Cheap El Caldero Mágico (The Black Cauldron) (Video) (Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones) (Ted Berman, Richard Rich) Price

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Customer Reviews of El Caldero Mágico (The Black Cauldron)

Among the Bigger Dissapointments in the Movie World
As an adoring fan of the Lloyd Alexander books this film was loosely adapted from, I have to admit that I have a biased view. The books are so lovely that I purchased this video before seeing it, assuming that since Disney was given such great material to work with it would be a piece of art. I was sorely dissapointed. I suggest that any fan of the books stay away from this movie all together, or at least view it before you make the investment in purchasing it. You'll find many important characters missing, and several key elements to the plot have changed.
I feel that Disney would have done well to make the full series, rather than try and combine the events of The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron and cram them into one movie.
However, Disney's version of The Black Cauldron does have its good points. The animation is rather nice. It's rather simple, but it serves its purpose very well. It's a bit refreshing to see Disney make such a different movie from it's norm. This one is very dark, and doesn't rely on song to pull you in. The characters, while dissapointing if you're familiar with the books, are still portrayed rather interestingly in their own rights. The Horned King is pretty well established, and early on you get a feeling that he just drips with evil. Gurgi, although very different from his written counterpart, is a very loveable character, and brings a bright spot to the otherwise very gloomy feeling of the film. The voice acting is good, the sound effects are of the highest quality, and the score does an adept job at setting the mood.
If you are unfamiliar with the books, and watch the movie with an open mind, it can really be quite enjoyable, but it's noteworthy that this movie has a PG Rating, not the G Rating that most annimated Disney films feature. There are some scenes that I find rather innapropriate for a children's film, including a scene where Fflewddur is changed into a toad and gets stuck in a woman's cleavage, and some of the scenes with The Horned King and the Cauldron-Born which may be very disturbing for sensitive children. I recommend parents pre-view this movie before deeming it appropriate for their young children.

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Disney wrost movie.
Why bother with this wrost cartoon. There heads are not on tight. I let the MST3000 think about this movie.

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Black & Blue
I love all the risks and new avenues this film took. There is much love and thought that went into its creation. Unfortunately most of this love and attention was focused on looks and not story.

A mixture of visual styles are used in the film, hand-drawn animation, CGI (Disney's first attempt) and even live action smoke. This mixture gives the film a very distinctive look. One that is strikingly different from other Disney animated films.

The Horned King is Disney's most terrifying looking villain ever but he's got the personality of a dead fish. We never connect or understand him like we did say Lady Tremaine or Maleficent. When one character sacrifices himself for the good of the others it should be an act filled with great drama and emotion but it didn't even choke me up much less bring a tear to my eye.

What the film really needs is character development and a clearly thought out plot. About a third of the way through we learn that the film is not about what we were lead to believe (the thwarting of evil) but Tarran's need to accept his position in life. This is a drastic change and the film never really recovers it's footing afterwards.

I'd like to see Disney attempt a film like this again some day because there is much they got right (the tone, character designs, general look of the film). I'd recommend The Black cauldron if you are a serious animation, Disney or fantasy film fan.