Review of Quest for Camelot (1998) by Doug N — 27 May 2018

"Quest For Camelot".

Review by: Doug Nau.

Rating: ***/5.

Directed by: Frederik Du Chau.

Produced by: Andre Clavel.

Dalisa Cohen.

Zahra Dowlatabadi.

Written by: (Screenplay).

Kirk De Micco.

William Schifrin.

Jacqueline Feather.

David Seidler.

Based loosely on the novel by: Vera Chapman "The King's Damosel".

Starring: Jessalyn Gilsig.

Cary Elwes.

Gary Oldman.

Eric Idle.

Don Rickles.

Jane Seymour.

Pierce Brosnan.

Bronson Pinchot.

Jaleel White.

Gabriel Byrne.

John Gielgud.

Frank Welker.

Songs by: David Foster (Music).

Carole Bayer Sager (Lyrics).

Score composed by: Patrick Doyle.

Based loosely on the novel "The King's Damosel" by Vera Chapman, In the days of King Arthur's Camelot, a renegade knight Ruber (Gary Oldman)plots to take the throne by turning his henchmen into formidable monsters, forcing the widow of a Round Table knight he killed to use her privileged access to the King's castle and, most importantly, stealing King Arthur's symbol of power, and the magical sword, Excalibur. When she kidnaps the widow, her young rambunctious daughter, Kayley (Jessalyn Gilsig), who dreams the seemingly impossible dream of becoming a Knight, escapes to both warn the King and try to recover Excalibur. Along the way, she meets up with a young blind hermit, named Garrett (Cary Elwes), a goofy two headed dragon, Devon and Cronwall (Eric Idle and Don Rickles),and a mysterious silver winged falcon. Together, they endeavor to find the sword to save the kingdom.

The story is basically a rip-off of Disney, but very uninvented and blend, although the story wasn't all to bad it has an interesting take on the Arthurian legend, but was so poorly executed, it really could have been so much better but its screenplay was the films ultimate downfall. The characters are really dull and uninteresting. Kayley looks a lot like Belle from Beauty and the Beast if she were in medieval time period. The most interesting characters are Garrett and Ruber, who is a great villain, thanks to the incredible voice works of Gary Oldman.

Speaking of voice actors there actually pretty good, I also like Don Rickles and Eric Idle as the two-headed dragon they are quit a funny pair. The thing I found odd were the chooses for the characters singing voices, while Andrea Corrs, Byran White, Celine Dions, or Steve Perry matched the actors voices. Here you have actors like Jessalyn Gilsigi (voice of Kayley), Cary Elwes (voice of Garrett), Jane Seymour (voice of Juliana), and Pierce Brosnan (voice of King Arthur), who most of them are British Actors with english accents and yet you pick american singers.

To do the singing, its rather noticeable between the two voices.

The animation is best suited for a direct-to-video fare, but has some nice moments, especially the Rock Ogre was really cool piece of computer animation. I also like the the forbidden forest scenes were pretty awesome as well, that's one of the more interesting part of the film. The songs were single handle the best part of the film. Some of the best I've ever heard, but unfortunately are useless and doesn't help the film much, and songs like the villains song "Ruber" and "If I didn't have you" doesn't do any justice, they weren't very catchy or had and rhythm there were better off if they just cut the singing and talk during those numbers.

My favorite songs are "Looking Through your Eyes", "On my Father's Wings", and "I Stand Alone", but the standout and one of the best songs I've ever heard is "The Prayer". This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and fits perfectly with the "Quest" Theme of the movie, unfortunately the scene this song is used in the film didn't even fit well with especially since while the song is played you got an action/chase sequence going on is distracting to the essence of the song and its beauty. The score especially is one of the best I've ever heard, I especially really Doyle's Instrumental music for the songs are fantastic, some of the songs underscore works better than with its vocals.

So overall this is a very uninspired piece of animated film making but it wasn't all bad it had strong potentials but wasn't met to what it could have been, with a better screenplay it could have been so much better. The songs were already overall good with the exception of "Ruber", and " If I Didn't have you". The music was what kept me from giving this movie a "rotten" rating.