itself. While I don't care much on the games, but I have seen the series and the movie on Disney XD and thought it was decent.
I just saw The Star and Coco, here is my rating on both films: The Star: The Story: 3/10 The Animation: 5/10 The Characters: 4/10 Overall: 4/10 Coco: The Story: 7/10 The Animation: 10/10 The Characters: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 So, here are all the animated movie I have seen this year by far from my favorite to least favorite: 1. The Lego Batman Movie (9/10) 2. Coco (8/10) 3. Captain Underpants (8/10) 4. My Little Pony: The Movie (7/10) 5. Despicable Me 3 (7/10) 6. Cars 3 (7/10) 7. Leap! (6/10) 8. The Lego Ninjago Movie (6/10) 9. Smurfs: The Lost Village (5/10) 10. The Boss Baby (5/10) 11. Animal Crackers (5/10) 12. The Star (4/10) 13. Rock Dog (4/10) 14. The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (3/10) 15. Spark: A Space Tail (2/10) 16. The Emoji Movie (1/10) Yeah, 2017 has not been great for animated movies.
It's funny because since today's the official release of The Star, an animated Christian movie, I was just started watching another animated Christian movie on Netflix, which is The Prince of Egypt.
I've seen the movie once. Once. Lloyd Alexander's series deserved so much better, and sadly, we may not get to see another, improved adaptation (like, say, a miniseries) because this thing exists.
One of the best things in this movie has to be the music, which was done by Ghostbusters' composer, Elmer Bernstein. You can most definitely hear parts of the soundtrack that sound just like Ghostbusters as it came out one year before The Black Cauldron.
Just saw it, and I actually enjoyed it a lot more than expected. The visuals are some of the best I have seen in Disney animation. It's up there with Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty in sheer craftsmanship. I think the character of Taran was supposed to be a bit of a blank slate for people to put themselves into him (sort of like the tactic behind the Tintin comics). I see why they did it, though he could have been more heroic to give the kids someone to look up to or something.
Augh... It's Prih-Dain. 😖 I know I know, but the review itself is well put. Sorry. Also, I like how kindly you review everything. I discovered you recently and have been watching a few of your reviews. Thanks for these and keep it up!
I don't think Disney wants you to forget this movie at all, the only reason why it bombed is because it was too scary and dark for their audience. Personally, this is my absolute favorite Disney film. Disney tried something different with this and it's their most interesting story to date.
This is a movie I desperately want to associate with an 80s Nintendo game. It really screams 80s fantasy gaming and I think it’s definitely worthy of a video game....oh wait, I forgot that game is Zelda.
Uh...this movie came out before most Nintendo games. Nintendo copied the character designs from Disney (particularly Zelda). Look at Robin Hood and Peter Pan.
I think this film is unique amongst the Disney classics for being a dark fantasy "Because I love dark fantasy stuff". So I think everyone should remember this film rather then Home on the Range, Chicken Little, and The Wild.
The funniest things about this movie was that it came out in theatres in 1985, but it was commercial failure that Disney didn't even release it onto VHS until 1997. That's embarrassing.
1:06 That's it, that's all we need to see. That image just about sums up the story. "Look at how well crafted and amazing our movie's storytelling is and how far animation has c-" "It's fucking nothing."
You do make some valid points, but ironically, this movie is in my top five favorite Disney movies! It’s one that I revisit the most, especially during Halloween!
Anyone know what's the next Classic Review? I recognize the music from somewhere. Edit: The comments say it's Yo-Kai Watch: The Movie. Ugh, I hate Yo-Kai Watch.
