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| The Sword in the Stone | |
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| Directed by | Wolfgang Reitherman |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Written by | T. H. White (book) Bill Peet (story) |
| Starring | Sebastian Cabot Karl Swenson Rickie Sorensen Junius Matthews |
| Music by | Richard M. Sherman (songs) Robert B. Sherman (songs) George Bruns |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1963 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 79 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney and it was originally released to the theaters on December 25, 1963. The eighteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, it was the last Disney animated feature released while Walt Disney was still alive.
It is part of the 'English Cycle' of animated films, which include Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh and Robin Hood.
The film is based on the novel The Sword in the Stone, at first published in 1938 as a single novel. It was then later republished in 1958 as the first book of T. H. White’s tetralogy The Once and Future King. From Merlin’s statement that The Times won't come out for another 1200 years, it may be extrapolated that the film is set circa A.D. 585.
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Plot
The Sword in the Stone follows the future King Arthur’s life during his adolescence and education by the wizard Merlin. The film starts with the introduction of the sword in an anvil. "When England was young, and knights were brave and bold, the good king (Uther Pendragon) had died and no one could decide who was rightful heir to the throne." To prevent a power struggle, "a miracle appeared in London Town, the Sword in the Stone." Engraved below the hilt, in letters of gold, read an inscription: "Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of England."
Unfortunately, nobody could pull the sword out of the stone, and the miracle had not worked. It was soon forgotten, and England was left without a King. With no law and order, this was a Dark Age in which men lived in fear of each other.
Some years later, Merlin, a wizard, makes a prediction to his familiar owl, Archimedes, that a person of some significance would drop in on him later that day. He knows only that it will be a small boy, but is able to predict the exact spot where the visitor will fall through his roof, and positions a chair accordingly. We then see Arthur, called Wart by his foster-family, a 12-year-old orphan who lives with Sir Ector, his foster father, and Kay, his older foster brother. Wart clumsily falls from a small tree onto Kay, who is trying to shoot a deer. Kay reacts (as he usually does), by trying to beat Wart, but he trips and falls. Wart attempts to make peace with Kay by volunteering to go into the forest and fetch the arrow. Kay tells him the forest is swarming with wolves, but to go ahead and get killed if he wants to. A somewhat bumbling wolf takes an interest in the boy, but after persuing him for a large part of the movie, gives up. As Wart searches, he falls through Merlin's roof, directly on to the chair.
Merlin sees great potential in the boy and commits himself to Wart's education, which is to consist of reading, science, and magical transformations. Sir Ector, on the other hand, plans to teach Wart about fighting and chivalry to prepare him to be Kay's squire. Merlin packs up his entire cottage by shrinking the contents to fit inside his tiny carpet bag ("Higitus Figitus") and accompanies Wart back to Sir Ector's castle. Ector is interrogating Kay, claiming that he is responsible if Wart gets hurt. He is interrupted by the castle dogs running to Wart and eagerly licking his face. Ector is not pleased about Wart running off into the forest and sends him away. Merlin proposes that Ector permit him to educate Wart. Sir Ector is not keen for Merlin to teach the Wart, but an indoor blizzard soon convinces him to allow the boy to have lessons. However, Sir Ector does put Merlin in the "best room in the house"–a rickety, half demolished tower which offers no protection from the pouring rain.
For his first transformation lesson, Merlin turns Wart into a perch and himself into a trout. In fish form, Wart is chased and attacked by a huge pike, while Merlin has been temporarily incapacitated by being trapped in an old knight's helmet (and having temporarily forgotten the magic words to change Wart and himself back into humans). Wart works to outsmart the beast, but is nearly caught. Archimedes flies down and plucks Wart from the pike’s jaws, saving him, but the owl later denies any altruism, claiming instead, "I intended to eat him! Young perch is my favorite dish! You know that!"
Merlin arrives for his next lesson, only to find that Wart is confined to the kitchen, as punishment for telling Sir Ector the truth about his fishy lesson. Merlin sets the dishes to wash themselves and he and Wart head for the woods. For his second lesson, Merlin transforms Wart to a squirrel. Though Wart begins by learning about the principle of gravity, he ends up learning about the birds and the bees and male-female relationships when he runs into a female squirrel who becomes infatuated with him. Merlin is amused until another female squirrel finds him attractive as well, and the student and teacher are forced to fend off the amorous attentions of both females. After a wolf (the same one who has been following the boy throughout the film) nearly eats Wart (but is saved by the female squirrel that likes him), Merlin transforms both of them back into humans. While Merlin’s squirrel companion is merely horrified and then angry at the wizard, Wart’s companion is visibly heartbroken. The boy then learns that romantic love is stronger than gravity.
Meanwhile, the cook and Sir Ector have discovered the dishes washing themselves and fear black magic. Ector and Kay try to stop the spell, but instead are pummeled by scrubbing brushes, mops, etc., as they continue to work. Merlin and Wart arrive and Merlin stops his spell, but Ector accuses him of using black magic and corrupting Wart. Wart rushes to Merlin's defence, but Ector will not listen and announces that a boy called Hobbes is going to be Kay's squire, rather than Wart.
For his last lesson, Merlin transforms Wart into a sparrow. Merlin doesn’t join him; instead, Archimedes teaches Wart the principles of flight. Wart’s skill and enjoyment rapidly become apparent to Archimedes, but his daring forces him to flee from the pursuit of a hawk. During his escape, Wart is taken hostage by "The Magnificent Marvelous Mad Madame Mim," a witch in competition with Merlin. She claims that her magic, which is based on selfishness and trickery, is more useful than Merlin's magic, which is "for educational purposes." Wart resists Madam Mim's attempts to seduce him away from Merlin's 'good magic' and Madame Mim decides that she will have to kill him. As Wart is still in the form of a little sparrow, Mim turns herself in to a fat pink cat and chases him around her cottage.
Just as Wart is captured, Merlin arrives and challenges Madame Mim to a Wizard's Duel. This is where the combatants try to defeat each other by changing themselves into various forms; "...in an attempt to destroy one another" (as Archimedes puts it). They agree on the rules, which include 'no vegetable or mineral; only animal', 'no make-believe things like pink dragons and stuff', 'no disappearing', and 'no cheating', but Mim immediately breaks the rules by disappearing. Merlin and Mim take turns in transforming in to different animals and trying to get the better of each other. Mim turns herself in to a large dragon, which she justifies by saying that they didn't make a rule against purple dragons. However, Merlin transforms himself into a germ and infects her with a fast spreading and debilitating disease. She is defeated, bedridden and furious. Wart walks away with the lesson that knowledge is the greatest power.
Christmas comes, and Kay is now knighted. Sir Ector and his old friend Pellinore celebrate. By coincidence, Hobbes has come down with the mumps and cannot come to London, so Wart is reinstated as Kay's squire. He runs to tell Merlin, who is disappointed that Wart still prefers war games to academics. Wart tries to explain that, as an orphan, he cannot become a knight and that a squire is the best position he can attain. Merlin, however, becomes angry with his pupil and, in his temper, transports himself to 20th-century Bermuda (unwittingly, through his howling exclamation of "Blow me to Bermuda!").
Sir Ector, Kay, Wart and Pellinore (and Archimedes as a stowaway), travel to London for a New Year's tournament which will decide who will be the next King of England. As Kay’s turn to fight approaches, Wart realizes that he has forgotten Kay's sword at their inn. Kay again tries to beat Wart (and trips again), and finally yells at the retreating boy to go get his sword, or not to come back at all. Wart goes back to the inn but the door is locked, and he frantically searches the town for another sword for Kay. He sees a sword protruding from an anvil on a stone in a churchyard. He touches the sword and a light streams from heaven, prompting Archimedes to tell the boy to leave it alone. But Wart, afraid of what will happen if he returns to the tournament without a sword, pulls the sword from the stone, unwittingly fulfilling the sword’s prophecy and making himself king.
Wart returns with the sword and hands it to Kay, but before he can enter the arena, Ector recognises "the Marvellous Sword" and the tournament is halted. Unable to believe that a child could succeed when adults had failed, the crowd demands that Wart prove that he took the sword. The assembled audience follow Sir Ector and Wart to the churchyard and Ector replaces the sword in its anvil. Wart reaches for the Sword, but is stopped by the arrogant Kay, who reasons that "anyone can pull it, once its been pulled". However, once re-inserted the sword is as immovable as ever; he is unable to budge the sword. Pellinore (who is kindly disposed towards Wart), Sir Bart the Black Knight, and other knights call for Wart to be given his chance. As Wart pulls the sword from the stone for the second time, the heavenly light shines down again. And someone in the crowd (Pellinore?) proclaims that "This boy is Our King". Sir Bart asks Ector; "What's the Lads Name?", and at first Ector says "Wart", and then He quickly amends that to "I mean Arthur". Sir Bart then cries out "Hail!! King Arthur!!". And then everyone else joins in. Ector then humbly kneels and asks Wart to forgive him for his past short-tempered attitude. And then he orders Kay to bow down too, (which Kay does rather grudgingly).
Trapped in his throne room, surrounded on all sides by cheering crowds, Wart - now "King Arthur" to everyone - is feeling apprehensive and unprepared to be a king. He and Archimedes try to slip away, but to no avail. Wart calls out to Merlin for help. After the wizard appears (in Bermuda shorts, sunglasses, sandals, etc.) and the facts become apparent, Merlin is elated to find that Wart will be the King Arthur that he has seen in the future. Merlin tells the boy that he will rise and lead the Knights of the Round Table. When Wart questions the Round Table, asking for an explanation, Merlin wonders whether he would prefer a square one. Wart assures him that "round will be fine" and Merlin continues to talk about the future, revealing other anachronistic information.
Voice Cast
- Sebastian Cabot: The Narrator/Sir Ector
- Karl Swenson: Merlin
- Rickie Sorensen, Richard Reitherman and Robert Reitherman: Arthur
- Junius Matthews: Archimedes the Owl
- Ginny Tyler: Little Girl Squirrel
- Martha Wentworth: Granny Squirrel/Madame Mim/The Scullery Maid
- Norman Alden: Kay
- Alan Napier: Sir Pellinore
- Barbara Jo Allen: Scullery Maid
Songs
- "The Sword in the Stone"
- "Higitus Figitus"
- "That's What Makes the World Go Round"
- "A Most Befuddling Thing"
- "Blue Oak Tree"
- "Mad Madame Mim"
Reception
The film was a success at the box office and was the fifth highest grossing film of 1963.
Awards
The film received in 1963 one Academy Award nomination [1]:
- Best Score—Adaptation or Treatment (lost against Irma La Douce)
Animation
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This list may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this list. It may be poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate. (February 2007) |
- Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston said that Milt Kahl's animations of Sir Kay and Sir Ector were "the best human figures ever done at the studio."citation needed
- The climactic battle between Merlin and Mad Madam Mim is often cited by animation experts as some of the best character animation to that date. The characters go through numerous physical transformations during battle, yet retain their identifying features; Merlin's guises are blue and include his glasses and facial hair, while Mim's are pink and purple and have her messy hair.citation needed
- The deer Kay tries shooting at with his arrow is recycled animation of Bambi's mother from Bambi. And later, when Sir Ector and Kay are in the kitchen fighting against the enchanted dishware, Sir Ector swings his sword backwards and hits Kay on the head. Jasper and Horace in One Hundred and One Dalmatians are animated in the same way during the fight scene with Pongo and Perdita.
- The animation of the scene where Arthur is being licked by the castle dogs is later reused into The Jungle Book when Mowgli is being licked by the wolf family.
- Some of the animation cells of Arthur walking through the dark forest to find Kay's arrow were later reused in a similar scene in The Black Cauldron.
- The scene where Arthur is a squirrel jumping from one tree to the next was reused in The Fox and the Hound in 1981.
Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2007) |
- This was the first animated feature to have songs written by the Sherman Brothers (music was written by Disney composer George Bruns).
- The Sword in the Stone is the only production in which Robert and Richard Reitherman appear. They were the sons of director Wolfgang Reitherman and brothers of Bruce Reitherman, the voice of Mowgli and Christopher Robin.
- Merlin appeared in the Square-Enix and Disney game Kingdom Hearts as a resident of Traverse Town, and later in Kingdom Hearts II, a resident of Hollow Bastion. His house in Kingdom Hearts II was used as a base where the security system of Hollow Bastion could be controlled.
- Arthur was voiced by three different boys - Rickie Sorensen, Richard Reitherman and Robert Reitherman. The changes in voice are very noticeable in the film because of the way Arthur's voice keeps going from broken to unbroken, sometimes in the same scene. One of the easiest noticed is in the last scene in the thone room when Arthur asks in his "changed voice", "Oh, Archimedes, I wish Merlin was here!" Then, the camera cuts farther back and Arthur shouts in his "unchanged voice," "Merlin! Merlin!"
- This is Martha Wentworth's final film; she died in 1974.
Worldwide release dates
- Argentina: January 16, 1964
- Brazil: January 17, 1964
- Australia: April 15, 1964
- Hong Kong: May 28, 1964
- Japan: July 18, 1964
- Mexico: December 10, 1964
- Sweden: December 14, 1964
- France: December 16, 1964
- West Germany: December 17, 1964
- Italy: December 23, 1964
- Denmark: December 26, 1964
- Norway: December 26, 1964
- Austria: December 3, 1965
- Finland: December 17, 1965
- Spain: December 20, 1965
- Kuwait: November 15, 2003
Home video release history
- 1983 (VHS and Betamax - UK only)
- March 24, 1986 (VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc - Walt Disney Classics)
- October 14, 1986 (VHS and Betamax - Walt Disney Classics)
- September 28, 1989 (VHS and Betamax - Walt Disney Classics)
- July 12, 1991 (VHS and Laserdisc - Walt Disney Classics)
- October 28, 1994 (VHS and Laserdisc - Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection)
- March 20, 2001 (VHS and DVD - Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection)
- June 17, 2008 (DVD - 45th Anniversary Edition)
See also
External links
- Official website for 45th Anniversary Edition DVD
- The Sword in the Stone at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- The Sword in the Stone at the Internet Movie Database
- The Sword in the Stone at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Sword in the Stone at Box Office Mojo
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 6 October 2008, at 23:59.
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