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Another major effort to snatch the family animation crown away from Disney is “Quest for Camelot,” which is produced by Warner Bros, who previously managed to gain fame with the funny and vibrant “Space Jam.” Sadly, it now appears to getting lost in the fray of Disney copycats. The music is basic, the characters are not very engaging, and the animation lacks color or vividness.
“Space Jam” along with Fox’s “Anastasia” are the only two Disney attempts that can be considered competitors to Disney. With Warner losing $100 million dollar bets on the ‘Quest for Camelot’ animations; lacking the twinkly touch of a “Beauty and the Beast,” it would be wise for them to consider focusing in a different direction as animation for adults and teenagers is flourishing in Japan.
Like many animated features, “Quest for Camelot” is more of a blueprint on which “new” characters are placed. We want a young protagonist, we get a young heroine in Kayley, who happens to be the daughter of Lionel, one of King Arthur’s Knights. Naturally, Lionel gets slain in an early fight with Arthur, which means that animated film daddies always have to be missing at least one parent (then, it turns out Kayley’s mother gets conveniently kidnapped).
We still need a bad guy, an evil and jealous knight named Ruber, and his cruel sidekick, who is the griffin, and lastly his good-hearted sidekick, a chicken named Bladebeak. There’s also a love interest that the main character will assist in the journey, a blind man named Garrett who lives in the woods, as well as the gallant friend of the hero, a silver winged falcon, and Ruber’s silly sidekicks, a two-headed dragon called Devon and Cornwall. After that, let Ruber take the magic sword Excaliber, with Knight and Garrett chasing after it. Add some songs, and a lot of animated action, and there’s your movie.
I’m not putting the formula down… “Quest for Camelot” does a fuzzy job of clearly introducing and establishing its characters, and makes them types, not individuals. Their personalities aren’t helped by the awkward handling of dialogue; in some of the long shots, we can’t tell who’s supposed to be speaking, and the animated lip synch is unconvincing. Another problem is the way the songs begin and end abruptly; we miss the wind-up before a song and the segue back into spoken dialogue. The movie just doesn’t seem sure of itself.
Will kids like it? I don’t know. I watched it in a packed theater of children, and I could not see or feel any signs of the appreciation that great animation can deliver. A two-headed dragon mimicked Elvis and got some chuckles. However, there is a running gag where one head tries to kiss the other head, and the children appeared to be confused about why they were meant to laugh. Additionally, Ruben is just an unimaginatively simple bad guy, devoid of any interesting traits or flaws that would flesh him out. He sits next to Rasputin in “Anastasia” and Scar in “The Lion King.” Of the supporting animals, the falcon has no special trait, and Bladebeak is a purpose-less character. Even the huge, ghastly dragon that has Excaliber as a toothpick is underwhelming. When the protagonists discover him in a cave, he has no charming characteristics. He is simply a large object.
The character I consider most compelling is Garrett, who, as we came to know, was turned down by Camelot because of his blindness and now lives in the woods with a falcon. “I stand alone,” he sings, and Kayley is without doubt his friend, but this friendship is the most poignant one in the entire movie. Also, it is strange that in comparison to most animals, the plants in his forest are much more sophisticated. There are snapping eyeball plants, free riding helicopter plants, and ankle and elbow biting plants.
Seeing good animation can be thrilling, as I remember how amazing the “Under the Sea” part from “The Little Mermaid” was and “Be My Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast.” In Quest for Camelot, there are no sequences that catch your attention, let alone rules that give order to the action scenes (if Excaliber is omnipotent, how does he use it, and why can its owner be defeated?). There isn’t much use attempting a reboot unless there are memorable characters and great tunes. This movie had so much money put into making it, but where was the creativity and imagination with the story? Why spend all that time working on the animation while the writing to the movie was on autopilot?”
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