The Black Cauldron/YMMV


 * Alas Poor Scrappy: Gurgi sacrifices himself to destroy the Cauldron Born Army, but he is resurrected.
 * Awesome Music: Elmer Bernstein wrote a pretty great score.
 * Complete Monster: The Horned King plans to obtain the powers of the Cauldron so he can destroy thousands of human beings to prove his superiority. He is one of Disney's darkest and just plain vilest villains.
 * Counterpart Comparison: With Link. Predating The Legend of Zelda by a year, Taran wears clothes and carries a sword strikingly similar to those of Link in his very early years. Not to mention looting dungeons, working well with animals, wielding a magic sword, having to stop a very old Big Bad from getting an artifact of great power, and breaking lots of pots.
 * Peter Jackson seems to have taken inspiration from Gurgi...
 * Cult Classic: One of the few films in Disney Animated Canon to earn this
 * Darker and Edgier: In comparison to other Disney movies before it. This was the first Disney Animated Canon movie to earn a PG rating, and fittingly so, given its high concentration of Nightmare Fuel.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: The Horned King. Even if the movie failed at the box office and is one of the lesser known Disney feature films, The Horned King is a cult favorite within the Disney fandom and many times is compared with the likes of Maleficent and Chernabog. Probably the only reason why this movie is his only appearance within the Disney universe is because he's Nightmare Fuel incarnate and so would traumatize younger viewers in further appearances. Fans have even already demanded Disney to let The Horned King to make a main appearance in future Kingdom Hearts games. Being played by John Hurt probably has quite a bit to do with it. He had a cameo in House of Mouse, for what that's worth.
 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In France, it was the fifth greatest success of 1985.
 * Older Than They Think: Everyone seems to think The Little Mermaid's Ariel started the trend of assertive Disney heroines -- see the Rebellious Princess entry. But it may have started with Eilonwy here. Glen Keane, who later made Ariel, even designed her.
 * Quality By Popular Vote: it could be argued that the film has suffered from this. Because it was unpopular in the theaters, it's been severely underrated
 * Rescued From the Scrappy Heap: Gurgi, once he makes his Heroic Sacrifice.
 * Squick: Orwen's unsettling attraction to Fflewddur.
 * Tear Jerker: The otherwise cowardly Gurgi's sacrifice.
 * Toy Ship: Eilonwy and Taran.
 * The Woobie: Gurgi, to some.