The Tar Heel Thursday, August 1, 19855
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the main gallery. Constructions and
ceramic works will be on exhibit in
the member's gallery.
The Community Wholistic Health
Center will offer the following
programs: "Creative Visualization
For Inner Healing," a class taught
by Liza Ramkow Wednesdays, July
3 - August 7 from 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
For registration information, call
929-1021.
The Anglican Student Fellowship
is sponsoring cookouts every Thurs
day afternoon at 6 p.m. at the Chapel
'lack CmaMroim9 to
By Peggie Porter
Kaleidoscope Editor
My most burning question about
The Black Cauldron is how long it
really took to make. The posters say
seven years, a recent review said ten,
and my movie-going companion
insists that this animated extrava
ganza was twelve years in the making.
My second question concerns this
movie's intended audience. Most of
the people at the late showing were
college age, but I hardly think this
film was intended for us. Yet there
is so much violence and so many
startling, spooky effects that it
couldn't have been aimed at pre
schoolers. Especially with its PG
rating.
Standing in line to see the Black
Cauldron brought back happy memo
ries of my first movie-going expe
rience, sixteen or so years ago. Before
1 stepped into the (overly) aircondi
tioned theater, 1 had always been
convinced that movies had some
thing to do with cows, although I
couldn't imagine why grown-ups
went out at night in the dead of winter
to stand around a cow pasture.
As soon as my happy delusion was
shattered and I realized I was here
to be entertained (all kids love
entertainment), I must have been as
scared of the wicked stepmother
queen as any five year old. But the
way 1 remember it, all she did was
scream at her mirror and maybe
poison a few apples. Same with
Cruella De Vil of A Hundred And
One Dalmatians. If she were in The
4 It
Just added :
The photographs of
Andr6 Kertisz
if-
University Square Chapel Hill
of the Cross. Everything provided.
Bring a dollar don&tion.
"Carved and Inked: Five Centuries
of Relief Prints, an exhibition
featuring woodcuts, metal cuts and
wood engravings, will be on display
through Sept. 1, Ackland Art
Museum. Free admission. Hours are
10 a.m. 5 p.m., Tuesday through
Saturday and 2 p.m. 6 p.m.
Sunday.
Walking tours of historic points on
campus are conducted daily at 2:15
p.m. from the Morehead Building
Black Cauldron, we probably would
have seen her skinning live puppies
instead of talking evilly about it.
Black Cauldron is too scary for the
entire family. Once, the word "ani
mation" was synonymous with uni
versal appeal. Now, we have Black
Cauldron, which looks like it was
made for a college-age Cartoon Club
audience. Yes, the animation was
spectacular, and I believe it took at
least seven years to put it together.
But the plot was too convoluted to
follow. It was like an ongoing game
of Dungeons and Dragons, without
an end in sight.
Disturbingly, the movie seemed to
be trying to say something about
good and evil. But whereas in
previous Disney hits the protagonists
did something to make us believe
they were indeed the protagonists,
representing the forces of good, here
we are simply asked to believe in
them as such. Snow White and
Cinderella were martyrs to their
wicked families. Pinnochio was
asked to prove hmself time and again.
Here, the real hero of the story is
the magic pig who can tell the future,
and she just happens to belong to
the right people. She's more of a
commodity than a character.
Yet this movie has a Christ figure
who sacrifices his life for his master
(and is predictably resurrected), and
the evil villain is called the Horned
King. That name, coupled with his
skeletal visage and roomsful of dead
soldiers, brings the devil himself to
mind. Are we teaching little kids
TRAD 0. WAYS
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(Up to 1 50 lbs. to Major Terminals)
CHARTER SERVICE
DAILY NATIONWIDE SERVICE
Phone 942-3356
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Plaasc call for an appointment:
732-GlOl 042-77G2
Rotunda.
The North Carolina Botanical
Garden is open weekdays from 8 a.m.
5 p.m., plus extended hours 8 a.m.
8 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. 5
p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. 8 p.m.
Sundays.
Triangle Hospice, Inc. announces
the formation of a support group for
bereaved parents. Meetings will be
held at 7:15 p.m. at Westminster
Presbyterian Church, Room 17, 3639
Chapel Hill Road, Durham, on the
2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month.
For more information call 942-8597.
fL-M,,
scary ffoir the emtwe family
about good and evil in Christian
terms this early?
Even more disconcerting is the
' unabashed bawdy humor. One witch
turns a man into a frog and another
traps him between her bulbous
breasts until he nearly suffocates, all
the while trying to get him to marry
her. If Disney wants to take advan
tage of modern social norms that
allow animated PG violence, the flip
The 6MMck CauEdiron9:EPusmey
MMivMOitiovu Lt Ms very best
By Stewart Gray
Staff Writer
The Black Cauldron is a feature
length, animated film from Walt
Disney Pictures, and it's the kind of
thing Disney does best. It is difficult
for me to remember the last good
Disney film that was not a re-release.
Black Cauldron, directed by Ted
Berman and Richard Rich, is a wise
step -backwards into the realm that
Disney has dominated since the
thirties.
Hysterical parents and the like will
probably go into real tizzies over the
Brothers Grimm-genre violence
depicted in The Black Cauldron. But
traditional children's stories always
have some frightening moments.
Sleeping Beauty had some mean
violence, Bambi was a bit harsh in
the heart-break department, and
The Raleigh Little Theatre will
hold auditions for Cole Porter's
musical, "Anything Goes" on August
4 at 2 p.m. and August 5 at 7:30 p.m.
at the Pogue Street Theatre. Infor
mation: call 821-4579.
ArtSchool presents "Strength of
Character," an exhibition of charcoal
portraits by Durham artist Edith
Conn, July 28 - Sept. 5.
The Orange County Rape Crisis
Center needs volunteers to train as
Rape Crisis Companions. Training
will begin in mid-August. For addi
side of this coin says they should also
try to limit this kind of unfunny
behavior, which is about as approp
riate as the Grinch feeling up Cindy
Lou Who.
I wouldn't have minded the flaws
in Black Cauldron so much if its
strong points had outweighed them.
But truth to tell, the only real strong
point was the meticulously crafted
animation. Some background scenes
Fantasia was plain spooky.
Today most kids know more about
He-man, Skeletor, and the incredible
Castle Greyskull than they do about
the seven dwarfs. This is society's
problem, not Disney's. This film,
violence aside, makes an attempt at
entertaining kids and telling them
that they should be true to others
as well as themselves
Black Cauldron is definitely geared
toward kids, today's kids, and today's
kids are into fantasy. Twenty years
ago it was cowboys and Indians,
these days it's wierd warriors and
HIPS NOT HE
Due to last week's unscheduled appearance
of Hurricane Bob, this Saturday,
August 3, we present the return of
(GUMBO YA-YA
Chapel Hill's favorite! !
60s Rock and New Wave
Happy Hour Daily 4-7 PM 75c Domestics
Three Bars Open For Your Convenience
On The Village Green Behind the Pizza Hut
tional information, call 968-4646 or
968-4647.
i , i ,: ,
Ram Triple: 1 T, European Vaca
tion, The Heavenly Kid.
Varsity: The Gods Must Be Crazy.
The Black Cauldron, Prizzi's Honor.
Chapel Hill Plaza 3: Mad Max, The
Man With One Red Shoe, Cocoon.
Plitt: Back To The Future,
Explorers.
What's On was prepared by Rachel
Stroud, Tar Heel Calendar Editor.
reminded me of an Impressionist
painting. So many animated films
and television shows are hastily put
together that it is worth the price of
admission to see the work of this
team of animators.
Black Cauldron suffers from an
amorphously defined purpose and an
overly complex plot. Try again,
Disney. . .maybe in another seven or
twelve years.
demons whose names begin with
vowels and German-sounding
consonants.
Black Cauldron takes place in a
mythical land in some ancient time
of witches, fairies, and demons. The
hero is a young assistant pig-keeper,
whose pig can tell the future. To
protect the pig from the evil Horned
King, who wants to use it to tell him
the location of the black cauldron
itself, Taran sets off to hide the pig.
He knows that if the Horned King
See CAULDRON page 6
RE