IMDb plot summary: A young boy and a group of misfit friends embark on a quest to find a dark magic item of ultimate power before a diabolical tyrant can.
Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich. Starring Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, and Nigel Hawthorne.
I'm a big fan of the original book series and tried to approach this without doing too many comparisons -- but wow, this is lackluster compared to its source material! Most notably, the incredibly truncated 79-minute runtime omits virtually any character development, which is what made the series stand out for me as a kid. Some characters have entire character arcs erased, leaving me wondering what purpose they serve in the film narrative at all. Because of this, the dramatic moments do NOT land well. I actually laughed out loud at one character's death because I hadn't been expecting it and it was handled so abruptly. The Horned King is properly terrifying, so that's a plus, and I do think the overall concept still works, but it is an exceptionally trope-y story, and the film makes zero effort to bring characters out of tropedom and into being fleshed out in any way. Very disappointing.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Black Cauldron < To Be or Not To Be (1942)
The Black Cauldron < Horton Hears a Who
The Black Cauldron > VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas
The Black Cauldron > Captive State
The Black Cauldron > Arlington Road
The Black Cauldron > The Jazz Singer (1927)
The Black Cauldron > Domestic Disurbance
The Black Cauldron > The Birthday Party
The Black Cauldron < Empire of the Sun
The Black Cauldron < The Spanish Apartment
The Black Cauldron < The Secret of My Success
The Black Cauldron > Bright Young Things
Final spot: #2517 out of 3339, or 25%.
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