Movies - The Black Cauldron

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	Movies - The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron is the twenty-fifth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions, and originally released to theatres on July 24 1985 by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. It is based loosely on the first two volumes of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. The movie was directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich and starred the voices of Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, and John Hurt.

The story concerns the evil Horned King, who attempts to secure the Black Cauldron in order to rule the world. The Horned King is opposed by the heroes Taran, Princess Eilonwy, Fflewddur Fflam, and a strange creature named Gurgi.

Censorship of the film

Shortly before the film's release to theaters, newly appointed Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered several scenes from The Black Cauldron be cut, due to the fear that the graphic nature of them would alienate children and family audiences. The bulk of the cut scenes involved the undead "Cauldron Born", who are used as the Horned King's army in the final act of the film. While most of the scenes were seamlessly removed from the film, one particular cut involving a Cauldron Born killing a person by slicing his neck and torso created a rather recognizable lapse due to the fact that the removal of the scene creates a jump in the film's soundtrack. Additionally, a scene involving Taran taking the magic sword and slaying his foes while he escapes the Horned King's castle for the first time was removed, as well as another scene with Princess Eilonwy partially nude as fabric was ripped off of her dress as she is hanging by her hands with Taran and Fflewddur Fflam. The final version of the film was the first animated film from Disney to get a PG rating.

As of this day, the original cut of the film with the removed scenes restored, has never been released on video or DVD. A version of the film with more cuts has appeared on the Disney Channel and the Toon Disney channel.

Film legacy

The Black Cauldron represented the Disney studio's attempt to reach out to teenage fans of fantasy novels, a popular genre at the time. However the gamble proved unsuccessful, with the film receiving very poor box office figures. For many years, it was considered by many to be Disney's most spectacular animated flop, a distinction The Black Cauldron held until the release of 2002's Treasure Planet
. Critics blamed the film's lack of appeal on the atypical dark nature of the film. Internally, many at Disney (which underwent a change of management, with the arrival of Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg months prior to the release of the film) felt that the lack of songs and musical elements hurt the film. The film's failure at the box office combined with its dark tone led to Disney all but disowning the film for nearly 15 years.

The company has generally refused to incorporate the characters of the film into any Disney related merchandise, though The Horned King has made several low-key appearances in recent Disney merchandise. Also, Disney refused to release the film to home video for over a decade before quietly doing so in 1998.

Even with its initial failure and treatment as the ugly stepchild of the official Disney animated feature film canon, The Black Cauldron has garnered a cult following amongst many animation fans. Roger Ebert's review from the time of the film's release was mostly positive. The film has received positive reviews on Internet Movie Database and the fact that the film has been unavailable to the public, combined with the film's darker tone and absence of the often loathed "Disney Formula", has resulted in the film becoming a full-fledged cult classic.

A computer game, The Black Cauldron, based on the movie, was released by Sierra Entertainment under Disney license.

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