The Black Cauldron will always remain one of my favorite Disney movies. The plot is interesting, the characters are heartwarming, the scenery is breathtaking, plus there are no parts where the characters burst out into song. My favorite characters are Gurgi ("crunchies and munchies") and the Horned King (a bad dude with a rather evil voice).

I actually tried out Sierra's game ages ago, but having only seen the movie recently, I can say that the game remains faithful to the movie. Both it and the game have the same plot: Taran, an assistant pig-keeper and would-be adventurer, must protect his visionary pig, Hen Wen, from the Horned King, who plans to force her to tell him where the Black Cauldron is, so that he can bring his dead army back to life and rule the world. Along the way, Taran meets characters that will help him on his journey.

Black Cauldron is designed for the kiddies in mind, so there is no typing involved, which can be enough to have sore fingers. Instead, you perform actions by pressing the function keys on the keyboard, and there are fewer actions than there is in other Sierra games. Alternatively, you can use the mouse to select these actions from the in-game menu, but this wastes a lot of time. The most common action is DO, which can be used to perform tasks like manipulating objects, speaking to people, and more. You can also carry only one object, and use that object on something else when the time comes.

And unlike many licensed games, where the game takes the same path as the movie, Black Cauldron offers many alternate solutions to puzzles, such as how to get from one place to another, and how to work your way out of a dangerous situation. Instead of allowing Hen Wen to be captured by the King's gwythiants, for example, you could head into someone's house, where the owners agree to protect her. Also, at the start of the game, you can give Gurgi something else other than an apple. It is these alternate solutions like these that make the game replayable.

Since the game was released in 1987, you have to put up with Sierra's AGI graphics, which are inferior compared to today's standards. I'm not one of those people who would say that the graphics are crap; I always find it interesting to see how technology has progressed in each of Sierra's games. The graphics in Black Cauldron are beautifully drawn. You start the game in Caer Dallben in Prydain, outside your cottage, and it is amazing to see how you are walking through the woods one minute, and venturing into the dark side the next, just like in the movie. The characters and the different objects that you interact with are drawn nicely regardless of their blocky textures. The good thing is that you can explore Caer Dallben fully and gawk at its beautiful surroundings and dark areas, and this includes the castle that you visit near the end of the game.

The music in this game can also be heard in the movie. The sound in the Amiga version is much better than the IBM version, simply because the sound comes in more than two tones, whereas the IBM version always had the one tone that its speaker use to produce sound.

The Bad

Unlike the movie, Taran will need food and water in order to get through his journey. Unless you find the food wallet, you will have a limited supply of food. You also have a limited supply of water, and if you waste it, you have to get some more somehow. Using the food wallet is irrelevant. Finding the water is the irritating aspect of the game. The game tells you when you need the shit. At least the game doesn't rely on a timer, in that you do not have the chance to do something about it (like in the VGA edition of Space Quest I). What's worse is that once you have found something to fill with water, you cannot empty it out. You are forced to restore the game to an earlier point, at a point where you do not have any water at all.

The Bottom Line

Children who have seen the movie prior to playing Black Cauldron will know what to do, unless they do not remember almost everything that Taran does, to the point where they are forced to use a walkthrough only for hints on what they need to do next. The game does offer alternate solutions if they want to try something different for a change. As I said earlier, this makes the game replayable.

To recap, the pig is called Hen Wen. But with a name like that, I thought that she was a chicken until I saw the movie.

Rating: ***½