The Black Cauldron (1985)
Directed by Ted Berman
Taran is an 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.
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What critics compared The Black Cauldron to
Nevertheless, this is the first big-budget full fantasy animated movie since 1985's tragically ignored The Black Cauldron .
Despite a comfortably profitable run in theaters, Pocahontas was still regarded as the first significant box-office disappointment at Disney in years, and it was one of only two films to violate an otherwise uninterrupted run of Disney features each outgrossing their immediate predecessors that began when The Great Mouse Detective outperformed The Black Cauldron .
While he's not nearly as annoying as, say, Gurgi from The Black Cauldron , Frozen 's living wisecracking snowman Olaf (Josh Gad) is still a non-entertaining and pusillanimous presence.
While it's true that there have been animated fantasy movies before, they have either been hampered by poor production values (Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings) or aimed at a less mature audience (Disney's The Black Cauldron).
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Burton, a graduate of the Disney factory (he worked on "The Black Cauldron," among many films, and made a memorable short called "Frankenweenie"), fills the movie with unforgettable compositions: Jack's poetic posings against the moon, for one thing, are aesthetically stunning.
Director Harald Zwart’s resume includes such stellar entries as “Agent Cody Banks,” “The Pink Panther 2″ and now this dreary recapitulation of a movie that was tired when it was new, 25 years ago.
Not only does the new "Karate Kid" capture all the heart and humor of the original, but it does so with a cinematic eye mostly absent from the first one, and almost entirely absent from director Harald Zwart's resume (" Pink Panther 2 ," "Agent Cody Banks").
Although the uninspired resume of director Harald Zwart (whose previous efforts include Agent Cody Banks and The Pink Panther 2 ) might lead one to expect the worst, The Karate Kid falls somewhere in the middle.
The film, directed by Harald Zwart ( "The Pink Panther 2," "Agent Cody Banks" ), was shot in China and makes some genuine effort to make the location part of the story, rather than just a Generic Exotic Backdrop.
Director Harald Zwart isn’t a name that would instantly set off your bad movie alert, but he’s had some awful films on his resume including The Pink Panther 2 and Agent Cody Banks.
The next film in the series, “The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes ,” is already set to begin production this fall with director Harald Zwart (“The Karate Kid ,” “The Pink Panther 2,” “Agent Cody Banks”) back at the helm, suggesting a measure of studio confidence that will be adjusted upward or downward depending on how “City of Bones” performs.
At the helm is director Harald Zwart, who is best known for the 2010 Karate Kid reboot and his early 2000s film, Agent Cody Banks.
“Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” is two-hours-plus of fantasy literature cliches, CGI action scenes we have seen before and terrible acting that was apparently acceptable to director Harald Zwart (“Agent Cody Banks”).
Director Harald Zwart isn’t a name that would instantly set off your bad movie alert, but he’s had some awful films on his resume including The Pink Panther 2 and Agent Cody Banks.
The next film in the series, “The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes ,” is already set to begin production this fall with director Harald Zwart (“The Karate Kid ,” “The Pink Panther 2,” “Agent Cody Banks”) back at the helm, suggesting a measure of studio confidence that will be adjusted upward or downward depending on how “City of Bones” performs.
Director Harald Zwart , who has flailed away at less distinguished cinema fare as The Karate Kid remake (2010) and Agent Cody Banks (2003), finally has a vehicle that tests his talents.
But under the uninspired direction of Harald Zwart (his resume includes “Agent Cody Banks” and the 2010 “Karate Kid” remake), “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” plays like a “Scary Movie” parody.
The requisite role of the villain who is far more visually exciting and thus more memorable than anyone else in the film was this time played by the wicked vizier Jafar, voiced with silky tones by Broadway actor Jonathan Freeman, and supervised by Andreas Deja, one of the poor bastards whose first job at the studio was during The Black Cauldron .
In terms of fitting into the Disney canon, Aladdin belongs somewhere in the middle; it's better than something like The Black Cauldron, but not even remotely as effective as The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast.