am2xAnimated Movies was launched by Olivier Mouroux in 1999. In addition to a daily news report, he also created a database of information about past, current, and upcoming films. In 2003, he took a job in the industry and had to give up his work on the site. Several fans of Animated Movies decided to take on the task of keeping the news portion of his site going, and founded what is now Animated Views.

As AV turns 15, let's take a look back at the site we descended from. Below you can explore the database Olivier compiled at Animated Movies during its existence, as it last appeared online in October 2003.

Cast * Interesting Facts * Production Details



 
Taran

 

Directed by: Ted Berman & Richard Rich
Written by: Lloyd Alexander & Ted Berman
Music by: Elmer Bernstein

Released on: July 24, 1985
Running Time: 80 minutes

Budget: $44 million ($25 million in "negative costs", not including development costs)
Box-Office: $21 million in the U.S.
 
 

CAST

Witches!Taran... Grant Bardsley
Eilonwy... Susan Sheridan
Fflewddur Fflam... Nigel Hawthorne
Horned King...John Hurt
Narrator... John Huston
Gurgi/Doli... John Byne
Eilonwy paved the way for future strong Disney heroines!Orgoch... Billie Hayes
Dallben... Freddie Jones
King Eidilleg... Arthur Malet
Orwen... Adele Malis-Morey
Orddu... Eda Reiss Merin
 

  Academy-Award Nominee Nigel Hawthorne (b. 1929) appeared in the TV mini-series Holocaust (1978), Gandhi (1982), Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997) and was the voice of Professor Archimedes Q. Porter in Tarzan (1999).

  Actor John Hurt, most famous for his portrayal of Max in Midnight Express (1978) and John Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980), was also the voice of Mr. Mole in Thumbelina (1994), and the narrator of The Tigger Movie (2000).

  John Huston (1906-1987) directed some of Hollywood's biggest stars throughout his amazing career: Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Clark Gable, as well as his own daughter Anjelica, appeared in masterpieces such as The Maltese Falton (1941), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moby Dick (1956), The Misfits (1961) and Prizzi's Honor (1985).
 
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

The pig and the gnom!  This was the first animated Disney film made in cooperation with Silver Screen Partners II and was given a PG rated due to the scariness of the villain, The Horned King.

  'Megan' informs us that this movie was based upon two books from a short series--namely "The Book of Three" and "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander.  Disney had the books squashed together in order to create a more fast moving plotline (namely, they wanted the villain and introdutions from the first book, but the plot twists and witches from the second book).

  The Black Cauldron had been in development since 1974.

  Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew, returned to the studios to contribute to the screenplay.

  The film suffered from delays and then a record cost of $25 million, not including development costs (billed as "R&D") which took the actual budget as high as $44 million!.

  Working titles included Taran and the Magic Cauldron and The Magic Cauldron.

  The Black Cauldron was the first film released in 70mm since Sleeping Beauty.
 
 
 

 

PRODUCTION DETAILS

After The Fox and the Hound and the Don Bluth walkout, it was time for the new Disney animation staff to prove that they had what it took to create magic.  The project was announced as a new departure: no songs, a very strong heroine, a very dark story... Expectations were very high -and the result weak.

An unusually scary Disney movie!The film took over 12 years to make, 5 years of actual production, and cost over $25 million.  The production of this film can be traced back to 1971, when the Disney Studio purchased the screen rights to Lloyd Alexander's "The Chronicles of Prydain".  Animation for The Black Cauldron was in production for four years, and the movie had been in development for ten!  This lengthy period may hold some of the blame for the movie's ultimate disjointedness.

Also, new studio executive Jeffrey Katzenberg took it upon himself to edit the film.  Editing of completed animation had not happened since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the animators were not pleased.  Perhaps the general audience will never know what all of the excised material contained, but it is doubtless that the Cauldron Born sequence at the end of the film would have made a lot more sense without the cuts.  Even with this footage removed, the film garnered a PG rating, the first for a Disney animated film.

The Horned KingIn order to heighten the interest of the film and display the animation on a grander scale, Disney opted to shoot in 70mm stereo-surround Technirama.  This was the first time since Sleeping Beauty that this widescreen process was used for an animated film.  Composer Elmer Bernstein wrote a very strong musical score to further the plot and establish characters, in Disney's first animation with no songs. The animators took advance of the latest technology to complete this film. Video cameras were used as an inexpensive record of their work. Computers were use to provide an easier way to created more like-like images around the characters. The development of the Animation Photo Transfer (ADT) process made the conversion on the animators' drawings to a cel easier and less expensive.  It took a total of 1,165 different hues and colors were used and 34 miles of film stock to complete The Black Cauldron.

The movie, an embarassment to Disney since its theatrical release, took 13 years to surface in video.  It was originally scheduled for home video release in 1990 but was bumped due to The Little Mermaid's success.

However, despite its very evident shortcomings as a narrative, The Black Cauldron did display a high level of ambition that signaled the aspirations of the new generation of Disney animators.
 
 




Animated Movies original content © Olivier Mouroux