Animated Atrocities: Quest for Camelot

Show: Movie
Episode: N/A
Year: 1998

Writer(s): Vera Chapman (original novel), Kirk De Micco, William Schifrin, Jacqueline Feather, David Seidler
Director(s): Frederik Du Chau


Yeah those faces pretty much sum up my feelings towards this movie. It isn't really THAT heinous or does anything terrible per se besides well, I'll get to that as we go onward, but mostly this is one of the most disjointed unorganized and bizarre movies I've ever seen come out of Warner Brothers. Let's start with the fact that orignally this wasn't meant to be a musical, the songs were added in late production because they thought it would sell better; this is ALWAYS a big mistake! Most of the time thoughout the film the songs do little more than explain what we already know or could figure out for ourselves; and unlike in a good movie such as The Lion King or Aladdin the songs don't progress the story in any way, they grind it down to a slog and warp the pacing.


And on that note sometimes the pacing really slows way down when a musical number comes up, and sometimes after when we get back on track it goes by too fast. For example when Kayley first meets Garret he sings "I Stand Alone" and explains to her as slowly as possible that he doesn't want any help, he immediately relents after this song and takes her assistance. As for most of the musical numbers themselves, as I said they could be cut out almost entirely. The villain Rubar's sounds extremely, phoned in as if he's making up the words as he goes along with the melody; and for fucks sake I hate songs where the singer just starts talking in the middle of it. It just makes the pacing worse and completely throws you out of the mood entirely. Cornwall and Devon also do this with their song "If I Didn't Have You", and the scary thing is it's an EarWorm. I haven't been able to get it out of my head since I first heard it a few days ago! It's also the only song with any real purpose as it is brought up later when they get their act together in the end; unfortunately this is marred by the fact that it completely rips off Aladdin's "Friend Like Me", but done in reverse. Also the best song of the movie, "Prayer", yes the famous one sung by everybody in the goddamn world doesn't really fit the sequence it's sung in at all, it doesn't fit when you're being chased by metal monsters on boars.


Oh yeah, and speaking of ripping off Disney that's this movies biggest problem overall: it has no original legs to stand on whatsoever! Seriously I've seen almost every aspect of this movie from Disney in one form or another. Kayley is a direct ripoff of Belle from Beauty and the Beast right down to her headstrong independent nature; fuck she even LOOKS just like her! How did Disney not catch this? The blind dude Garett almost completely looks like The Beasts human form, except he's blind and scrawny. I see the villain Rubar as a mixture of Jafar and Gaston with a dash of a humanesque Shere Khan, not to mention his entire evil plan not only takes from Jafar's but his use of a green cauldronesque thing to make a monster army is stolen from The Black Cauldron! Seriously who the hell steals from The Black Cauldron!? Finally the two headed dragon comic reliefs Cornwall and Devon are obvious expies of The Genie, right down to their song being a reverse of Friend Like Me. Also I'm fairly certain Bladebeak is a ripoff of Bartok from  Anastasia or Iago, not really sure. Instead of trying to be more like the original novel it's supposedly based on, which was the orignal plan, it seems to only wants to steal and plagiarize.


The characters personalities aren't really that strong either. Yes Kayley wants to be a knight like dead daddy dearest, but despite her drive she doesn't seem to have any real bravery to her; she's just headstrong with little courage. Garett seems like a deep soul at first glance, but he's nothing more than a Gary Stu; he's also a lot like Doggy Poo, and not because he's a piece of shit, he is but that's not the point; since he's blind his whole character is "oh goodness he's blind, such a brave man, FEEL SORRY FOR ME!" But he's such a douchebag, and he just so happened to have the same goal as Kayley did thanks to her father. Rubar is the most blatantly obvious and bland villain I've seen in some time, he screams evil overlord but he feels more like Dr. Ivo Robotnik at times; although Gary Oldman did an alright job voicing him. Cornwall and Devon aren't that bad as far as comic relief goes, but they can be very annoying, Scratch and Grounder are funnier than these two-headed ninnies! And speaking of AoStH, when you're funniest character is a cock with an axe for a beak voiced by Sonic the Hedgehog, that's a serious problem. I can't hear Bladebeak talk without hearing Sonic so it's very distracting. And by the way, for a movie involving Excalibur, King Arthur and fucking MERLIN don't really do a goddamn thing in the entire movie, nor are they even that interesting to begin with. As mediocre as it was, Disney's Sword in the Stone at least made them fun to watch. Also the Griffin is pretty stupid too, lamer than Gilda was and he even sounds like Gollum; not a fitting voice in the slightest. The Roc from Popeye meets Sindbad was scarier.


But one of the most notable issues that this movie has, and the Nostalgia Critic brought this up in his review too, is that the world itself doesn't seem to have very clearly defined rules and nothing is explained that well. For example, the Forbidden Forest, yes they do hint at it subtley that something is wrong with it, but we aren't given any explination as to why it's essentially a living sentient being! It feels like something out of Betty Boop when the wood used to make a fire randomly comes to life for example! The Everfree Forest has more clear rules to it, at least it has some basis to the real world. Rubar apparently got his mutation potion from witches in a side comment but that doesn't really tell us much, since the vial said Acme does that mean Witch Hazel gave him the potion? Did he buy it off Acme before Wile E. Coyote could? And how the fuck did such an obviously evil guy GET to be one of the noble knights of the round table anyhow? The Camelot Age really was time where people judged mainly by appearances.


The animation itself is also very disjointed. It mostly tends to look decent enough at first in the beginning, it could pass for a decent Disney ripoff. But once we get to the Forbidden Forest it takes on a much more cartoony style and Kayley and Garett don't really blend well with the environment or with the Dragons. Bladebeak himself is also out of place with Rubar's evil metal Knights; in Anastasia at least Bartok's design matches with the environment, Bladebeak flat out looks like a rejected Looney Toon, and he's the best damn character. That goes double for the monsters themselves; they don't appear threatening in the slightest and look way too ridiculous and cartoony to be taken as a serious threat, especially when they're HAWG RIDERS! The CGI used in the forest has not aged well at all and can seem really uncanny; and speaking of which the animation for the ogre looks really fucking poor, like a low budget studio tried to animate it; and considering he rips off the rock thing from The Neverending Story that makes it even worse. And back to the art, it's as if it changes styles every time the location is changed, like several different studios were tasked with working on this, it is extremely noticeable.


With all this said, I can actually see the movie working if it was truly meant to be a parody of Disney Movies in the same vein as Shrek. If it is taken as a parody it can kinda be enjoyable and I can definitely see why some people would like this. However, the movie wants itself to be taken seriously as its own thing and as an adaptation of a much better book. And I definitely can't take this thing seriously, especially with stuff like "the ogre's butt" and the like. Poor and bland characters, unstable animation and pacing that jumps around everywhere also going nowhere all at once. Not to mention the villain is beaten via a Deux Ex Machina. So before you decide to give this movie a watch I gotta ask? Do you feel CLUCKY? Well do ya punk?


Cringe-Inducing Audio: 4
Cringe-Inducing Visuals: 0
Lackluster Writing: 8
Annoyance: 6
Disturbing Content: 4
Unnecessary Cruelty: 4
Rancid Morality: 3
Low Production Values: 0
Unfortunate Implications: 6
Character Derailment: 0

Final Score: 35/100

Quest For Camelot is owned by Warner Brothers.

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