Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A forgotten classic, 14 May 2003
By A Customer
Usually The Black Cauldron is completely looked over and not acknowledged as a great diney film. But the film itself is truly a gem. based on Lloyd Alexander's chronicles of Prydain series the film is a combination of the books. The animation is truly superb. Some of the sequences are trulybreathtaking and their beauty is enhanced by the fact that the film has been presented for the first time on home release in its glorious original cinemascope. The story does have a weakness due to the fact that during the late 70's and and early eighties everything at disney was in chaos due to the fact that most of theanimators who had made the animated features up to that point were retiring annd new animators were coming in and everyone had their own idea about the film and it started to get a little confused and a lot of animation was cut or redone. Still the final product works, and some scenes and characters are quite memorable. the bonus features are not to great there are quite a few galleries with concept art, original animation and original sketches, it's only a shame that some of the cut scenes couldn't be included. If you are a fan of the original books you might not welcomethe combination of the stories but foranyone wanting to get interested in the stories it'sas good asany place to start.
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19 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A first try of a new generation., 29 Jul 2003
This was the first full length animated feature ever to be made by current the animators and storymen of disney on their own, without help from the oldtimers who had started in the early days of Snowwhite and Pinnochio.
It is obvious from this film i find, how much they still had to learn. Although for a first try, i was a good effort.
This is a typical bedtime story fairy tale:
An evil lord threatens to destroy the land by raising an army of undead soldiers. For this he needs the legendary black cauldron.
Taran, is a stable boy for an old man. One of his jobs is to care for a pig (little bit of variety doesn't harm anyone).This is no ordinary pig, but can show, by sticking his snout in a bowl of water, the past,present or future.
The evil lord discovers this and and wants to use the pig to find the cauldron. Taran tries to escape with her and hide, but fails, as she is caught by the lord's forces anyway. He goes after her, and frees her, finding a magical sword, a comical bard and a beautiful princess along the way. They all ecape together, and try to find the cauldron so they can destroy it before te lord can.
It's a race against time, with unexpected twists and turns from then on.
It may be on of THE lesser animated films disney has ever produced, but still has all the elements: Humour, heart and a happy ending.
the animation is more inferior to the others, but it doesn't affect the pleasure of watching.Kids will love it though, as it certainly is aimed at the under twelve agegroup. But that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable for adults to watch eiter.
There are better films though, and unless you're looking for something a bit different, i'd advise you look at others before considering this one.
Not many dvd extra's, two games and a still frame gallery, so nothing convincing there.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A dark film for under 5's - but great for older preteens, 29 Jan 2006
This is probably the darkest (literally) Disney cartoon made, even eclipsing Snow White for dismal castle scenes and skeletons. My daughter, then 7, simply didn't go for it and found it 'far too scary' towards the end - the Barbie and Cinderella films are more her bag. My son at the same age loved it however, and I quite enjoyed watching it with him as well. The story involves a young boy farmer (who has dreams of being a great warrior) and his magic pig, who both search for the mystical Black Cauldron. The scene with the three witches who guard the Black Cauldron is a highlight in a pretty consistent film (once the story gets going). OK, some of the characters, well one really, the Bard, are a bit wet, and occasionally the slapstick seems out of place, but the cosmic struggle between good (the farm-boy Taran) and evil (the Horned King) is well done and there a few nice touches. Personally I prefer the older 'Sword in the stone' though which has a similar feel, as it's also a medieval fantasy, although that one's relatively pig free. However do have a look at the excellent book this film was adapted from: The Black Cauldron (Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander, aimed squarely at preteen boys around 10 - it's part of a cult series of books first published in the 1960s.
This film is strangely reminiscent of the earlier 1982 film - Conan the Barbarian, particularly the tomb sequence where Taran finds the enchanted sword. Although this film is a little scary for little ones, the humour lightens the film considerably and it's no more frightening than Sheer Khan's sequences in The Jungle Book really. Overall I think many preteen children (more likely a boy I suspect) would enjoy watching 'The Black Cauldron' few times (but it's not for frequent viewing). It's probably not for teenager's either, who will no doubt prefer the likes of the new 'King Kong', `Batman Begins' and Harry Potter.
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