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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.
Taran...
Grant Bardsley
Eilonwy... Susan Sheridan
Fflewddur Fflam...
Nigel
Hawthorne
Horned King...John
Hurt
Narrator... John
Huston
Gurgi/Doli... John Byne
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).
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.
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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.
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.
In
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.
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