Product Details

• Actors: Grant Bardsley, Freddie Jones, Susan Sheridan, June Foray, Clarence Nash
• Directors: Jack Hannah, Richard Rich, Ted Berman
• Writers: Al Wilson, Art Stevens, Burny Mattinson, David Jonas, Doug Lefler
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Dubbed: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• DVD Release Date: October 3, 2000
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (203 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004R99W
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,882 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Black Cauldron (Disney Gold Classic Collection)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Disney's 25th full-length animated classic, The Black Cauldron, fills the screen with magic and wonder. This fun-filled tale of heroism overflows with colorful characters, trailblazing animation, and nonstop action.

In the mystical land of Prydain, Taran, a young boy who dreams of a future as an invincible warrior, finds himself leading a real-life quest. In a race against the evil Horned King, Taran must be the first to find the mysterious Black Cauldron, or the Horned King wil unleash its power and take over the world. With the help of a magic sword, an enchanting princess, an adorable clairvoyant pig, and a furry little creature named Gurgi, Taran overcomes winged dragons, the King's monstrous henchmen, three batty witches, and more--and learns nothing is as powerful as courage and friendship.

Product Description

Disney's 25th full-length animated classic, The Black Cauldron, fills the screen with magic and wonder. This fun-filled tale of heroism overflows with colorful characters, trailblazing animation, and nonstop action. In the mystical land of Pryd

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 104 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Lost Disney Animated Movie... June 8, 2000

By E. D. Garcia VINE™ VOICE

Format:VHS Tape

Not too many remember when this movie was released... it BOMBED in theatres.
Why?
For starters, no one was ready for a PG rated Disney cartoon... especially one that IS NOT a musical. I think it lasted about two weeks in the theaters, then Disney pulled it.

(Something else people might not realize is that, while a failure in theaters, The Black Cauldron was modified and ported over into TV. It became one of Disney's most successful animated TV series: The Gummy Bears. While Taran, Eilonwy, and Creeper are renamed and not the main characters, they are in there!)

Left in the Disney vaults until 1998, this now restored full-length animated feature is a gem, if not a bit rough around the edges. Without your standard "filler" material of songs and silly dancing, The Black Cauldron uses dialog, stunning animation, and action to keep it moving.

The movie is dark, foreboding, and just plain creepy. It is rated PG, and I DO NOT recommend letting your kids sit in front of this one alone!

But for all its good points, The Black Cauldron strays far from Lloyd Alexander's books, too much is left unexplained, and you never get the chance to really care for any of the characters. Compared to other Disney movies, this is a major change as we're always drawn in and quickly bond with the lead characters.

Oh, and contrary to what other reviewers have said, this was NOT Disney's first PG rated movie. That honor goes to The Black Hole (1979).

While this movie is a must for Disney collectors, the rest of us could pass it up and not miss much.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars f you haven't watched "The Black Cauldron" definitely give this 25th Anniversary edition on DVD a chance! September 24, 2010

By Dennis A. Amith (kndy) TOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

In 1985, Walt Disney Pictures released their 25th animated feature in July 1985. The animated film "The Black Cauldron" is based on the first two novels of Lloyd Alexander's "Chronicles of Prydain" books (a total of five novels were created from 1964-1968) and is based on Welsh mythology.

"The Black Cauldron" is the first Disney film to utilize the APT process (a photographic transfer system that can transfer lines or solid blocks of colors onto cels) and as most new animated technology, the film was quite expensive to make.

It was also a Disney film in which it was an interesting risk for the company as the studio wanted to created a PG-rated animated film, especially since the original books that the animated film was adapted from, was quite dark. Because the animated film was not a musical nor was it a happy, uplifting film that many young children would want to see, the film didn't perform quite well in the box office (the film was budgeted at $25 million and made $21 million).

But times have changed since the "The Black Cauldron" was shown in the theater and with films such as "The Lord of the Rings" and television shows such as "The Legend of the Seeker" are more common place for today, there is no doubt that the storyline of "The Black Cauldron" will attract viewers and now "The Black Cauldron" will receive its DVD re-release in Sept. 2010 (the original "The Black Cauldron - Gold Collection" DVD was released in 2000) to celebrate the film's 25th anniversary.

VIDEO:

"The Black Cauldron" is presented in widescreen 2:35:1 (enhanced for 16×9 televisions). The first thing that came to my mind while watching this film is how beautiful the artistic backgrounds were. There is a lot of painted with a lot of detail in the background. From the look of the wood homes or buckets, to the lush scenery of grass and water or even the detail of the dark forest, "The Black Cauldron" looks fantastic. Walt Disney had done a fantastic job with the hand-drawn animation and overall look of the film. The last film before "The Black Cauldron" was the 1981 film "The Fox and the Hound", so it is no surprise to me that because the amount of detail we see in this film, this film took years to make.

The film looks great! But because of the film's dark subject matter, it's unfortunate that the film was not appreciated when it was released in 1985 and it makes me wonder, because the film is not a box office earning classic, if it will ever receive Disney's wonderful HD restoration and remastering treatment in the future?

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

"Black Cauldron" is presented in Dolby Digital (English, French and Spanish 5.1 surround). The dialogue is clear and understandable and if anything, I found myself just laughing at the parts that featured Gurgi talking. Love the sound effects that went into creating his voice. I will say that Elmer Bernstein's music ("Twilight", "Cape Fear", "Bulletproof") in the film is fantastic!

Subtitles are in English SDH, French and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"The Black Cauldron - 25th Anniversary" comes with the following special features:

* Deleted Scene--(9:50) The Fairfolk: Viewers join Taran, Fflewddur Fflam, Gurgi and Princess Eilonwy as they travel into the depths of the earth and meet the Fairfolk. A combination of animation and the deleted animated and non-animated sketch of the various scenes.
* Still Frame Gallery--A compilation of behind-the-scenes artwork and photos that you can view via using your remote control (or keyboard).
* The Witches' Challenge Game--In order to defeat the dark powers of the Horned King, players must gain possession the magical sword from the Witches of Morva by solving their riddles.
* Quest For the Black Cauldron--A trivia game in which players compete against the evil Horned King in a race to reach the Black Cauldron first.
* Trick Or Treat-- (8:15) A classic Donald Duck Jack Hannah Halloween cartoon from 1952.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"The Black Cauldron" probably didn't make sense to viewers in 1985 but 25-years-later, the story is quite tame and I personally didn't find the overall film to be too dark. In fact, I watched it along with my seven-year-old and he just enjoyed the film and was quite engrossed while watching it.

I found the film to be quite entertaining but by saying this, I know that the film is based on Lloyd Alexander's "The Prydain Chronicles" and the fact there are five-volumes created, If the first two volumes were condensed to an 80-minute film, you can imagine a lot of story being lost, especially storylines that were meant to focus on character development.

So, having not read the original novels, I can imagine those who did enjoy them, may feel a bit disenchanted with the film and with Disney trying to fit everything into one film and also the film missing a lot of characters from the book and I've also read that Disney did change a few things to make it more Disney friendly. But again, this was released in 1985 and that was how things were back then with Disney.

"The Black Cauldron - 25th Anniversary" does add a little more content from its original 2000 "Gold Collection" DVD release. You do get the new "The Witches" challenge game and you do get a full nine minute deleted scene as well. And for those who are wondering, the animated short "Trick or Treat" starring Donald Duck and his 3 nephews is still included as well as the previous other special features as well. It's also important to note that Disney did improve it's DVD authoring after 2003, so since the film was released originally on DVD in 2000, there is an improvement in picture quality on this 2010 DVD release.

As for parents, this is a PG film and I would not recommend this film to very young children. The Horned King is an evil nemesis and a villain that can be too frightening for children and although there are no sexual themes in the film, there are parts where you see a buxom witch and seeing the character Fflewddur Fflam getting his head stuck between them. A scene which my wife did comment and was surprised to see (especially since we had our child watching along with us).

Overall, "The Black Cauldron" is a good film but I say this, having not read the original novels (so I don't share the same disappointment as those who have). I do feel that the writers really did have a major challenge of trying to incorporate so much into an 80-minute film and the fact that the film only covers the first two novels, it's a shame that the other three novels will not be made into an animated format. But I suppose if you go with this film's storyline on its own, despite having a dark storyline, in Disney fashion, you do have the happy ending.

I was very impressed by the artistic painted backgrounds and the animation was well-done. But compared to other Disney animated classics, the storyline was good but not great and I refuse to call it an inferior film because it's not inferior at all. It's just that Disney has so many great films and "The Black Cauldron" is not one of them. But I found the film to feature a good amount of fantasy and action and it looks fantastic. It's definitely a Disney animated film worth watching.

If you have not watched this Disney animated film, definitely give "The Black Cauldron - 25th Anniversary" a try!

45 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Disney's most enchanting (and unappriciated) classics January 22, 2002

By Jake Stitch

Format:VHS Tape

Being an avid Disney video collector, I of course saw trailers for this release hitched onto other 1998 tapes, and was genuinely amazed with them alone. Needless to say I ran out to the store August 4 of that year to buy my copy of this never-before-released-on-video animated Disney flick and popped it into the VCR as soon as I got home. I honestly do not understand why so many people who have reviewed this movie have called it bad. Sure, it's different, and yes, it did recieve a PG rating, but those are not nessesarily bad things. And, yes, appearently it IS different from the book, but, putting all of that aside, it is a WONDERFUL movie, and, unlike some reviewers, I'm very glad that they let it out of the vaults.

Taran, dreams of being an incridible warrior, but soon finds himself reduced to searching for Hen Wen, a young pig he tends to that has run away. This eventually leads to his embarking on a quest to find the mythical Black Cauldron, which gives the one who bears it ultumate power, before the evil Horned King. Aside from the adventurous, dark mood, the movie carries other strengths, too. First off, the characters are amazing and can be related to. I too have dreams and fears just like Taran (in fact quite simmilar in one perspective), and he is like a welcome friend to me. Gurgi is cute and funny and is this movie's classic Disney sidekick; there's one in every classic, you know. Second, there's the annimation - it's amazingly mood-setting and obviously helped the animators learn a great viriaty of skills they would use in later films. Finally, there's the film's tear-jerking (yes, I did say "tear-jerking" in regard to Disney's "The Black Cauldron," folks) ending and the timeless moral that is illustrated within it -- I won't say what it is; you have to go rent (or better yet buy) this too-often-ignored Disney gem to find that part out. To top it all off, the original 1998 release has a very cool-looking cover, supposedly "FX packaging" according to some old TV spots; the Gold reissue has a wonderful (different) logo and cover image too.

All in all, I can't find a negative thing to say about it. The DVD supposedly has it in widescreen, which I'd love to see - and the Gold Collection issue (in both VHS and DVD formats) has "Trick or Treat," a classic Donald Duck short. I don't know why I don't have this on DVD yet! It's something you and I should both make a point to get. Amazing! ***** 5/5