THE BLACK CAULDRON (1985)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, psychological*


I had read one of Lloyd Alexander's "Prydain" fantasy-novels prior to seeing Disney's THE BLACK CAULDRON in its 1985 release. Even based on that one book, I thought CAULDRON was a terrible betrayal of the Alexander universe, even granting that his juvenile fantasies weren't on a par with the best in the genre. Upon getting a chance to look at the DVD release of CAULDRON, I hoped that time might prove more forgiving.

Nope. The movie, mostly derived from the first two books in the Prydain series, faithfully follows a number of the plot-threads of the narrative. Yet the story is still undermined by the screenwriters-- nine in all, including co-director Richard Rush-- and their utter inability to either (1) evoke the charm of Alexander's original characters, or (2) to come up with something equally interesting.

For decades, critics have caviled about the Disney animators' supposed tendency to ruin fairy-tales by reworking the stories to fit Disney's creative preferences. SLEEPING BEAUTY in particular has been attacked for injecting cutesy characters not present in any version of the original tale. Nevertheless, the 1959 film, in large part through its elaboration of evil fairy Maleficent, sustains its own vision of a Manichean struggle between light and dark, between cuteness and gruesome grimness.

CAULDRON's narrative certainly has that potential as well. Everyman hero Taran, through his responsibility to care for Hen Wen, a pig with oraclar talents, wants to escape his humdrum farm-life and become a great warrior. But when the pig runs away, Taran has to give pursuit-- and in so doing, he's pulled into an adventure far more perilous than he's fantasized about. The Horned King, apparently a sorcerer who's very nearly a demigod, seeks to master the world by finding the enchanted Black Cauldron, which can change dead soldiers into a zombie army. The evil king wants to use Hen Wen's psychic skills to uncover the Cauldron's location, and Taran, in the process of trying to keep the pig out of the wizard's hands, gathers to himself a small ensemble of fellow travelers: a furry little savage named Gurgi, a somewhat befuddled bard with the extremely Welsh name of Fflewddur Flamm, and a princess/love-interest named Eilonwy. In the Prydain books, Taran and his three friends give Alexander's simple quest-tale more charm than the plot possesses by itself.

The biggest problem with Disney's take on these characters, though, is that the writers had no faith in the way the characters interacted in the books. The movie constantly seeks to shove moments of Disneyesque jollity down the throats of the audience, and generally cuts the things that made the characters interesting.

To be sure, Taran and Gurgi function in the movie roughly as they do in the books: one the bland everyman character, the other the silly, language-mangling comic relief. Still, the movie manages to rob them of any semblance of spontaneity; they just seem to go through the motions. Flewddur, though he's introduced with reference to his habit of bending the truth, quickly devolves into just another comic sidekick, and for some unknown reason he's made into a much older man, though this has no impact on the narrative. Worst of all, Princess Eilonwy-- who really sells the books with her tendency to dither like a scatterbrain, even though she's perhaps more resourceful than Taran-- is simply dumbed down into a "Disney princess" even more standardized than those of Classic Disney.

Other magical figures-- a race of diminutive fairies, a trio of grotty witches-- are also played for low comedy, and end up detracting from the potential enchantment of the quest. The only character who works is the Horned King, formidably visualized and given great voicework by John Hurt, but he's not on screen enough to have the "Maleficent effect." In the course of the quest, Taran more or less gets the chance to be a great hero when he acquires a magical blade, but though he fights off a few goblins with the sword, the script emphasizes a pseudo-Tolkeinian "renunciation trope." Granted, Taran isn't that dynamic a hero in the books, but this routine motif saps the main character of any real vigor, with the result that CAULDRON fails to rate as a combative film. There's also an ensemble-character who appears to die to complete the quest, but even in 1985, I knew he was going to be revived by some sorcery, in deference to young kids who might've been overly depressed by such a tragic ending.