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From: ccrse@ucdavis.UUCP (Steve Ehrhardt)
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: "The Black Cauldron"
Message-ID: <386@ucdavis.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Jul-85 16:36:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucdavis.386
Posted: Wed Jul 24 16:36:55 1985
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Organization: University of California, Davis
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	Having seen TBC at an early preview showing in June, I found
my opinions of, and complaints about, the film pretty much summed
up by Peter Reiher's recent review in this newsgroup.  I would also
like to join him in urging others to see this film for themselves.
	TBC suffers mostly by comparison to what it should/could have
been.  Taken by itself, it is a good, entertaining film.  It simply
isn't the masterpiece that Disney had led us to believe it would be.
	For myself, I found that "TBC's" principal drawback was
its over-condensed storyline.  The animation, while uneven, was gen-
erally at least good, and in places (particularly that of the 'bad
guys' and their environs) excellent.  Often, however, I kept feeling
that things were not being adequately explained, even by implication.

*** Some slight spoilers follow ***

	The most glaring example of this is the group of fairies that
the hero and his party encounter at one point.  They appear to have
been dropped into the story gratuitously, perhaps to increase the
'cuteness factor', with no explanation of who or what they are, or
why they are hiding from the outside world.  Other points, such as
why the Horned King is considered such a menace, the origins of a cer-
tain magic sword, etc. remain largely unexplained.  A small amount
more background information would go a long way towards making the
film more enjoyable.
	"TBC" does move well, perhaps in part because of the con-
densation just described.  I found that I didn't get tempted to look
at my watch once during the showing, which to me is always a good sign.
Nevertheless, I still feel that this is one film that would benefit
from being lengthened to a full two hours.
	Despite the film's weak points, I found that I enjoyed it
a great deal, and intend to see it again when it opens locally.  I par-
ticularly enjoyed the "cleavage joke" referred to in a previous review,
that being one of the funniest animated sequences I've seen in a long
time.  While it is perhaps not the best effort produced by Disney, I
would definately rate it as being worth seeing.