The Black Cauldron movie began when Lloyd Alexander wrote the Prydain Chronocles (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King ). These books became terribly popular and The Black Cauldron was a Newbery Honor Book in 1966 and The High King won the Newbery Award in 1969 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in the same year. In 1971 the Disney Studio purchased the screen rights for "The Chronicles of Prydain". Those very early years was spent reading the five books over and over again and learning about the characters.
Taking the stories from a fresh perspective is what the Producer, Joe Hale, and the story writers had to do. When they were finished they had a story loosly adapted for the origional books. A perfect example would be The Horned King, who was a very small character in the first book. Joe Hale decided to make him the main villian because he had so many possibilities when animated, and he thought it was cool that he had horns sticking out of his head. Joe Hale reassures the books' fans, "[ The Horned King ] is actually a composite of several characters from the books."
When the story loosley written out, each animator was given a chance to design the characters of the film. The result was hundreds of drawings pinned up along the hallways. Then came the selection of which design was the best, and which animators would be the best for drawing the main characters.
Casting the Voices
After deciding what each character should look like, the search for the right voices began! Joe Hale knew that John Hurt would be a good voice for the Horned King, so he asked Hurt to audition. After hearing the tapes, the production staff agreed that Hurt was the best for the role, even though there were 15 other excellent tests from other actors. " I feel honored to play a part in the making of 'the Black Cauldron,'" said Hurt. " Disney animation is one area of filmmakeing that is just about perfect. And the Horned King is a wonderfully loathsome character with a voice that was a great fun to do." Finding a voice for the furry character Gurgi was not so easy. The production staff interviewed 100 actors and then began to panic. John Byner did a vocal audition because of his agent's prodding. After his audition, he was hired on the spot. Susan Sheridan, who voiced the Princess Eilonwy, was 34 at the time of the recording. Because of her skill, she made Eilonwy sound like an 12-year-old girl and made her very attractive sounding. At the beginning of recording for Taran voice, Grant Bardsley was about 14. If you listen carefully to Taran in the movie, you can hear that his voice is deeper in some spots than it is in others.Mr. Bardsley celebrated his 18th Birthday when the movie opened in theatures.