Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

What A Cartoon Movie! - The Black Cauldron (Patreon)

Published:
2020-07-27 03:59:01
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Downloads

Content

The poll for this month's What A Cartoon Movie! was "Disney Theatrical Flops," so it's only fair that their hugest flop won the battle for the biggest loser. Yes, this time around we're talking about The Black Cauldron, the 1985 feature that was supposed to usher in a new era of Disney animation, but went on to become utterly forgotten and then shelved for 13 years before seeing any sort of home release. Listen in and learn how it wasn't executive meddling that adulterated what could have been an epic fantasy hit, and how Disney's animation staff perhaps bit off more than they could chew with this extravagantly animated and extremely expensive treatment of a five-book series. And, of course, you'll also meet Gurgi, the vile imp who will make your blood run cold whenever he's on the screen! All this and more in this month's extra-long movie podcast!

Files

Comments

Harry Thornton

Bit of a correction for Bob: Disney did keep the re-releases up throughout the '90s, but it WAS on the decline as VHS was growing in popularity, and first ended with a Little Mermaid re-release in 1997. They tried some IMAX versions of their '90s films in the early 2000s, then some 3D re-releases in the early 2010s, but they all fizzled out after some initial success. Hilariously Henry's experience with Fantasia was close to mine: I was bored as a kid because of its sheer length (2 hours!), but the difference for me was when I revisited it later, I was in tears. Yeah, I'm THAT kind of sap. I'm glad you guys didn't repeat the infamous "it lost to the Care Bears movie!" claim from Waking Sleeping Beauty, that's been repeated often in internet listicles and clickbait and the like. Funny you should mention Lord of the Rings, their choice of adapting Prydain was basically a fallback from their inability to got the rights to LOTR, which they actually WOULD get through Miramax in the '90s (which they owned at the time) acquiring them under... Harvey Weinstein. I'm also glad you gave Ron Miller fair credit for his contributions with Touchstone etc., he's often ignored and joked about by the company itself. I'm scottish on my mother's side as well, holy shit! And the biggest irony ever: My mother, red hair and all, could not STAND Brave. She thought it was terrible. But the subject of "screwed over Disney Princesses" is really fascinating. Like one big omission is Giselle from the animation/live-action hybrid Enchanted, solely because that is technically the likeness of Amy Adams and they don't want to pay her. Also Anna and Elsa are, shockingly, not included because Frozen merch is just its own thing. My favourite part from that Quibi article you mention: Katzenburg, during the production of Beauty and the Beast, complaining that a piece of architecture "needs to look more French, like Botticelli" (it makes sense if you're an art geek) Shockingly, that "why can't you just do X???" mentality can still happen in modern times: When Tom Hooper on Cats didn't understand how VFX worked and demanded the artists just complete every shot w/o animatics or anything like that. Like not to brag or anything, but the fact I know more about the process of animation and VFX than an OSCAR-WINNING DIRECTOR is horrifying. For me the most horrifying thing in a G-rated film is either the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, OR the donkey stuff in Pinocchio... I'm fully onboard with you guys watching that for WAC. As for the cut footage, here's a tragic story: One of the producers DID have an uncut print, but lost it on a move. I too am SO annoyed at how Disney revises its logo in later re-releases of their films. And I love the 2006 logo too, but replacing the older logo with that is outright revisionist history.

Frank Grimes

My reaction was the same as Henry, learning about all those Alpha Omega sequels. I only found out about the film franchise cause the nostalgia critic did a recent video on one of the sequels. It's the new age version of a Land Before Time with even more sequels than it. ..and parents definitely still buy DVDs and those films...streaming hasn't completely taken over yet.

Devin Hoffarth

ok I haven't listened to it yet entirely cause this is distracting the heck outta me but - There's some weird FARTING sound in the audio and it's really distracting. Is it just on my end? It's not a bug or a hiccup since I hear it on playbacks too but is anyone else hearing anything off in the audio? Hope to hear feedback soon!

To Boldly Joe... Moore

Hi, guys. Enjoying the show so far but felt like you short-changed Nigel Hawthorne a little in the history section. He was an amazing actor who won many awards throughout his life including an Academy Award nomination for his role in "The Madness of King George". He also faced struggles with depression and was publicly outed as gay, late in his life. Perhaps I'm taking this a little too personally but I felt writing him off a "was in ten episodes of Yes, Prime Minister" didn't really do the man justice. Especially when he was the co-lead in every episode of the classic comedy series (which is still politically relevant over 30 years later). Maybe if you review Disney's Tarzan you can talk about him more then (where he has a much better role). ^_^ Keep up the great work.

Ben Fraser

My first exposure to the Black Cauldron was the PC adventure game by Al Lowe. It was on a hand me down computer that my family received in the early nineties. I had no idea it was based on anything until I found a copy of the book in my elementary schools library, which had a “now a major motion picture from Disney” cover, which blew my mind. I loved the game, but was a little too young to understand the books. So when the VHS was finally announced, I was super excited to watch the movie that one of my fave games was based on, and I was pretty disappointed by how boring it turned out to be. The game was cool though, sort of King’s Quest lite. If I recall correctly, there were multiple endings, including one where Gurgi dies and isn’t resurrected, granting the wishes of Henry and Bob!

y2kpodcst

just want to make one correction dinosaurs was not the second highest vote count it was actually treasure planet

Gayest Episode Ever

Maybe this is a Mandela effect situation, but I feel like I saw this movie somehow. Born in 1982, so I couldn’t have seen it in the theaters, but somehow I know I saw this because when I saw Star Wars for the first time, I kind of thought Darth Vader reminded me of the Horned King. We did have the Disney Channel for a period and I saw some weird stuff, like Unico and the bad cut of Nausicaa. So maybe they aired it at some point?

Devin Hoffarth

I'm glad Bob pointed out something I've always felt about this movie: how it kinda feels like a proto Zelda. The skeleton warriors feel like Stalfos. Taran and Eilonwy are Link and Zeldaesq. The magic sword. Even the side characters kinda feel like they could be NPC's in a Zelda game. Miyamoto doesn't strike me as the kind of person to really care about a story (I dunno where I get THAT impression from...) so I could totally see him watching this movie and just being captivated by the aesthetics. See a brown haired boy swing a magic sword around with a blonde girl there and yea that'd make for a fun videogame. From what you said the movie also got oddly pushed in Japan which lends further credence to the idea he might've watched it. If that is the case then I guess it's a good thing he chose to borrow from the one movie Disney doesn't care about at all. Saves any messy legal shenanigans.

crystalhearts

I had a vivid memory while listening to this of booing the TV when Gurgi was resurrected

Callum Roper

Parents aren't buying the Alpha&Omega movies, furries are. A&O has a huge furry fanbase.

Chris Dobson

Finally watched the movie and listened to y'all's podcast. I think you do a great job of going over the problems with it, but I do think maybe you're a bit too harsh on the novel. They're kids books, way closer to the Hobbit or a non-religious C.S. Lewis, and I really enjoyed them. That said, the problem is pretty obvious: these are kids books about an assistant pig-keeper that are mostly built around humor and the hero does seem to win a lot thanks to blind luck (the real protagonist of the first book is not even in the movie, it's basically an Aragorn-type who gets the magic sword and beats the horned king off-screen while Taran's stuck in a dungeon), and for some reason they decided this would be their "dark, edgy" story. But they can't help but keep all the goofy encounters and keep broad plot beats: meeting the fairy folk, multiple pig rescues, etc., and the result is this weird attempt at being "serious" and scary, but with a protagonist that's fundamentally a sidekick and called an "Assistant Pig Keeper" over and over, and then when they give him three more comic sidekicks, the villain has to become a tremendous moron to somehow still lose. That said, I didn't hate the movie, because it did look cool and the advantage of it being so short is the plot moves pretty quickly. I definitely do see Zelda vibes: the magic sword is basically the Master Sword, the design of the fairies, and even the falling into secret grottos to run into them, and Eilonwy's design and magic use (in the books) definitely parallels Zelda. Escaping the dungeon of the castle definitely felt right out of LttP, while the tower collapsing was reminiscent of OoT. Anyway I definitely agree it's a mess, but I think it's a mess because it's adapting too much of the humor and plot of a light story, while fundamentally trying to change the tone. As an aside, I think y'all are unnecessarily hard on the Welsh names, I don't think you'd have the same reaction to Moana characters having Polynesian names.

Nick Nobel

BOB: What is that HORRIBLE dog creature? HENRY: Why that's Gurgi! He helps Taran in his quest. BOB: Tell him I hate him!

TruckNuttz 420

I thought that I saw this movie as a kid, but as it turns out it was Sword in the Stone. If you look at the main character it seems like they tried to recycle the character.

Lockerus

Going to be real, I hear zero difference between Gurgi and Gollum. I’m surprised there wasn’t an article or something about the similarities.

mavrick

so is Eilonwy a princess or not? Horned King actually refers to her as a scullery maid. While you could maybe argue he called her that because he kidnapped her and turned her into one, he calls Taran a pig keeper immediately before that. So it's possible Eilonwy actually is a scullery maid. Her outfit looks more maid-like rather than princess-like as well and her ability to mend pants with sewing, while not impossible for a princess, would certainly make sense for a servant. this might explain why shes never with the other Disney princesses. It sort of makes sense in this version of the story, she only imagines herself being a princess, the same way Taran imagines himself being a knight, creating a great similarity between the two of them. However, I looked into it and in the books she IS a princess. confusingly muddled just like the rest of the plot.

RVG

I'm only a few months older than Bob, but I'm pretty sure this actually was the 1st movie I saw in theaters. I'd thought it had been a nightmare years later because it totally disappeared from the face of the earth and none of my siblings remember it. I was 16 when it came out on home video and I finally realized it was real. I haven't rewatched it in it's entirety, but this is the exact sort of film I wish Disney would do a live action remake for: a film that didn't work to begin with. I don't see the point in the remakes of the near perfect classics. I'm sure they make an ass ton of money on them, but this seems like something with source material worth revisiting, the chance to right a past misstep, and perhaps spawn a franchise all in one fell swoop.

Tricia

It’s dangerous to go alone, take this! (Psychic Pig)