Frida Cinema to Screen Cult-Classic "The Black Cauldron"
Fortunately, they're not playing "The Care Bears Movie" on another screen.
The Black Cauldron will be screening (a rare event!) at a historical movie house in Santa Ana, CA later this month.
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What's Happening:
- The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, California is teaming up with Cinematic Void and The American Cinematheque to bring a special screening - a rare theatrical screening - of an oft overlooked Disney classic, The Black Cauldron.
- Originally released in 1985, The Black Cauldron will be screened at the theater on Friday, May 22 at 8:00 PM.
- Tickets can be purchased at the official site for $16 per person.
- In The Black Cauldron, we follow Taran, and assistant pigkeeper with boyish dreams of becoming a great warrior. However, he has to put the daydreaming aside when his charge, an oracular pig named Hen Wen, is kidnapped by an evil lord known as the Horned King. The villain hopes Hen will show him the way to The Black Cauldron, which has the power to create a giant army of unstoppable soldiers.
Cauldron Controversy:
- The Black Cauldron is historical in a different way than one might expect. Many point to this animated classic as the lowest point in Disney animation history.
- Long in development, the film - from the jump - was considered too dark by Disney standards. The terrifying design of The Horned King was only the beginning, as the film also features undead skeleton warriors, scenes of death and sacrifice, and overly frightening imagery.
- At the time, this was a big jump for Disney Animation, who was still associated with lighter G-rated family fare.
- Last minute, New Disney Studio President Jeffrey Katzenberg made an egregious error with the animators, and edited the film (cutting all their painstakingly difficult and expensive work), leaving scenes with more graphic undead imagery, extended sequences, and darker material on the cutting room floor.
- The film was also quite expensive to make, with some reports giving it a $44 million price tag - and was grossly outperformed on its opening weekend by The Care Bears Movie.
- Since then, the film has taken on a cult-classic status, and is also viewed with a different lens citing the ambition for the time, but with Disney not knowing what to do with the finished product.