Review of Quest for Camelot (1998) by Chris S — 05 May 2009

I recently just re-watched this long after I watched it in the theaters as a kid with my dad. He said he was not impressed with it when I asked him years later about the movie. Re-watching it just recently, I can understand his perspective on it, but simultaneously, I was still able to enjoy it.

I'll just get the flaws of the picture out of the way. The biggest problem is that it doesn't quite pull off being a family film because it doesn't have a good balance between things for young children and things for adults to enjoy.

When there is something thrown in for adults, it doesn't feel like it's organically part of the movie. The editing for the film was also choppy since there where times when you as an audience member just go, "What just happened?" And I'm sure the scholars that know all the legends and stories of King Arthur and his knights howled at how little the film follows any of them (that's more of an observation than a critique for me, since I feel that sometimes the best way to capture the essence of what the legends and stories were about is to take a little creative license).

All that being said, there was a good amount of stuff in the movie for me to enjoy it enough to recommend it, and maybe eventually by it. I liked the artwork for the movie and the scenery, it had the right feel for me (and I liked that they incorporated Stone Henge into Camelot).

The characters were fun to watch. The spunky heroine Kayley (voiced by Jessalyn Gilsig) an engaging and carried me through the story of the film. As did Garrett (Cary Elwes), the blind hermit Kayley falls in love with.

The two headed dragon, Cornwall (Don Rickles) and Devon (Eric Idle), was something that worked on and off, although they have a great musical number midway through the film. The villain Ruber (Gary Oldman) was odd most of the time, since he wasn't full parody nor full frightening, but the voice work of Gary Oldman was enough to make me appreciate him somewhat in the film.

Another nice supporting voice work such Pierce Brosnan as King Arthur, Gabriel Byrne as Kayley's father Sir Lionel, Sir John Gielgud as Merlin, and Jane Seymour as Kayley's mother Lady Juliana.

The songs worked for me and actually made the movie better as a whole. My conclusion on "Quest for Camelot" is simply this: There are much better animated, family movies out there, but this one is fun and is a good way to past the time if its on.