Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!trwatf!rlgvax!knight From: knight@rlgvax.UUCP (Steve Knight) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: The Black Cauldron (capsule review at beginning) Message-ID: <702@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Sun, 21-Jul-85 14:06:27 EDT Article-I.D.: rlgvax.702 Posted: Sun Jul 21 14:06:27 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 24-Jul-85 06:08:20 EDT Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 115 Short review of Disney's "The Black Cauldron" (for those who don't like reading more than one screenful): Not the masterpiece it could/should have been. The story is rather sketchy (only marginally based on any of the Prydain books) and generally not handled well. The animation is inconsistent; fine effects animation but otherwise servicable at best. Plenty of the broad comic touches found in the Disney features of the last two decades. The kids at the showing I saw loved it; take your grade schooler. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Long, indulgent review: With that out of the way, I have to ramble. I saw "The Black Cauldron" at a preview last Friday night. I've been looking forward to this film (with some trepidation) for several years now, and will give you the film's background as I know it, followed by my impressions. Those (such as Chuq) with more knowledge about it than I can correct me. "The Black Cauldron" is based on Lloyd Alexander's five-book Prydain series, the second book of which is also entitled "The Black Cauldron." TBC was the last project which Walt Disney himself initiated before he died, the studio having bought the rights to the Prydain series shortly before. Because of this, TBC has been a very important project at Disney since Walt's death. The intent was that TBC was to be a milestone in animation (much as Walt tried to do with "Sleeping Beauty"), a fitting memorial to Walt, if you will. Unfortunately, this was about the time (late 1960s-- early '70s) that most of older, experienced animators at Disney started retiring or passing on. Finding good replacement animators has not been easy, because most animation studios can only remain solvent turning out "limited animation" drek for Saturday morning TV. Thus, TBC has been an off-and-on project at Disney for some 15 years now, while they produced things like "Robin Hood", "The Rescuers", and "The Fox and the Hound", supposedly to provide training for the younger animators before embarking on TBC. THE FILM ITSELF: If you've read the Prydain series, don't expect anything like the books. What they've done is taken (some of) the characters and background of the Prydain series and built a new story around them. This is reasonable; since they somehow decided not to concentrate on just one of the books (which probably would have led to a better film, but let's not quibble), it's better to start from scratch than to try to cram all five books into one film. The film's story concerns Taran, a young Assistant Pig-Keeper who dreams of adventure. Taran's master, the enchanter Dallben, divines that the evil Horned King needs only to find the legendary Black Cauldron to conquer all of Prydain. So that the Horned King will not use the powers of Hen Wen (Dallben's pig, whom Taran cares for) to locate the Cauldron, Dallben sends Taran to take the pig to safety. (If you think they make it without any trouble, or that Taran doesn't acquire an odd assortment of followers on his journeys, you're very naive.) Now although this is a definite departure from any of the books, they've chosen their bits and pieces rather well, and put together an engaging premise that could have been the start of a very good film. Very unfortunately, I can't say that I think it's very good, and I think the main reason is that the story takes place in a vaccuum. When I compare it with "Snow White" or "Pinnochio" (both unfair but inevitable comparisons), I feel that the earlier films work well because the conflict is on a very intimate level, a single person's (or puppet's) struggle to escape with her life, or become a real boy. Thus, they can get away with not providing a lot of surrounding detail only indirectly concerned with the story. But in "The Black Cauldron", if I'm to care that the Horned King wants to conquer Prydain, I'd better be shown enough surrounding detail to convince me it's a real place populated with real creatures. I think a sense that the whole land of Prydain was banding together against the imminent threat of the Horned King would have helped give TBC some much-needed grandeur. (My own speculation is the story fell prey to a case of too many cooks; I counted 16 people given credit for the story, I think seven directly and nine for "contributions." Wonder what would've resulted from the hands of one or two people with a clear vision of a story to tell.) Of course, the Disney people know their main audience, and there are a number of comic secondary characters to please the kids. This is expected and tolerable (although I never thought I'd live to see cleavage jokes in a Disney animated feature). ANIMATION: TBC is a film filled with fire, crumbling rocks, splashing water, and, believe it or not, slick editing. Now I'm only an interested layman when it comes to animation, but I suspect this is because it's easy to hide mediocre animation behind flashy effects. (I'm reminded of the criticism that the animation in "Watership Down" looked good because since rabbits move in a jerky fashion, you couldn't tell that the animation wasn't smooth.) Don't get me wrong; I think the effects animation is genuinely impressive and, well, for an animation fan like me, might even be worth another admission. (I found the birth of the Cauldron-Born to be particularly striking.) But that doesn't mask the fact that the animation of the main characters is nothing to write home about; none of them move with any real weight. On a technical level, I was pretty disappointed--and I don't know that much about animation technique. For a milestone-in-animation film, I would have expected the cels to be hand-inked. Instead, we get the sketchy lines of time-and-money saving xerography, a technique which can look good in the right style of film (e.g., "101 Dalmations"), but which only struck me as looking shabby when it was used here. And where were the multiplane camera shots, which use multiple cels to give a three-D effect? I only counted two, but maybe I just wasn't looking carefully enough (or don't know what to look for). On balance, "The Black Cauldron" is bit of a disappointment. If you're into animation, you'll probably want to go to see the effects animation (but then, you'd go even if I didn't tell you to). If you have young children, they'll love it, if I can judge by the reaction of the numerous children brought at the preview. Otherwise, I can't really call it a waste of time, but I don't feel you'd be missing too much if you don't see it--which is what's really unfortunate about the film. -- Steve Knight {seismo,allegra,some other sites}!rlgvax!knight