Quest for Camelot (1998)

Following their animated/live action hit Space Jam, Warner Bros. jumped into the fully animated feature competition by playing it safe, giving the Arthurian legend a conspicuously Disneyesque facelift. Ingredients from Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Pocahontas are evident in the tale of a girl named Kayley (Jessalyn Gilsig) whose father, a Knight of the Round Table, is killed by Sir Ruber (Gary Oldman), a maniacal brute who steals Excalibur and threatens to seize King Arthur's Camelot. Kayley enlists the blind, reclusive knight-aspirant Garrett (Cary Elwes) to brave the Enchanted Forest and retrieve the magic sword, and their adventure is (of course) fraught with danger. Adding extra punch to the movie's commercial appeal, the soundtrack songs are performed by big names like LeeAnn Rimes and Celine Dion. And if that's not enough to hold a kid's attention, there's a two-headed dragon ("we're the reason cousins shouldn't marry") voiced by Eric Idle and Don Rickles. With so much talent involved, it's entertaining but uninspired, although cleverly harmless riffs from Dirty Harry, Taxi Driver, and other movies spice up the adventure with enjoyable pop-culture references. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Half the movie that "Mulan" is

I'm a mature adult male, but I find that a well done "kids movie" can transcend many of the limitations inherrent to those intended for adult audiences. A well done "kids movie" can be "ageless." That being said, the producers of "Quest for Camelot" didn't have a clear idea of the target audience: going from ridiculously extreme childishness in some parts, to other parts in which the humor is likely only going to be appreciated by adults familiar with old-time R-rated movies. Now, that may be forgivable, but...

Using five-star "Mulan" as the standard, "Quest for Camelot" lacks quality in so many areas. The animation itself is poorer, the story rather less uplifting, the soundtrack more raw. "Quest for Camelot" is not completely without redeeming features - that's why I gave it 2 stars instead of just 1 - but it's a far cry from the excellence of "Mulan." October 5, 2008

Quest for Truth, Quest for Fun!

I highly recommend this movie! It's not often that a movie comes around with a solid moral center as well as a lot of good songs and great fun! Although this is based on the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, the similarity is pretty loose. That's okay because the spirit of the Round Table--truth, justice, peace, cooperation, love, etc. are all firmly intact. The heroine is a nicely realized girl who learns from her father's example to accept the spirit of the Round Table. She is both determined and tough and yet she learns to temper that with gentleness and sensitivity. She meets the blind hero who is a hermit and a misanthrope and HE learns the value of working together, friendship and true love. I was very impressed with the style of the film as well. The colors, the "special effects" (if that's what you call them in an animated film), the music and songs, the vocal talents--it all comes together beautifully! A note of caution for parents of younger children--be SURE to watch this first before you let your kids see it as there are a number of menacing scenes which could give them nightmares. They are well balanced with humorous scenes and the triumph of good over evil in the end. I thought this was well worth the price! September 24, 2008

LOVE it!

I absolutely love this movie!
Great for any age, great animation, great music/songs, nice story, interesting characters, ect.!
I recommend watching (and buying) this movie.
Most people will/should be able to enjoy it.

July 28, 2008

So many big names, so much disappointment

I can't believe how many big name actors signed on to do voices for this fairly lame story. First of all, although it's not Disney, it follows the Disney formula of the time having a "girl power" message and featuring lots of sappy songs (none of which were sung by the actors who did the speaking voices). Second of all it was generally very formulaic: heroic girl meets heroic but unappreciated guy, they fall in love and save the day and everyone starts to appreciate the guy. There is the obligatory sidekick (two in this case, the two-headed dragon Devon/Cornwall). Ruber's a typical 'evil looking' bad guy. His minions are straight out of Disney, too. The dialogue was unexceptional; the songs were sappy and we couldn't figure out the words. I am glad this was on Amazon's bargain rack because if I'd paid more than the $7.49 I'd be really, REALLY disappointed.

My 8-year-old son liked Devon & Cornwall but otherwise was rather bored with the whole thing. May 10, 2008

"Camelot" Stands Alone

In my newly-arisen rise of fancy towards animation, few films disappointed me as much as the 1998 Warner Bros. fantasy "Quest for Camelot". Since it came very much off the heels of the super-successful and enjoyable "Space Jam", I had high hopes for a sword & sorcery adventure from the promising studio that brought us decades of Looney Tunes; perhaps they were ready to step out of the realm of serial cartoons and become an empire not unlike Disney. I mean, who wouldn't be impressed by simply looking at the mighty list of talent hired to voice the characters: Jessalyn Gilsig ("Boston Public") is the spunky young heroine, Cary Elwes ("The Princess Bride") is the aspiring knight, Gary Oldman ("Bram Stoker's Dracula") is the menacing villain, and stars as diverse as Pierce Brosnan ("Die Another Day") and Jaleel White ("Family Matters") bring up the supporting cast. In addition, the film's soundtrack - fronted by LeAnn Rimes, Steve Perry, and Celine Dion - was destined for greatness of its own, so how could this film go wrong at all?

Based upon the novel "The King's Damsel" by Vera Chapman (who would not live to see the completed picture), the plot of "Camelot" incorporates bits of the Arthurian myth with Disney-esque adventure and humour. Essentially, Kayley is a young maiden and daughter of a slain knight of the Round Table, who takes on a quest to find the sword Excalibur and deliver it back to King Arthur, from whom it had been stolen by Sir Ruber - a sorcery-practicing traitor to the kingdom. Along the way, she's accompanied by a blind young hermit skilled with a staff and pair of quarrelling dragons that share a body with two heads. All the while, they are pursued by Ruber and his minions - a giant, goofy griffin and a small gang of enchanted "men of iron", which include a "Dirty Harry"-quoting chicken with an axe for a beak.

My disappointment in the movie lay mainly in the production: though director Frederick du Chau would go on to direct "Racing Stripes" and "Underdog" for Disney, the only mainstream features he had worked on at the time of "Camelot" had been "Tom and Jerry: the Movie" and "The Land Before Time III" - neither of which have been especially venerated. In addition, the art direction was run by a duo whose accomplishments were mostly made up by television and direct-to-video animation.
It's this style of animation that brings me my first complaint about the film: thought at its best "Camelot" is on par with a Disney feature, at least half of the time the film offers rather boring camera angles, flat storyboarding, and inconsistent animation - giving the impression that you're watching exceptionally nice Saturday morning cartoon (which is a lot less than a budget of $40 million should be able to buy).

Also exceptionally down-letting are the characters themselves. Though Kayley and Garrett (the ex-page and hermit) are well-rounded and fluidly progressive in their personalities, the likes of Ruber and Devon & Cornwall (the dragons) stand out specifically as bland and flawed: Ruber makes more threats than evil deeds and is generally more humorous than villains in his position are supposed to be, and Devon & Cornwall are not nearly funny enough in their role of comic relief (their duet "If I Didn't Have You" was the sole performance that caused me to laugh).

As for the rest of the picture, as much as it tries to live up to the standard of Disney, it ends up floundering hopelessly on a downward tromp set by the lacklustre script: the heroes are not put in nearly enough peril to make their quest seem epic, and Ruber and his minions come off as too big of pushovers to make the eventual showdown in Castle Camelot seem justified. The soundtrack is the brightest light of the feature, but even it is repressed by having performers sing the in-film versions of the eventual chart-placers (Bryan White dubs Steve Perry's "I Stand Alone", etc).

I'd advise you to give this film a rent before considering a purchase. At its most basic, "Quest for Camelot" is a failed attempt at effectively cloning the formulas and style of Disney, whose shadow the picture never manages to break out of. May 3, 2008

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