The Sword in the Stone

This is Disney meets Saturday morning cartoons. It's a shallow and simplistic adaptation of T.H. White’s version of the old fable. In particular, the characters are overly slapstick and plainly rendered in a manner that is shameful considering the studio’s earlier animation standards. (However, it is worth noting that many of the backgrounds are beautifully drawn). As far as story goes, there’s a lot of preaching about learning and wisdom and all that, which is fine on its own terms, but all that gives short shrift to the actual story and background of Arthur growing up to be Arthur (you get a better version of that in John Boorman's Excalibur...though I suppose you probably want to keep the kids away from that one). There isn’t much particularly right here; the tone seems wrong, the animation is not particularly good, the story is mostly a pastiche of set scenes. Put it all together and it's just not much of anything, at least in this viewer's eyes. Hardly kingmaking material.