The Sword in the Stone vs. the Black Cauldron

[Dr Frankenollie]

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[PatrickvD]

I'm not gonna pretend The Black Cauldron is even slightly entertaining.

The Sword in the Stone kicks the Black Cauldron's butt with its superior animation and fresh take on the Arthur story.

The Black Cauldron is just a failure... a very ambitious failure.

[Super Aurora]

Black Cauldron.

[Duckburger]

Gonna go with The Sword in the Stone. It's been a long time since I've seen The Black Cauldron; I don't remember much from it.

[RIPJoeRanft]

I'd say The Black Cauldron. While Sword in the Stone is charming enough, over half of its plot is blatant filler.

[King Louis 2010]

I prefer The Black Cauldron. The Sword In The Stone is funnier, but very repetitive and almost commits the cardinal sin of being slightly dull in places to me. The Black Cauldron, whilst not really a classic, is to me far superior in design and execution. The Sword In The Stone looks a little cheap, which I know was partly as a result of the Xeorx machine, but most other Disney films of that era still look alot better.

[KubrickFan]

I grew up with The Sword and the Stone, so naturally, I'll pick that one, even though Madam Mim scared the bejesus out of me. the Black Cauldron is, I think, only truly interesting when you know the full background of the making of the movie, when the movie is the end result of many years of hard work and many difficulties. On its own it's severely flawed.

[Jay]

The Sword in the Stone.

[rodis]

It's been 10 years since I last watched The Sword In the Stone and 10 days since The Black Cauldron but I still remember how disappointed I was with the former. Crude artwork, boring plot, flat characters. Whereas The Black Cauldron has some truly remarkable animation and a bit of action. Of-course it's flawed left and right and can get boring, but it's a decent effort compared to The Sword In The Stone.

[Semaj]

The Sword and the Stone. While the film is mostly filler, it's still more interesting than The Black Cauldron, which is so boring.

[Flanger-Hanger]

I like the Black Cauldron more for its unique scope and scale of prodution, but still enjoy Sword in the Stone too.

[PixarFan2006]

Well, I have never seen The Sword in the Stone all the way through (I always got bored with it as a kid), so it looks like my vote goes to The Black Cauldron, even though I do not consider it Disney's best work (or anywhere near Disney's best for that matter).

[Disney's Divinity]

I'm going to have to go with The Sword in the Stone. I absolutely loved this film as a child, and it's still one of the most hilarious, charming films they've had, imo. The dishwashing and house-packing scenes are probably my favorites, and Archimedes and Merlin are some of the funniest Disney characters. I would agree that the film is episodic, but the film never cared about the story so much as the comedy. And it completely succeeds at that.

The Black Cauldron is one of the few Disney films I didn't grow up with since I was 5 or so. I remember my mom bought it when I was around 13, and I honestly couldn't believe it was Disney because 1. I'd never heard of it (and we had all Disney's films then) and 2. the animation almost looked like something out of a Don Bluth film. That said, I always enjoyed the scenes with the witches, and I enjoy it more everytime I watch it. The only problem is the protagonists are props in their own story, which causes it to be a bit dull.

[Marce82]

Sword in the Stone! No contest! I have a hard time staying awake thru the Black Cauldron....and Sword in the Stone may not have the strongest story, but the characters are charming, funny, and the animation is superb!

[Wonderlicious]

The Sword in the Stone is obviously the winner. It may be flawed or a little misguided in places, but it has a decent amount of heart, comedy and imaginative flair. The general character animation is very good (the Nine Old Men believed it was some of their best!), and though the replication of the 101 Dalmatians was a bit of a misguided choice considering the film's subject matter, it still looks okay. Plus, though Wart is a bit bland and he has a million voice changes in the film (I will admit to believing that they were trying to go with the angle of the boy's voice breaking), I find it easy to relate to him, as he is an underdog.

I tried to like The Black Cauldron and see it as an underrated gem. However, I really have to agree that it is probably one of the worst Disney animated films (at least out of the feature canon). The art direction and animation are so-so, but above all, the film is just boring and the characters have next to no spark in them, aided by bad voice acting and poor character/script development.

[BelleGirl]

The Sword in the Stone. Sure, 'The Black Cauldron' shows more ambition, story- and animationwise but I still find it boring and the characters uninteresting. What a pity! SITS is amusing and contains a lot of humor.

It's a long time since I saw The Black Cauldron... I don't have it in my collection yet and I think I may eventually buy it for completeness sake.

[Rose Dome]

I'm loving these threads

As for this one, I prefer The Black Cauldron. It's plot is limited and poorly paced (if sufficently focused on), it's characters are props (although I do love Eilonwy for the personality traits she hints at), and it's script is abysmal, but I love the cool gothic atmosphere created by the animation (attractive and consistent, if not groundbreaking) and the music.

The Sword & The Stone has some charming moments, and fun music, but it's animation is sloppy, it's story is mostly filler, and it's characters aren't much stronger than Cauldron's.

I wouldn't say Cauldron is better written, but it's got a certain style that has me wishing it was.

[carolinakid]

Sword in the Stone

[DisneyJedi]

I'll be honest, The Sword in the Stone is charming, but at times it gets a bit too silly because it feels more like The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh with the three different plots.

I prefer The Black Cauldron because to me, it's almost like what Lord of the Rings might be like if Disney made it.

[Neal]

I love "Sword in the Stone" - my sister and I had a recorded VHS of it as kids and absolutely loved the "Higgitus Figgitus" song where Merlin is packing his bag.