The Sword in the Stone

The Sword in the Stone (1963)

One of my favourites from when I was a kid, The Sword in the Stone is a film often forgotten by many, but just as fondly remembered by some, there seems to be some sense of inherent nostalgia to it, as if it naturally elicits feelings of ‘Oh yeah, I remember that one!’ at least in my experience, anyway. It’s not one of Disney’s strongest efforts, but this energetic and humorous retelling of Arthurian legend manages to not only keep you entertained all the way through, but also make some surprisingly subtle points about maturity, responsibility and personal development... but mostly just the entertaining thing.

There’s not much new to say about the animation style, as it is almost identical to the one used in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, once again employing the Xerox photography method to save time and cut costs. It looks fine, I don’t think the style suits this film quite as well as it did in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which had an equally stylised, modern setting, while this film takes place in a more traditional Disney medieval fantasy world, but it works well enough and the style has been cleaned up a bit, with the lines a little less rough and scratchy and the animation a little more smooth and controlled. The backgrounds are good, most of them are just pretty decent but some, such as those featured in the London scenes, are really very nice, featuring a lot of bright colours and crowd shots that are highly reminiscent of the castle scenes in Sleeping Beauty, though not quite to the same level of detail, of course. In fact, the film makes frequent and heavy use of colour, from the bright and vibrant banners and robes of the London scenes to the way in which some of the bigger characters are identified with a single colour – Arthur with orange, Merlin with blue, Madam Mim with pink; colour is very important to the film and while that seems to go without saying in an animated picture, the impact and effectiveness of colour can often be forgotten in less imaginative films, so it’s nice to see it used in such a prominent way. On a general level, the animation is nothing revolutionary, even if it does clean up the new style a bit, but it works well for the energised, comic atmosphere that the film is trying to create.

‘And lo, thou shalt writeth lots of tiny letters on the sword that one can barely even read unless the camera zooms in really close...eth’

The Sword in the Stone is probably Disney’s most down-to-Earth, standard comedy yet, a little odd considering it’s set in medieval England and features wizards, talking owls and giant purple (NOT pink) dragons, but whatever, it’s a cartoon. Though pretty much all Disney films have some comic relief, few are primarily comedies and the few of those that we have seen so far have been diluted by things that normally take centre stage – Peter Pan and One Hundred and One Dalmatians try to maintain a sense of action and adventure, while Dumbo tries to juggle its comedy with a heartfelt emotional journey. Alice in Wonderland is the closest we’ve had so far to an out and out comedy, but even that has some sense of adventure and its humour is very absurd and extreme; while The Sword in the Stone is by all means fantastical, it is a lot more grounded. This lets the film work quite effectively as a light hearted comedy, with few distractions; an odd choice for a movie about Arthurian legend, which usually focuses on adventure and high-fantasy with an epic sense of scale. That said, seeing a lighter, sillier take on these usually dense and serious myths and characters is quite refreshing and sweet, it’s genuinely quite an inspired and interesting idea. The movie might not be a laugh riot comedy – it’s a Disney movie, what do you expect? – but the humour is still fun and enjoyable and, in my opinion, never becomes too goofy or obnoxious, like some of Disney’s other attempts.

The movie’s strongest point, however, is its pacing and sense of time – while the comedy is cute, but not hilarious, it is helped along tremendously by the film’s fast pace and high energy. The film just does not stop, it’s always throwing something new at you, a visual gag, some physical humour, some more character based stuff, a complete change of venue and situation, it’s just constant energy and while none of the jokes really knock it out of the park, it throws so many at the wall and so many of them stick that the movie really comes together as a whole. That’s not to say things are rushed either, as the movie definitely knows when to take its time, to slow things down a little and let you take in the whole scene, or to take a little more time with some sequences over others (The ones where Arthur and Merlin transform into animals are given a bit more time and attention than most others), but it never drags or wears an idea out; the film slows, but never stops, there’s always something going on. The story is very thin; ostensibly the film is about Merlin educating young Arthur about the world, effectively preparing him to be a good King, which he becomes at the end of the film and, while this is always in the background, it’s pretty irrelevant in the foreground, which is focused pretty squarely on Merlin’s bumbling antics and his relationship with his owl, Archimedes. 

Help I’m a Fish! 

(If you get this joke please let me know because I don’t believe you exist)

The film wanders from scene to scene without much of a greater purpose for a long time, then suddenly, out of nowhere and with absolutely no build up, a villain shows up in the form of Madam Mim for about ten minutes and then the last ten minutes of the film have nothing to do with her! Mim’s inclusion is completely random and pointless, has nothing to do with the primary plot and only barely ties into the film’s thematic and moral message – ‘knowledge and wisdom is the real power’ – she’s really just there for fun. But none of this is a problem really, because she is fun! The wizard’s duel between her and Merlin, where the two constantly change from one animal to another in order to outwit each other, is very fast paced, energised, imaginatively animated and, most importantly, really fun to watch; it’s undoubtedly the best sequence in the film. Though the film might eschew story and significant character development (although there is a little) in favour of just having fun, it achieves its goal of... well, just having fun, pretty consistently, so all in all I’d call it a success.

The characters are few, but a memorable few: first we have our “protagonist” of sorts, Arthur, yet another Disney protagonist who is sweet and innocent, but dull and lacking in much of a character; certainly, this archetype has grown terribly tired by this point, but to be fair, it is a lot more appropriate and necessary here, as a straight man is required to react to the more lively and ridiculous Merlin and Archimedes and Arthur fills the role well enough. Oddly, Arthur actually seems to have a bit more of a personality when he’s transformed into animals than he does as a human, being less of a pushover and more firm with Merlin. Either way, Arthur is only really there because the film is, supposedly, about him learning how to be a King and based on his legends; though Arthur may have been the hero of those stories, Merlin is the real protagonist of The Sword in the Stoneand the film focuses much more on his frustrations with medieval society and his difficulty in teaching Arthur to focus on mind over muscle than it does on how Arthur learns from him. This is good, because Merlin is pretty great, he manages to both be impressively capable and intimidating when he needs to be, while also being hilariously incompetent and unimpressive for most of the time. He works so much better than say, the bumbling Captain Hook, who screws up absolutely everything and slips and slides about everywhere, never missing an opportunity for slapstick and preventing you from ever taking seriously. With Merlin, you KNOW he’s a powerful wizard, you KNOW he knows what he’s doing and he sometimes pulls off some very impressive feats, but you also know that, inevitably, the second he manages to do something right, he’s immediately going to get too arrogant and let his pride slip him up, immediately eradicating any respect he may have just earned. Watching a character who you know has all the power to succeed in any way he wants constantly fail purely because of his own hubris is much funnier than watching one who seems inherently incapable of doing anything right, constantly battered by everything in the universe and purely unlucky; the bigger they are, the harder they fall and the harder they fall, the bigger you laugh. 

Behold, the great Wizard, Teabeard

Archimedes is good too, he acts kind of like a straight man at times, mocking Merlin’s constant missteps, but will also get involved in the antics and make a fool of as well; he and Merlin have a great dynamic, constantly switching roles in the double act to be the mocked target of misfortune and then the smug onlooker doing the mocking. Arthur’s adopted father, Ector, is not bad either, he’s quite reminiscent of the overbearing Kings from Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in design and personality, but is quite a bit funnier and more memorable than those two; third time’s a charm! I actually found Arthur’s adopted brother and bully, Kay, to be quite funny too; he’s just such a callous jerk who doesn’t give a damn about anything around him. A really funny moment comes when Merlin summons a blizzard inside the castle to prove that he is a magician to Ector, who, covered in show and shivering madly, calls out to his son to look at what’s happening. Kay, completely disinterested by this impossible display just says ‘So what?’ in a bored tone and continues eating; he’s so unimpressed by something so impressive, I love that. I kind of wish they’d use Kay in this way more often, as he doesn’t appear much throughout the film and is usually just there to be a bully to Arthur, rather than as a comic device, but whatever, I’ll take that one scene. The only other prominent character is the “villain” (if you can even really call her that) of Madam Mim, who, as said before, appears very briefly and has no real importance to what little story there is; she seems to have no motivation other than simply being a bad witch and apparently just wants to screw with Merlin because it’s funny. Again, this might be goofy in a more serious movie, but for a comedy, it works well; Mim is a bit too over-the-top and silly for my tastes, but she more than makes up for it with the crazy energy she brings to her scenes and her involvement in the fantastic wizard’s duel.

The music starts off strong, but lulls into a bit of a disappointment – the film returns to a more traditional musical format after the last couple, with longer and more prominent songs. There’s an introductory song which starts off the movie called, fittingly enough, “The Sword in the Stone” which is perfectly fine, but things really kick off with the next song, “Higitus Figitus”, which is great. Like the rest of the movie, it’s super energetic and upbeat, constantly ramping up the pace and speed; it utilises Merlin’s absent-minded brilliantness to great comedic effect, employs very fun and memorable nonsense lyrics in the form of a rhythmic chant – it’s essentially “Bibidi Bobidi Boo” perfected – and ties together with rapid, lively animation and some great editing to form a hectic, madcap and very memorable song. It’s a shame then that the rest are such a bore; there’s about three or four other songs but none of them are really worth talking about, I suppose “That’s What Makes the World Go Round” kind of gets stuck in your head, but that’s only really because they sing that chorus so often that it’s inevitable. The songs aren’t awful, it’s just a shame that none of them could match the energy and chaos of “Higitus Figitus”; seriously, you’d think a song called “Mad Madam Mim” would be a lot more fun and lively, but oh well.

This film was released the same year as “Puff the Magic Dragon” Coincidence!?!? (Yes)

The Sword in the Stone is a very good natured family comedy that can be enjoyed by anyone, I honestly find it hard to imagine anyone hating this, it’s just got so much heart and spirit. It’s energetic, bouncy and never stops moving and its bright colours and fun animation helps the movie to jog along at a healthy pace and never lose momentum – I think this might be the first time so far where the movie ended and I thought “Wait, it’s over already?” The characters are fun, the jokes are fun, the visuals are fun, it’s just fun; not groundbreaking, or artistically exciting or especially imaginative (except for a few great moments like the wizard’s duel and “Higitus Figitus”) but it’s fun and that’s all it really needs to be, for what it is. For a film that’s sometimes brushed aside or forgotten, The Sword in the Stone is a real good time; if you’ve never seen it or just maybe forgot you had, check it out, it’s not going to blow your mind, but it’ll make you smile. 

Other Thoughts

• This is a pretty funny image.

‘If you like Pina Coladas...’

• Early on they have this really weird shot of Arthur drinking tea and looking high out of his mind that they cut to three times. I have no idea why this image exists because it never seems to appear in context, it’s really odd.

I think uh... I think Merlin might have put something in that tea

6.5/10