The Black Cauldron

Released: July 1985

Directors: Ted Berman, Richard Rich

Rated PG

Run Time: 90 Minutes

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Genre: Animation/Fantasy

Cast:
Grant Bardsley: Taran
Susan Sheridan: Eilonwy
Freddie Jones: Dallben
Nigel Hawthorne: Fflewddur Fflam
John Byner: Gurgi/Doli
John Hurt: The Horned King

Most of Disney’s animated films from the 1930s all the up until today have been mostly successful with amazing stories, animation and fantastic music.  Disney essentially had a “monopoly” on the animation aspect of film making.  Believe it or not, there was a period in which some of Disney’s movies were not particularly successful.  This also includes some of their live-action films.  From 1979 until 1989, Disney suffered a number of setbacks with some of their movies.  The Fox and the Hound was met with a simple…meh from both critics and audiences, Oliver and Company was panned by many critics despite a strong box-office showing.  Some of their live-action films including Dragonslayer were not well-received, but gained a following on home video.  A good number of these films were fairly dark in tone.  There was one animated film that was very dark and damn near bankrupted Disney’s animation studio: The Black Cauldron.

Based on The Prydain Chronicles by author Lloyd Alexander, The Black Cauldron follows young Taran as he dreams of becoming a great hero and warrior.  One day, while attending to his duties as a pig-keeper, the sow Hen Wen begins acting strangely.  Taking the pig to Dallben, who manages to get Hen Wen to show them her visions of a mysterious black cauldron and the evil Horned King who seeks the cauldron to destroy the world.  Afraid for the pig’s safety, Dallben sends Taran and the pig to a cottage at the edge of a forbidden forest.  After meeting some interesting characters along the way, Taran inevitably runs afoul of the demonic Horned King.  The story is actually rather interesting that is centered around a cauldron that is essentially the source of evil in the land of Prydain.  Sure, it’s pretty the standard Hero’s Journey that you see in so many adventure films, but this film has a far more gothic element to it that makes it unique.

The tone of The Black Cauldron is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness.  It’s great because it doesn’t really pull punches when it comes to the visuals.  This is a visually stunning film.  There’s a lot of fantastic animation involved here.  The character designs are pretty stellar across the board, including the Horned King himself.  On the other hand, a lot of the visuals in this film can be very frightening to younger children, hence the PG rating.  The skeletons and the Gothic overtones of the film can be very disturbing.  The Horned King himself is a very terrifying character in his own right.  He desires the cauldron to summon an army of the dead so he can rule the world.  That’s not exactly the kind of film you really want to be showing your kids at an early age.  The imagery is haunting.  This would be great to show at Halloween, though.

Let’s talk about the characters.  Like I said before, all the characters have their own unique designs and personalities.  Taran as a character, though, is rather bland and absent-minded.  As a result, his character ends up in more trouble than he needs to be in if he would just pay attention instead of day-dreaming.  Then again, I guess that’s kind of the point.  Gurgi is this little furry man-beast that shows up and steals an apple from Taran.  If there was a character that was almost annoying as Jar Jar Binks, Gurgi would be it.  He’s a thief and a coward.  He also has this really irritating voice that just won’t go away.  The princess Eilonwy shows up out of nowhere and inadvertently saves Taran’s neck.  She’s not exactly a damsel in distress, though, so she’s got that going for her.  On the villain-side, we have these three witches who were apparently the original owners of the black cauldron, but they’ve been relegated to turning people into toads and eating them.  The Horned King is one of the most visually freaky villains that Disney has ever created.  That being said, he’s not exactly the most competent villain in Disney’s library.  Like many Disney villains, he surrounds himself with incompetent fools.  The characters are uniquely designed, but they’re not particularly well-written.

While the characters themselves may not be the best written, the performances by the voice actors is nothing short of fantastic.  The real standouts in the film are Freddie Jones as Dallben, who is Taran’s mentor and the late John Hurt as the Horned King.  John Hurt makes the character positively frightening, as delivers a very menacing voice to the goings-on.  Freddie Jones does pretty well as Dallben.  Everyone else is pretty standard fare, though.

It’s not hard to see why this movie wasn’t a hit at the box office.  It’s a little too scary for the audience it was aiming for, namely little kids.  It was not received well by critics or fans.  The author of the Prydain Chronicles himself said the film doesn’t bare any resemblance to his books whatsoever, which is a very damning accusation.  The film cost a whopping 44 million dollars to make, which made it the most expensive movie at that particular time and it nearly bankrupted Disney’s animation studio.  It was so poorly received that it didn’t even receive a home video release for about a decade.  That’s how embarrassed Disney was with The Black Cauldron.  Is it really that bad of a movie, though?  I don’t think so.  It surely has its problems as I mentioned above, but it still some really good things going for it.  The animation and artwork is simply stunning, and the music by Elmer Bernstein was phenomenal.  I can’t say that I would give the film my full-blown recommendation, but it’s a really interesting look at one of Disney’s darker pictures.  It is surprisingly entertaining.  It’s worth renting, that much I will say.

Final Score: 7/10.

Possible Bombs of 2017

The past 17 years have seen their fair share of cinematic misfires.  Movies like The Room, Daredevil, Gods of Egypt, and Jupiter Ascending have all been massive failures on nearly every level.  That’s not to say that every movie that failed at the box office was a bad movie.  Far from it.  Either nobody knows these movies existed or people simply weren’t interested.  This past January has seen multiple releases including a new Underworld, xXx, and Resident Evil.  January is not the best time to release a movie.  That being said, I’m going to be looking at upcoming movies that could possibly bomb at the box office.  Again, this is not necessarily indicative of the film’s quality, but whether or not it attracts enough attention.  I’m going to be discussing the more mainstream films that are going to be wide-releases, not the smaller movies, because those can be kind of niche and have their own audience.  So…let’s jump into it, shall we?

Fifty Shades Darker

How the original film, Fifty Shades of Grey, made as much money as it did, is beyond my capacity to understand.  It was a dreadful film in nearly every aspect, from the acting to the sex and overall story.  The new one, Fifty Shades Darker is set to pick up where the last film left off.  I won’t describe the story because, what’s the point?  Most people who go to movies like this aren’t going to be seeing the film for the story, but rather, the….naughty bits.  Considering that the original material of the Fifty Shades stories are nothing more than Twilight fan-fiction, I don’t understand how people can think that these are good movies.  I could be wrong, and it could do well at the box office.  I don’t see it happening though, because the original film was slammed by EVERYONE.  It wasn’t even THAT provocative.  Apparently the book was much more….descriptive.  I haven’t read the book, so don’t take my word for it.

The Great Wall

I don’t think there’s any real doubt about how this one’s going to turn out.  This one’s going to fail.  Big time.  From my perspective, it does look interesting and anything to do with China or China’s history/mythology is going to grab my attention.  However, if you understand the actual history behind The Great Wall of China, this movie is going to come across as very…WTF?  I really do like Matt Damon, as he is an incredibly likable and competent actor, but I don’t really see a purpose for him being in a movie like this.  I know for sure that Matt Damon’s character is somehow going to end up being the hero at the end of the day, and it just doesn’t make any kind of sense.  This movie has got Gods of Egypt-style failure written all over it.

Kong: Skull Island

This is one that could go either way.  We haven’t had a King Kong movie since Peter Jackson’s attempt at remaking the original 1933 creature feature.  It looks very, very cool and it’s got some really top-notch actors including Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman, John C. Reilly and Samuel L. Jackson.  From a visual standpoint, this movie looks amazing.  I’m actually digging the story behind this one.   Peter Jackson’s film ended up being TOO long at 3 hours and some of the visual effects were not particularly good.  Also, it starred Jack Black and I was not and still not a fan of that guy.  I’m not entirely sure this one’s really going to connect with people.

Power Rangers

While this one ended up being on my most anticipated list of 2017, it’s also got the potential to be one of the biggest bombs of the year.  I hope it doesn’t bomb, because I really like what I see.  It’s a little bit grittier than the original show, but it looks like it’s going to have that camp factor built in.  Besides, we’ve got Bryan Cranston as Zordon.  As a fan of the original show, I’m glad they decided to go with the original characters of Jason, Kimberly, Trini, Billy, and Zack.  Rita Repulsa’s look is actually pretty damn cool.  The Zords look awesome as well.  This one could go either way, but I really hope it will succeed.

Smurfs: The Lost Village

I’m genuinely surprised that someone’s actually attempting to do ANOTHER Smurfs movie.  The last two movies were absolutely abysmal in nearly every aspect.  That being said, I’m glad that they’re just going with straight-up animation instead of combining it with live-action.  It looks decent enough, and I’ll still check it out, but I think most people are going to avoid this one like the plague.  I don’t blame them, either.  They got burned twice before.  This is the kind of film that they should have been going for from the beginning.  This is not going to succeed at all.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

This is another one that ended up being one of my most anticipated movies for this year.  It looks fun and it could be pretty damned epic.  However, it does have that Lord of the Rings-ish vibe about it that may not sit well with a lot of people.   Not to mention that the last movie about King Arthur wasn’t particularly well-received by either critics or audiences.  I’m definitely going to go see this one, but I have this sneaky suspicion that most people are just going to pass it by in favor of the more popular comic-book movies.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

You know, I have to wonder how long this series is going to continue.  I know that Johnny Depp loves playing Captain Jack Sparrow, and I enjoy watching him play the character, but the last couple of movies have not been good.  On Stranger Tides was just…bizarre, with mermaids, Captain Blackbeard, and the Fountain of Youth.  It was just not that good.  It also ended up being a domestic flop because it didn’t even make back the 250 million dollar budget.  Sure, it ended up bringing home the money from international viewings, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that the film was a domestic bomb.  I don’t see Pirates 5(name’s too long) being any better.  Some franchises I have no problems with continuing.  Pirates is one that just needs to end.  I might skip the theatrical run for this one.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

It’s not very often that you see a movie that basically has “Box Office Flop” written all over it.  While the other movies that I have mentioned in this post may or may not be flops, I’m pretty damn sure this one will be.  Visually, it looks stunning.  It’s got a lot of originality to it.  However, so did Jupiter Ascending, and we all know how that one turned out.  This looks like Luc Besson’s attempt at making something grand and epic, only to see it fall flat on its face.  I can almost guarantee you that it will.  Apparently the film is based on a French comic-book series that nobody’s heard of, so I don’t see how people are going to connect with this.  This is going to be an absolute train-wreck.

These are the movies that I think may bomb the hardest.  I’m not entirely sure on some of them.  The others though, I’m dead certain will be failures, financially anyway.

 

 

Preview: Beauty and the Beast(2017)

As someone who grew up during the 80s and 90s, I got exposed to a lot of Disney movies.  Among the first that I’ve ever watched were Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations, Fox and the Hound, The Lion King, and Aladdin.  But there was one movie that really grabbed my attention and that I absolutely loved above all others:  Beauty and the Beast.  I reviewed this movie yesterday and gave it a perfect 10/10.  I called it a perfect movie, because for my money, it truly is perfect.  The animation was stunning, the writing was snappy and sharp, the characters were all memorable, and the music was simply beautiful.  It got everything right.  I didn’t see a flaw in that movie whatsoever.  Maybe it’s because I grew up with the film, but the original Beauty and the Beast is one of the greatest movies of all time.  It’s certainly the best movie that Disney’s ever made.  When I found out that they were doing a live-action version of the film, I was hesitant.  Why?  Because in my opinion, the only live-action adaptation to work thus far was Maleficent.  None of the others really stuck out for me.  Imagine my surprise when Emma Watson was cast as Belle.  Okay, I guess?  Then we got our first glimpse of the Beast, and I was less than impressed.  Then the first trailer for the new movie came out, and I slowly started to get on board.  Emma Watson singing?  Not bad.  But then I heard that Ariana Grande was going to sing Beauty and the Beast itself, and I was not enthusiastic.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, having seen the latest trailer for Beauty and the Beast, I can tell you that this is now my most anticipated movie of the season.  While the previous trailer played things a little safe, in my opinion, this new one just lets it all out and says, “Let’s have some fun!”  I am absolutely sold on this one, now.  We get our first glimpse of Luke Evans as Gaston, and I have to say, he looks and sounds the part, PERFECTLY.  We also get to see a lot more of the Beast, and I have to say, I’m rather impressed at how they accomplished it.  It’s not just that, but the antiques that are animated are wonderful.  Ewan McGregor is the new voice of Lumiere and Ian McKellen is Cogsworth.  Yup, I can definitely see that happening.  That’s perfect casting right there.  It looks like the new Beauty and the Beast is going to hit all the right notes.  They even brought back Alan Menken to do the music for the film.  Alan Menken did the score for the original 1991 film and was simply astounding.  It looks like they’re going to be doing all the songs from Belle to Gaston.  The song I was very surprised to hear during the new trailer was Beauty and the Beast.  It was being sung by Ariana Grande and John Legend.  I have to say, I’m surprised at how much I liked it.  If they can keep the tones and inflections right, Ariana’s version could be just as iconic as the original version of the song.  In all honesty, I was not expecting to be THIS excited for the new Beauty and the Beast.  Yet, here I am wanting March 17 to be here already.  I have to see this one.  I’ve seen the trailer multiple times already, and I’m still feeling the emotions of what could possibly be the best live-action adaptation of a Disney animated film thus far.