Customer Reviews

A Disney classic, with its own charm - By: hippo, 04 Oct 2008
This was one of my favourite disney films when I was little & when I saw it on DVD fully restored with pristine picture quality I had to buy it. This may not be on the same terms as Lion King, Bambi, Little Mermaid & other disney classics we all know,in terms of popularity but this film has its own charm to it & is just as good as the others, with its sense of imagination, humour & positive messaging. This is a great filmin its own right & for any disney fan or someone looking for a good family film it should bein your DVD collection.

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Much better than I once thought - By: Robert Morris, 13 Jul 2008

As other reviewers have duly noted, this film (first releasedin 1963) is based on the first of four parts of T.H. White's The Once & Future King (1958), focusing on Arthur's birth, childhood, & youth before he became king of England. The film has been reissued as a 45th anniversary edition. It features the well-selected voices of Sebastian Cabot (Sir Ector/Narrator), Karl Swenson (Merlin), Rickie Sorensen (Arthur/"Wart"), Junius Matthews (Archimedes), & Alan Napier (Sir Pelinore). Frankly, I was underwhelmed when I first saw it many years ago & had little patience with the antics. While seeing it again recently, I found the film much more entertaining & frequently charming.

In our family, a film's "acid test" for grandchildren is for them to want to see it again, immediately. After I watched it with several of the younger ones, they requested that but agreed, instead, to check out "Merlin's New Magical Academy Game," passing on the other bonus features. I would not rank The Swordin the Stone among the "classic" animated features produced by Disney (e.g. Bambi, Beauty & the Beast, Dumbo, Pinocchio, & Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs) & Pixar (e.g. Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, & WALL-E) as well as DreamWorks' Antz & Shrek. However, how many animation features do?

Perhaps there are other grandparents & parents who also saw The Swordin the Stone years ago, as did I, & are not inclined to have a copy available for children to see. I urge them to reconsider because it possesses a unique "magic" of its own. I think they will also enjoy the bonus features. Hopefully this reissued version will attract the interest & gain the appreciation the film clearly deserves.

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Merlin helps prepare young Wart to become the great King Arthur - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 21 Jun 2008
Releasedin 1963, "The Swordin the Stone" was based on the novel of the same name by T.E. White, & tells how the great wizard Merlin took under his wing the future King Arthur, at this point a young lad nicknamed Wart. Feeling no need to wait five more years for a round-number, watching this 45th Anniversary Edition DVD of "The Swordin the Stone" really strikes me as being a third tier Disney animated feature film. It occurs to me that whereas with some of the best children's films, animated or otherwise, you can claim that it is too good for kids (mainly because some of the best bits are way over the heads of the little folk), that is not the case with this one. With the lessons on perspective taking Merlin puts Wart through there is certainly something for kid's to take away from watching the movie. But adults? Not so much, which would explain why watching the film again many decades later did not match up with fond memories of originally seeing itin the theater. This time around I was rather put off by many of the comic twists with Merlin, & found the final joke of the film with the characterin Bermuda shorts to be the lamest of all Disney endings. The last Disney animated feature released when Walt Disney was still alive, it is part of what is called the "English Cycle" of Disney animated films that includes "Alicein Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "The Jungle Book," & "Robin Hood," all of which are superior, to greater or lesser degrees, than this one. This would tend to reaffirm the notion that this is a lower tier animated Disney movie, but the key word there is "Disney," which means the bottom of their barrel is still located up therein the penthouse.

The fact that there is but a single DVD this time around is another clear indication that this is not a top tier Disney film, because it lacks the sheer quantity of stuff from "Vault Disney" that we find on the recognized classics. The high points of the special features are the bonus shorts, which start with Goofy's "A Knight for a Day"(1946), directed by Jack Hannah, where Cedric (Goofy) replaces his master, Sir Loinsteak,in the joust against Sir Cumference (best pun on the whole DVD). But then we get the classic Mickey Mouse cartoon "Brave Little Tailor" (1938), directed by Bill Roberts, that was nominated for the 1938 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (It lost to Disney's "Ferdinand the Bull"). When animators voted on the top 50 cartoons (shorts) of all-time, this one ended up #26 on the list ("What's Opera Doc?" is #1, Disney's "The Band Concert" is #3, & "Bambi Meets Gozilla " made it to #38, so its a nice eclectic list). The Games & Activities section has viewers solving problems to collect "relics" (shields); my ability to answer history questions far outstrips by swimming ability.

In the "Magic Music: The Sherman Brothers" featurettein the Music & More section they look at the songs that were dropped from the movie, & given the main lesson of the film it is a shame the song "Magic Key" was dropped, because it is really on point regarding the importance of learning. There are also captioned versions of all of the songsin the film, so that you can sing along. In the Backstage Disney section, Walt Disney shows up for an excerpt from "All About Magic," which is not exactly on point for "Swordin Stone" but does cover basic movie magic. The Scrapbook section has concept art, behind the scenes looks, publicity shots, & the Merlin Show attraction at Disneypark Paris, where you can click on pictures to enlarge them. The Film Facts section is rather sparse, consisting of just eight frames of text, again indicating that we are not dealing with one of the shining momentsin the history of Disney. Still, the extras are enough to round up on this one, & those trying to put together a complete Disney library will be happy to find that the company puts out above average DVDs of even their average animated films.