The Sword in the Stone (1963)
“It’s the underdog story, it’s the hero’s rising, it’s the master sword in Zelda, it’s the child growing up to pursue his or her destiny and aspirations” – James Rolfe, Cinemassacre
Brief Backstory
The semifinal Disney animated movie to have Walt’s name on it, The Sword in the Stone, was released during Christmastime in 1963. At this point, Disney had gone to xerox animation to compromise the expenses from Disneyland. Typically considered the weakest of the trio of Disney movies that came out, but often still considered an instant classic.
Story
The king has died, and the only way to choose a new king is determined by whoever pulls a sword out of a churchyard, but the miracle fails as no one can remove it.
During the failed miracle, Arthur AKA Wart, a young boy dealing with his foster father and foster brother who treat him like a minimum waged retail worker, is tutored by Merlin and later goes to London as Kay’s squire despite Merlin’s rage.
Random Facts
Ranked #1 on James Rolfe’s top 5 Disney movies.
The voice of Sir Kay is from Fort Worth, Texas. Not the last time someone from North Texas would play a part in a classic Disney movie.
The scene of two contestants in a jousting tournament is recycled from a Disney cartoon from the 1950s. Some other animation was recycled as well, such as Kay getting smacked in the face with Ector’s sword by accident and Kay tripping over some stuff. This was likely done due to forced cost cutting measures due to opening Disneyland almost a decade prior to this movie.
The Sherman brothers would later work on Charlotte’s Web and The Jungle Book later onwards.
The use of a legendary sword is an inspiration for numerous fantasy game franchises, such as Secret of Mana, the Legend of Zelda series, etc. Most of these franchises such as Zelda aren’t medieval fantasy per say (they aren’t set in the middle ages), but they do use medieval elements such as a magical sword and some of the structures were typical medieval structures. Some of their settings such as the Zelda and Mario games have some similarities with Camelot (not seen in this movie).
Random Opinions
My mother doesn’t like this movie. I think it has to do with the movie not being about a princess, males only, or something, but she liked The Jungle Book growing up so I don’t have a clue. She didn’t like Alice in Wonderland either but liked Lady and the Tramp a lot (probably because it was about dogs; she’s okay with cats if they’re not going to live with her but she will always prefer dogs over them regardless.) and 101 Dalmatians.
As a child, the only scene I remembered from this movie was when Merlin and Arthur were turned into fish, and this was because of a sing along songs videotape I had nearly a very long time ago. For clarification, this was from Volume 6 – Under the Sea, which I do not have anymore.
I’ve delayed getting a Blu-ray copy until later due to the “glorious” restoration job that Disney did with this one. Apparently Sword in the Stone was not given a good restoration although Disney+ has a decent one though I will recommend the Walt Disney Classics copy instead though for the better shading.
Can’t help but think of Luke Skywalker when I see Arthur (Wart) in this movie – which has been the case since I first saw this in the mid 90s. They’re both doing physical labor but would later become legends. Furthermore, Star Wars took a lot from medieval fantasy to the point where it’s actually even more medieval than this in my opinion; Vader is basically a black knight and you have multiple Merlin-like characters. Jedi Knights are basically ripped right from the middle ages. In contrast to Zelda, I feel like Star Wars has much more in common with Arthurian legends.
Also Cinderella and Sword in the Stone seem awfully familiar in some areas. Arthur and Cinderella are both reduced to being bottom of the barrel servants while their foster families abuse the hell out of them.
Pros
- The movie stays fresh with different scenes of Merlin’s lessons.
- The duel against Madame Mim and Merlin goes to a great imaginative level that’s often not seen in a lot of other Disney movies (well not as imaginative as the Pink Elephants in Dumbo).
- Merlin and Archimedes have such a great relationship, with all the mistakes that Merlin goes through.
- My favorite of the three transformations was the fish. That’s stuck with me the most whenever I actually had the chance to actually watch this (this was one of those Disney movies my mother had problems with me watching; kinda odd given how I’ve seen Fantasia a few times even as a child I think and she presumably never batted an eye at Night on Bald Mountain) when it was on air for Disney’s Halloween Treat (at least I think that’s where I saw it).
- Wonderful voice acting. Karl Swenson was perfect for Merlin, and Sebastian Cabot (who would later voice Bagheera and the narrator for Winnie the Pooh cartoons) fit the role of Sir Ector as well.
- The entire scene of Merlin’s plane getting snared like a snare drum in Merlin’s enormous beard and dropped down to the ground hard. Just listen to Archimedes and you’ll know why it’s such a beloved scene.
Cons
- Exactly what the hell’s going on in most of this movie? I’m aware there’s the whole “sword” thing, but it plays almost no role in the movie until the very end.
- Arthur’s voice changes a few times throughout the movie. Sorry but I can’t overlook this problem.
- Arthur only got to get to the sword because of his own luck.
- Madame Mim comes somewhat out of nowhere like the Jockey Elves in The Simpsons. No build up whatsoever. I’d overlook this if this came out in 1998 or something, but because movies from the 1960s and prior often spent so much time on build up (notable in horror movies prior to the 80s) that’s somewhat of a red flag.
Rating: 7.5/10 – Good
Number one Disney movie? HELL no. But a classic if you ask me.
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