The Black Cauldron (Berman, Rich, 1985)

I was born and raised a Disney child and I never have grown out of it. Despite this, it has been a while since I’ve seen almost all of the classic animated Disney movies I grew up with. So I have decided I want to watch them all again – in order of release. When I finish, I will rank them all, and hand out my number scores from there.

The Black Cauldron (Ted Berman & Richard Rich, 1985)

Here is another Disney film I’d never seen until now. And I have to say, I liked it. It features a pig who sees the future, a horned skeleton king with a god complex (who is quite frightening for a children’s movie), a talking furry creature that talks and moves almost exactly like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, and several other odd characters.

Moving at a rapid pace, a group of three protagonist misfits escape the clutches of the horned king and begin a search to destroy the black cauldron before the king uses it for his evil plan. ‘Search’ might not be the most accurate word though, as it takes no more than 10 minutes of screen time to find it. The whole movie zips from one event to the next which normally would drive me crazy. However, this film is so odd and delightfully incoherent, it doesn’t give you time to question to sheer ludicrousness of the events unfolding. It’s unembarrassed and confident in what it’s doing, and despite having flaws, I can give it credit for that.  8.25/10