Buy it... if you enjoy massive symphonic scores for your animated pictures, or are a fan of Elmer Bernstein's use of the ondes martenot instrument.

Avoid it... if you are accustomed to hearing transparent themes and easy concepts in your animated film scores.

Bernstein

The Black Cauldron: (Elmer Bernstein) In the mid-1980's, the Walt Disney animated film division was suffering through the worst times in its history. All but dead since 1977's The Rescuers, Disney was counting on The Black Cauldron to pull itself back into the animated forefront, and as part of that plan, the film was to be vastly different from its previous ventures. It would feature no songs, incorporate computer enhancement to hand-drawn images, receive a PG-rating, and be presented in 70mm. Despite all of these new aspects, or perhaps because of them, The Black Cauldron was a monumental failure. It would take The Little Mermaid four years later to resurrect the lost animated division at Disney, and it would be a dozen years before audiences would have the opportunity to view the film again on video. Technically based on Lloyd Alexander's "The Chronicles of Prydain," The Black Cauldron would chronicle "The Book of Three" and "The Black Cauldron," two of five books in the series. Many of the intricacies of the books were lost in the screen adaptation, disappointing fans of the books. Also deviating from the normal realm of Disney animated features was a score by Elmer Bernstein, who had come off of an Oscar nomination for a comedy score and was mired in parody writing for many of his assignments. The Black Cauldron would be for Bernstein what Mulan was for Jerry Goldsmith: a fascinating venture into a fresh realm that required music to play a more significant role in the film. In response, Bernstein wrote a score highly respected by his collectors, but suffering the same fate as the film itself. Largely ignored commercially, the score for The Black Cauldron has hidden in the depths of the out-of-print and bootleg market, and while the music Bernstein wrote isn't earth-shattering (or, in other words, worth a desperate search for just this title), it is a likable and interesting symphonic score from start to end.

Treated as a dramatic film, Bernstein shakes the shackles of comedy while retaining just enough innocence to root the film in the proper genre without becoming trite. The 1980's were also known by film music collectors as the time during which Elmer Bernstein solidified the sound of the ondes martenot into listeners' vocabulary. The pinnacles of use for the ondes martenot in his works were The Black Cauldron and Ghostbusters, and it would continue to be heard into the 1990's. Invented in 1928's France, the ondes martenot shares some of the same characteristics as the theremin, but with the ability to actually perform individual notes on a keyboard. Various controls on the ondes martenot made it the earliest form of electronic instrument and its eerie sound is still heard ocassionally in orchestral performances today. Its role in The Black Cauldron is central, for Bernstein was nowhere as advanced as, say, Jerry Goldsmith, in 1985 when it came to using synthesizers to enhance the fantasy element. As the identity of The Black Cauldron, the ondes martenot creates an undeniably unique environment for the world of Prydain, and its performances highlight the score. Oddly, however, despite the symphonic depth and thematic integrity of the score, the ondes martenot is really the only standalone highlight. From start to finish, Bernstein offers solid suspense music, with animated-genre comedy rhythms and ocassional full-blown brass action integrated into several cues throughout. But it's the often gloomy organ-powered, piano thumping, and timpani rolling suspense that defines The Black Cauldron. The deliberately pounding theme for the evil Horned King is almost religious in its dark power. The piano intelligently plays an integral role in maintaining a constant flurry of activity in action sequences.

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The downfall of The Black Cauldron for Bernstein, however, would be the lack of transparency in his themes and development, something that really needs to be made clear in a children's film. There is no musical material in The Black Cauldron that your 10-year-old will remember after the film is over (and it might even be hard for those 30-year-olds, too, unless you pay very close attention). Somewhere along the lines to creating the ambitious musical environment for The Black Cauldron, Bernstein lost the romanticism that exists as part of the animated formula. Perhaps the lack of this formula approach is a refreshing take on an otherwise tired idea at the time, and perhaps it contributed to the demise of the picture. On album, The Black Cauldron has gone almost equally forgotten. It was one of the rare cases in which Varèse Sarabande released both an identical LP and CD at the same time, with the 30-minute CD serving as one their very first digital products in 1985. Already out of print by 1993, the album sold for more than $50 on the used market. Then in 1996, a bootleg was released with an astounding 70+ minutes of score. Though this 'Taran' bootleg has decent sound quality, it has no track names. Keep in mind that the sound quality on either of the albums will vary from track to track (there's no obvious reason for this other than deviation in the recording/mixing process), and some of the ghostly aspects of the ondes martenot may sound flat and distant. Certain tones cause static effects on the bootleg because of high gain levels, especially in the finale cue (#25, out of place). While the presentation of the expanded bootleg is impressive from start to finish, a 30-minute compilation of highlight cues from The Black Cauldron might make a better album. For Bernstein collectors, the score remains an anomaly, but a source of fascination nonetheless. ***

Bias Check:

For Elmer Bernstein reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29 (in 17 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.42 (in 8,874 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.