In the 1970s, the Walt Disney Company was not doing so well. Considering both Walt and his brother Roy had passed on, the crew was left without much direction and were constantly asking themselves "Oh, what would Walt do?" in a desperate plead to let the films prosper. It doesn't help that the 9 old men were either dying or retiring, and a whole new group of animators had to fill in the positions. However, what happened when the new generation took on the task of creating their first feature film on their own? Years of development hell, animators pitching in ideas only to be discarded, and the original 92 min length getting reduced to 80. That film is the 1985 flop called The Black Cauldron, a film so infamous that Disney themselves don't even want to acknowledge it even exists, and good thing too, because this film really left a stain on Disney's legacy.The biggest problem this film suffers from is the story. Now it could be because the writers were trying to condense a couple of books from The Chronicles of Prydain series into one movie, but even as a movie on its own, the story is just disjointed. The goal seems to be to find the black cauldron, and yet the film keeps on switching from the main hero having to rescue his pig that has psychic powers (OK), to him being captured by the villain and having to escape, to then searching for the cauldron and ending up with fairies, and THEN when he and his group finally find the cauldron....the villain takes it, and then the heroes make it out and escape the king's demise....yeah, not a very exciting story if I do say myself. Also, the film constantly shifts in tone from dark menacing action scenes to cutesy fantasy junk with the creature Gurgi and a bunch of fairies....ugh.Also, this is the first animated Disney film with no songs, and while it does help move the story along, it just leaves me bored without much amusement. As for the characters, most of them are either bland, annoying, or both. The main protagonist Taran wants to be a warrior so much that he ends up being the most irritating to witness, and even the situations he ends up in are either accidental or just pure luck that he even got himself saved in the first place. Princess Eilonwy is OK but her backstory is never brought up, Fflweddur Fflam is basically the same, and Gurgi....well despite one heroic act in the end, he offers nothing to the table and is more annoying than charming. It doesn't help that the film barely if at all develops the characters, as there's never a moment where we get to hear them have a meaningful conversation or even monologue about their pasts. The only character worth praising is the villain the Horned King, and that's only because of how menacing he is; though at the same time he barely does anything, and he's easily defeated in the end.....what a chump.To the film's credit, the animation is very well done. It's dark and gritty, the character animation is pretty solid, the effects look superb, and the backgrounds drip with influence from European fantasy books. Not to mention, this was the first Disney film to use computer effects, and the sporadic usage of it really adds in to the occasional intense scene. The only problem with the animation is that while it is well crafted, it looks less like Disney and more like if Hanna Barbara got a big budget (if you know what I mean), and the cute characters of Gurgi and the fairies don't really contrast well with the gritty environments. Also, the music score by Elmer Bernstein is quite solid, as it fits every scene with grace, whether it be the menacing music attributed by the Horned King or the whimsical enchanted melodies attributed by the main characters and the fairies. So is this the worst animated Disney film? No, I'll still take this over Chicken Little any day. But even with its quality animation, brisk music score and menacing at best villain, this is an otherwise forgettable feature that lacks excitement, character development, and even solid storytelling. It's a really good thing the crew at Disney pushed up their game with the likes of The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, and more in the future, because as ambitious as this may have been, it overall left so much to be desired.

I was (and still am) a big fan of the books this movie is based on. Maybe that's part of the reason why I was kind of unimpressed by it.It had some good moments - the skeletal warriors were done up in a pretty cool manner, and the scene where Hen Wen is captured is rather well-done. I thought the voice acting was pretty good, for Dallben and Taran in particular. I think one major drawback of the film is that it tries to take a story that feels like a medieval legend and turn it into a typical fairytale. The animation of Doli and the Fair Folk is a prime example of this - they're turned into cute little fairies, almost like non- blue Smurfs with wings, complete with adorable child fairies - rather than the more classic kind of fair folk as being more like elves, dwarfs, or more naturalistic beings like dryads and the like. Gurgi got similar treatment. It kept Eilonwy's fiery temperament, but only at the beginning - by the end, she was just another damsel in distress relying on Taran (who, in the books, is kind of an idiot and always being told so) to pull them out of trouble. The scene in the Marshes of Morva was particularly disappointing, turning three very interesting and creepy characters into cartoonish, silly witches who somehow know of the heroes plans even though the heroes never spoke to them about it. The replacement of Arawn with the Horned King, who's done up like some kind of demonic living skeleton, is also disappointing - I guess just having a really evil guy was not good enough? They also left out major characters and plot points.Other drawbacks include sometimes-shoddy animation, and many overly drawn-out "adventure" scenes - chases around the evil castle, the wondrous but somehow boring discovery of magical fairy magicalness, the cauldron takes like 15 min or something to actually be destroyed, even them fleeing in a boat feels painfully slow.All in all, this movie has a few nice points and isn't super terrible, but it's also not particularly interesting.

I found this to be an excellent film!The voice acting was brilliant.The music was brilliant.The main characters (good and evil) were brilliant.The action was brilliant.Capable of making you feel emotion - happy, sad, baleful, hilarity, you name it.And I do love the fact that this is one of Disney's darkest.It's my favorite Disney film ever.And if you're gonna tell me "Read the Books!" don't bother. I tried the Books and they were horrible.

I was 13 years old when this movie came out. I recall watching this in the theater and enjoyed every bit of it! I still love this film today. I will agree with over reviewers that the film is dark and mature but it is a film that kids CAN watch - there is nothing vulgar within the film - but it does have an adult feel to the movie.If you liked Disney's "Sword in the Stone", "Fantasia" or "Alice in Wonderland" then you might enjoy this film.Live-action films similar to The Black Cauldron: "Eragon", "The Brothers Grimm", "The Sword and the Sorcerer", "Maleficent" and "Dragonslayer".9/10