The Black Cauldron (1985)

The characters, though cute and cuddly and sweet and mean and ugly and simply awful, don't really have much to do that would remain of interest to any but the youngest minds.

It's quite good, though by the impossible standards the film sets for itself it inevitably falls short.

As usual it is technically excellent, but the charm, characterisation and sheer good humour that made features like Pinocchio and Jungle Book so enjoyable are sadly absent.

This is the 25th full-length animated feature from Walt Disney studios, and professionally put together as it is, many of the ingredients may seem programmed to those who have seen some of the others.

The backgrounds are as richly textured and detailed as in any other Disney film.

By the end of The Black Cauldron I was remembering, with something of a shock of nostalgia, the strength and utter storytelling conviction of the early Disney animators. The Black Cauldron is a return to the tradition.

With all of the talent and effort put into this, the movie only amounts to a bunch of premature ideas that are clumped together, making little sense.

It's not a good film, but for one with the reputation of being the studio's worst animated feature, it shows that interesting work is done in it.

Disney's worst animated feature.

Flawed jumble of a film, but a picture of immense artistic accomplishment and dedication to atypical faces of wickedness...there's still so much to admire about this red-headed stepchild of a film.

It may have cost five times the amount of any other Disney film in the preceding two decades, but by God that money ended up on screen.

A glorious return to the days at Disney when animation was full and detail was everything.