Quest for Camelot

I can’t say I’d ever even heard of this but my wife grew up watching it and she was in the mood for a nostalgia trip. It’s a cartoon fantasy musical where a girl has to save King Arthur by finding his lost sword.

Immediately what catches your eye is the cast: Pierce Brosnan, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Gabriel Byrne, Jessalyn Gilsig, Jane Seymour, Eric Idle, Don Rickles and even Sir John Gielgud - it’s definitely not an ensemble lacking in talent.

Clearly someone thought they weren’t good enough to sing though, since most of the voices are doubled with others that barely match the original actors. That’s probably because these are also big names like Céline Dion and Andrea Corr.

The story itself is pretty paint-by-numbers and tries hard to mimic the Disney style, right down to the anthropomorphic comic-relief animals. It’s not particularly inspired stuff and plays it all very safe.

The animation style is at times great, at times not working at all. The characters often don’t feel attached to the scene they inhabit. Then because it’s the late 90s and computers were exciting, there’s ill-advised use of CG images that stick out really badly against the hand-drawn animation.

I also didn’t really vibe with the musical numbers.

So uh well I feel a bit bad now because my wife has fond memories of the film. I can say that it’s nice and short (I’m not being sarcastic, brevity is always welcome especially when you’ve already seen the same story before), and the voice work is obviously very good. But I just can’t recommend it.

The other film my wife loves is Where the Heart Is¹ and while it’s a completely mad film that makes no sense, you cannot accuse it of being in any way normal. So perhaps watch that instead.