Film Snail

The Sword in the Stone
The Sword in the Stone

7.2

The Sword in the Stone

G·1963·79m

Summary

Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give him an education, believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.

Crew

Director

Wolfgang Reitherman

Novel

T.H. White

Screenplay, Story

Bill Peet

Reviews

Kamurai

Kamurai

July 11, 2020

5

Decent watch, probably won't watch again, and can't recommend.

Now it's been a while since I've seen this one, and now I remember why. There just isn't anything in the well in which to return. Sure all the magic is amusing, and the animal adventures are cute, as well as a nice reminder of how good we have it as humans, but I really feel like we ruined that squirrel's life, and I'm sad about it.

The actual story of the sword in the stone is very short, because it's not interesting: it's all the adventures that Arthur has growing the kingdom, establishing rule over (what would be) England, and his adventures as an adult king (most of which were his knights') to include warring with neighbors.

While the jocks versus nerds analogy through the movie is interesting, it feels polarizing, and the message of education / knowledge is mixed throughout the movie. Future references to the (1963) present just dates the movie and aren't all that funny, and it tells the audience that just because you have knowledge, doesn't mean you can use it. Then in the 3rd act, we start a controversy over having knowledge / skills can be used to better or worsen things, and other than inspiring Star Wars, I don't know what the point of it was.

My favorite part was when Archimedes got to laugh: he seemed like he really needed it.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$3,000,000.00

Revenue:

$22,200,000.00

Keywords

witch
based on novel or book
magic
transformation
cartoon
villain
knight
king arthur
turns into animal
female villain
excalibur
wizard
wart
whimsical