SummaryFantasy, magic, and fun are all brewed together in Disney's legendary adventure The Black Cauldron. Whoever releases the mysterious Black Cauldron's power will be invincible. The fearsome Horned King will do anything to possess it, but he is challenged by the most unlikely adversary: a young assistant pig keeper named Taran, who dreams of doing h... Read More
Directed By:Ted Berman, Richard Rich
The Black Cauldron
Metascore
Mixed or Average
59
User score
Mixed or Average
5.8
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
50% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
44% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
90
The new boys know how to create wonderful transformations in a character's expression with a deft stroke or two, and they have mastered the deliciously parodistic plasticity required by the movements of their ever twisting-turning-tumbling creatures. Their pastoral scenes still glow with the old Disney sweetness, and the ones of foreboding glower with the old relish for the grotesque. They satisfy an older viewer's nostalgic feeling for his childhood's delight while fulfilling the younger crowd's need for a kind of magic the movies too rarely even try to provide of late. It is never too early to learn that animation is still the best special effect.
75
Despite its drawbacks as entertainment, it remains one of the best technical cartoon features ever produced by Disney.
User score
Mixed or Average
42% Positive
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
42% Mixed
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
15% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
Apr 30, 2019
9
Legend has it, in the mystic land of Prydain, there is once a king so cruel and so evil, that even the Gods feared him. Since no prison could hold him, he was thrown alive into a crucible of molten iron. There his demonic spirit was captured in the form ****, Black Cauldron. For uncounted centuries, the Black Cauldron lay hidden, waiting, while evil men searched for it, knowing whoever possessed it would have the power to resurrect an army of deathless warriors... and with them, rule the world... The Black Cauldron is well known to be a box office failure as for as Disney's concern. The only thing I have it is that I hate box office failures, it's just not good as a movie even for Disney. On the bright side it gained a cult following and it's good to see people really liking the movies that are box office bombs that gained cult followings. My friends really loves this movie because years ago my best friend Liam Fleming heard me quoting the lines when I was in the front of the taxi. He heard me quoting: I shall send of your **** deed.
I'm Fflewddur Fflam, minstrel of minstrels! Balladeer to the grandest courts in all the land!
And I, uh, eh? Eh, well, have you forgotten? I have sung in some of the finest courts...
Well, I'm only waiting for an invitation.
Oh, shush. Why do you have to judge every word I say?
(gasps) (whispers) What's that? (screams) HHHHHEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPP!!! Me and my two friends joined in and we both have fun together. Jacob Dimmock recorded me quoting what Fflewddur fflam says. Too bad the characters are bland and forgettable even Taran who looks like Wart from The Sword in the Stone. But The Horned King is so horrifying and he's voiced by John Hurt. Nothing too bad about The Black Cauldron, it's just forgettable.
70
Technically brilliant though short on narrative, The Black Cauldron is a painless, old-fashioned way to take out the kids, and a triumph for the animation department at the Disney studio, where it has been in development for almost a dozen years.
60
If you care about animation as an art form, it is impossible not to be thrilled by Disney's "The Black Cauldron." [27 July 1985, p.1]
50
As usual it is technically excellent, but the charm, characterisation and sheer good humour that made features like Pinocchio and Jungle Book so enjoyable are sadly absent.
40
By any hard measure, the $25 million animated Cauldron is not very original. The characters, though cute and cuddly and sweet and mean and ugly and simply awful, don't really have much to do that would remain of interest to any but the youngest minds.
38
In the end the taste of the brew is inferior to the bouquet, and while it's true that the cauldron is a splendiferous container, the dregs at the bottom are bitter. How 12 years and $25- million could be lavished on a movie with narrative holes big enough to swallow the film's major creation, a prophetic pig, is a conundrum that must have Uncle Walt spinning in his cryogenic crypt: this is a movie that knows how to do everything but tell a story. [26 July 1985]
Jun 13, 2021
7
Con razón fue tan mal recibida en su época, es demasiado oscura y turbia para ser una película de Disney, no me extrañaría que les haya provocado pesadillas a los niños en aquel entonces. No es mala como dicen, pero está lejos de ser memorable por cosas positivas, la historia y los personajes son bastante olvidables, el villano, aunque tenebroso y siniestro, también es olvidable, aún así es pasable, las hay peores.
Sep 14, 2024
6
A notorious relic from Disney's back catalog that was censored and shunned internally for years due to its "distressing" content. In a modern light, it's tough to see what all the fuss was about. A few marching skeletons? A bit of swordplay? It all seems so quaint now, with the benefit of hindsight on our side. Not that the film should be mentioned in the same breath as the studio's calling cards, of course. The Black Cauldron Is short, shallow and more than a little murky, with a distinct lack of Disney charm, but it still has a lot going for it. The animation, for instance, is superb; a great blend of photo-reference and stylish exaggeration that looks and feels like a Don Bluth classic (though Bluth himself, having departed six years prior, was uninvolved with the production). It also enjoys a much more loyal fantasy tone than many of Disney's efforts, sharing many themes (and maybe a few characters) with the then-neglected Lord of the Rings trilogy. Fascinating for many reasons, most of which happened behind the scenes, it's too narrow-sighted and streamlined to be taken all that seriously.
Jan 24, 2025
3
O Caldeirão Mágico é um filme que tinha tudo para ser um marco, mas foi sabotado por um roteiro fraco, personagens mal desenvolvidos e uma execução inconsistente. Apesar de seus méritos visuais e sonoros, ele falha em criar uma narrativa cativante ou um impacto emocional duradouro. Com uma nota de 4/10, considero o filme fraco e uma das obras mais esquecíveis da Disney. É um exemplo clássico de como ambição sem direção pode resultar em um produto frustrante.
Jul 20, 2019
3
This could have been so much better, but it was badly executed, poorly constructed and tonally inconsistent.
Production Company:
- Walt Disney Pictures
- Silver Screen Partners II
- Walt Disney Animation Studios
Release Date:Jul 24, 1985
Duration:1 h 20 m
Rating:PG
Tagline:Seven years in the making - In the celebrated Disney tradition comes our 25th animated motion picture.
