Gurgi is a major character from Disney's 1985 animated feature film The Black Cauldron. He is portrayed as a gopher wood troll creature.
Background[]
Personality[]
Funny and clever to a fault, Gurgi is portrayed to be very cowardly throughout most of the film but surprises viewers by rescuing his friends and sacrificing himself into the Cauldron to stop its evil power. He, however, is revived by the Witches of Morva. He has a huge love for apples, which he refers to as "munchings and crunchings".
Physical appearance[]
Gurgi appears as a small, gopher-like creature with blue eyes and shaggy, light brown fur.
Appearances[]
The Black Cauldron[]
Gurgi first appears when Taran is off searching for Hen Wen. When Taran tries to flush out the pig with an apple, Gurgi leaps down from a tree and snatches the apple out of Taran's outstretched hand, knocking him over in the process. Gurgi follows Taran for a while, hoping to steal the apple, though the boy doesn't want Gurgi around. The two finally split ways when Taran intends to enter the Horned King's castle. Gurgi insists neither of them should go, infuriating Taran further. Taran ultimately deems Gurgi to be a coward in addition to being a thief and sends him away. He also gives Gurgi the apple, claiming it was all he wanted.
When Taran escapes from the castle with Eilonwy and Fflam, Gurgi meets up with Taran again and befriends Eilonwy. They journey into the underground realm of the Fair Folk and to Morva, by which time he had eaten the apple, but when the heroes are taken captive by the Horned King's forces, Gurgi runs away again. Eventually, Gurgi musters up the courage to sneak into the Horned King's castle and rescue his friends. When Taran attempts to jump into Cauldron, Gurgi stops him for he doesn't want Taran to die for the sake of his friends. Gurgi then makes a noble but grave decision: he sacrifices himself by jumping into the Cauldron so that Taran and the others can escape the Horned King's castle alive. His selfless actions destroy the Cauldron's dark magic and kill the Horned King. When the Witches of Morva offer another exchange deal, Taran trades the Cauldron for Gurgi's life, not bothering to get the magic sword back because he now considers his friends more important than being a great warrior. When Gurgi does awaken, he happily departs with his friends.
Once Upon a Studio[]
In the short, Gurgi appears during "When You Wish Upon a Star", with Dumbo, Timothy Q. Mouse, Duchess, Thomas O'Malley, Marie, Berlioz, Toulouse, Basil of Baker Street, Olivia Flaversham, David Q. Dawson, Flit, Mama Odie, Tong and Boun as they surround Pocahontas as she sings. Gurgi then joins in on singing the last line while sitting on the left wing of Pedro as the group photo is successfully take for Disney's 100th anniversary.
Disney Parks[]
When the film was first released, a quick-service eatery at Magic Kingdom was named Gurgi's Munchies and Crunchies, although it was replaced with Lumiere's Kitchen in 1993.
Gurgi and Taran appear in one of the Sardi's style drawings at Shanghai Disneyland's Mickey & Pals Market Café to represent the film as part of the gallery's effort to represent every movie in the Disney Animated Features Canon up to the park's opening.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- When John Byner recorded for Gurgi, he used a voice that he had previously used in a few segments on Laugh-In.
- Gurgi is one of a few Disney characters to refer to himself in the third person, the others being Toadwart from Gummi Bears, Treelo from Bear in the Big Blue House, Dim from A Bug's Life, Varg and the Raenoks from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the titular character from the George of the Jungle films, Jumba and sometimes Stitch from the Lilo & Stitch franchise, Babi from Treasure Buddies, Shujaa and Azaad from The Lion Guard, and Skyler from Monsters at Work.
- Gurgi's speech patterns are similar to those of Gollum from Tolkien's Middle-earth book series.
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