{"id":91445,"date":"2025-07-25T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T07:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=91445"},"modified":"2025-07-25T10:10:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T17:10:03","slug":"disneys-dark-ride-looking-back-at-the-black-cauldron-forty-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/disneys-dark-ride-looking-back-at-the-black-cauldron-forty-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney\u2019s Dark Ride: Looking Back at \u201cThe Black Cauldron,\u201d Forty Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"\n

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There has been a lot written and discussed about Disney\u2019s animated feature, The Black Cauldron<\/em>, in the forty years since its release, but one of the most interesting and insightful quotes may have come from Tim Burton.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The director of numerous live-action blockbusters began his career as a Disney animator and was working at the Studio when The Black Cauldron<\/em> was in production. In Bob Thomas\u2019 book, Disney\u2019s Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast<\/em>, Burton stated, \u201cI think the company was really at odds with itself. They had this feeling of moving into the future and contemporizing, but they didn\u2019t know how to do it. There was a foot in the past and a foot in the future and no firm footing in either. The Black Cauldron<\/em> was one of the things that steered me out of animation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Produced at a tumultuous time at Disney Feature Animation, just after Don Bluth led a walk-out of animators, during a time when there was a significant leadership change at Disney and just before the Studio would experience a Renaissance in animation, The Black Cauldron<\/em> was \u201cstuck\u201d between different \u201ceras,\u201d at Disney, as Burton noted.<\/p>\n

Production on The Black Cauldron<\/em>, which celebrates its fortieth anniversary this year, can be traced back to 1973, when initial work on the film began after the Studio secured the rights to author Lloyd Alexander\u2019s series of five books, The Chronicles of Prydain<\/em>. The fantasy adventures of a young hero battling evil forces appeared to be a tonal shift for Disney feature animation, which could potentially open up animation to a broader, and older audience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artist Mel Shaw created some beautiful, dynamic conceptual artwork for The Black Cauldron<\/em> during its earliest days, hinting at a film with an epic scope and a darker tone. As production moved into the early 1980s, the film looked like something that would be right at home with the high-fantasy-sword-and-sorcery genre that became popular during the decade, with films like Jim Henson\u2019s The Dark Crystal<\/em> (1982) and Conan the Barbarian<\/em> (also 1982), starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.<\/p>\n

The Black Cauldron<\/em> would also be the Studio\u2019s most technically ambitious project in some time, produced in 70mm, six-track Dolby Stereo sound, and would utilize then-emerging computer animation. At one point, there were plans for a holographic character in a scene that would appear three-dimensional and hover over the audience (this idea never came to fruition).<\/p>\n

However, all of these ambitions were wound up in a production that unraveled. The different units on The Black Cauldron<\/em> didn\u2019t communicate as they should have; directors left the project, and the distinct, darker tone once envisioned for the film began to veer toward a more traditional fairy-tale quality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Co-directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, Disney\u2019s The Black Cauldron<\/em>, set in the mythical world of Prydain, would center on Taran, a young man who lives on a farm and serves as a \u201cpig keeper,\u201d but dreams of becoming a great warrior. He finds himself thrust into an adventure when the evil Horned King seeks to capture his pig, Hen Wen. The pig, as it turns out, has oracular powers, and the King wants to use them to locate the mystical Black Cauldron, which would give the owner \u201c\u2026the power to resurrect an army of deathless warriors, and with them, rule the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within this story was a cast of eclectic voice talent, including John Hurt as the Horned King, Grant Bardsley as Taran, comedian John Byner as Gurgi, the odd, furry creature who accompanies Taran (Byner also provided the voice of a fairy named Doli), Susan Sheridan as Princess Eilonwy, who joins Taran, as well.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the cast also featured Nigel Hawthorne as the bumbling bard Fflewddur Fflam, Arthur Malet as Fairy King Eidilleg, Freddie Jones as Dallben, the farmer who serves as Taran\u2019s mentor, Phil Fondacaro as Creeper, the Horned King\u2019s assistant, Billie (\u201cWitchiepoo\u201d of \u201cH. R. Pufnstuf\u201d) Hayes as one of the Witches of Morva that Taran and the group encounter, and John Huston as the narrator of the film\u2019s opening prologue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Black Cauldron<\/em> also featured an original and compelling score by Elmer Bernstein. <\/p>\n

Into the production came sweeping change at the Disney company. Roy E. Disney, Walt’s nephew, resigned his seat on Disney’s Board of Directors in 1984, as he disagreed with the direction in which the company seemed to be heading. After leaving, Roy was instrumental in engineering a series of events that resulted in a leadership change, bringing aboard Michael Eisner as Chief Executive Officer, Frank Wells as President, and Jeffrey Katzenberg as Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.<\/p>\n

This new leadership team brought with them hope for the future of Disney, but also brought a tremendous amount of transformation, including a decision to move the animation Studio off of the Disney Studio lot in Burbank, CA (where it had been for over forty years), to make way for offices for the new incoming leadership.<\/p>\n

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The Black Cauldron’s Little Golden Book<\/p><\/div>“The first thing that happened was that we were moved out of our very safe little nest there,” remembered animator Glen Keane in a 1995 interview. “They moved into the animation building, and we moved into some warehouses in Glendale. You had the feeling that you were like a rich kid in this sheltered environment, and finally your dad said, ‘Okay, now go out and get a job!’ You felt like, I guess this is it, we really have to make it work if we’re going to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The new, incoming team had never worked in animation and were wrapping their heads around the production of an animated film. After an early screening of The Black Cauldron<\/em>, which didn\u2019t go well, Katzenberg decided that the film needed to be edited and excised some of the film\u2019s darker elements. Editing an animated film in such a manner was unheard of, as, unlike live-action movies, all scenes in an animated feature, at a certain point, were \u201clocked in.”<\/p>\n

The changes didn\u2019t help, and The Black Cauldron, which was released on July 24, 1985, didn\u2019t fare well at the box office. As noted by Don Hahn in the documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, The Black Cauldron<\/em> made less than The Care Bears Movie<\/em>, released earlier that year.<\/p>\n

While some critics, like Roger Ebert, enjoyed the film and awarded it 3 \u00bd stars, writing, \u201cBy the end of The Black Cauldron<\/em>, I was remembering, with something of a shock of nostalgia, the strength and utter storytelling conviction of the early Disney animators. The Black Cauldron<\/em> is a return to the tradition.\u201d Despite such glowing reviews, the film was deemed a disappointment and a low point for Disney animation by many.<\/p>\n

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“The Black Cauldron” lives on!<\/p><\/div>As time does for many things, appreciation for The Black Cauldron<\/em> has grown over the four decades that followed. Many have seen how the film showcased the talents of the Studio\u2019s artists, with full, and at times, stunning animation (a sequence where creatures called Gwythaints, winged dragons, chase and capture Hen Wen, is a dynamically staged action scene), and that it also demonstrated the ability of animation to venture into new territory.<\/p>\n

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The Great Mouse Detective<\/em> followed in 1986, yielding more positive results, and it became apparent that investing in story and artistry could strengthen the foundation on which Disney was founded.<\/p>\n

A Renaissance followed, with blockbuster, and now classic films like The Little Mermaid<\/em> (1989), Beauty and the Beast<\/em> (1991), and The Lion King<\/em> (1994).<\/p>\n

All of this could never have been foreseen forty years ago, as The Black Cauldron<\/em> first debuted when Disney\u2019s past \u201cGolden Age\u201d was a distant memory, its present was unstable, and the bright future for animation was still unknown yet hopeful.<\/p>\n