The Sword in the Stone

The Sword in the Stone, one of the top grossing films of 1963, was the 18th animated feature from Disney, and the last released before Walt Disney's death. It is also indicative of the slide into irrelevance that Disney's animated films would take, which wouldn't end until The Little Mermaid in 1989.

Based on the novel by T.H. White, the film shows us the youthful origins of King Arthur. In this film, he is an orphan, called Wart, who works as a servant in the castle of Sir Ector. But Merlin, the world's most powerful wizard, knows of Wart's future, and endeavors to teach him of the world. Eventually young Wart will pull the sword from the stone, which will make him king of all England.

The film was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, one of Disney's "Nine Old Men," and visually it is a solid effort. The highlight is a "wizard's duel" between Merlin and Mad Madame Mim, an evil sorceress, in which the two turn into various animals.

But the story is rather weak. Mostly it's Merlin teaching Wart that brains are better than brawn, with segments that involve Wart turning into animals--a fish, a squirrel, and a bird. The comedy is pretty lame, much of it from Merlin's cantankerous talking owl, Archimedes. The songs, by Richard and Robert Sherman, are pretty forgettable

I note in reading about it that Wart was voiced by three different actors, two with the last name of Reitherman (nepotism?), which accounts for the voice changing throughout the film.