This Underrated Classic Almost Destroyed Disney
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- When you think about classic Disney movies you might think of Snow White, The Lion King, Little Mermaid, or any of the other timeless Disney classics. But at one point Disney attempted to expand their reach, and almost bankrupted themselves in the process. When The Black Cauldron was put into production, no one knew how long and expensive a project it was going to be. When The Black Cauldron first came out, it was seen as a major failure, but over time, countless Disney fans have discovered this underrated classic for the brilliance that it is.
#disney #disneyanimation #disneyplus #waltdisney #nerdstalgic
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What always annoys me is that when things fail (movies, tech, whatever). Execs decide the whole idea was "bad" rather than actually figuring out what went wrong & why audiences/ customers didn't like something. Often the failure is at the top- too much exec influence, bad marketing, etc. But they never realize that. If Black Cauldron was MARKETED to teens I think it would have done better. But you can't make a movie for teens & then give it to kids and expect it to work.
Used to at least. Nowadays they release failure after failure but keep trying to push the same thing.
Maybe it would've done better, but there's only so much you can do when the story sucks and is badly presented, while Gurgi and all of the side characters are terribly annoying. It would've been better if Gurgi had stayed dead from both a storytelling perspective and just to get rid of that nasty creep.
Some of that I think was reputation. Disney had never done a teen-focused animation before. Black Cauldron was also the first ever Disney animation to earn a PG rating. Since it was Disney, I'm guessing a lot of the audience did not notice or expect that kind of thing from Disney. It's a cartoon from Disney, how bad could it be? It would be 15 years before Disney released another PG rated animated movie (Atlantis).
@@michaelbarrington2806 Ironically, all of the Disney animated movies (including Pixar) these days get PG ratings. Hardly anything can manage to get a G rating anymore!
It was the 1986 success of The Great Mouse Detective that kept the Disney Animation alive to the Renaissance. Furthermore, the basic concepts and character types were reworked for Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, the TV animated series that established Disney as a revolutionary force in TV animation and began a Renaissance in that medium on its own.
Ratigan, the best Disney villain ever!
Good point! Also, I loved the Gummi Bears cartoon.
This is one of those "back in the day audiences were NOT primed for long format entertainment, and splitting the five books into five films would have been utter lunacy" moments in regard to cinema history
Additionally, the whole "cartoons are supposed to be for toddlers" mentality swooshed in not long after. Thanks, Jeffrey >:(
But they could still have just done one book. I'd bet that the book has a satisfying beginning middle and end, but they chose to do the whole series. It's like trying to cram all of the Lord of the Rings into one movie for no reason
The books are Elementary level. I read them. As an adult. Very boring and not much Substance.
I think that at the end, Jeffrey was also kinda tired of the Disney stuff too. That’s why he created shrek
Sometimes even one book is too much. Remember the mess that was Eragon? They crammed a book the size of 2 of those big VHS cases stacked into one movie, and it was horrid. Granted it had other issues too, and only about 90 seconds was worth watching.
They really only did book 2 anyways, and glimpses of book 1 were shoehorned into the beginning/middle of the movie to give the story credence and legs to hold it up.
They never tackle what happens in the 3 books that came after the death of the horned king. 🤷♀️
Returning the princess and Tarans' ultimate destiny were never touched on, just the part of his story where he confronts the horned king.
I have long wanted somebody to pick this franchise back up and give it the chance it deserves. ❤❤
The Black Cauldron is one of the few movies I wouldn’t mind a live action remake of.
Loved the movie and the books, although what Disney's produced is a pale shadow of Lloyd Alexander's story. As long as Disney is sitting on his IP, they might as well reboot it into something worthy of the source material.
I di appreciate the movie making me interested in reading the books as a kid tho
1000%. I never considered the stories dark, they were epic. And when I got old enough to read the Mabinogion I got an even clearer picture of the history. I thought Lloyd Alexander was fabulous, his books were approachable and readable for anyone.
Modern Disney doing something that isn't boring trash? Hahahaha that's a laugh!
If they're going to reboot it, they should do it in live action so as not to confuse it with this embarrassing animated first attempt.
I was born in 1991 and I remember LOVING this movie as a kid. I’d replay the tape over and over and fall asleep to it. Lol
same! I was born in 1996, and with 8 yrsd old loved this movie and also had it on vhs
Me too! Born in 94. Such an underrated gem!
91 kid also. I remember unwrapping the vhs box one Christmas and loved it.
Me too! Also a 91 baby
Oh my gosh you and
Me both。 the soundtrack is just phenomenal even the creepy bits
Favorite Disney film. The opening scene where he pretends a stick is a sword is basically my childhood. In 2019 I became a world champion with swords, and my interest in them can be traced back to my first viewing of the film.
Now this is a story that totally deserves the live-action remake treatment! I would totally go for it. If Disney decides to reimagine it into a full R rated broad scaled and overall consistent piece of entertainment....
Taran Wanderer in live action would especially be awesome
With the amount of remakes that have been released, announced, or even just rumoured, I'm sure they'll get to it eventually. It's just gonna be more of a waiting game than usual
Make it a series, there's 5 damn books, that's 5 seasons, 6-8 episodes per season
The sad irony of remakes is that the movies that would be the best choices to remake, those that were mediocre or even bad but had unrealized potential a remake could bring out, are also the movies least likely to get a remake because the executives that actually make those decisions only hear the 'mediocre or even bad' part and immediately stop listening.
Disney only wants to remake stuff they're certain will be a success. It's financially a smart decision, but not the best creatively.
If Disney or another studio, live action or animated, wants to do this story justice then they should be allowed to but this version should not be the starting point. It has too much baggage. Disney learned a lot of lessons from this failure but not all of them were the right lessons.
Right, instead of getting better, they made things worse with their 3D and live action remakes, and getting rid of 2D animation, the true magic of Disney.
Honestly, compressing multiple books into ONE movie was a BAD idea. Among other things, it REALLY causes a constant sense of "Did I miss something?" throughout the film. Case in point: Princess Eilonwy just showing up out of nowhere, saying she's a princess...and of course The Horned King later calls her a "scullury made." A bit of backstory for her would've been nice! As it stands she's little more than a proto-Hermionie. (And don't get me started on the witch deliberately squishing a frog-ified character in between her GAZOOMBAS, in full view of the audience....)
"No longer in danger of firing all it's animators"
But they'll more than likely do it anyway.
As a child scared me as a teen my 4th favourite
Not only is it an interpretation of the Welsh “The Mabinogion” a mythological story rewritten to be child friendly”. It is also a history of Welsh mythology from thousands of years ago. The written seris, the book of three, the black cauldren, The Castle of Llyr, Traren Wader, and The Hight King. Were every bit as epic as the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Just like those books had to tolerate crappy interpretation to cartoons. This series is based on the Myth of Wales and it deserves a movie series that takes it as seriously as the most current Lord of the Rings series! And I hope they do it in my life time. I loved those books as a kid and have given them to my kids, their friends and their children as well.
When my siblings and I were kids, we would sprawl on my parents’ bed while my mom read us the series. Always sad the series doesn’t get more attention.
I was a little sad to see Disney return to Narnia when the opportunity to adapt Prydain was right there
i watched it as a kid alongside the sword in the stone. Cauldron back then was my favourite film and I watched it a lot. It would be a dream come true to get a full 2d animated remake or an entire saga of the whole story. It was the most engaging thing I watched and i loved it as much as lord of the rings
They will only greenlight 3d or "live action" remakes these days-and that scares me.
Another animated video from Nerdstalgic, that illustrates the importance of a film by drawing some unique conclusions.
I’ve always imagined an animated Dark Souls would be just like TBC. They have such a similar creepy, medieval vibe
This is my favourite Disney cartoon.. Cant wait for all the books to be developed, but hopefully by a decent studio who will do them justice.
3:20 I feel so much like I’m watching a cartoon version of Frodo Baggins and Sméagol! I mean, Gurgi’s voice sounds like a spot-on impression of Gollum. (Though obviously this movie came out before the LOTR movies)
I went to see this disaster at the theater. Less than halfway through, I distinctly remember saying to myself, "They wasted a 65mm negative on THIS?" The writing was abysmal, the characters grating. Even Bernstein's score was (for me) a rare misfire, as if he was trying to give the film a grandeur that the rest of the production had already kneecapped.
Honestly 1980's Disney That Wasn't Touchstone Pictures doesn't do It for me I loved Splash, Three Men and a Baby, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Turner and Hooch , Even Baby Secret Of The Lost Legend was entertaining to me to Watched that alot back then
Thanks to Disney + I've watched the Black Cauldron and I liked it. I'm a 90s kid. My favorite movies are FernGully, Once Upon a Forest, and many other Don Bluth movies of the time. They were dark with realistic themes and most I wish I could get on DVD or Blu-ray. So the Black Cauldron for me was quite good. The movie that freaked me out as a kid was Watership Down.
"no longer in danger of firing all of it's animators" -- really tempting the hand of fate are we ?
Wow…i loved this movie as a kid, it was in a Disney VHS collection. I adored Taran! Did not realise it was based on Welsh Folklore till now. Most of the original voice cast are dead now 😢
The timing with Creeper saying, "We did it sire! We did it! I-I-I mean, you!" Cuz it really was him lol
Saw the Black Cauldron in theaters, and it is one of my favorite movies. Just wasn't right for the time.
Wasn't forgotten by me, either. I remember seeing it in the theaters. Looking at the release year, I guess that would make me 9 years old.
I haven't seen it since, but I recall being enthusiastic to see this in the theaters and loving it when I did. And I was 10 at the time, so well younger than the teen audience it was directed at.
I think it’s time Disney gave this franchise another shot.
I thought to myself this week how great it would be to see a video essay on this film. Thanks for posting.
It wasn't a great adaptation, so it largely missed the book fans, and on its own a lot of the characters were rather bland, there were pacing issues, and disjointed scenes. It makes sense to me why it didn't do well, despite a lot of very good animation. That said, I really would like a live action adaptation of this series, actually based on the books and not the Disney version.
My sister and I both loved this movie when it came out in the UK. We each had the sticker book!
I'm sure no one remembers this but me, but there was a Black Cauldron adventure game by Sierra and it was pretty cool.
it lost at the box office to THE CARE BEARS!!! i don't know how you recover from THAT. maybe instead of remaking beloved movies in live action, Disney should do this. course Treasure Planet and Atlantis have their cult fans who would love those in live action
Except it isn't if you actually watched the video. It's based on book written before Zelda was even conceived. Not to mention that this movie was already in post production long before Zelda was even released.
I'm pretty sure it's not an adaptation of all five books... just the one with some changes and additions. I haven't seen it in years, but the Chronicles of Prydain was my favorite book series as a child. I remember seeing the animation and being profoundly disappointed.
Rewatched this recently and it feels like a horror movie!! Also some of the special effects are so cool imo! This movie deserves a live action remake!!
I decided to sit through it once, and it's not underrated nor a classic. It's just as bad as everyone says it is, and that's before you consider the harm it did as a poor partial adaptation of an actual set of literary classics (or so I've heard, as I haven't read them), "The Chronicles of Prydain."
While adaptation compression is far from the only problem with the movie, it did teach moviemakers the dangers of compressing a literary series too much when adapting it to film, even if the rare very thick single book actually requires two movies to adapt properly. As such, movie series based on book series like "The Lord of the Rings," "Twilight," "The Hunger Games," and "Harry Potter" (well, except for movies 4 & 5 in the latter case) have since received pretty good adaptations in terms of both accuracy to the source material and overall movie quality. In fact, "The Hobbit" was given so much room to breathe and added filler that it got 3 movies when it really only needed 2 of them.
I think BC should be redone as a series rather than a single movie.
It didn’t fail at all, I saw that in cinema in 1985 in Bruxelles and I had the album sticker 😊😊😊
Black Cauldron is one of my all time favorite Disney movies, it deserves more love!
Still my favorite Disney movie, even if it almost ruined them. It has been since I was a kid. I loved the story, the characters, and the art. I still watch it every once in a while to relive the nostalgia of watching it for the first time.
I think if they were to do black cauldron again either do it as a show so you can tell each book as say a season with 12 eps or multiple movies
I watched it for the first time last year and I thought it was pretty bad. It had potential but the writing and plotting were pretty terrible, leading to really strange moments that made it very hard to get invested. The characters were pretty unlikable and too trope ridden for me to take them too seriously.
I appreciate your comment. Most people in the comments were kids when they saw this movie (myself included) and I don’t think they were old enough to understand what was going on other than it was visually striking. But I think that’s mostly the reason they like it.
Nice to get a different perspective on the film from someone that hadn’t had previous knowledge.
This movie really only suffers from a pacing issue
I think the film is beautiful and charming and it's shame its production was so mired in drama and that it wasn't well received.
I have a mini poster autographed by the animators. John Byner refused to sign it. I saw it at a Vegas test screening
Damn! The book series makes the Lord of the Rings trilogy look like a mini series!
underrated classic all the way! The movie was a bit intense for me when I was little, but when I was older, I could really enjoy the spooky aesthetic. it’s a Great Halloween movie!
I’d actually like to see the book series adapted into a five film saga or a miniseries. I would definitely prefer the five film saga, but I just don’t have a lot of faith it would be made in a way where the story is compelling and the characters are likable.
3:30 But tbh, when you watch the character animation, the Nine Old Men were right. I love The Black Cauldron as a flawed classic, but we have to admit the animators improved considerably by the time The Little Mermaid was produced.
I LOVED this movie as a child. I was surprised to find out most people did not like it.
“”Black Cauldron is the worst Disney Animation of all times!””
WISH 2024: Hold my beer 🍺!!!
I was 7 when it hit theaters, and I loved it. Not sure where all the disapproval comes from
I've been diving deep into classic movies lately, but I'm also curious about how film reviews factor into it. With the global economy being so unpredictable, do you think it affects how classic movies are perceived and reviewed?
I agree that the movie does deserve a revisit from Disney. On a side note, I wish people would actually watch videos before commenting rather than racing to be the first to comment. Its a strange practice, to say the least.
The Sierra On-line game was so much better than the movie. It played like a disnified version of Kings Quest.
I loved this movie as a kid. Always gravitated towards the dark stuff
I like this movie but I am curious what a live action version would look like.
I owned Black Cauldron but never finished it because the cover alone gave me nightmares 😅 But I love it now
I actually really love the Black Couldron, despite it kind of being a rip-off of Lord of the Rings. However, this is one film that a Disney live-action remake would pique my interest.
Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company did okay
They took a series of books and turned it into one movie. It needed more love than it did.
8:50 you misunderstand, they aint doing that because movies actually would benefit from a remake
They should have made into a live action movie.
I was always a fan. I remember the trailer on random VHs tapes and the build up time 🥲
My favorite book series sof all time. I would make live action movies after each book. I would do the full details of the whole series. I would kill to see the high king... Or Taran wanderer.
There have been way worse movies to come out of Disney since The Black Cauldron that have stained their reputation even harder.
"Too Dark for Disney?" They made Black Whole, and that is a Dark Movie.
Last year, I decided to celebrate Disneys centennial by watching this movie for the first time. And overall, I think it's good.
Can't help but wonder if the version that sent kids running from the theater would have gone on to become a cult classic once the culture caught up with the idea of animation for more grown up audiences.
I think I'm gonna rewatch it now...
I love The Black Cauldron and I loved it as a kid.
I wouldn't mind a live action TV Show of the book series. I feel that if they aim at the right public they would have success. The stories are good, just need better production.
In this day and age?
It terrified me as a child but I watched it repeatedly
They should let Tim Burton have another go and make it a stop motion film haha
He asked for the outtakes ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
This is one of the few movies that i think would be beter remade i think the audance can handle it the materal better now then how it was back then
Underrated gem
Why, just because it's dark?
@@erikbihari3625it does a good job sticking to the source material
@@biguy617. Maybe, but professional second oppinions are needed here.
"When The Black Cauldron first came out, it was seen as a major failure, but over time, countless Disney fans have discovered this underrated classic for the brilliance that it is."
No, absolutely not. The Black Cauldron was an absolutely garbage movie. It didn't stick to the source material, and combined several books into one. It was clearly done (or miss-done) by people who didn't understand the source material. It remains one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and it DESERVES that rating.
lets get the remake
This is really the only Disney movie where I'll say "The book was better."
And I mean WAY better.
Now they just fire their animators for fun and to make line go up
It failed because it wasn’t a animated show.
I"ve read all 5 books.
There isn't much Story. It's an elementary level read.
I would’ve loved to tea the books.
Read the books
You can probably find them on the net
They thought the black cauldron was bad because they didn't see Wish.
Underrated Classic
Watched it, didnt really like it, cool-looking villains and art, didnt feel particularly dark tho
Video isn’t going to mention that Andy Serkis totally ripped off the voice of Gurgi to use for Gollum in LotR? Also, where are you getting the information that the animators didn’t like each other? I’ve never heard that before.
Wasn't The Hobbit and LotR made in the 70s? I could be mistaken of course.
@@bezoticallyyours83 The animated versions were, not the movies.
@@timz9862 yeah that's the ones I meant
No. Disney shouldn’t remake anything.
I think the movie was fine. But I watched it for the first time in my upper 30s on Disney+.
3:22 Gollum
It's better than Wish...
Yeah I heard it was mediocre
Black cauldron didnt throw disney animation into chaos for 2 decades lol little mermaid was 4 years after it
With the way Disney is today they would remake it as a live action film with black or Latino actors, the hero would be recast as a lesbian woman or a transgender woman who use to be a man.
"Was quickly forgotten by audiences..." Well it wasn't forgotten by me! I had a reoccurring nightmare about the all the skeletons being resurected from the time I was 5 till I was 11!
I had the same problem with ET.
I had recurring nightmares about the horned king! This may be the most influential Disney movie on me. Time for a re-watch
The worst part is, since this film flopped, no other media has covered The Chronicles of Prydain since and has fallen out of most public consciousness. Very sad since they are very good books.
I read the entire 5-book series back in elementary school and always thought they'd make fantastic movies, animated or otherwise. If Disney still owns the film rights, I think they could give it a good honest shot in live-action. They seem to throw everything else at the wall these days, why not?
I've read the Chronicles of Narnia, but I've never heard of the Chronicles of Prydain. I'll have to see if I can buy them and be able to read them. If they made cartoon continuing movies, like they did with the live action Narnia and Harry Potter movies, maybe the Black Cauldron would've been more successful.
I really don't understand why studios insist on turning multiple books into a single movie.
They finally stopped doing that with the live action Lord of the Rings (RIP animated LotR), and now they've gone in the reverse direction and take a single book and turn it into multiple movies.
And then they stretch one book into three movies with Hobbit.
@@kennyleung9909
Did you not finish reading my comment?
Franchises are a big risk, they don't want to compromise to so sequels, the only one was Star Wars bc IJ were autoconclusive movies, now with the sucess of HP or Marvel studios finally they see the potential
They did that with the movie of a series of unfortunate events. Though there is now a Netflix series as well, the movie (with Jim Carrey) was a combination of the first three books.
Idc if the Netflix series is more faithful to the books or generally regarded as better, I grew up with the movie. And I have read most of the books.
@@josef.ramoss.8457
You have shown your age and ignorance with this comment
The person shown onscreen at 2:53 is actually Roy E Disney, not Roy O Disney - he was the son of Roy O Disney and never worked as Disney CEO, though he was senior in the company
Roy E sounds like the updated version of Roy O...
The biggest failing of the movie is that the story barely makes any sense and while key points are similar to the book, it feels like it takes place in a tiny and empty world, whereas the books have excellent world building. If they ever remake it I hope it's the full series and not just the first book, as I would love to see how they handle Taran Wanderer.
Taran Wanderer was my favorite of the 5. I read it multiple times throughout school.
@@azraelle6232 Same. I loved the quieter, more contemplative tone, the memorable characters, the openly metaphorical plot points all about how to figure out what kind of person to be when you realize you’re not who you always thought you were. It’s a universal theme, and seems right in line with the kinds of movies teens are responding well to these days.