Please, I urge you not to allow this movie give you the idea that the Prydain books are trash. Of course, he is omitted entirely from the film, just like nearly everything else of value. One of my favorite characters in the "Black Cauldron" was Ellidyr, a troubled and morally complex character who the reader may find sympathetic by the end (think of a YA version of Jaime Lannister or something along those lines, that's Ellidyr). Nor does Gwydion, Taran's idol and mentor who resembles Aragorn and King Arthur (instead of the Mabinogi's Gwydion), show up. There is no Coll, a kind old war veteran who prefers to farm his crops than to kill people in battle, but will gladly trade his hoe for a sword when the good guys need his help. I can't remember a damn thing about the movie version of Eilonwy, whereas her book counterpart gradually became a strong and likeable heroine. They made poor Fflewddur a fat whiny old geezer instead of the wise, handsome, martially skilled king he was in the books. Gurgi is a goofy dog thing in it (in the books, he's a hairy humanoid creature and much more intelligent). Taran does not earn his coming of age in it (in fact I don't think he really comes of age at all in it). That is why the fourth book, "Taran Wanderer", is in my opinion the best and most important book in the series, and one of the best fantasy novels period, YA or otherwise.ĭisney's The Black Cauldron contains very little or any of that. Taran's quest to save the land from the evil dark lord comes secondary to his quest to grow up and become an honorable, mature, hard-working and respected man, because if he does not become a good man, he cannot hope to lead people against the Dark Lord's armies. That's okay, because the quality of the good guys more than compensates for that. If the books have a weakness, it is that the villains are mostly generic Lord of the Rings-style powermongers (again, the one thing the movie got right). I even treasure lesser characters like Coll, Doli, Smoit, Rhun, Gwydion and Ellidyr. The book versions of Taran, Gurgi, Fflewddur and Eilonwy are all characters who I love and respect. The series accurately demonstrates the immense difficulty of being a good and honorable person, but makes it clear that there is little reward in life for dishonorable people either. It is a series about maturity, wisdom, responsibility, honor, courage, love, humility and justice, and in it Taran and his friends have to make all kinds of hard choices and sacrifices to defeat evil.
The book series deserves so much better than that.
Ok, the Horned King and his castle were kind of cool (RIP John Hurt), and everyone involved with those two things deserved an award, but everything else about the film was horribly botched. I can't think of a great series that was more disgraced by a shitty adaptation than Lloyd Alexander's masterwork.
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