The Sword in the Stone
You know what, I’m just gonna stop complaining. Disney practically owns everything already anyway, so it’s only a matter of time before I run into another one of their films. Also, this is still one that I always enjoyed as a kid. The Sword in the Stone, while never being considered as one of Disney’s greatest films, was still one that stood out to me as being distinctly different from most of Disney’s other classics. It was simple, yet compelling. It was calm and relaxed, yet adventurous and suspenseful. It was always a blend of contradictions that I hadn’t seen in many other Disney films as a kid which is mostly the reason why I still remember it today. On top of that, having it be Disney’s interpretation of the age old King Arthur legend that manages to be both epic and childish at the same time is quite an accomplishment (primarily childish though).
The way the filmmakers really got around that aspect of the story was by having it be the King Arthur legend before the King Arthur legend. Basically it was the origin story behind Arthur which most other renditions of the legend that I had seen at the time never touched on which made me feel like it was more of an obscure and creative interpretation of the tale. Much like every other film I’ve covered in the past so far, it’s definitely not perfect and we’ll be looking at it in detail today. Maybe in the process we’ll also see more of why this story stands out to me among the rest of Disney’s hand-drawn lineup, and definitely why I consider this film to be underrated especially when compared to Disney films like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and the like.
With all that being said, let’s find a gay magic man in the woods (I’ll go into more detail on that later) who’ll turn us into various critters and zap our way into The Sword in the Stone!
We begin the film like most other animated films began at the time with an overture including each of the songs we’re about to hear in the movie against bright backgrounds and stylistic credits. It’s here that I also learned that this movie was actually based on a novel that was released in 1938 by the author T. H. White of the same title. Unfortunately I don’t have the book in my possession so I won’t be able to make any comparisons between the two pieces, but I will still point out that the songwriters are the Sherman Brothers, the same two brothers who did the songs in Mary Poppins which I think is really cool!
After our introductory credits, we’re given a brief backstory sung by a minstrel-type narrator who tells us of when England was young, their king had died and there was no heir left to determine the next ruler. To help solve this problem, God Himself sent down a miracle from on high in the form of the Sword in the Stone. While this intro is nicely animated with book pages kinda like a classic fairy tale story and probably paying homage to the original source material, I think the narrator can get a bit extra when it comes to the singing.
And that miracle appeared in Looooooooooondon tooooooooooooooown!
Dude, you can chill just a bit. This is the same movie where they turn into squirrels.
As the sword itself (Excalibur, though they never actually say that in the movie) says:
Naturally, several able bodied young men (because the sword specifically said ‘king’) try their best to remove the sword, but can’t seem to do it. Since many had tried and failed, more and more people stopped trying entirely eventually leaving the sword to be forgotten. As a result, England falls into the dark ages since they’re left without a king. The strong prey upon the weak as the narrator says (instead of sings) and we soon after zoom in on this:
Wizard shenanigans! Forget all that nonsense about it being a cruel world out there, we need some well humor!
That aside, when they introduce Merlin (played by Karl Swenson) they get across his character very well. He’s pretty goofy right out of the gate which sets the tone for the film you’re about to watch which is in direct opposition with the song that was sung earlier. At the same time, he’s still respectable, wise, and engaging to watch. Being a wizard, he’s the only character capable of breaking the fourth wall and he does so by responding to the narrator’s comment about the ‘Dark Ages’. We also learn that he’s capable of seeing into the future and even traveling there if he wants to which sets up the idea of why he would feel the need to help out someone like Arthur later. Eventually we’ll get into more detail about how they handle that, but the biggest thing I can say about Merlin is that he was probably my introduction to the concept of ‘wizards’. Specifically this Merlin in this movie, and I’m probably not the only one who was introduced to wizards this way.
Think about it, if you had never seen a wizard before and someone showed you this guy, you’d be like “Yeah, that’s a wizard.” Elderly man, long white beard, pointy hat, long pajama-like robes, small glasses, occasionally seen with a pipe, and a wand to use magic with. Not only is he the textbook definition of a wizard, he’s also a really fun character and my personal favorite in the movie (with Archimedes close behind). Especially when it comes to movies that don’t have much of a plot, it’s the characters that keep you invested, and this movie has some pretty good ones that probably have more development than they need to have.
Here we also see the owl Archimedes (played by Junius Matthews) who’s both my second favorite character in the movie and Merlin’s husband. You might think I’m projecting that, but given the way they’re constantly at each other’s throats and still stick together makes it clear that there’s something more keeping them together. Merlin tells Archimedes that someone will be coming to visit them in half an hour and it’ll be Merlin’s job to lead said visitor to their proper place in the world. This is when we first see our protagonist Arthur, or as his foster family calls him: ‘Wart’ (played by I think any and every young boy that just so happened to be walking by the studio).
Okay, so one of the things you’ll notice early on in the movie that can be pretty distracting is Arthur’s voice. You may not be surprised to hear, but three child actors actually voiced him. Shocking, I know. The three actors were Rickie Sorensen, Richard Reitherman, and Robert Reitherman. The reason this was done was because they had initially cast Rickie Sorensen to do the voice of Arthur, but during the film’s three year production, he started to go through puberty and his voice changed. To fix this problem, the director ended up casting his two sons to voice Arthur since their voices sounded similar, but didn’t re-record the lines Rickie Sorensen had previously recorded. Why is that? Well, another thing you’ll probably notice about the movie is that it has a strong low-budget feel. That’s mainly because the film was actually a low-budget production. They didn’t have enough money to go back and re-record those lines, so they just spliced them all together which created that iconic Arthur voice that goes through puberty forwards and backwards four times in the course of 80 minutes.
Not only did they have a limited budget to re-record voice lines, they also didn’t have a high enough budget to create unique animations for the characters a lot of the time. Which is just as well, because if you’re paying attention while watching there are several instances where animation gets repeated and even soundbites get repeated. I think there are at least a good six times they have Arthur exclaim “Whoa, wha- Oh!” in the exact same fashion. Heck, the entire rest of this review could just be me going over what all is repeated in this movie, but the good news is that while the animation and soundbites may be repeated, the situations and lessons are not which any good story should aim for.
Soon after, we’re also introduced to Arthur’s jerky foster brother Kay (played by Norman Alden) who’s always animated like he’s an American doing a bad British accent. Believe me, once you see that you can never un-see it. He’s just outside Merlin and Archimedes’ forest doing a bit of hunting until Arthur messes him up. On the plus side, at least Arthur saved Bambi’s mom! Kay gets mad at him, but Arthur tries to make it up to him by promising to go into the woods himself and recover Kay’s lost arrow. It’s here we’re also introduced to this one wolf that’ll be a recurring character from here on.
This wolf both looks and acts like Wile E. Coyote’s less famous cousin.
To add more comedy into the story they throw in this wolf that tries to chase and eat Arthur but can never seem to get him. Usually this results in ridiculous slapstick-y moments that can get some genuine giggles out of me. You could cut these out and not miss anything, but I think it gives the movie a bit more personality. Eventually Arthur comes across the arrow but falls through Merlin’s roof in the process just like Merlin had predicted earlier. They start to get to know each other and I especially like this line:
My name’s Arthur, but everyone calls me ‘Wart’.
Oh…
He said that like, “I guess I’ll need to clean everything after you leave then.”
After a bit more goofiness with a sugar bowl that has a surprising amount of personality, Arthur has to leave so he can get back to the castle and do his work which gives us our first song, ‘Higgitus Figgitus’, as Merlin packs up his entire house so he can move into the castle with Arthur and teach him there. Of course I won’t be the first to point out that the songs in this movie, which aren’t so much sung as opposed to read, are still cute and hummable. I can’t tell you how many times this song in particular has randomly got stuck in my head over the years which also shouldn’t be surprising coming from the Sherman Brothers. Archimedes, Arthur, and Merlin pack up and I think now might also be a good time to mention that while the humor is often lowkey and giggle-worthy, the filmmakers probably do the Merlin beard gag a few too many times. Granted I know this film is still intended for kids, it’s just that there’s only so many times you can do one joke before it gets old. Although, if you do have kids they’ll probably still laugh at them. I know I did at that age.
We get some more repeated animation and more wolf slapstick until Merlin realizes he’s leading Arthur in the wrong direction and they turn around. Again, this is probably something they could’ve cut out since it’s not particularly necessary, but not only does it play into Merlin’s character as being a bit absent-minded and somewhat senile, but the movie also has an interesting slice-of-life kind of feel to it. Sure scenes like this can drag things out, and I’m not gonna lie that can make things feel a bit more boring, but the movie is only 80 minutes already and if you prefer to watch for the sake of seeing these characters’ interactions, then I’m sure you won’t mind too much. For me, just seeing these characters talk with each other is fun and engaging on its own.
Back at the castle we’re introduced to Kay’s father Sir Ector (played by Sebastian Cabot) whom the movie could’ve easily turned into a villain. However, they don’t really do that. Of course he’s still a strict guy, but he’s not a straight up bad guy either. He’s got a big place to look after and he doesn’t really know what to do with Arthur so he just has him do chores all the time while putting most of his time into his biological son which he thinks has more promise. Now Ector does still call Arthur ‘Wart’ which is pretty douchey, but I think at his core he’s just an overworked dude who’s at a loss for help. We’ll get a clearer picture of this by the end of the movie, but that’s what it’s like for now.
Arthur gets back and Ector is naturally not happy with him running off into the forest by himself. He gives him 4 demerits and tells him to report for his kitchen duties with Merlin and Archimedes watching everything close behind. Merlin gives Ector a demonstration of his abilities which Kay couldn’t care less about.
Hey, Kay, would you look at this? An indoor blizzard. And in the month of July.
So what?
Dude, snow just appeared out of thin air, be impressed already!
However, as soon as Merlin lets Ector know that his plan is to give Arthur an education, Ector isn’t pleased. If Merlin’s going to mess with Ector’s sla- I mean helper, then Merlin’s gonna have to go! Merlin ends up convincing Ector through more magical means though and Ector gives him the best room in the house as consolation.
You’re too kind…
Naturally there’s a storm later that night and in the midst of trying to de-wet their chambers, Merlin and Archimedes hear a visitor outside the gates screaming about big news from London. Merlin wants to know what the news is that was so important it resulted in shaking his Leaning Tower of Pisa so he sends Archimedes down to eavesdrop. It’s here we see that the messenger Pellinore (played by Alan Napier (yes, Alfred from the Adam West Batman Show)) tell Ector and the still awake Kay that they’re holding a jousting tournament in London on New Year’s Day and the winner will become the King of England. Great news! Still, couldn’t it have waited until morning?
So now the task for Ector is to train Kay up to become a knight so he can be in the tournament and hopefully become the king. He also picks Arthur to be Kay’s squire. With this knowledge in tow, Archimedes makes his way back up to the tower to let Merlin know. One thing I never quite understood though is that while Archimedes is flying up to the tower, the orchestra plays this really suspenseful tune. Why? What’s so tense about this moment? I guess there’s a bit of tension knowing that whoever wins the tournament will be crowned king whether it’s Kay or not, especially since historically Arthur is supposed to become king, but it still seems like a bit of an odd choice to me.
Bright and early the next morning, Ector, Kay, and Arthur are all getting into the spirit of jousting much to Merlin’s dismay when Kay goes flying into his tower which causes it to shake him awake. What’s kinda funny about this moment is that Merlin can hardly remember what’s going on. He asks Archimedes where they are, doesn’t remember coming to the castle, and can hardly remember Arthur until Ector wakes him up with his yelling. Dammit Kay, why can’t you just hold on to the reins?! I love in this moment how both Kay and the horse have matching black eyes after the crash.
While Pellinore tells Kay that jousting is a highly developed science, Merlin couldn’t disagree more. This is what leads into him highlighting what Arthur is doing the whole time. Sure his role is small, but he takes pride in what he does and it’s Merlin here that mentions that he could be great if only given the opportunity to direct his work towards something more meaningful. Honestly, this is probably my favorite part of the movie. There have been several different movies that have this kind of ‘Chosen One’ plot that just gets old and tired, but this movie puts an interesting spin on it. Merlin being the character he is with the ability to see into the future knows that Arthur will eventually grow up to become the greatest king known to England (after all, that’s why he made the decision to teach him in the first place), but he never tells Arthur he will be something great, he only tells Arthur he could be something great.
Merlin, and by extension the filmmakers, treat Arthur like any regular person that has potential even knowing that eventually he’ll become anything but a regular person. Ultimately it makes the movie feel more realistic and personal while keeping the message focused and that’s what I like the most. In the end it’s your actions that determine your worthiness, not some prophecy or whatever. This is what leads us to our first animal adventure when Merlin brings Arthur away to the moat and turns him into a fish to teach him about instinct, survival of the fittest, and nature in general.
Another great detail is that no matter what form any of these characters are in, you can always tell which of them is which. Even if you saw this film in black-and-white, their designs are perfectly modeled after their characters too which makes it easier. We also get our next song ‘That’s What Makes the World Go Round’ which also gets stuck in my head way more often than I’d care to admit and we get this small little scene right here:
(Both laughing)
Let’s…Let’s swim through that tall grass again. It tickles.
(Both laughing)
To me, this scene perfectly encapsulates the whole vibe of this movie. It kinda just has this feeling of “Sure, why not”? This movie is very content and quaint in its existence and I’m perfectly fine with that. Because again, that scene could’ve easily been left on the cutting room floor, but here it is. Sure, why not? Soon after this bit of randomness, we get a look at our antagonist for the water element, this giant pike:
Jeez, that thing is terrifying! Who needs Jaws when you have this?
Through a series of clever moves, Arthur manages to outsmart the pike and escape with his life giving birth to images like this:
In the end though, it’s Archimedes who manages to save the day. He was specifically kept out of the water and close by where Merlin and Arthur went in so he could help in case something went wrong despite how much he denies it. So he picks up fish Arthur and brings him back to the surface until Merlin makes his way out of the water in his human form and turns Arthur back to normal shortly after. One thing I’d also like to highlight is how the magic words to deactivate spells are also specific to Merlin and Arthur. Whenever Merlin deactivates a spell he used on himself he says the magic word ‘Alakazam’, but whenever he deactivates a spell he used on Arthur he says ‘Snick Snack Snorrel’. A tiny detail, but still kinda cool.
Since the whole time Arthur was supposed to be helping with Kay’s training, when he returns Ector gives him 6 demerits (3 for being late, and 3 for the fish story he told them) and banishes him to the kitchen for dish duty. In the midst of his work, Merlin interrupts with a proposition to try out being a squirrel. Arthur declines at first, not because he’s worried about how dangerous it could be, but that he wants to finish his work. The small details really do add up in this movie. Once again he has pride in his work even if he doesn’t like it which speaks to how noble he is. Merlin ends up putting a spell on the kitchen to do the work for him, while also giving us a reprisal of ‘Higgitus Figgitus’, saying “Who cares so long as the work gets done”? Honestly though, fair. Also, how did they expect Arthur to be able to do all these friggin’ dishes?!
I mean look at this crap!
Once they’ve become squirrels, it seems the main lesson Merlin wants to get across are unseen forces on Earth. The first one is gravity: the concept that two objects or particles, if free to move, will be accelerated toward each other. Then we meet this character who is so funny!
Being a squirrel she doesn’t talk (though her chittering is played by Ginny Tyler) and like I said, she’s frickin’ hilarious. As soon as she sets eyes on Arthur, she instantly falls in love with him and does everything in her power to get with him. You know what I mean. Every step of the way, no matter how much Arthur protests, she never gets the message and constantly chases him. That and her chittering is so ridiculous, cute, and funny at the same time I wish that I could’ve seen Ginny Tyler record for this movie. If only. Anyway, Merlin’s third song ‘A Most Befuddling Thing’ is pretty good too while also describing the concept of love to Arthur and the audience.
During this whole sequence we also get a few more instances of the wolf from earlier trying to eat Arthur squirrel and cutesy squirrel until cutesy squirrel ends up putting an end to his shenanigans by defying the laws of physics (I’m not going to break it down, this is both animated and a story about magic). That and Merlin picks up an admirer of his own as well.
Honestly though, she’s just as funny as cutesy squirrel is with the same amount of incoherent chittering that almost sounds like English, and complete lack of understanding body language. It can’t last forever though, because both Merlin and Arthur change back into humans. This results in two different reactions from our potential squirrel wives. One of them humorous:
And the other one surprisingly dramatic:
I never really understood what the idea behind this was supposed to be. Don’t get me wrong, given how attached I’ve become to this squirrel I don’t want to see her sad like this, but why is she sad? Can’t she just find a different mate? Maybe its meant to get across how love is complicated much like Merlin’s song from earlier indicated which wouldn’t surprise me, I’m just a bit confused about how that kind of love would apply to a squirrel. I might be over-analyzing it (it wouldn’t be the first time), but the thing that I like the most about the way this moment is structured is how it comes back around full circle. At the beginning of this lesson Merlin was discussing unseen forces like gravity, but now at the end we’re touching on love which is another unseen powerful force on Earth. Much like gravity, love pushes and pulls you around in ways you can’t even see, which might be what the point is. Then again, this final image always makes me sad:
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
In the castle, one of the scullery maids (played by Barbara Jo Allen) finds the kitchen under Merlin’s spell and gets Ector and Kay to help her handle it. Naturally this calls for more slapstick to offset the sadness of the last scene.
That’ll do.
It’s good to see the Fantasia brooms get a few licks in.
Merlin and Arthur enter soon after and Merlin deactivates the spell. Ector gives Merlin a piece of his mind, but Arthur defends him until Ector decides to make Hobbs Kay’s squire instead of Arthur. That’ll show him! Who’s Hobbs? Yeah we never see Hobbs, we never even hear him. Again, low-budget. Now Arthur is at his lowest point. Really? This is his lowest point? Well, he’s been stripped of his squire duties, the kitchen’s a wreck now, and he’s back to being nobody. Given the fact that they mentioned earlier how Arthur is an orphan, Medieval England wouldn’t like that at all. He has no social standing, no prospects, no nothing. The only thing he had going for him was being Kay’s squire because that’s the only thing society said he was cut out for. Now he doesn’t even have that. So yeah, this would be his lowest point. Merlin does his best to apologize and tries to make it up to Arthur by mentioning to him that since this is his lowest point he can only go up from here. So they decide the next day they’ll go further into Arthur’s education.
On this day, Merlin starts his education by mentioning several things that mankind has yet to discover historically and Archimedes properly calls him out on that. While I do believe people should have the correct information, in this day and age that the movie is set, Archimedes correctly points out that if Arthur starts spouting facts that humans will discover hundreds of years later, everyone’ll think he’s crazy. You can’t learn history in reverse. Merlin, frustrated, gives up and hands over teaching duties to Archimedes which is when he finds out Arthur can’t read or write. This really is medieval times.
While Archimedes tries to teach Arthur the ABC’s, he gets frustrated with Arthur way too easily when he copies the ‘G’ incorrectly. Merlin then takes the opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of his model plane which turns out to be…
…limited.
Then Archimedes has one of the most contagious laughs I’ve ever heard before.
Just looking at this image alone makes me smile.
This goes on for at least 30-45 seconds.
All this fun and excitement gets Arthur thinking about flying if he were a bird. So then Merlin changes him into a bird and tries to teach him the mechanics of flight until Archimedes (again, rightfully so) butts in and calls him out for claiming to know more about flying than the literal bird. Take a look at the looks they give each other here and then try telling me they’re not married.
So Archimedes takes Arthur out on his first flying session, and it takes him a second to get the hang of it, but as soon as he does he starts making the real bird look bad. All this is eventually cut short when they notice the presence of a hawk flying above them. Another thing I like about each of these transformation sequences is that each of them has some form of predator that hunts the characters. I think in the end it gets across the idea that there’s always going to be someone out there who’s stronger than you, but you have the ability to outsmart them if you can. This chase eventually ends with Arthur falling down a chimney and us getting introduced to the closest thing this movie has to a villain: Madam Mim (played by Martha Wentworth).
While not technically a villain, she does still relish mayhem, cruelty, and decay like any other villain would. However she’s not a plotter, heck she just sits around and plays solitaire all day, she’s closer to everyone’s annoying neighbor if they were literally born in Hell. Most of her tricks and schemes just involve cheating, but we’ll get more into that soon. She also gives us the (not) villain song ‘The Marvelous Mad Madame Mim’ and this nightmare fuel:
Why is it so much creepier seeing her as a hot woman than with a pig face? By the way, here’s some eye bleach:
That’s better.
It’s all fun and games however until Arthur admits that he thinks Merlin is a better spell-crafter than her since he uses his magic for good things. This causes Mim to lash out at Arthur and try to destroy him by turning herself into a cat. Get it, because Arthur’s a bird right now. Eventually she catches him, but before she can do the deed, Merlin bursts in demanding answers. On account of Mim trying to destroy Arthur, Merlin agrees to have a Wizard’s Duel with her which is my favorite sequence in the movie, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
I mean it’s just so much fun! Both Mim and Merlin take turns changing into various animals (another fun detail, Mim always transforms into the animal that eats whatever animal Merlin is) which showcases some really fluid and creative animation. I really can’t do this sequence justice with images, you’ll have to watch the movie. Not only is it fun, it’s also funny with how Mim’s first move is just to cheat and they engage in plenty more creative slapstick. It’s also interesting to see all the clever choices Merlin has to make in order to counteract Mim’s spontaneity and ruthlessness which eventually culminates in Mim cheating again by turning into a dragon, but Merlin seals the deal with a very clever loophole. In the beginning, Mim said only animal transformations were allowed, and Merlin ends up turning himself into a germ. Since germs are technically animals he manages to get Mim to catch him which results in him winning.
The illness doesn’t kill her, but it definitely leaves her down and out, so our group ends up leaving in triumph and Arthur promises to stick to his schooling so he can make something of himself.
Back in the castle around Christmas time, Kay has officially been knighted and Hobbs came down with the mumps. Who? Oh right, the kid that replaced Arthur as Kay’s squire. Since this is medieval times and we never see Hobbs, I’m just going to assume he died. Kay needs another squire, and the only person who can fill that spot is Arthur, so he becomes Kay’s squire once again. He rushes to Merlin’s tower to tell him the good news, but Merlin doesn’t seem too pleased with this.
As you may remember two paragraphs ago, Arthur promised to keep to his schooling, but now he’s become a squire. At first I was kinda confused as to why Merlin would be mad at Arthur even though he knows Arthur will eventually become King Arthur, but I thought about it and it makes perfect sense now. Sure Merlin has seen the future, but it’s never set in stone, and each individual makes their own future, so that’s why Merlin’s pissed. However, this is followed by the most random exit I’ve ever seen a character have. Merlin in his rage just randomly shouts “Blow me to Bermuda!” and his magic does just that. He suddenly rockets out of the tower and to Bermuda. What? In a way it’s kinda funny with just how random it is, especially since we’ll also see him again in less than 10 minutes of screen time anyway, but it also begs the question: why do it at all? Was it just for the sake of that joke? I mean if I laugh at it does that make it worth it? Sure, why not?
So now at the New Year’s Day Tournament, Kay is getting preparing for his match when Arthur suddenly realizes he forgot Kay’s sword. He tells Kay which predictably results in Kay lashing out at him and Arthur goes back to the inn to retrieve it. While there, Archimedes (who’s still with Arthur) notices a sword in a churchyard. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s the titular sword itself! One thing that kinda bugs me is that the narrator in the beginning of the movie explained that the sword was forgotten, but here it is just sitting in a churchyard no more than 5 meters away from civilization. Maybe what the narrator meant wasn’t that the sword was entirely forgotten, but people just straight up stopped caring. Either way, they could’ve worded that better.
Arthur goes right up to the sword and tries pulling it out when some heavenly light glows down upon it.
Naturally Arthur pulls it out and takes it back to Kay where he’s like “Wait a minute, this isn’t my sword.” Ector then takes a look at it and identifies it as the Sword in the Stone by the inscription which results in an uproar around the tournament as everyone is told that someone pulled the Sword from the Stone. However, no one believes Arthur that he pulled it out, you know since he’s a kid, so they force him to go back to the Stone to prove it. What’s funny to me about this is that Ector just slides the Sword back into the Stone so they can have their redo. This is the same miracle sword, right? You can just do that? At first, Arthur steps up to do it again, but Kay jumps in because he thinks after it’s been pulled already anyone else can pull it out. He couldn’t be more wrong.
Heh, you look like a fool!
This also encourages every other person in the tournament crowd to start clamoring for the sword and trying to pull it out themselves, but Pellinore actually chimes in and lets Arthur have his turn. Despite what it may seem at first, Pellinore is surprisingly a nice guy. So Arthur goes up to the sword and pulls it out for everyone to see. It’s at this point the crowd starts hailing him as the king and Ector and Kay have a solemn moment. Ector kneels down and asks for forgiveness from Arthur, to which Arthur is speechless. Kay needs a bit more convincing, but after Ector tells him to bow, he does just that. Right when you think there’s no redemption for him either, he makes a face at Arthur that says it all:
That’s a really nice moment, and it only lasts a few seconds too.
So Arthur is crowned king, but he feels completely out of his depth. He tries to run away with the help of Archimedes, but to no avail since every citizen of London it seems is outside the castle hailing Arthur. It’s right here that Merlin makes his return and solidifies his gayness.
Need I say more?
Upon Merlin’s return, Arthur feels much more secure in his new position, and we end this film with Merlin and Arthur continuously adjusting Arthur’s crown. Then it stops. Yeah, to be real I’d be more surprised if a movie like this didn’t end like that, but it is still a bit abrupt. On the whole though, I still enjoy this movie.
So, what can I say about this movie? If I’m being honest, I feel like there’s so much to say yet nothing to say at the same time. It’s strange to describe, but something you can definitely feel confident saying is that this is a movie that sticks with you. Outside of that, there are still some things I’d like to point out. Of course I already mentioned some of the minor details and whatnot that I didn’t quite get in the film, but the thing I feel most inclined to mention is the pacing. Like I said earlier, it has a strong slice-of-life type of feel to the point where it seems plotless much of the time. To some viewers, I can totally understand them not getting into this movie or even thinking it’s boring. In fact, when I first saw this movie with my family at home, I left in the middle to use the bathroom and when I came back I asked them “What’d I miss?” They said “Not much.” That right there perfectly sums up the film to me.
It’s either you get into the unique take on the Arthur legend with the fun characters, songs, and animation, or you spend the whole movie thinking “When is something gonna happen?!” While it can be meandering and random at times, it still has charm, fun, and character to it that makes me glad I saw it. At the end of the day, that’s more what I mean when I say that this movie is underrated. Underneath a layer of slow moving scenes you find so many more interesting layers you can’t find in any other Disney film. That’s what keeps me coming back to this movie so many years later. If you’re the type of person that likes that sort of stuff, by all means grab your magic TV wands and take a look at this underappreciated Disney classic this weekend movie night. If not, then…at least you made it through this review! Thanks! Have a great week!
I would personally rate this movie a 4/5 squirrels. While I do still stand by what I said about this movie being underrated, I never said I believed this movie was the best Disney classic. That and I think the slow-moving moments have the potential to turn a lot of people away. If I’m being honest, as much as I like this movie, even I have to be in the right mood sometimes to enjoy it.
(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)
(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)
(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)
(Yet)
