Quest for Camelot (1998)

Director:

Frederik Du Chau

Writers:

Vera Chapman (novel)
Kirk De Micco (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 May 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Adventure | Fantasy | Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Devon & Cornwall: A two-headed dragon with an identity crisis.

Plot:

An adventurous girl, a young blind hermit and a goofy two headed dragon race to find the lost sword Excalibur to save King Arthur and Camelot.

Plot Keywords:

King Arthur | Knight | Blind | Sword | Camelot

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Jessalyn Gilsig	...	Kayley (voice)
Andrea Corr	...	Kayley (singing voice)
Cary Elwes	...	Garrett (voice)
Bryan White	...	Garrett (singing voice)
Gary Oldman	...	Ruber (voice)
Eric Idle	...	Devon (voice)
Don Rickles	...	Cornwall (voice)
Jane Seymour	...	Juliana (voice)
Céline Dion	...	Juliana (singing voice) (as Celine Dion)
Pierce Brosnan	...	King Arthur (voice)
Steve Perry	...	King Arthur (singing voice)
Bronson Pinchot	...	Griffin (voice)
Jaleel White	...	Bladebeak (voice)
Gabriel Byrne	...	Lionel (voice)
John Gielgud	...	Merlin (voice) (as Sir John Gielgud)

Also Known As:

The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot (International: English title)

Runtime:

86 min | Germany:74 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:Livre | Chile:TE | France:U | Germany:o.Al. (w) | Singapore:G | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | USA:G | Australia:G | Canada:G

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Was originally intended to be darker and more faithful in tone to the original book, however, more songs, characters and family-friendly gags were added to tone down the content.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the bad guy tries to attack King Arthur he is repelled by the sword. He runs out of the chamber and slams the heavy wooden doors closed behind him. As he does so three knights throw a spear at him. However on the other side of the doors, seven spears are shown piercing through it.

Quotes:

Kayley: Garrett, what are you doing?
Garrett: I'm driving!
Kayley: Are you *sure* that's such a good idea?

Movie Connections:

References Camelot (1967)

Soundtrack:

The Prayer

Heart is in the right place, but flawed...

I am going to agree with the majority of the other posters here. There is a lot of good elements in this movie, but it is all put together as much more of a cliche then it had to be.

It seemed like there were too many singing scenes and they were too abrupt and not integrated into everything. Every time one started, I couldn't wait for it to be over so we could get back to the story. And as others mentioned, the singing voices were too different from that of the characters themselves. Imagine if they had used the time during the songs to actually give more plot and character development.

Everyone seemed too two-dimensional. As someone else pointed out, how did the bad guy even get to the round table in the first place? He was charming in his own way, but too cookie-cutter.

As others mentioned, the animation is very hit-or-miss. The backgrounds and overall mood are very well done, but a lot of the characters were just not animated well, the hawk was frequently deformed, etc. It stood out badly due to the quality of everything around it. Take a look at something like Princess Mononoke to see characters animated on a limited budget that meshes much better with everything else, with a lot more visual style.

It seems like it would have a feminist bent, but then she is still rescued most of the time, and the dress scene at the end seems especially absurd in the context of everything else.

Some of the comedy elements were cute, but I did dislike all of the movie references and everything. Since everything else seems centered in the world, it seems out of place.

Like the Black Cauldron, this was an OK movie that could have been a lot better. But at least BC didn't have all that singing. Sword in the Stone also worked a lot better while being in a similar vein.

If you want an American animated movie that is really consistent with its own world, animated well, has good characters, etc. check out the Secret of Nimh. You can get it really cheap on DVD now. Seeing Quest for Camelot the day after Nimh, there really is no comparison...