A Dark Fantasy Movie From Nearly 40 Years Ago Almost Killed Disney Animation

Almost 40 years ago, Disney released a dark animated fantasy movie, The Black Cauldron, and it was so unlike the studio’s offerings that it almost killed the Disney Animation department entirely. These days, everyone knows what a “Disney” animated movie feels like, and what it doesn’t. It’s family-friendly. There are talking animals. There’s an independent princess (and sometimes a prince). There’s usually some adventure, probably some songs, and more than a bit of humor. It’s been a successful formula for Disney for a century.

Starting in the 1970s, though, Disney Animation veered quite sharply from its tried-and-true formula, rolling out animated offerings that didn’t always work. The transition really started in the late 1960s, when the death of Walt Disney saw the creative reins handed over to a new generation of animators and storytellers. Walt Disney Animation Studios, then known as Walt Disney Productions, found itself navigating the turbulent times of the Vietnam War era when both society and culture were rapidly changing, and its offering reflected that. Unfortunately, one of those experimental movies, Disney’s darkest movie, The Black Cauldron, almost killed the studio for good.

The Black Cauldron Threatened The Future Of Disney Animation Department

The Company Was Already In An Era Of Turmoil & Turnover

The fantasy movie The Black Cauldron was based on the first two books in Lloyd Alexander’s series, The Chronicles of Prydain. The movie follows the young pig herder Taran and his allies, Princess Eilonwy, the bard Fflewddur Fflam, and his companion, the wild creature Gurgi. The friends’ quest is to stop the Horned King from stealing a cauldron that will give the evil emperor unlimited power. It was the first Disney animated movie to use computer-generated images, a technological leap at the time. Though the film was the only animated Disney movie at that time to ever be given a PG rating instead of a G rating, with the adventure and the fantasy, it seemed like a slam-dunk for Disney.

Unfortunately, The Black Cauldron bombed, grossing just $21 million on a budget of $44 million. The studio struggled to market it, and audiences confirmed this challenge when they were thrown by its dark and scary themes. Audiences watched Disney movies for their family-friendly tone, and though the studio had rolled out some more grown-up themes in the past decade, The Black Cauldron and its horror themes were not something most audiences were at all prepared for.

The era of 1970-1988 was an era known as the Bronze Age in Disney Animation, and is also sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages.

Just as importantly, that $44 million was a huge budget for a Disney Animation movie at the time, not the least of which because test screenings forced them to cut scenes and rework the story, and there was a mass exodus of animators that slowed it down. The huge financial loss incurred by The Black Cauldron, plus the behind-the-scenes turmoil and massive upheaval the studio had experienced in the last few years, was the lowest point in Disney Animation’s history. The daring movie that had been intended to put Disney Animation back on the map instead became the giant flop that almost ended it.

How The Black Cauldron Turned Into A Cult Classic For Disney

The Intervening Decades Have Given People A New Appreciation For It

Of course, Disney Animation did not fold, and, surprisingly, its dark, weird little movie that bombed eventually became a bona fide cult classic with audiences over the next few decades. Unlike other Disney Animation films that were all re-released for home video by the early ’90s, The Black Cauldron was not. It had been such a bomb that Disney delayed its release on home video until 1998, 13 years after it had been in theaters. Its physical media release provided an opportunity for audiences to reevaluate the movie, and they did.

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It is not, by any means, a perfect movie, but audiences grew to appreciate The Black Cauldron‘s forward-thinking animation for the era, and its daring vision. The story is a little muddled and sprawling, but there are some genuinely great action sequences and inventive visuals. A killer score by Elmer Bernstein and excellent voice work are also plusses, and the movie is well worth a watch today. Now, the cultural reappraisal of The Black Cauldron is complete, with audiences today appreciating it for exactly what it is, even if it wasn’t exactly what the animators set out to make at the time.

The Black Cauldron is currently available to stream on Disney+.