The UNCUT BLACK CAULDRON Exists!

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by Drewza89

The Black Cauldron is amongst my favorite animated Disney films. Not only is it vastly underrated, but it also has some of the most beautiful, detailed animation since Sleeping Beauty. It would be awesome if they restored the cut footage for the eventual blu-ray.

I had high hopes for Cauldron as a 14 year old, reading all the articles in Starlog and what not. Then Ebert gave it three-and-a-half stars and some other critics leant support, and I got very excited. Bought the 45rpm book and record, bought the soundtrack, bought the story record (actually it was a cassette, but it had original audio), bought the CD, bought the Sierra videogame for the PCjr ... I wasn't knocked out by the movie, it was one of those cases where you really, really want to like something, but the film has serious problems in story construction, pacing, and animation.

Now, I've spoken to Disney artists who have seen the uncut version, and say the missing footage is really no big deal, so all of us hoping that the 12 minutes would suddenly turn Cauldron into a unfairly butchered masterpiece should cool those jets. Still, Katzenberg said he made the cuts to lessen the darkness and violence of the film, and if anything, the film could use some darkness and violence, as the decomposing army brought to life by the Cauldron-Born represents the threat of the Cauldron, and if you cut the skeletons and what they do, then you've weakened the stakes of the film.