Bit of a Stone Weight
Arthur, although people call him Wart, is an orphan who has been adopted by Sir Ector where he is expected to not just help out around the house but also help his son Kay. But for Wart the future has great things in store as Merlin the wizard and his owl Archimedes predict that Wart is going to become a legend. With that in mind they decide to school him for his future where they predict he will become King Arthur, ruler of England.
As a fan of the old school Walt Disney animations I find myself at a loss when it comes to "The Sword in the Stone" as whilst I don't dislike it for some reason it has never really wowed me. Even as a child during the 80s I felt like I was the odd one out as friends young friends would get excited about watching "The Sword in the Stone" and I would be like "isn't there something different to watch".
What is interesting is having now watched "The Sword in the Stone" for the first time in a long time and most definitely the first time as an adult I sort of can see why I have never been blown away by it. My trouble is that it is all kind of familiar with scenes which remind you of other Walt Disney animations. It almost feels like that those behind it had analysed what parts of their other movies worked and tried to incorporate the same thing in to this so for example there is a scene involving Merlin packing his case which reminded me of "Fantasia". There are others and the familiarity of the various elements becomes its undoing.
It is a shame as the original "The Sword in the Stone" story is good but not only gets dumbed down for this animation but gets lost behind those familiar Disney elements. I suppose what I am saying is that "The Sword in the Stone" lacks the wow factor and it is the same when it comes to the animation work as whilst it is solid, as you would expect, it doesn't have the wow factor or stands out from the crowd.
What this all boils down to is that "The Sword in the Stone" ends up a typical Walt Disney animation except in being so typical it ends up becoming surprisingly ordinary and lacking the wow factor of other Walt Disney animations.
