Rating: 
Summary: IS a lot different from most you see
Review: The Black Cauldron is one of Disney's Best. Sure they always leave out some of very important people and happenings but you got to give them credit for not drasticallly changing anything or changing the story line so much that no one would know that this was the story. Also they make things more realistic. Like showing a little blood, or having a boy day dream a lot, or having a girl believe she's a princess.
Rating: 
Summary: A disppointing rendition of Lloyd Alexander's saga
Review: Lloyd Alexander wrote the PRYDAIN CHRONICLES,a well written collection of adventures containing many characters based on Celtic mythology. Alexander's work retains the original mystical flavor and morality of its mythological model. The Disney version telescopes the saga into a trivial adventure featuring two children, a nice pig,and a cute little animal mostly being chased by horrifying villains for reasons mostly unclear. Don't waste your money.
Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece For Everyone To See!
Review: I think everybody should see this movie! It is truely a Disney Masterpiece! END
Rating:
Summary: Disney wrost movie.
Review: Why bother with this wrost cartoon. There heads are not on tight. I let the MST3000 think about this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Not representative of the classic Disney quality.
Review: I work in animation and I have been scouring the video stores lately in search of anything that I may have missed earlier my entertainment is also my research. I picked this up, remembering that there had been great hype about it at one time, and having heard that the books were very good. My significant sweetie always refers to them whenever we discuss mythic structure for storytelling, she thinks they are a prime example.
Well I was disappointed. The drawings are good, the characters seem to have potential, but the quality just isn't there. The movie particularly falls short on settings. The backgrounds seem to have all been done cheaply and so do most of character sequences. The story is bland, and my sweetie frequently pointed out how the characters and major plot turns had been thinned or rushed in order to fit the story into the duration of the movie.
I wondered why, when I picked up the box and read that it had been a Disney movie they had not promoted it as they consistently do with their other old films. For instance I recently saw a poster with several princesses from Disney movies, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, but Princess Eilonwy, from this movie is not in it. Well after having watched it, it seems apparent that they want to distance themselves from it. Rightly so.
If all you want to do is sit your child down for an hour and a half to keep them quiet then this will probably fill the void as well as anything. In much the same way children will often take Kool Aid as readily as grape juice. But if you want to give them quality then I Suggest you keep looking. I enjoy "The Lion King," "Sword in the Stone" "The Jungle Book" and "Little Nemo in Slumberland" much more.
Rating:
Summary: Read the books first. Or only.
Review: Sorry, I hate to offend those of you who are 12 or under, but this movie is a piece of ridiculous plagiarism. It's a very bad, formulaic movie based on the classic Disney principles: see something good, make a movie, slap the title of the good thing on the movie and make the characters have vaguely the same dialogue in the movie as in the book/other movie/classic fairytale. Those of you who are already fellow admirers of Lloyd Alexander's five-part series will note that the movie takes the name of the second book. I suppose it was the easiest to rip off. For some reason the plot is centered on the black cauldron, which issue was brought up AND RESOLVED in only one of FIVE books. Gurgi is about the size of a terrier, while The Book of Three clearly describes him as about five feet tall. Gurgi plays out taking Taran's apple, but neglects choking him from behind first. Taran somehow comes upon that magic sword (the name of which I forget; it's been years since I've had access to the books) out of nowhere and doesn't try to get rid of it. The cauldron warriors appear in droves out of nowhere, rather than requiring actual people to go into the cauldron to become the deathless, soulless killing machines of the series. In case you haven't noticed, I'm describing something close to a Final Fantasy sequel, with Gurgi representing the Moogles. For those of you unfamiliar with the Final Fantasy series, that means the two things are almost wholly unrelated. Disney's production team of hacks wrote up their own sub-par script, drew up silly and ridiculous approximations of the original characters, and slapped a random book name on the whole thing. By adding occasional "authentic settings" (the quotes indicate sarcasm, rather than an actual quotation) in random places, like for instance the scene from the end of the third book, The Castle of Llyr, at the end of the movie, Disney somehow hoped to make this movie stand apart from the millions of dollars' worth of useless trash they churn out every year. They did not succeed. This movie is plagiarized crap and deserves to have every VHS, DVD, video CD, or hard drive carrying even the slightest scene from it in anything other than a tone of ridicule and disgust burnt. Read the Lloyd Alexander series instead; it'll be money better spent (or not spent, at the library).
Rating:
Summary: Disney's 25th animated film and first PG-rated movie
Review: Based on "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander, Disney's first PGrated film starts out well but loses steam about halfway through, when the action becomes bogged down and we lose interest in the characters. This is the story of taran, a pig keeper who is charged with keeping a clairvoyant pig safe from an evil-doer. Along the way taran meets friends and enemies, and learns more about life. The animation is interesting but the content is darker, and the film doesn't really do justice to a fine novel. This will be of interest if you like the book or want to see every Disney film, but it isn't particularly appropriate for young children or for those with a more casual interest.
DVD extras include a game, a Donald Duck cartoon, stills and a trailer. The film can be heard in English, French or Spanish, and subtitled in English.
Rating: 
Summary: Among the Bigger Dissapointments in the Movie World
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Black & Blue
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Effort 3 and a half.
Review: Epic medevil stories are hard to put on film, and are more challenging to put in an animated film. In the Black Cauldron Disney gave it's best. There are a few things though that make the film un-Disney. The characters are not as lovable and iconic on the exception of Gurgi in this movie. The animation is too different and it detatches itself from the other Disney films. The villain is too strong and powerful for a child audience and a little too mediocre for an older crowd. If you look at is as just another movie it really is not that bad, but when comparing it to past Disney effort that is where you run into problems.
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