[HN Gopher] Disney 1985 film The Black Cauldron was an experimen...
___________________________________________________________________
Disney 1985 film The Black Cauldron was an experiment that failed
Author : tigerlily
Score : 37 points
Date : 2025-08-08 19:52 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| duxup wrote:
| As far as I know The Black Cauldron is not referenced in their
| parks and if anything some fantasy land (outside say the princess
| castle and sword in the stone) would be great.
|
| I actually think it was a good movie. The airy, strange, but very
| capable princess seemed like an interesting change from the
| typical Disney princess.
|
| Granted I get it, people had expectations of Disney movies and
| that one was not it.
| svieira wrote:
| If you haven't read the books, she is even better in them.
| indigodaddy wrote:
| The Taran book series is incredible. Basically anything that
| Lloyd Alexander's pen ever touched was gold.
| jaggederest wrote:
| Fun fact about the name Lloyd, it's an anglicization of the
| Welsh word Llwyd, meaning grey, and was originally an
| epithet applied for being the color grey, or grey haired,
| or in some cases brown and related colors. So it's a bit
| like the last name Brown or White, but has become first
| name, oddly enough.
|
| And the welsh word is pronounced with that particular welsh
| "Ll" sound, a fricative around the tongue, but the word
| Lloyd lost that pronunciation - but not before we had
| alterations like Floyd and Fludd.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_(name)
| RyanOD wrote:
| My all-time favorite series.
| inkm0th wrote:
| The Horned King used to appear in Tokyo Disneyland.
| Unfortunately earthquake regulations got him, so you are
| correct today.
|
| https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Cinderella_Castle_Mystery_Tou...
| floren wrote:
| > The Black Cauldron also had a PG rating, a first for Disney
|
| If you ignore 1979's The Black Hole (another flop)
| criddell wrote:
| I immediately thought of John Carter.
| rangerelf wrote:
| I loved that movie, and everyone I know at least liked it, a
| lot.
|
| It flopped because of The Lorax, and THAT was massively
| disappointing.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| It also had poor advertising and, reportedly, the director
| overestimated John Carter's name recognition as a
| character. Yes, he was a character created by Edgar Rice
| Burroughs (a name people _might_ recognize, but not be able
| to place) who also created Tarzan (a name people _would_
| recognize). But no connection was brought up between Tarzan
| (popular, well-known) and John Carter (unknown by the time
| of the movie).
| pchristensen wrote:
| I didn't see that when it came out, heard it was a flop, and
| disregarded it for years. Then we watched it over winter
| break a few years ago, and it's basically the same as Phantom
| Menace - pretty good action, pretty good but dated effects,
| pretty ok but miscast lead actor, pretty clunky plot. It
| might have lost a ton of money, but it's like a B- movie at
| worst.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| But that's the thing. The B-movie budget usually lends a
| hand in doling some B-movie charms. But Carter didn't, it
| felt so bland. Maybe I should give it another chance?
| pchristensen wrote:
| If you enjoy the Phantom Menace for any reason, you'll
| probably enjoy John Carter.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Would a flop been able to give us such classic lines as "In,
| Through, Beyond"?
|
| according to this list, the first was Treasure Island 1950 with
| a couple more before The Black Hole.
|
| https://doctordisney.com/disney-movies-list-of-years-running...
| floren wrote:
| > Would a flop been able to give us such classic lines as
| "In, Through, Beyond"?
|
| And don't forget Ernest Borgnine! My elementary school
| library had the read-along picture book and it always stuck
| with me, so when I saw it on Hulu recently I had to give it a
| watch.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Even in '79, Ernest looked old, but that's probably the
| youngest I've seen Robert Forster. I don't remember when I
| saw this compared to Star Wars, but I remember really
| liking the little robot with his beat up companion. I also
| remember my mom talking about being somewhat shocked by the
| gore when the "evil" robot used his spinning hands.
| snapetom wrote:
| Tron in 1982 also got a PG rating. Quite controversial in my
| mother's circle of parenting friends. "How can Disney release a
| PG movie like that?" said one parent.
| compiler-guy wrote:
| Worth remembering that PG in those days was a very broad
| rating. _Airplane_ was rated PG and includes a topless scene.
| Indiana Jones and the Tempke of Doom was rated PG and was
| pretty gory for the time. Both would get PG-13 or maybe even
| R ratings today.
| 9dev wrote:
| An R rating for... displaying a female chest?
| indigodaddy wrote:
| PG had plenty of that in the 80s, see Irreconcilable
| Differences (actually a pretty good movie)
| compiler-guy wrote:
| Not saying it is proper or moral or whatever. But that
| will do it these days. See the auto reply bot here that
| explains it.
|
| https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-take-for-a-movie-to-
| get-a...
| babypuncher wrote:
| Common misconception on the part of the writer, The Black
| Cauldron was their first _animated_ feature to receive the
| rating. It was a notable distinction at the time, and the
| original cut before Katzenberg took a hatchet to the project
| would have pushed the rating fairly hard.
| kazinator wrote:
| For a second my brain was mixing this up with The Dark Crystal.
| rogierhofboer wrote:
| Sierra made an adventure game of it:
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cauldron_(video_ga...
|
| https://archive.org/details/msdos_Black_Cauldron_The_1986
| arscan wrote:
| I have many fond memories of this game. Of course it had all
| the issues that existed in that genre -- in particular it was
| easy to get stuck... forever. But being a kid back then with a
| lot of free time and not many other distractions it was great.
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| Don't suppose anyone has the archive.org link for the floppy
| images? There are several, but it's unclear which is the most
| definitive/canonical.
| orblivion wrote:
| It's the first I'd ever heard of this story. Played it with my
| friend at the public library. Never watched the Disney movie
| but ended up reading the series.
| mattmaroon wrote:
| I loved that movie as a kid and after re-watching as an adult I
| still do.
| skywal_l wrote:
| First movie I ever saw when my parents brought me to the theater.
| I was a little kid. Haven't seen it since and still remember the
| awful skeletons parade.
| kristopolous wrote:
| They mentioned The Little Mermaid. Divine was slated to voice
| Ursula ... I wonder how that would have changed the legacy.
| tiahura wrote:
| The article claims it failed because it was too dark, my
| recollection is that felt stiff and klunky.
| autoexec wrote:
| It's got some incredible animation. The story and studio
| infighting was what hurt the film, but it's still worth a watch
| if you haven't seen it. It really should have been a better
| movie. Targeting older audiences was a good idea and fantasy was
| a big genre. On the animation side The Last Unicorn was a recent
| success that was also darker fantasy than what disney was
| offering (fire and ice too, although that didn't get as wide an
| audience) and in live action Legend released that same year and
| Willow came after and both attracted a lot of fans. I really
| wonder what that movie might have been if Disney had been fully
| committed to the idea.
| RyanOD wrote:
| Competing against National Lampoon's European Vacation, a re-
| release of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and Back to the Future?
|
| Ouch...that's tough sledding.
| RyanShook wrote:
| If you're interested in the "dark age" of Disney history, I
| recommend the book After Disney by Neil O'Brien -
| https://amzn.to/4mvMxgX
| niemandhier wrote:
| The Taran books hold a special place in my heart. I read the
| first one when I was 12 and I immediately identified with the
| protagonist.
|
| I read the last one last year for the first time aged 40, and
| like me the character had changed. I doubt I would have
| understood the message of that last book of the series when I was
| a kid, a message of the futility of violence and the importance
| of people.
|
| There are so many beautiful things in that book, what touched me
| most is: The epitaph on the tombstone of their greatest warrior
| is: "Here lies Coll, grower of turnips", since he himself
| considered growing things his greatest achievement.
| relaxing wrote:
| Surprised there's no mention of how they chickened out and
| butchered the ending.
|
| (mild spoilers)
|
| Someone needs to sacrifice themselves to destroy the great evil.
| The book has one of the human champions die, but Disney decided
| one of the non-human fantastic creatures would do the deed
| instead.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-08-08 23:01 UTC)