The Sword in the Stone Blu- ray Review (Blu- ray + DVD + Digital Copy)DVDizzy. White (book). Voice Cast: Sebastian Cabot (Sir Ector, Narrator), Karl Swenson (Merlin), Rickie Sorensen (Arthur/Wart), Junius Matthews (Archimedes), Ginny Tyler (Little Girl Squirrel), Martha Wentworth (Granny Squirrel, Madam Mim), Norman Aiden (Kay), Alan Napier (Sir Pellinore), Richard Reitherman (Arthur/Wart), Robert Reitherman (Arthur/Wart); Uncredited: Thurl Ravenscroft (Black Bart), James Mac. Donald (The Wolf), Barbara Jo Allen (Scullery Maid). Songs: . Early in his career, animation appealed to his pioneer spirit. Then animated features, something the industry doubted could be done, attracted him. Later, the idea of a theme park caught Walt's attention and occupied him for a number of years. By the early 1. 96. Walt was looking ahead to new challenges, like employing Audio- Animatronics on park attractions and making a prestige film out of Mary Poppins. Lyrics to the song Mad Madam Mim from Disney's The Sword in the Stone. Screencap Gallery for The Sword in the Stone (1963) (1080p Bluray, Disney Classics). Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has. Clip art images of Wart, Merlin, Archimedes, Kay and Madam Mim from Disney's The Sword in the Stone. But you get the impression that the creative passion he had invested in the early pictures had dwindled by the time The Sword in the Stone was produced. While the company bearing his name celebrates the movies as the legacy of one visionary, films - -especially animated ones - - are a collaborative art. IMDb lists the 1. The Golden Touch as Walt's last directing credit, while Steamboat Willie essentially ended his writing career. Though his hands- on involvement on the early films is well documented, it wouldn't be possible for Walt to do heavy creative lifting on everything his studio was doing. By the '6. 0s, Walt undoubtedly would have been trusting his personnel, giving his OK or perhaps some notes for improvement. Most of his core animators, the famed Nine Old Men, remained with him and maintained a high quality of output. Sword in the Stone closely followed the crowd- pleasing hit 1. Dalmatians and it would be followed by the esteemed The Jungle Book. The same period also produced the first Winnie the Pooh shorts and a number of the studio's most charming live- action films, including the brilliant Mary Poppins. In the midst of all that success, Disney seems entitled to the rare miss, which is what Sword in the Stone continues to stand out as. White's 1. 93. 8 novel of the same name, Sword in the Stone tells us of the Dark Ages childhood of England's future King Arthur. Disney's version depicts him as a gangling blonde boy of 1. Wart. As foreseen, young Wart crashes into the home of the scatterbrained soothsayer and wizard Merlin. Merlin appoints himself the tutor of the mistreated orphan and would- be squire. The wizard turns the two of them into fish to swim the castle moat. He turns them into squirrels for lessons on gravity and love. Finally, he turns Wart into a sparrow who then encounters the witch Madam Mim, who squares off against Merlin in a battle of one- upmanship. Wart, performing squire duties for a New Year's Day jousting tournament designed to crown a king, pulls the famously unmovable sword from its anvil, repeats the feat for an audience, and is instantly made royalty in the presently ungoverned England. I believe you'd have to journey back twenty years or forward around forty to find another entry in the studio's canon as utterly disappointing as this. It's a curious failure, both because of the aforementioned chronology and because Arthurian legend does seem like material well suited to the magic of Disney animation. But this movie has underwhelmed me too many times to chalk it up to a bad mood or poor timing. So much of the movie is just Merlin and Wart hanging out. Their adventures feel like a series of pointless, aimless detours, and stretch to be classified as learning experiences. This seems to be the Disney animated feature with the least going on at all times. The film way overestimates the entertainment value of having its characters change form while retaining their color scheme (and for Merlin, his spectacles). The final act is a hollow parade of this, as Merlin and Mim repeatedly reinvent themselves. Three different young actors voiced the future royal, recording their lines in different stages of puberty. As a result, Wart vocally changes from boy to man and back a number of times. Two of the three actors were the sons of director Wolfgang Reitherman, so there are elements of nepotism and paternal love at play. But the inconsistencies are an affront to even young, indiscriminate ears. Whether real or imagined, the movie seems to have been rushed to make its scheduled release on Christmas Day 1. While Disney's early film output was annual, by then, as many as four years could pass between new animated features. Sword arrived thirty- five months after 1. Disney Sword In The Stone Full MovieThe Sword in the Stone is presented in the 1.33:1 'fullscreen' aspect ratio. That's going to confuse some people. After all, when Disney issued the press release for the 45th Anniversary Edition, they. More - http:// Production Co - Walt Disney Productions Director - Wolfgang Reitherman Writers - Bill Peet, T.H. White Stars - Rickie Sorensen, Sebastian Cabot and Karl Swenson Cast: Sebastian Cabot. Dalmatians and feels like it could have easily benefitted from a little more time. It seems that no matter how primitive looping technology was back then, Wart stood to improve by having one of the three whose voice hadn't yet changed re- record all of the lines. Director Reitherman, one of the Nine Old Men, had been animating for Walt since the '3. Pinocchio and Cinderella to just plain director on all the studio's features from 1. Dalmatians through The Rescuers. The screenplay was credited solely to Bill Peet, one of Walt's most trusted story men, who had worked on virtually every feature and major short since Pinocchio. The songs came from the Sherman Brothers, who had contributed to a number of live- action Disney films and would come to define the era with their tunes for Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh, and others. With all that talent at the helm, it's surprising how much of a concerted effort it takes to stay invested in this film, which only runs a fairly standard 8. To this group, let me apologize for confessing I am unable to see the magic in this film that you do. Honestly, I am quite surprised to see the film currently standing with a plenty respectable 7. IMDb, perhaps our best measure of a film's present- day reputation. That is nearly equal to 1. The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 American animated musical sword and sorcery comedy film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Distribution. The 18th Disney animated feature film, it was the final Disney animated. The title was a Disney animated movie in 1963. July 20, 2015 12:49pm PT by Borys Kit 'Sword in the Stone' Live-Action Remake in the Works With 'Game of. The Sword in the Stone (La espada en la piedra en Hispanoam In my reviews of Disney efforts from the 1960s and 1970s, I've spoken at some length about the creative decline that followed the death of Walt Disney. I've railed against the Company retreating into the safety of convention. Dalmatians (7. 2) and roughly in the same league as The Jungle Book (7. Disney's only other all- animated feature films of the '6. The movie's last theatrical reissue occurred in March of 1. Disney's more frequently revisited subjects (and even The Rescuers, making its first rerelease). Sword is one of the few non- anthology features from Walt's lifetime that never seems to have had any shot at cracking the company's Platinum and now Diamond lines of best- selling titles. A sequel was obviously never going to happen and even the film's presence in the Parks and Sing- Along Songs videos has been pretty limited. The film was one of Disney's last to debut on DVD via the Gold Collection in 2. Anniversary Edition was little more than a disappointing repackaging. After twice being presented on DVD in 1. This seemed like a possibility, especially after The Jungle Book's 2. Platinum Edition DVD presented it in 1. But not until this native 1. Sword would have looked in its original release. As with Jungle, there are some indications that when matted like this, the movie is more cramped than it ought to be. Some words do get oddly cut out of frame in the early scenes of storybook pages turning and in Merlin's maps. In addition, the top of Merlin's hat is strangely cropped out of sight sometimes. Otherwise, the action avoids the frame's edges enough to look fine. Medium and long shots regularly look soft and lack detail. Certain elements appear to be out of focus at times, like the eyes of Merlin, for instance. Your eyes are called to such imperfections, too, because the rest of the picture looks so clean and sharp. Other times, the whole frame looks splotchy and lacks definition, their lines far from bold. Whether the problem lies in the original production methods or subpar restoration efforts is unclear. The Fox and the Hound showed similar limitations, but it too is a mid- range title not subjected to the work of Disney's highest- profile editions. Of the few other animated Disney films from anywhere near this era that I have reviewed on Blu- ray, The Aristocats looked better, while The Rescuers exhibited similar issues. Disney probably could have done more to make Sword look better, but at the same time, this release is only going to sell so many copies and this is a business. While fans will probably appreciate the chance to finally see the film in widescreen, they might be bummed by the results, especially when they realize that the movie is unlikely to get a better transfer on Blu- ray anytime soon, if ever. The former remix is the default and the latter seems included less out of reproducing the original theatrical experience (which was mono) and more about Disney covering their bases for those without home theaters. The 5. 1 track is fine, utilizing the soundfield mildly but appropriately without completely betraying the film's monaural origins. Dubs and subtitles are supplied in four foreign languages. You can tell it's kind of a stretch to make a new short out of this rough limited material, but at least the studio tried to provide something new. The songwriting siblings reflect entirely on Sword, playing some of their score, comparing it to their better future works, and sharing some unused numbers they wrote. This bit of light- hearted fun concludes with a chat with the slave in the magic mirror from Snow White. As always, Walt is a charismatic showman. What's might frustrate some is that the Gold Collection DVD included a 3. We do get the best part here, as the rest just featured cartoon shorts and a Cinderella sequence. From 1. 93. 8, Brave Little Tailor (9: 0. Mickey Mouse mistaken for a fearless giant slayer, a position he ends up filling not for the big payout promised but for the hand of Princess Minnie. A Knight for a Day (7: 0. Goofy as Cedric, a squire who takes the place of his master to joust against the dragon for the hand of Princess Esmeralda. Both cartoons have their appeal, but they look terrible here.
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