Friday, March 25, 2016

Higitus-Figitus (Disney's The Sword in the Stone, 1963)

Arthur (aka 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 plans for Wart beyond mere squiredom. He starts by trying to give Wart an education (whatever that is), believing that once one has an education, one can go anywhere. Needless to say, it doesn't quite work out that way.   ~ IMDb

 Story

     While the classic story of King Arthur is a fairly simple story overall, this film jumped all over the place so quickly that I could hardly remember what happened last.   This movie had great potential, but Disney actually ruined it in this case.   (Sorry, Disney.)   It didn't help that Wart was voiced by THREE PEOPLE.   Sometimes this is okay.   However, you could tell the difference between Wart's voices.   (Also, WHY WAS WART AMERICAN?!?!   The rightful king of England, indeed.   Psh.)

Visuals

     With all due respect, most of the animation was AWFUL.   It was sketchy and weird.   The only decent animation was the sword getting pulled out of the stone and "Higitus Figitus."   There also wasn't much ~pretty scenery~ as I would have liked.   Even Winnie The Pooh has pretty scenery, guys.   COME ON.   (I will give the movie some credit, however.   The fight scene between Merlin and Madame Mim has been considered one of the most complex pieces of hand-drawn animation and is still used as reference for animators today.   I didn't really enjoy that particular scene, but I give it credit as a valuable piece of animation.)

Music

    The music was nice, but it wasn't stellar or notable.   It was cute.   (I don't have much to say on the music, sorry.   It was average for a Disney film.)

Final Rating

    Not the greatest.   I was expecting Winnie the Pooh-esque characters and songs, which I did not receive.   (Merlin was a bit like I had imagined, however.)   This film is definitely not one of the greatest Disney has released.

Bonus Gif:

2 comments:

  1. Yeah... I watched this a few years ago and I think there is a reason that we all know the lyrics to "Let it Go" and not to any of the songs in this movie... Except for me. They did use the songs for the Sing-a-Long Song videos...

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