Review of Quest for Camelot (1998) by Harry W — 28 Jan 2015

Under recommendation from a close friend, The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot sounded like a fun children's film.

Produced by Warner Bros, The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot doesn't maintain the label of either Disney or Dreamworks, the two animation companies which consistently dominate the animated film market. It is clear because it lacks the charm of many films produced by the competing companies which stand out as being superior while this entry from Warner Bros is a derivative and lesser entry. Loosely based on the source novel The King's Damosel, The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot follows the formulaic animated film path of reducing the tale of the Arthurian legend to a child friendly tale of redemption and adventure. Unfortunately, it is one which has been told all too many times before. There is little in The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot that viewers can see which has not already been dealt with by superior animated films and with more originality and better quality animation.

The story in The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot has almost nothing in the way of originality. It centers the tale on one which is afraid to be anything but conventional and a protagonist who is anything but inspiring. The main character is the same one you would have seen a hundred times, a woman wanting to be more than a princess or a slave to the household. The problem is that her likability is limited due to the fact that she lacks a sense of heroism and she is irresponsible in respecting the lives of others around her, predominantly those of the animals she is left to take care of. This is implied to be a statement that she is not fit to do that and should pursue her ambition to be a knight, but it doesn't contribute to making her any stronger as a character. The characters in the film are archetypes and the tale is thoroughly predictable. Every moment of sudden realization, cheap sentimentality or ridiculous melodrama can be seen a mile away.

The story even has the signature lone hero Garrett who sings about how he stands alone as a hero. The stupid thing is that five seconds after he is done singing this song, he decides to team up with Kayley. He really doesn't have much consistency for a man who stands alone and it renders his entire song obsolete and a waste of time. Even then, that entire song is a generic and repetitive one which doesn't rhyme too well. In fact, the only song in The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot that really makes any kind of impact is "If I Didn't Have You" because despite its repetitive and cluttered nature, it stands out from the other songs as more successful in terms of comedy. The central source of comic relief in The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot comes from the presence of a dragon with two heads who both keep on getting into banter with each other, the two characters responsible for singing the song. While the rest of the film is centered with poor storytelling, Devon and Cornwall serve as a decent distraction. They manage to bring some level of successful humour to the film surrounding the fact that they are actually a ridiculous creation who clash on a personal level. It is mainly funny thanks to the chemistry between voice actors Eric Idle and Don Rickles who work off each other very well due to the contrast between the cocky nature of Eric Idle's British demeanour and the down to earth and gritty manner of speaking brought into play by Don Rickles. The two of them make a strong duo and render the characters a viable source of entertainment in the film with humour which makes up for some of the shortcomings in the film, predominantly Eric Idle and I say that as a fan of Monty Python as his snobby persona was really funny in the ridiculous context of being one head on a two-headed dragon. Still, the humour in the film is inconsistent and the characters Devon and Cornwall don't enter until far into the film so as a whole the comic value of The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot is severly limited even if it is one of the better elements of the film.

The animation in The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot evokes a mixed response from me. Mostly it does a good job, but the designs of most of the characters have little iconic about them and lack a sense of creativity. Also, there are some moments where the movements of characters or items are notably stiff and disrupt the general flow of the rest of the film. Most of the animation in the film generally has a better frame rate, but in animated films all it takes is a few bad moments to make the rest of the experience shaky which is precisely what happens with The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot. But still, most of the film gives good movements to the characters and plenty of colour in the scenery and everything. Though the animation may not tackle much in the way of exciting plot elements, the colourful detail is nice, particularly in the scenes that use 3D elements. The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot has animation which is decent and provides eye candy which should hopefully please the younger viewers. I just wish that there were more ways to make use of the animation budget because the familiar imagery in the film made it hard to find it much of a special feature.

So The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot maintains decent animation and a certain sense of comedy to it, but weighed down by a derivative story, repetitive songs and a general lack of creativity, it fails to stand out from the crowd all that much.