The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated dark fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions in association with Silver Screen Partners II and released by Walt Disney Pictures.[1] It is loosely based on the first two books in The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels that are in turn based on Welsh mythology.
Set in the mythical land of Prydain during the Early Middle Ages, the film centers on a wicked emperor known as the Horned King, who hopes to secure an ancient magical cauldron that will aid him in his desire to conquer the world. He is opposed by young swineherder Taran, the young Princess Eilonwy, the harp-playing bard Fflewddur Fflam, and a friendly wild creature named Gurgi, who seek to destroy the cauldron to prevent the Horned King from ruling the world.
The film is directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, who had directed Disney's previous animated film The Fox and the Hound (1981), and was the first Disney animated film to be recorded in Dolby Stereo. Disney acquired the film rights to the books in 1973 with production beginning in 1980 to be set for a Christmas 1984 release. During production, it had a severe editing process, particularly for its climactic sequence, which proved to be disturbing to children during a test screening. The newly appointed Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered those scenes to be cut, fearing that it would alienate children, and as a result, it was delayed to 1985. It features the ensemble voice cast of Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Arthur Malet, John Byner, Lindsay Rich, Brandon Call, Gregory Levinson, Eda Reiss Merin, Adele Maus-Morey, Billie Hayes, Phil Fondacaro, Peter Renaday, James Almanzar, Wayne Allwine, Steve Hale, Phil Nibbelink, Jack Laing, and John Hurt, with John Huston serving as the narrator for the prologue.
It was the first Disney animated film to receive a PG rating, as well as the first Disney animated film to feature computer-generated imagery.[7] The Black Cauldron was distributed theatrically through Buena Vista Distribution on July 24, 1985. The film received mixed reviews from critics. Being the most expensive animated film ever made at the time, it was a box-office bomb, grossing just $21.3 million against a budget of $44 million, putting the future of Disney's animation department in jeopardy. Because of its commercial failure, Disney did not release the film on home media until 1997. It has since gained a cult following.[8][9]
In the land of Prydain, Taran, a teenage "assistant pig-keeper" on the farm of Caer Dallben, home of Dallben the Enchanter, dreams of becoming a famous warrior. Dallben learns that the evil Horned King is searching for a mystical relic known as the Black Cauldron, which can create an invincible army of undead warriors known as the Cauldron-Born. Dallben fears that the Horned King might use his pig, Hen Wen, who has oracular powers, to locate the cauldron. He directs Taran to take Hen Wen to safety, but the pig is captured by Gwythaints, the Horned King's wyvern-like creatures.
Taran follows them to the Horned King's castle and meets the pestering badger-like creature, Gurgi, who wants to be his friend. Taran helps Hen Wen escape but is captured and thrown into the dungeon. Another captive named Princess Eilonwy frees him. In the catacombs, Taran and Eilonwy discover the ancient burial chamber of a king. Taran arms himself with the king's sword, which contains magic that allows him to fight the Horned King's minions. Along with a third prisoner, comical bard Fflewddur Fflam, they escape and are found by Gurgi. The Horned King sends the Gwythaints to capture Taran and his friends.
Following Hen Wen's trail, the group stumbles into the underground kingdom of the Fair Folk, who have Hen Wen under their protection. When the kindly King Eidilleg reveals the cauldron's location, Taran decides to destroy it. Eidilleg's obnoxious right-hand man Doli is assigned to lead the friends to the Marshes of Morva while the Fair Folk escort Hen Wen back to Dallben. At Morva, they learn the cauldron is held by three witches—leader Orddu, greedy Orgoch, and benevolent Orwen. Orddu agrees to trade the cauldron for Taran's sword and he reluctantly agrees. The witches then reveal the cauldron is indestructible, and its power can only be broken when someone willingly climbs into it, which will kill them. Taran feels foolish for trading the sword for nothing but his companions show their belief in him. They are captured by the Horned King's minions and Gurgi flees. The Horned King uses the cauldron to raise the dead and his Cauldron-born army begins to pour out into the world.
Gurgi, deciding not to abandon his friends this time, rescues them. Taran decides to jump into the cauldron to save everyone, but Gurgi jumps in instead, killing the Cauldron-born as well as himself. The cauldron begins consuming anything within its vicinity. Taran is confronted by the Horned King, who attempts to sacrifice him to the Cauldron. Before he can succeed, the Horned King is dragged into the Cauldron and violently ripped apart, which destroys the castle.
The three witches arrive to recover the now-inert Black Cauldron. Taran has realized Gurgi's true friendship, and asks them to revive his friend in exchange for the cauldron, choosing to give up his sword. The witches honor the request and Gurgi is resurrected, much to everyone's joy. Taran and Eilonwy kiss and the four friends journey back home to Dallben. Dallben and Doli watch them in a vision created by Hen Wen, and Dallben finally praises Taran for his heroism.
In 1964, Lloyd Alexander began publishing his five-volume series The Chronicles of Prydain, with the first installment titled The Book of Three. According to Joe Hale, Lenore Duckwall, the wife of production manager Don Duckwall, had read the books and suggested an adaptation to her husband.[10] Don Duckwall then showed the books to Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman, who agreed to adapt the series into an animated film. Hale further noted, "The [Disney] Studio pictures at that time were not appealing to teenagers, who were the bulk of the audience in the theaters ... They wanted to make a PG-rated picture that would attract an older audience."[10] Walt Disney Productions optioned Alexander's five-volume series in 1971.[7] Pre-production work began in 1973 when the film rights to Alexander's books were finally obtained.[11] According to Ollie Johnston, he and Frank Thomas supported the film adaptation, and that if it had been done properly, it might have been "as good as Snow White".[12] Because of the numerous storylines, and with over thirty characters in the original series, several story artists and animators worked on the film's development throughout the 1970s.[13]
When The Rescuers (1977) was completed, The Black Cauldron was tentatively scheduled to be released in 1980. Veteran artist Mel Shaw created preliminary conceptual pastel sketches, which future Disney president and CEO Ron Miller considered to be too advanced for the newly-hired animators.[14] Therefore, by August 1978, the studio had pushed its release date back to Christmas 1984 due to their inability to animate realistic human characters; its original release date was later assumed by The Fox and the Hound (1981).[15] During its development limbo, storyboard artist Vance Gerry drew panels of beat storyboards that outlined the plot, action, and locations. Having established the three principal characters, Gerry adapted the Horned King into a big-bellied Viking who had a red beard, fiery temper, and wore a steel helmet with two large horns. Meanwhile, Miller hired Rosemary Anne Sisson as they desired an experienced British screenwriter for the film.[16]
Animator John Musker was the film's initial director, having been offered the position by production head Tom Wilhite. As director, Musker was assigned to expand several sequences in the first act, but they were eventually deemed too comedic.[17] Musker explained, "...the older people I was working with didn't like any of my ideas."[18] When production on The Fox and the Hound (1981) had wrapped, several feature animation directors Art Stevens, Richard Rich, Ted Berman, and Dave Michener became involved in The Black Cauldron. When Miller decided too many people were involved, he decided Stevens was not appropriate to supervise the project so he contacted Joe Hale, who was a longtime layout artist at Disney Studios, to serve as producer.[14][17][19] Hale, who had finished animation special effects work on The Watcher in the Woods (1980), initially declined the offer due to his friendship with Art Stevens, and wanting to continue working on live-action projects. Miller replied regardless of his involvement or not, Stevens would be replaced. After a reconsideration, Hale accepted the offer.[19][20]
With Hale as producer, actual production on The Black Cauldron officially began in 1980.[13][11] He discarded visual character artwork submitted by Tim Burton, and along with Rich and Berman, they desired a Sleeping Beauty (1959)–styled visual approach. Both directors brought Milt Kahl out of retirement to create new character designs for Taran, Eilonwy, Fflewddur Fflam, and the other principal characters. Hale and the story team (including two story artists David Jonas and Al Wilson that he added) heavily revised the film, by which they capsulized the stories of the first two books. They also made some considerable changes, which led to Sisson's departure as she developed creative differences with Hale and the directors.[21]
Musker and Ron Clements, also citing creative differences, were removed from the project and began development on The Great Mouse Detective (1986).[22] Displeased with Gerry's concept for the Horned King, Hale turned the Horned King into a thin creature donning a hood and carrying a spectral presence with shadowed face and glowing red eyes. His role was then expanded into a composite villain of several characters from the books.[13] Taran and Eilonwy eventually acquired elements of the past designs and costumes of earlier Disney characters, especially the latter, who was drawn to resemble Princess Aurora.[21][23]
According to Musker, Gary Burghoff of M*A*S*H fame had auditioned as Gurgi. He tried numerous vocal iterations since Ted Berman had no idea how the character should sound. After three hours, the directors grew frustrated and Burghoff, who had refused to leave, was thrown out of the studio.[24] By 1982, John Byner, an impressionist, had been cast in the part.[25] After Byner was shown the character concepts for Gurgi, he felt inspired to add a "child's inflection" when creating the voice.[26]
In January 1981, Hayley Mills stated she was being considered for the voice of Eilonwy.[27] That same year, Mills hosted an episode of NBC's Disney's Wonderful World, in which she met with Hale and the directors to discuss the part.[28] The role eventually went to Susan Sheridan. According to Sheridan, she recorded the voice on three separate trips to the Disney studios.[29] In a 1983 Disney Channel special titled Backstage at Disney, Hale stated that Jonathan Winters was voicing King Eidilleg.[30] The role eventually went to Arthur Malet.
Shortly before the film's initially planned 1984 theatrical release, a test screening for the rough cut of The Black Cauldron was held at the studio's private theater in Burbank, California. After the film, particularly the climactic "cauldron-born" sequence, proved to be too intense and disturbing for the children in the audience,[31] the newly appointed Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered certain scenes from The Black Cauldron be cut, as a result of the length and the fear that their nature would alienate children.[32] Since animated films were generally edited in storyboard form using Leica reels (later known as animatics: storyboards shot sequentially and set to temporary audio tracks), producer Joe Hale objected to Katzenberg's demands. Katzenberg responded by having the film brought into an edit bay and editing the film himself.[32]
Informed of what Katzenberg was doing by Hale, the newly appointed Disney CEO Michael Eisner called Katzenberg in the editing room and convinced him to stop. Though he did what Eisner insisted, Katzenberg requested that the film be modified, and delayed its scheduled Christmas 1984 release to July 1985 so that the film could be reworked.[32]
The film was ultimately cut by twelve minutes,[33] with existing scenes rewritten and reanimated for continuity.[32] Many of the deleted scenes involved extended character interactions, but other edits involved violent content, including the undead "Cauldron-Born", who are used as the Horned King's army in the film's final act. While most of the scenes were seamlessly removed from the film, the Cauldron-Born sequence contains rather recognizable lapses because the removal of the scenes of the Cauldron-Born mauling the henchmen, as well as one of them being dissolved by the mist, creates a jump in the film's soundtrack.[7]
Invented by David W. Spencer from the studio's still camera department,[34] the animation photo transfer process (APT) was first used for The Black Cauldron which would enhance the technology by which the rough animation would be processed onto celluloid. First, the rough animation would be photographed onto high-contrast lithographic film, and the resulting negative would be copied onto the plastic cel sheets that would transfer lines and the colors which eventually eliminated the hand-inking process.[35][36] However, as the APT-transferred line art would fade off of the cels over time, most of the film's animation was done using the xerographic process, which had been used by Disney since the late 1950s.[37] Spencer would win a technical Academy Award for this process, but the computer would soon render the APT process obsolete.[34]
The Black Cauldron is notable for being Disney's first animated feature film to incorporate computer-generated imagery in its animation for bubbles, a boat, a floating orb of light, and the cauldron itself.[38] Though The Black Cauldron was released a year before The Great Mouse Detective, both films were in production simultaneously for some time and the computer graphics for the latter were done first. When producer Joe Hale heard about what was being done, the possibilities made him excited and he made the crew from The Great Mouse Detective project create some computer animation for his own film. For other effects, animator Don Paul used live action footage of dry ice mists to create the steam and smoke coming out of the cauldron.[33]
Unlike most other Disney animated films, the film did not contain any songs. The score is composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein; he used the ondes Martenot to build upon the dark mood of Prydain, an instrument he used in Trading Places (1983) and Ghostbusters (1984).[39]
Due to last minute revisions, much of Bernstein's score was cut from the film.[39] In its minority, the score was re-recorded for the album original release by Varèse Sarabande in 1985, with the composer conducting the Utah Symphony Orchestra.[39] The album soon fell out of print and many of the film's tracks did not resurface until a bootleg copy entitled "Taran" was supplied to soundtrack specialty outlets in 1986.[39] The film tracks received their premiere release in 2012 as part of Intrada Records' partnership with Walt Disney Records to issue several Disney film soundtracks.[40]
For its initial release, the film became the first Disney animated film to receive a PG rating from the Motion Picture Association.[41] It was also presented in Super Technirama 70—the first since Sleeping Beauty—and Dolby Stereo 70mm six-track surround sound.[42] The film's initial theatrical release was accompanied by the Donald Duck short Chips Ahoy.[43]
The film was re-released in 1990 in selected markets under the title Taran and the Magic Cauldron.[44][45]
The Black Cauldron was released in North America on July 24, 1985.[3] Two days later, the film was also screened at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.[46] While officially budgeted by Disney executi