First shot of animation: establishing shot of Caer Dallben, pulling in with the multi plane camera

Maybe it’s just watching them back to back, but it’s hard not to see this as an intentional response to The Secret of Nimh. You want flashy effects? Dry ice perfectly composited into frame and complex shifting lighting. You want dark? Corpses everywhere and the mascot kills himself. You cast Derek Jacobi? We got John Hurt.

The effects really are fantastic. The technical moments aren’t as constant as in Nimh but they are exceptional. The lush, dank backgrounds and the number of simultaneously moving elements show The Black Cauldron was much more expensive to make. Every gesture and movement is big and broad and bouncy, except the controlled and deliberate power of the Horned King. The rotoscoped texture of the Cauldron also sets it apart, an otherworldly eldritch thing.

We’ve entered the Eisner/Katzenberg era and the last minute edit of this film is one of the big episodes of their early days. With the cuts for time characters just jump from one mood to another. Highlight reels instead of arcs. Eilonwy does nothing. It’s actually the return to the first four features people say they want: visually impressive and inventive, with a narrative that doesn’t live up to them.

I understand this being a flop at the time. When a new Disney animated feature only comes every 4 years, you want it to meet expectations, which don’t include flesh rent from the bones of a screaming man. But watching them all in sequence it’s so refreshing to have variety and ambition again. And in isolation, it’s a fun movie! It’s good actually!

I started reading the book series this is based on because I’m taking this seriously. None of that knowledge was put into this post.

Big man’s got my back. (Review dated 7/24/85, 3.5 stars)