The Black Cauldron

A mediocre Disney movie. It’s not outstanding, but at least there's some attempt at a story, which felt a bit like it was from Gummi Bears. I didn't really like the main character, and the whole thing felt strangely Arthurian in his character. It's probably some sort of peculiar medieval fantasy that you're already familiar with, and that might be why it didn’t grab me as much. (2015-01-22)

Disney's 25th feature film is a loose adaptation of The Chronicles of Prydain, an older juvenile fantasy from the 1960s whose adaptation was intended to respond to the genre's popularity at the time. Given the slump the Mouseketeers were experiencing at the time, the situation should have changed with The Little Mermaid, but that film was nowhere in sight. It's actually a shame that The Black Cauldron flopped too, though it is too dark for Disney and too childish for proper fantasy. In fact, I think that if they had welcomed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into the Mouse family back then, they would have made the only right decision of the time. This is because it is very similar to The Black Cauldron in terms of style, monsters, and the dark passages, but its Disney message is much stronger and makes more sense. (2020-11-25)