25 – The Black Cauldron
So I was definitely not looking forward
to watching 1985's The Black Cauldron. I
distinctly remember watching this when I was a kid and hating it.
Now, usually I avoid reviews but I was dreading this one so much that
I actually checked the reviews beforehand. Maybe the movie was better
than I remembered? Unfortunately, the reviews seemed to agree with
child me. Strangely, after having watched the movie I think I have
some different thoughts than the reviews I read.
The
story of this movie is by far the most confusing so far so bear with
me. The story is basically about the evil Horned King that wants to
obtain the Black Cauldron which he can use to raise an army of undead
soldiers. Taran, a young boy, finds that his pig can somehow see
where the Black Cauldron is hidden and The Horned King comes after
them for that reason. Soon, Taran meets a young girl, Princess
Eilonwy, and Bard, Fflewddur Fflam, who try to help him destroy the
Cauldron before the king gets to it. Also, there's an annoying thing
called Gurgi.
The
main character is the pretty standard Taran. He's a young boy who
wants to be a warrior but is stuck as a “pig assistant.” He
starts off very over confident and really wants the chance to prove
he can be a warrior. They did a good job establishing who he was at
the beginning of the movie but they also didn't really give him any
redeeming qualities. I just never got to like the kid. He's very
different at the end of the movie when he realizes that friendship is
more important than being a warrior.
Taran
is assisted by Princess Eilonwy, a young girl who helps Taran escape
from The Horned King after they get captured. She is a brave and
strong willed character who seems to be a good match for Taran. They
get along fairly well although they butt heads a few times. I liked
her as a character but after they escape the Horned King she really
doesn't do anything of note. She and Taran are obviously romantic
interests but was that really all they could think of for her to do
in the movie?
Then,
of course, there's Fflewddur Fflam and Gurgi. Flooderflam, as I'll
refer to him because his name is annoying to type, is a bard with a
magic harp that breaks whenever he lies. He does almost nothing the
entire movie. Gurgi is an annoying little dog-like character that is
shown as incredibly greedy and cowardly in the beginning of the
movie. Taran seems to hate him and tries to get rid of him
constantly. Later on, he somehow decides to become courageous and
sacrifices himself for the heroes. I really don't buy it.
The
Horned King himself is actually pretty good, on the other hand. He is
a bit too much of the stereotypical “evil undead lord” archetype
but his actions show that he is actually really intimidating. Unlike
a lot of typical Disney villains, he keeps calm and collected when
dealing with people and doesn't get visibly angry easily. He is also
not a humorous character at all, which I think works for this kind of
story. His minion, Creeper, is very scared of him and tries to make
him happy constantly. Creeper is just a stupid character. He's one of
those silly characters that are brought in to lighten the tone of the
movie but we have Gurgi and the heroes if there was a need for humor.
There
were a bunch of other characters too but they were almost all
pointless. There were the Fair Folk, fairy-like creatures who help
the heroes find the Cauldron. They were super unnecessary and just
came out of nowhere. There's Hen Wen, Taran's pig, who can see where
the Cauldron is. He is kind of the catalyst for the story but he
otherwise does nothing. Then there are the Three Witches who are
actually kind of interesting characters. They offer the heroes a
trade for the Cauldron and Taran has to give up his magic sword that
let's him be the hero he always wanted to be. It was actually pretty
interesting to see the characters deal with them and I liked that
Taran grew up enough to give up his dreams of being a warrior for the
greater good.
Before
I start to complain about everything that's wrong with this movie,
I'll start with what I liked. The animation was really great.
Everything looks really nice and clean and this is the first movie
where they used computer generated imagery and it all looked really
good. The background music also took a step up. There were no stupid
unnecessary music sequences, though I still don't mind when they're
used correctly. Finally, the action scenes were really pretty
interesting. Some of them were actually pretty exciting, probably due
to the better animation.
As for
what's wrong...holy crap this movie is a mess. The story is just
absurdly confusing. So many things happen that, I'm sure, the book
would explain better but this adaptation just doesn't do a good job
of it. The scene with the Fairy Folk just seemed so unnecessary to
me, though that could have just been the way the scene was paced. The
tone of the movie is just all over the place. It's clearly a very
dark story but then they have these weird out of place humorous
scenes that don't have to do with anything like the stuff with
Creeper. The biggest problem for me was how they tried to develop the
characters. I'm glad they tried but they really didn't do a good job.
They started off well enough, although they could have tried harder
to make Taran more likeable. They even ended really well with Taran
clearly having gone through big changes. Unfortunately, nothing in
the middle is cohesive at all. The characters don't change gradually
and naturally, they just suddenly seem to come to crazy realizations.
This is especially clear with Taran and Gurgi who just seem to
completely change their way of thinking completely.
So,
for what it's worth, The Black Cauldron is
better than I thought it would be. It's also a mess of a movie that
clearly got lost from adaptation from book to screen. I'm interested
in seeing what the source material is like. I am definitely not in a
hurry to do so, however. At least tomorrow I get to solve a mystery.
25
down. 28 to go.
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