The Sword in the Stone Discussion

[deathie mouse]

Hello Alan. I've merged the thread you started with the previous topic of the SAME subject available. The adm has told you repeatedly that you should learn to use the Search function. Maybe you need a tutorial.

You think of a subject you want to discuss. Lets say you wanna talk and discuss The Sword and The Stone for example. You click on the Search link on the top of ALL forum pages. You type Sword and the Stone in the search, choose 'search topic title only', maybe select General Discussions as the forum to be searched cus it's a general Disney topic, and then click the Search button on the bottom of the page. A few seconds later you get a few results with the subject you're interested on their titles. If it says 'Sword and the Stone with slipcover?' uh uh. that's probably not it. If it says 'Sword and the Stone discussion' aha! that has probabilities. So you click on the link and read the first post. Bingo! What you want! Then you proceed to reply after the last post of that thread for continuing UD goodness instead of bifurcating the subject into parallel universes that seem like ships passing through the night.


And btw, happy birthday

Come on! you can do it! you're a big boy now.

[Alan]

Hello Alan. I've merged the thread you started with the previous topic of the SAME subject available. The adm has told you repeatedly that you should learn to use the Search function.


And btw, happy birthday

Come on! you can do it! you're a big boy now.

Well at my old forums, they said you couldn't bump old threads and that was why I got banned: For bumping old threads. So you COULD bump old threads here....

happy birthday to me...

And to deathie mouse: Do you check every single thread that comes out every day to see if people have posted before like I did? If you do, you must have a lot of time...

[deathie mouse]

deathie mouse: Do you check every single thread that comes out every day to see if people have posted before like I did? If you do, you must have a lot of time...

Not every one, but i'm old and i've seen most of them before, and so have the mods who are even "older" than I am in the UD sense, and as you could see if you read the thread from the start i've been here before. Besides, it is my job.

Bumping an older thread to add nothing to it when it has all been said before to death may not be a good idea but opening another thread of the same is even worse. Contributing, giving an intelligent or interesting opinion, or adding something new to an already established topic on the other hand is welcomed

Carry on

[chaychay102royal]

Well. I hope they released a sequel to The Sword In The Stone in the making.

Oh my gosh, Teede, you will not give up your cry of "sequels! Sequels! Sequels that don't exist will be coming in September!"

[mr jinx]

read my review here

This 1963 film attempted to adapt T.H. White's massive Once and Future King. I think the film at most covered about 20% of the book, and ended just when things were getting good. The tale begins with young pre-King Arthur (or Wart as he is referred to in this movie) meeting the Wizard Merlin. Wart becomes a pupil of the wiz, and experiences life as a fish, love as a squirrel, and flight as a bird. In the last few minutes of the film, the pure-hearted lad pulls the legendary Excalibur from a stone where it rested, stuck until one such as he would remove it. Upon so doing, Wart is ordained King, and the credits roll.

There are a few nice moments in the film, such as the aforementioned Higitus Figitus song as Merlin packs his entire households belongings into a small suitcase. Another highlight is a wizards duel between the silver bearded Merlin, and the wicked Madam Mim. During this duel, the magic wielders transform into various beasts until Mim is finally outsmarted. The remainder of the film, plays as a series of episodes with only a very faint thread of plot or progression. This film isn't bad, but it is kinda boring despite its short 79 minute length.

Other Disney entries in the 60's included The Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians, both of which are considered to be classics (though not quite at the level of Snow White or Bambi). I am not sure why Stone missed the boat, but I do not completely fault Disney for this film's failure. There have been a lot of attempts to adapt the Arthurian legend, but none has really triumphed. Its just a difficult work to adapt. Nevertheless, The Sword and the Stone deserves no better than a C-.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

I'm surprised that I haven't posted in this thread yet. Oh well. I know that I have seen this movie. But I haven't the faintest idea of any of it. I know what it's about, but I just can't remember what was in it. From what I remember, which, mind you, isn't a lot at all, I think it was a good movie. The only thing that I can particularly remember, is a scene where Merlin and Arthur, or whatever his name is, were walking by some river, or pond, or something like that, and they were talking. What they were talking about I haven't a clue. That's all that I can remember. Pretty sad, huh? I should go and rent it from the library. Or, Disney can make a new edition, a whole lot better than it's Gold Collection, and then I get it, I watch it, I see the scene that I vaguely described, then I come back here, and type something else in, and say something like this: "Wow! This was an awesome movie! Some parts were better than others, but that's okay. I had a great time watching this movie, and I am glad that it is in my collection." I think that I will say something like that.

[Escapay]

Or, Disney can make a new edition, a whole lot better than it's Gold Collection

Well, for a Gold Collection disc, it was packed pretty well:

- Walt Disney Show "All About Magic" (36 minutes)
- "Music Magic" with the Sherman Brothers (8 minutes)
- 16 Pages of Artwork
- Sing-Along "Higitus Figitus"
- Sing-Along "That's What Makes The World Go Round"
- 8 Pages of Film Facts
- Goofy short "Knight for a Day" (7 minutes)
- Mickey short "Brave Little Tailor" (9 minutes)
- Previews for Snow White PE, Hunchback 2, 102 Dalmatians, and Emperor's New Groove

I wouldn't mind seeing a new edition that had more about the movie beyond the still gallery and film facts offered here. Maybe a 20-30 minute featurette about the making of the film, a trailer (like that's gonna happen), and a commentary (like that's gonna happen too!)

Anyway, Sword in the Stone is one of those comedic adventure films from Disney, like Robin Hood, or Rescuers Down Under. It's a lot of fun fluff, not as well-received as Pinocchio or Bambi or Aladdin or TENG, but still, a nice film. I still have to pick up a copy myself, I've been borrowing it from Kram several times in the past year.

Escapay

[Lars Vermundsberget]

This film isn't bad, but it is kinda boring despite its short 79 minute length.

I basically agree. But 79 minutes is not "short" in the context of Disney's "Classics" - I think it's close to average.

[nickbabs]

I love it because I think Madame Mim is a lunatic. She's a great (and hilarious) villain.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Or, Disney can make a new edition, a whole lot better than it's Gold Collection

Well, for a Gold Collection disc, it was packed pretty well:

- Walt Disney Show "All About Magic" (36 minutes)
- "Music Magic" with the Sherman Brothers (8 minutes)
- 16 Pages of Artwork
- Sing-Along "Higitus Figitus"
- Sing-Along "That's What Makes The World Go Round"
- 8 Pages of Film Facts
- Goofy short "Knight for a Day" (7 minutes)
- Mickey short "Brave Little Tailor" (9 minutes)
- Previews for Snow White PE, Hunchback 2, 102 Dalmatians, and Emperor's New Groove

I wouldn't mind seeing a new edition that had more about the movie beyond the still gallery and film facts offered here. Maybe a 20-30 minute featurette about the making of the film, a trailer (like that's gonna happen), and a commentary (like that's gonna happen too!)


Escapay

Now a commentary and a trailer would be awesome. You know what, I'm really not "into" commentaries. I've listened to half of one on the Mary Poppins 40th Anniversary Edition, and the same for the Platinum Edition of Aladdin. I guess that I sould listen to more of them. Since I don't have The Sword in the Stone, this edition would suffice, but I would much rather have a 2-dics Masterpiece Edition (like that's gonna happen. Why doesn't Disney have any other Masterpiece Edition, besides Alice in Wonderland?????). Anyway, if Disney ported everything over from the Gold Collection DVD, and add a commentary/trailer, and a 20-30 minute making-of, I would be very happy. But most likely, this won't happen. Hey, maybe in 2008, Disney will come out with the: 2-Disc 45th Masterpiece Edition DVD!

[bambifan56]

I am peronally a fan of the film, I caught it on Toon Disney last time I was home and had forgotten how fun of a little movie it was. It is entertaining and the way they did Merlin is pretty amusing

[Aladdin from Agrabah]

I agree with those that said the songs are lacking. But I do like the film because it's got great characters.

Yeah, but the song with Merlin's Magic Words is absolutely a hit! And the Intsrumental version of it in the beginning of the movie is so classy and so jazzy, it makes me wanna dance!

[singerguy04]

What i find funny about this film is the fact that everybody wouldn't mind a sequel to this, but disney has done a sequel to almost every movie but.

anyway back to subject... I absolutely love this film. I used to watch it a lot when i was younger with my sister and we both loved it. I would really like to see some kind of special edition for this! but then again, that all comes down to my hatred towards to gold collection so i'd like to see them all get replaced by something better...

[TheSequelOfDisney]

*whistles* Come here 45th Anniversary Edition of The Sword in the Stone! *whistles* Come here! Sure the movies 45th Anniversary isn't out until 2 years, but.............. I can dream, right?

[cydney]

I didn't like this movie when I was younger but I've grown to love it. I've really been wanting to buy it but I know as soon as I do buy it and get it opened they will announce a special edition coming out because that's just how my luck it.
My favorite parts are when Merlin turns Arthur into the different animals and when Merlin and Madam Mim are turning into animals fighting with each other.

[Lazario]

This movie has always been one of my favorites. But do I think it's one of the better Disney movies? If the Disney animated masterpieces were split into 5 groups:
Masterpiece / Great / Good / Okay / Not Good,
than it would definitely rate as Good, because it's better than Okay. Certainly I think it does an excellent job of telling a story about a boy who didn't know what was best for him because of the way no one considered education important at the time. And then, the next important thing is - is the movie fun? It's a lot of fun. But since it is about 'schooling', maybe it's not as much fun as other Disney films. Plus, there could also be something about the fact that Merlin didn't take Wart very far out of his natural environment that made the adventures in the movie slightly less interesting. I liked the fish life scene more than the squirrels' life. It was more colorful. As far as the songs go, the education-related ones did seem just a tad Barney-ish. Except for "Higitus Figitus" which was very good, I think. Especially since it was given an effective encore in most of the other magic "mischief" scenes. As far as the animation quality goes, I don't see what there is to complain about. It's as good as the animation in 101 Dalmatians or The Jungle Book. The movie was also quite funny. And Archimedes was an excellent character. Except for the constant repetition of Wart's grating "woah-woah-w-wa-wah-oh!" line in nearly every scene he's in, I don't understand what the critics were panning it for. For the majority of the movie, it's visually and otherwise a very fascinating movie.

[Zoltack]

Beside from Bambi I always thought that this movie kicked ass and when Escapay got it for me for Christmas I was remined why. First, I love the plot, they kept is simple so it was easy to follow along and it had a happy ending to it. Second, I love the characters especially Merlin, he always cracks me up. Lastly, I didn't think the animation was all that great but they had some really kewl backgrounds.

[Lazario]

That is probably one of the things that makes this movie as entertaining, because it is so simplistic. You might not expect much (which isn't a bad thing), but you get more. Again on the animation-quality front, the reason I sau there isn't much to complain about is, how could it really be different? Would it be better if it were changed? Probably not.

[BrandonH]

Well, it's been almost two months, but I have returned to UD. Why was I gone? I wanted to sit down and watch my recent Disney DVD purchases, and I wanted to avoid Cars spoilers. Anyhoo, here are some of my thoughts about The Sword in the Stone.

It had some strong elements in it, but the lack of an overall storyline really hurt the movie. Also, Wart's relatives served almost no purpose, and they felt like a waste of screen time.

Merlin and Archimedes were great fun to watch, and they could easily have had their own movie together. The transformation lessons were both amusing and instructional. The best scene in the movie was the wizard duel between Merlin and Mim. From the moment Merlin transforms himself into a walrus until the end, I was in hysterics.

Although it is a bit uneven, The Sword in the Stone is still a movie worth watching, and I'm glad to have it in my collection.

[Trumpet Joe]

My biggest beef with this movie is that Merlin (as we all know) was a great magician, so why was all his magic in this movie used for education?