Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 28
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 12
Ambitious but flawed, The Black Cauldron is technically brilliant as usual, but lacks the compelling characters of other Disney animated classics.
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 2
Ambitious but flawed, The Black Cauldron is technically brilliant as usual, but lacks the compelling characters of other Disney animated classics.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 43,268
Walt Disney Pictures produced this ambitious, animated tale of sorcery and swordfighting. Taran (voice of Grant Bardsley), is an assistant to Dallben (voice of Freddie Jones), a pigkeeper in the mythical land of Prydain. Taran longs to be a knight, and he's given his chance to live out his dream when he is sent out in search of a magical black cauldron which can either be a powerful instrument of good or a bottomless fount of evil, depending entirely upon who should find it. However, Taran is
PG, 1 hr. 22 min.
Action & Adventure, Animation, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Jan 1, 1985 Wide
Oct 3, 2000
All Critics (28) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (12) | DVD (9)
The characters, though cute and cuddly and sweet and mean and ugly and simply awful, don't really have much to do that would remain of interest to any but the youngest minds.
It's quite good, though by the impossible standards the film sets for itself it inevitably falls short.
This is the 25th full-length animated feature from Walt Disney studios, and professionally put together as it is, many of the ingredients may seem programmed to those who have seen some of the others.
The backgrounds are as richly textured and detailed as in any other Disney film.
By the end of The Black Cauldron I was remembering, with something of a shock of nostalgia, the strength and utter storytelling conviction of the early Disney animators. The Black Cauldron is a return to the tradition.
It's not a good film, but for one with the reputation of being the studio's worst animated feature, it shows that interesting work is done in it.
Disney's worst animated feature.
Flawed jumble of a film, but a picture of immense artistic accomplishment and dedication to atypical faces of wickedness...there's still so much to admire about this red-headed stepchild of a film.
It may have cost five times the amount of any other Disney film in the preceding two decades, but by God that money ended up on screen.
A glorious return to the days at Disney when animation was full and detail was everything.
Possibly not the worst animated feature the House Of Mouse has produced, but certainly stumbling around the darker recesses of the Disney vault.
As usual it is technically excellent, but the charm, characterisation and sheer good humour that made features like Pinocchio and Jungle Book so enjoyable are sadly absent.
Middle road Disney animation, unmemorable.
John Hurt's gravelly voice of the Horned King steals the show.
Okay, I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but I do enjoy this movie, unlike so many other people. The animation is decent, but the thing I enjoy the most about this movie is the villain, the horned King. Mainly because its a demon, horned, skeleton voiced by John Hurt, and he pulls it off frighteningly well. Also
December 20, 2011Super Reviewer
Stylistically, The Black Cauldron has little in common with the typical Disney movie. In many ways it works in a good way; it's nice to watch something without a musical element. However, it kind've lacks a lasting effect. A lot of this is cheesy, which could've been fixed with singing and dancing, but this is dead
April 22, 2011Super Reviewer
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