#18 The Sword in the Stone

Disney's adaptation of T.H. White's Arthurian novel is, unfortunately, considerably less exciting than its source material would suggest. The sword itself barely factors into the plot, being used only as a way of wrapping up things at the end, leaving the rest of the story to focus on Arthur's training under Merlin (though what exactly Merlin thinks he's training Arthur for is a bit ill-defined, since he doesn't seem to know that Arthur is the prophesied king).

Merlin himself is an enjoyable character, far less imposing and dignified than most depictions. This version, while still dispensing sage advice, is decidedly more whimsical, dropping frequent references to 20th century technology, which, while amusing, definitely break the film's immersion a bit. The better scenes in the film are those with Merlin transforming himself and Arthur into fish and squirrels to impart his lessons - the fish scene gives us an encounter with an impressively imposing pike, while the second gives us the rather adorable encounter between Arthur and a female squirrel. Speaking of Arthur himself, Disney made the baffling decision to have him voiced by three different actors, none of whom sound very much alike. The audience is left to deal with the jarring result of having Arthur's voice suddenly switch from high and boyish to a weak pubescent croak, sometimes within the same scene. There seems to have been no consideration given as to which actors would record which scenes, and the result is quite possibly the worst voice acting job in Disney's canon.

Artistically, the film is a bit lacking as well. The xerography techniques employed for the animation in 101 Dalmatians return here, but while it fit the contemporary style of that film, here it's just unremarkable. The backgrounds, too, lack the fine detail of Sleeping Beauty or 101 Dalmatians, and seem merely treated as... well, backgrounds, something not to be looked too closely at. There also seem to be points (most notably in the fish scene) where the animation seems sharply discontinuous from the background, as if the cells were lit unevenly or trimmed at the edges.

All in all, The Sword in the Stone is decidedly one of Disney's weaker films. Following the artistic triumph of Sleeping Beauty and the contemporary British charm of 101 Dalmatians, this may have been bound to be a bit of a letdown. It's disappointing to consider that this was the last film released during Walt Disney's lifetime, but, as we will see, the Silver Age had a bit more magic left in it.