My Disney Birth Movie
'The Black Cauldron'...certainly not known in animated Disney movie lore as being the crowd pleaser and classic like 'The Little Mermaid' or 'Cinderella'. All the same, I have always had a fondness for it, mayhap because I read Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles where subject material of 'The Black Cauldron' film covers the first two novels, The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron. I absolutely loved the stories, the characters, and "themes" if you want to call it that, but most of all I still remember appreicating the characters. It instilled in me an undeveloped interest/love for Welsh myth. Also it was just a good story about growing up, self-realizations and just lots of good stuff like that.
ANYWAY. Surprise of complete surprises, the Disney version was on television today and I watched practically the whole thing. My thoughts/feelings, which contains spoilers for anyone who has not watched/read The Black Cauldron, can be divided among...
* the music was beautiful! I was really stunned by how nice it was, so much so that I downloaded the soundtrack off iTunes
* the background/scenery also impressed me. The nature scenes were lovely, the Horn King's castle was delightfully creepy, and Morva was nice and swampy. Splendid!
* the cauldron-born were well done, just for the disturbance factor of undead warriors walking around. Oddly the serious tone, blood spurting from the cauldron, and other such things won my approval just for the artistry
* the credits were also lovely style-wise; that is the images were a nice blend between a painting and sketch style. If I find I have a DVD copy of the movie I'll try to take screencaps as the movie seems rather lost to the internet...
* Elionwy is always love in the movie! "Oh dear, I was so hoping for someone to help escape. Oh well." (in response to Taran's mumbling statement that he's not a great warrior but an assistant pig-keeper). I like her because she's sensible enough, though she's oddly supportive of Taran for no good reason that I can see (makes better sense in the books as they both grow up)
* Gurgi was always love(ly). I actually laughed at his "attacking" Fflewddur "Old man...fall down" *starts pushing at Flewddur's side* "Get up, get up" You had to see it.
* I have also always been fond at the sacrific (so it seems to him) that Taran makes by giving up his magic sword for the black cauldron, mostly because he gives up something that is precious to him in exchange for something that is deadly and useless (you can't destroy, only destroy its power by having a living person climb in of their own will and die)
* the Horned King made an excellent and scary villian; I had forgotten how high he rated with Malificent
* and Hen Wen is always adorable (who I originally thought had wings when I read The Black Cauldron before The Book of the Three and didn't understand that an oracle pig didn't have wings...)
and...
* Fflewddur as an old man; that still irks me from the first time I saw the Disney variation. Fflewddur is described quite obviously as a bard with yellow spiky hair and long nose (I'm positive, at least about the hair). Also his harp's magical tendency is never explained but you can probably infer it's purpose
* the scene with the Fair Folk was weird and random, though it sent the foursome (Taran, Elionwy, Fflewddur and Gurgi + Doli as guide) to Morva where the cauldron was. Mostly it's peculiar how Taran decides they have to get the cauldron before the Horned King
* when the Horned King attacks Taran at the end and tries to thrown him (Taran) into the cauldron before being sucked into the cauldron himself (Horned King) I couldn't understand why the cauldron waited to suck the Horned King up before "finishing up". I think it would have worked better to have removed the Horned King by speaking his name (there was something about saying a name in The Book of the Three where the Horned King appears, as I recall Gywdion saying...) (on a side but it was Gywdion from Prydain Chronicles that influenced a gray-haired Aladdin-based character in relation to this Great Magic...yeh......)
* also the part when Gurgi throws himself into the cauldron...more emotion Taran, come on! I just think there could have been better build up to that part...it was important. They could have used the time spent with the extensive escaping scene to umph the emotional impact.
And that is all.
One more thing:
Happy birthday to llieno as I cannot for the life of me think of any kind of gift. You've always been a dear, even if I've been dead online and LJ...
ANYWAY. Surprise of complete surprises, the Disney version was on television today and I watched practically the whole thing. My thoughts/feelings, which contains spoilers for anyone who has not watched/read The Black Cauldron, can be divided among...
* the music was beautiful! I was really stunned by how nice it was, so much so that I downloaded the soundtrack off iTunes
* the background/scenery also impressed me. The nature scenes were lovely, the Horn King's castle was delightfully creepy, and Morva was nice and swampy. Splendid!
* the cauldron-born were well done, just for the disturbance factor of undead warriors walking around. Oddly the serious tone, blood spurting from the cauldron, and other such things won my approval just for the artistry
* the credits were also lovely style-wise; that is the images were a nice blend between a painting and sketch style. If I find I have a DVD copy of the movie I'll try to take screencaps as the movie seems rather lost to the internet...
* Elionwy is always love in the movie! "Oh dear, I was so hoping for someone to help escape. Oh well." (in response to Taran's mumbling statement that he's not a great warrior but an assistant pig-keeper). I like her because she's sensible enough, though she's oddly supportive of Taran for no good reason that I can see (makes better sense in the books as they both grow up)
* Gurgi was always love(ly). I actually laughed at his "attacking" Fflewddur "Old man...fall down" *starts pushing at Flewddur's side* "Get up, get up" You had to see it.
* I have also always been fond at the sacrific (so it seems to him) that Taran makes by giving up his magic sword for the black cauldron, mostly because he gives up something that is precious to him in exchange for something that is deadly and useless (you can't destroy, only destroy its power by having a living person climb in of their own will and die)
* the Horned King made an excellent and scary villian; I had forgotten how high he rated with Malificent
* and Hen Wen is always adorable (who I originally thought had wings when I read The Black Cauldron before The Book of the Three and didn't understand that an oracle pig didn't have wings...)
and...
* Fflewddur as an old man; that still irks me from the first time I saw the Disney variation. Fflewddur is described quite obviously as a bard with yellow spiky hair and long nose (I'm positive, at least about the hair). Also his harp's magical tendency is never explained but you can probably infer it's purpose
* the scene with the Fair Folk was weird and random, though it sent the foursome (Taran, Elionwy, Fflewddur and Gurgi + Doli as guide) to Morva where the cauldron was. Mostly it's peculiar how Taran decides they have to get the cauldron before the Horned King
* when the Horned King attacks Taran at the end and tries to thrown him (Taran) into the cauldron before being sucked into the cauldron himself (Horned King) I couldn't understand why the cauldron waited to suck the Horned King up before "finishing up". I think it would have worked better to have removed the Horned King by speaking his name (there was something about saying a name in The Book of the Three where the Horned King appears, as I recall Gywdion saying...) (on a side but it was Gywdion from Prydain Chronicles that influenced a gray-haired Aladdin-based character in relation to this Great Magic...yeh......)
* also the part when Gurgi throws himself into the cauldron...more emotion Taran, come on! I just think there could have been better build up to that part...it was important. They could have used the time spent with the extensive escaping scene to umph the emotional impact.
And that is all.
One more thing:
Happy birthday to llieno as I cannot for the life of me think of any kind of gift. You've always been a dear, even if I've been dead online and LJ...