Disney's Black Cauldron
Disney's Black Cauldron might not be one of the best Disney movies but it is, in my opinion, a very good animated fantasy film.
It's one of the most intense and excited animated Disney film and the animation is stunning with dark detailed background that suits the mood of the film. It's also has some very innovative and cool animation techniques that I find very striking.
The villain, the Horned King, is one of the most intimidating and evil in Disney's repertoire of bad guys.
The story is also very good and unique for Disney with themes of redemption and sacrifice.
I have never read the book series Chronicles of Prydain but I imagine the Disney film pales in comparison to the original story however. As a pg-rated Disney film it has likely been too watered down to carry the impact of its mature themes.
But regardless its a very unique story for a Disney film and I think they did a good job with the constraints they had.
The characters I think are good but extremely not developed well-enough for this type of fantasy story. Some of them, especially Taran and Gurki, do change but the change seems rushed and forced.
As a short animated film there simply wasn't enough time to do justice to the source material, yet I feel like they did well considering.
Overall, this is not as family friendly as most Disney films as it has violence, scary scenes and images, and even blood. It's probably good for older children though who moght enjoy the film especially if they ate fantasy fans.
It is hard to rank Black Cauldron because I personally love it as I am a huge fan of fantasy stories like this. Yet I know it has significant flaws. I would give this movie an 8. A good film brought down by lack of character development and the fact its potentially great story is brought down by the burdens of being a short pg animated movie with all the constraints that come with that.