The Black Cauldron (1985)

 

This movie was such a big deal in 1985, what with it being Disney's first ever "PG" rated cartoon.  It's still a very Disney movie, though. There are some pretty scary moments in it, but I was far more terrified by the banshee in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959).  That was a G Rated movie, so go figure.  It's kind of a mess of a movie, so it failed at the box office back then.  

I had not seen this since it was released, and barely remembered anything about it.  I remembered Gurgi, but confused him with some other fuzzball I remember being called Fizzgig, from The Dark Crystal.    The rest of the movie, including the characters was like watching a new movie.  I knew it had something to do with a, well, black cauldron, but more than that, I had no clue.

As I said, it's a very Disney looking movie, despite some of the zombies and such.  The characters all look like Disney drawings, rather than based on the illustrations in the books.  The usually "funny" characters like Gurgi and the goblin minion are present, which detract from any seriousness.  The other problem is this 85 minute movie is based on the first two books of the series, making it rather disjointed.

The good stuff is that it is gorgeous to look at, and well acted.  The music, by Elmer "Robot Monster" Bernstein is great, though it sounds a lot like the Heavy Metal soundtrack.  It was fun to revisit the movie 35 years later.