Quest for Camelot (1998)
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Quest for Camelot Movie Review
Quest for Camelot is a 1998 animated musical fantasy film from Warner Bros. Feature Animation. It’s a very weak flick.
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“Frankly, we’re the reason cousins shouldn’t marry“
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Kayley dreams of being a knight like her father, Sir Lionel. She teams up with Garrett, a blind hermit, his falcon, and a two-headed dragon to retrieve King Arthur’s lost sword, Excalibur. Needless to say, this movie was clearly Warner’s attempt to copy Disney, which is exactly what they did, but unsuccessfully. They’ve got the songs, the fantasy plot, the musical numbers and the goofy sidekicks, but the end result is lacking in magic itself.
The storyline is only serviceable and overall rushed in execution. Because the entire flick favors action and humor in favor of all else, I failed to emotionally connect to the characters and the plot was not well told at all, though the movie has its strong moments such as the beginning.
Kayley is underdeveloped and a rather bland protagonist and the same could be said for Garrett. They are a very mediocre couple with the romance not working all that well. As for Devon and Cornwall, they are these two in one dragons that quickly got tiresome in their routine. They are a textbook example of overdone sidekicks that are annoying instead of funny. The only character whom I really liked has to be the villain, Lord Ruber. He is quite terrifying for an animated movie, very well designed, competent and delightfully over-the-top.
Quest for Camelot is a musical, but it also fails in that regard. Looking Through Your Eyes, The Prayer and all the other songs are quite forgettable with only On My Father’s Wings being somewhat memorable itself. Again, they tried way too hard to replicate the success of Disney musical numbers, but they aren’t as uplifting or as catchy unfortunately.
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The movie is badly paced, not that engaging despite it being so brisk and only occasionally does it reach any magical moments with the forest scenes being quite adventurous. The mid act did feel like an adventure, but with the characters being underdeveloped as they are, even that part felt uninteresting. The voice acting is good as is the score, but the animation is not great. Some of the imagery is cool and intricate, but the character designs are quite bad in their TV quality and the overall movie should have been more polished.
