By Michael Lyons
Disney’s “The Sword in the Stone” is a perfect movie for New Year’s Day. It’s all about expanding one’s mind, teaching, learning and discovering that there’s more inside of you than you initially thought. All good considerations, or even resolutions, when entering a new year. As if that wasn’t enough, the movie concludes on New Year’s Day with Young King Arthur pulling the sword Excalibur from the Stone.
The 18th film from The Walt Disney Studio sometimes is one of their “forgotten films” (or “Disney Adequate” as some term them), but “The Sword in the Stone” has a devoted following that stretches well beyond Disney circles to devotees of the Arthurian Legend.
Based on the popular 1938 book, “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White, “The Sword in the Stone” opens with a prologue, telling us it’s a dark time, during which a mysterious sword has been left in a stone, under which resides a plaque proclaiming that anyone who pulls the sword from the stone will be crowned king of England.
We then meet a young boy named Wart, an orphan who was adopted by Sir Ector and serves as a squire to Sir Kay. Wart is befriended by a wise wizard named Merlin and his talking owl, Archimedes. Merlin serves as a mentor and teacher for Wart, opening the young boy’s eyes to the world.
These scenes with Merlin are true Disney animation magic. To allow Wart to see another perspective in life, the wizard transforms them into fish, squirrels and birds. The anthropomorphism of the animals in these sequences is perfect and the lessons learned are poignant (particularly the touching lesson about the power of love, during the squirrel segment).
During one of these sequences, there is also amazing, tour-de-force animation when Merlin comes up against the film’s villain, Madam Mim. The Wizard and the Sorceress face off and have a “Wizard’s Duel,” which has become the hallmark of “The Sword in the Stone” and what the film has become most famous for. In a creative, dizzying display, Merlin transforms into a rabbit, a goat, a crab and a walrus, just to name a few. While Mim turns into a rhino, a snake, a tiger and a spotted dragon.
Brought to the screen by animators Frank Thomas (Merlin) and Milt Kahl (Mim) the draftsmanship, expression and acting in the scene lends to its amazing re-watchability (both Thomas and Kahl were members of “Disney’s Nine Old Men,” a nickname given to the upper echelon of the Studio’s animators).
It’s after that Wart accidentally pulls the word from the stone, while attempting to get a replacement sword for Sir Kay, during a New Year’s Day Tournament. As onlookers stand in astonishment, realizing this young boy is their King “ordained by Heaven,” the audience learns that Wart’s real name is…Arthur.
“The Sword in the Stone” isn’t near the classic stature of Disney films that came before (or since). The film suffers from an episodic story (that ends very abruptly) and a graphic style that worked so well for the contemporary “101 Dalmatians,” (1961) but doesn’t seem to fit with what feels like a classic fable. The sweeping grandeur of 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty” would have fit better with “The Sword in the Stone.”
Still, there is a lot to admire in the film. In addition to the Wizard’s Duel, there’s some other great moments of personality animation, particularly from the persnickety Archimedes. There’s also likable songs from Robert and Richard Sherman, the legendary brother songwriter team who would become stalwarts at Disney, later creating some of the Studio’s musical masterpieces.
Released on Christmas Day, 1963, “The Sword in the Stone” celebrates 55 years this month. It’s the perfect time to celebrate this somewhat under celebrated Disney film and a perfect, magical way to ring in the New Year!
Sources:
Wikipedia
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