The overlooked Disney classic inspired by Welsh mythology

Stephen Price

An overlooked Disney classic with a troubled past is gaining a new legion of fans thanks to its availability on streaming service, Disney Plus.

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated dark fantasy adventure film loosely based on the first two books in The Chronicles of Prydain series of novels

Set in the mythical land of Prydain during the Early Middle Ages, the wicked Horned King hopes to secure an ancient magical cauldron that will aid him in his desire to conquer the world.

He is opposed by young swineherd Taran, the young Princess Eilonwy, the harp-playing bard Fflewddur Fflam, and a friendly wild creature named Gurgi, who seek to destroy the cauldron to scupper the Horned King’s plan

The film should have been a wild success, with its gripping story based on Welsh mythology, a stellar voice cast and its accolade as the first Disney animated film to feature computer-generated imagery.

But things didn’t go quite to plan..

The film was directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich. Produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, it stars Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Arthur Malet, John Byner, Phil Fondacaro, and John Hurt, with John Huston serving as the narrator for the prologue.

Disney acquired the film rights to the books in 1973, with production beginning in 1980.

The studio had high hopes, and the animation was expected to do well. So well, in fact that at the time is was the most expensive animated film ever made, with a cool $44 million budget.

It was originally scheduled to be released at Christmas 1984, but several scenes, particularly in the film’s climax, were found to be disturbing to children during a test screening.

The newly appointed Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered the scenes to be cut, which caused its release to be delayed to 1985.

With a mauling from critics, and less than half of its budget clawed back at the box office, the film even put its animation department in jeopardy.

Because of the Black Cauldron’s commercial failure, the film largely escaped attention for those who weren’t around during its headline-making ‘flop’. Matters weren’t helped either, by Disney deciding not to release the film on home media until 1998.

Mythology

One place where the film has kept some degree of favour, despite clear Anglicisation in the casting (and no mention of Cymru, although Prydain could be said to be more than adequate) is, of course, Wales.

With The Chronicles of Prydain as its source, the setting is based on Wales and inhabited by creatures and characters inspired by Welsh mythology and folklore.

The horned king, the cauldron with its powers of immortality, the names and so much more, there is a warm familiarity to Welsh viewers.

During World War II, the series’ author Lloyd Alexander received army combat intelligence training in Wales; he also became familiar with Welsh culture, geography, and language. He took particular interest in the country’s castles and folklore, explaining later that he was “always interested in mythology”. Alexander later described his experiences in Wales as “part of the raw material for the Prydain books”.

Ynys Môn, the Welsh name for the Isle of Anglesey, became the Isle of Mona. The word Prydain itself is the Welsh name of Britain, to which the word “Britain” is etymologically related.

The stories draw on themes, ideas, and culture inspired by Welsh folklore, particularly the stories collected in the Mabinogion. According to Alexander, nearly all of the proper names in Prydain are from Welsh myth or history, with the exceptions of Eilonwy and Taran.

With streaming service Disney Plus now showing the animation alongside other classics such as Sword in the Stone, Toy Story and countless others, it’s finally able to break free of its ‘cult status’ to be enjoyed by new generations who were perhaps denied the chance to view this quite special animation without being influenced by negative reviews and negative associations.

Recently, it’s also gained even more new followers thanks to wider knowledge about a very different route the animation may have taken, had studio execs gone with the designs of none other than Tim Burton which have since surfaced online.

Tim Burton worked on this movie as a concept artist, and it was the first film he worked on that he was credited for. This was the second Disney movie he had worked on, the first being The Fox and the Hound. It was when he was working on this film, during his downtime, that he came up with some drawing sketches of The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Black Cauldron became Burton’s last involvement with a Disney animated film, before he became a filmmaker in his own right.

As for the future, in 2016, Walt Disney Pictures re-acquired the film rights to The Chronicles of Prydain, with the intention to adapt the book series into a live-action feature film series.

The project was in early development at the Walt Disney Studios with no director, producer, or screenwriter attached yet. Since then, there have been no further reports about the project.

But just like the Welsh stories that inspired the animation itself, this might just be a tale that will continuing being told, with new twists and tales, for generations to come.

Watch The Black Cauldron on Disney Plus.