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MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... viewing day count
244 .......................... 280
__________________________
October 7th
—— 1985 ——
THE
BLACK
CAULDRON
—— animation ——
DISNEY CLASSIC no.25
Hidden by darkness, guarded by witches...
Discovered by a boy, stolen by a king...
Whoever owns it will rule the world...
Or destroy it.
Probably the most infamous entry in the Disney Animated Classics series, being both a sensitive subject and a box office bomb for Disney, which are two things that might mingle more than what meets the mind at first thought. When looking at it, you could almost say, that the movie has a history more fascinating than the film itself, in which the studio lost everything from their money to their motivation to make more movies after this. Disney was betting big time on a thematically ambitious and artistically different project, which could make you wonder exactly why they did that. Actually, the answers come with an army all the while the explanations for these answers is a one-man band on the battlefield of bafflement. Disney danced with the devil on this one and almost sold off their soul in the panicky process too, which saw them falling deep into the cauldron of uncontrollable chaos…
While Disney was working on their animated adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s iconic tales, the budget for the film doubled, the entire production dragged and lot animators left the scene, all the while new ones of the same caliber couldn't be collected in time – all of which, by the way, meant very little to the new chairmen of the company, who went into the production with money over matter. They took shortcuts where they could, including actually cutting the film itself shorter, resulting in choppy changes to the final product. The black cauldron in the movie might be magical, but the black cauldron in which this catastrophe is brewed inside, is a mess of many ingredients made with many changes of tools throughout. But the question is, whether 'The Black Cauldron' comes across as a beautiful mess or simply a tasteless plate of possibility, slothfully served both overcooked and underseasoned...
Put together with a big record-breaking budget of $44 million and a higher than usual PG-rating from the MPAA, this movie was doomed to be darker and more dominant in scale and scope than the smaller and calmer days of Disney that came before it. But what ends up envisioned on screen is a movie made with many different minds behind the controls, moving in many different directions throughout, resulting in a perplexed product topped with laziness and a side of serious senseless decision-making. 'The Black Cauldron' could very well have been Disney's most daring and deadly piece of animation, but the trimming of the total runtime makes the mature content less lethal and more limp, while the shifting focus makes the film feel equally confused and cautious at the same time. The hero is what you seemingly call an assistant pig-keeper, who is supposed to be this likable and unlikely hero that saves the world from pure evil. His character reminds me a lot of Arthur from Disney's own 'The Sword in the Stone'; a film that furthermore feels like a loose prequel to the characters from 'The Black Cauldron' when you think about it. If Arthur had stayed to assist Merlin, ‘The Black Cauldron’ could very well be the tired outcome of it. Anyways, the wizard of this movie, Dallben, sends our hero, Taran, into a pale plot-device of an atrocious adventure, which seems evenly impossible and irresponsible from the get-go, despite working perfectly as an inflation for our story, although being a direct deflation for our character(s) and their respective arcs.
I didn't care much for any of the characters in this movie, but the most interesting ones were oddly enough the poorly fleshed-out characters, who, admittedly being the literal alteration of the saying, have no flesh on their bones at all. The Horned King, who may be slightly monotonic as an antagonist, but nevertheless menacing enough in appearance to at least be a memorable master of unpleasant passiveness when measured by looks and lurking lunacy alone. He mostly sits completely silent in his chair, while occasionally calling out commands, yet he definitely still feels fatally dangerous despite of his passive presence. The sidekicks, both the good and the evil, are a mixed bag of mostly mediocre fabrications. There is Gurgi on the good side, who is the Gollum-sounding, Gepetto-looking dog of ever-growing frustrations – while on the evil side – there is the mandatory right hand man, who in this case is a mundane, loud-mouthed Goblin of equally ever-growing frustrations.
I admit that the princess kind of speaks to me with her masculine manner and brave battle-heart, all the while the magical pig is a cute and cuddly little creature that I enjoy watching on screen. But even though the character of the princess points in the direct opposite direction of the often duplicated and dubious storyline of such sweet and innocent individual, she still doesn't stand as strong as she could have if the movie itself had been better. She might be the best character here, but that isn't saying much when being buried in a mess of boring and basic characters, who all go from best to worst within a very tiny scale, while having the main hero of the movie in the lower end of that scale… a place where he probably shouldn't be.
'The Black Cauldron' is ambitious alright, but fails to find a clear path to walk and a proper battle to win. The movie seems messy because of several edits and ever-changing ideas, which leaves the movie in the middle of two opposing worlds – being the death and life, respectively, of a good Disney production. I like the initial idea of it all, I just don't like the eventual outcome. John Hurt as The Horned King is beautifully satanic and surely something to behold, but the movie just doesn't go much beyond individual moments and ideas build around a storyline that just isn't all that interesting to begin with…
__________________________
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... viewing day count
244 .......................... 280
__________________________
October 7th
—— 1985 ——
THE
BLACK
CAULDRON
—— animation ——
DISNEY CLASSIC no.25
Hidden by darkness, guarded by witches...
Discovered by a boy, stolen by a king...
Whoever owns it will rule the world...
Or destroy it.
Probably the most infamous entry in the Disney Animated Classics series, being both a sensitive subject and a box office bomb for Disney, which are two things that might mingle more than what meets the mind at first thought. When looking at it, you could almost say, that the movie has a history more fascinating than the film itself, in which the studio lost everything from their money to their motivation to make more movies after this. Disney was betting big time on a thematically ambitious and artistically different project, which could make you wonder exactly why they did that. Actually, the answers come with an army all the while the explanations for these answers is a one-man band on the battlefield of bafflement. Disney danced with the devil on this one and almost sold off their soul in the panicky process too, which saw them falling deep into the cauldron of uncontrollable chaos…
While Disney was working on their animated adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s iconic tales, the budget for the film doubled, the entire production dragged and lot animators left the scene, all the while new ones of the same caliber couldn't be collected in time – all of which, by the way, meant very little to the new chairmen of the company, who went into the production with money over matter. They took shortcuts where they could, including actually cutting the film itself shorter, resulting in choppy changes to the final product. The black cauldron in the movie might be magical, but the black cauldron in which this catastrophe is brewed inside, is a mess of many ingredients made with many changes of tools throughout. But the question is, whether 'The Black Cauldron' comes across as a beautiful mess or simply a tasteless plate of possibility, slothfully served both overcooked and underseasoned...
Put together with a big record-breaking budget of $44 million and a higher than usual PG-rating from the MPAA, this movie was doomed to be darker and more dominant in scale and scope than the smaller and calmer days of Disney that came before it. But what ends up envisioned on screen is a movie made with many different minds behind the controls, moving in many different directions throughout, resulting in a perplexed product topped with laziness and a side of serious senseless decision-making. 'The Black Cauldron' could very well have been Disney's most daring and deadly piece of animation, but the trimming of the total runtime makes the mature content less lethal and more limp, while the shifting focus makes the film feel equally confused and cautious at the same time. The hero is what you seemingly call an assistant pig-keeper, who is supposed to be this likable and unlikely hero that saves the world from pure evil. His character reminds me a lot of Arthur from Disney's own 'The Sword in the Stone'; a film that furthermore feels like a loose prequel to the characters from 'The Black Cauldron' when you think about it. If Arthur had stayed to assist Merlin, ‘The Black Cauldron’ could very well be the tired outcome of it. Anyways, the wizard of this movie, Dallben, sends our hero, Taran, into a pale plot-device of an atrocious adventure, which seems evenly impossible and irresponsible from the get-go, despite working perfectly as an inflation for our story, although being a direct deflation for our character(s) and their respective arcs.
I didn't care much for any of the characters in this movie, but the most interesting ones were oddly enough the poorly fleshed-out characters, who, admittedly being the literal alteration of the saying, have no flesh on their bones at all. The Horned King, who may be slightly monotonic as an antagonist, but nevertheless menacing enough in appearance to at least be a memorable master of unpleasant passiveness when measured by looks and lurking lunacy alone. He mostly sits completely silent in his chair, while occasionally calling out commands, yet he definitely still feels fatally dangerous despite of his passive presence. The sidekicks, both the good and the evil, are a mixed bag of mostly mediocre fabrications. There is Gurgi on the good side, who is the Gollum-sounding, Gepetto-looking dog of ever-growing frustrations – while on the evil side – there is the mandatory right hand man, who in this case is a mundane, loud-mouthed Goblin of equally ever-growing frustrations.
I admit that the princess kind of speaks to me with her masculine manner and brave battle-heart, all the while the magical pig is a cute and cuddly little creature that I enjoy watching on screen. But even though the character of the princess points in the direct opposite direction of the often duplicated and dubious storyline of such sweet and innocent individual, she still doesn't stand as strong as she could have if the movie itself had been better. She might be the best character here, but that isn't saying much when being buried in a mess of boring and basic characters, who all go from best to worst within a very tiny scale, while having the main hero of the movie in the lower end of that scale… a place where he probably shouldn't be.
'The Black Cauldron' is ambitious alright, but fails to find a clear path to walk and a proper battle to win. The movie seems messy because of several edits and ever-changing ideas, which leaves the movie in the middle of two opposing worlds – being the death and life, respectively, of a good Disney production. I like the initial idea of it all, I just don't like the eventual outcome. John Hurt as The Horned King is beautifully satanic and surely something to behold, but the movie just doesn't go much beyond individual moments and ideas build around a storyline that just isn't all that interesting to begin with…
__________________________