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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1985 film The Black Cauldron.
Story
The story is a cautionary tale in adapting a book. I haven’t read the book so there are a lot of sections that either make no sense or give the viewer the feeling that they should have done homework before watching.
Score: 0
Characters
There is no backstory to any of the characters. She says she’s a princess but then the villain mentions she’s a scullery maid? Why does the bard have a magical harp? Why is the pig farmer boy being raised by knockoff merlin? Is the villain undead or just a monster? … nothing is explained.
I did quite like the little furry Gollum and the characters are likeable and consistant. They have acceptable arcs, but there just seems to be too much missing.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
There are some nice peices of dialogue and some that make no sense at all. It’s mostly, again, because this was adapted from a series of books.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The animation was beautiful but inconsistant. Items disapeared and reappeared, characters changed sizes, backgrounds flickered.
The music was pretty epic.
Score: 0.5
Fun
Everyone kinda enjoyed it. It’s one of those movies that could have been great but was bogged down by too much lore that we didn’t get to see.
Score: 0.5
Overall
Not the worst Disney movie in existence, but it’s a missed opportunity to showcase a great story by cutting out any context.
Final Score: 2 Stars out of 5