This animated film was made by Warner Brothers Animation back in 1998, around the time the Disney Renaissance was coming to an end which had movies like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid. It would be the second film for Gary Oldman that year, with Lost in Space being the second one where he played another obvious bad guy. Now, Warner Brothers were considered around the time to be making Disney knock-offs which proved to be box office bombs like Ferngully or Cats Don't Dance. It's important to point out production only took a year and it proved to be difficult for the animators and started to give up on the movie, even have the head layout department being laid off and some of the animators admitted the problems were from working around the clock and that trying to copy Disney was a bad idea. Anyway, can the magic of Excalibur show Disney and King Arthur in another animation studio can work together, or were the animators right and this shows the flaws of copying Disney? Let's find out!
Story: The plot is a complete mess from the very start. It's about a woman named Kayley, who dreams of becoming a knight like her deceased father and goes off on an adventure to save Camelot with a blind hermit named Garrett and a two headed dragon, after the sword Excalibur is stolen by Ruber, a rebel knight of the round table who wants to take over the kingdom just because he's evil. Although it's loosely based on a spin off book to the King Arthur legend called The King's Damosel, clearly Warner Brothers took some 'inspiration' from the films of the Disney Renaissance when writing it! I just want to point out that this movie is completely different from the book and if you're expecting something like Disney's The Sword in the Stone for an animated King Arthur movie, that is not what you're going to get with this movie! It utilises every Disney cliche possible at the time including a Disney Princess-esque character wanting more despite society not letting her, the snarky love interest who doesn't get along with her at first but then start to fall in love, the 'funny' though really annoying animal sidekicks, the adventure where they have to find the deus ex machina which will of course show good wins over evil and the compulsory musical numbers! It's predictable and actually really boring because you immediately know what's going to happen. But the biggest problem I have with the story is the lack of logic. Nothing is explained in the movie because they couldn't be bothered to explain the concept of Camelot or what the characters do because they don't have as much screen time as they should. It's just as bad as having little exposition rather than too much of it, Warner Brothers!
Animation: if there's something that Warner Brothers did right, it's how they handled the animation. Although the character designs can be argued to be taken from Disney, in particular Kayley for Belle, they still manage to have a distinct style which can be recognisable. The character animation is also really well done, going for a more realistic approach, even if it's not as fluid as other 2D animated films like Disney or Don Bluth. It's more the non human characters which impressed me in terms of character animation, in particular the different magical plants in the forest Garret lives in and the weapon/rock minions Ruber creates. The backgrounds of Camelot look a bit generic, but they still manage to make it look grand with the giant landscapes surrounding it. What impressed me with the background animation was the forest, being very colourful and creative. If I had one criticism, it would be how they handle the computer animation on the Rock Biter rip off. It sticks out like a sore thumb and it's not very well integrated with the 2D environment. However, I have seen worse versions of this, but it still bothers me. Also, at time it would range from a bit cheap in scenes which aren't that important and there doesn't seem to be much lighting in some parts, making the movie look completely flat. The animation may not be as good as other Warner Brothers animated films like The Iron Giant, but it still manages to have a distinct style in itself.
The main character Kayley, voiced by Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri from Glee) is just boring! They make her out to be an independent brave heroine just because of her dream to become a knight like her father, when in reality, she's constantly rescued and does nothing! Garrett, a blind hermit voiced by Cary Elwes, is the only developed and remotely likeable character in the movie, but unfortunately, he's nothing new. Ruber is just awful as a villain, and I feel sorry for Gary Oldman with the clumsy dialogue he's given and how nonsensical and over the top he is! Oh yeah, and he has no motives for being evil whatsoever, he's just evil for being evil and wants to take over Camelot. But at least he's not as bad as Cornwall and Devon, voiced by Don Rickles and Eric Idle, who annoyed the hell out of me! They're the compulsory comedy relief sidekicks like the Genie from Aladdin, except not funny! Then there's the chicken axe...yeah! Pointless, one dimensional and not funny! The big guy himself, King Arthur, voiced by Pierce Brosnan, is entirely useless besides the movie having Camelot in the title and same goes for Merlin! It shows they could make great characters if they wanted to, but they didn't put enough effort in because of the fact they want to try and copy Disney.
Songs: Yeah, of course this is an animated musical if they try to rip off every Disney cliche! Some I actually liked, but others were just pointless and annoying! On My Father's Wings, despite being a Disney Princess-esque song is actually pretty enjoyable and I like the Celtic vibe to it, but I don't like the lyrics. I Stand Alone isn't that bad, but it's entirely pointless with the scene following it. The villain's song has no tune whatsoever and the lyrics are just bad! Yes, it may explain what he wants to do, albeit very vaguely, but the singer is just so over the top and poorly executes it (it's not Gary Oldman, it's an uncredited singer & I can understand why he didn't want his name in the movie)! If I Didn't Have You is essentially a Big Lipped Alligator song: it has completely different tone to the rest of the movie, is never ever mentioned again and comes right out of nowhere. And it's awful and annoying, clearly trying to be like Friend Like Me from Aladdin with the pop culture references and Don Rickles and Eric Idle are bad singers! For those who don't know, the famous Celine Dion song The Prayer came from this movie! In here, it's just really downgraded with the visuals, and they don't even match to what Juliana is singing about! Another problem I have is that the singing voices of the characters don't sound like the speaking actors, especially Garret, and it can be very distracting when trying to listen to the song.
Quest For Camelot is essentially Warner Brothers attempt of Disney gone wrong with a dull and underdevleoped story, very nice animation, boring characters and a mix of good & pointless songs! I'd only recommend this to people who like non-Disney animated musicals like Anastasia, Thumbelina and The Prince of Egypt, even if this is a weaker edition. I can see why this has been put into obscurity, but it's a shame the actual good Warner Brothers animated films were bombs like Cats Don't Dance and The Iron Giant, both of which I will eventually review! And if you really want to watch an animated film starring Gary Oldman as an over the top yet intimidating villain, just go and watch Kung Fu Panda 2, he's awesome!
Story: 2/10
Animation: 7/10
Characters: 2/10
Songs: 5/10
Overall: 3/10
This animated film was made by Warner Brothers Animation back in 1998, around the time the Disney Renaissance was coming to an end which had movies like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid. It would be the second film for Gary Oldman that year, with Lost in Space being the second one where he played another obvious bad guy. Now, Warner Brothers were considered around the time to be making Disney knock-offs which proved to be box office bombs like Ferngully or Cats Don't Dance. It's important to point out production only took a year and it proved to be difficult for the animators and started to give up on the movie, even have the head layout department being laid off and some of the animators admitted the problems were from working around the clock and that trying to copy Disney was a bad idea. Anyway, can the magic of Excalibur show Disney and King Arthur in another animation studio can work together, or were the animators right and this shows the flaws of copying Disney? Let's find out!
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