Quest for Camelot (1998)

An adventurous girl, a young blind hermit and a goofy two headed dragon race to find the lost sword Excalibur to save King Arthur and Camelot from disaster.

Director:

Frederik Du Chau

Writers:

Vera Chapman (novel), Kirk De Micco (screenplay),

Stars:

Jessalyn Gilsig, Andrea Corr, Cary Elwes

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jessalyn Gilsig	...	Kayley (voice)
Andrea Corr	...	Kayley (singing voice)
Cary Elwes	...	Garrett (voice)
Bryan White	...	Garrett (singing voice)
Gary Oldman	...	Ruber (voice)
Eric Idle	...	Devon (voice)
Don Rickles	...	Cornwall (voice)
Jane Seymour	...	Juliana (voice)
Céline Dion	...	Juliana (singing voice) (as Celine Dion)
Pierce Brosnan	...	King Arthur (voice)
Steve Perry	...	King Arthur (singing voice)
Bronson Pinchot	...	Griffin (voice)
Jaleel White	...	Bladebeak (voice)
Gabriel Byrne	...	Lionel (voice)
John Gielgud	...	Merlin (voice) (as Sir John Gielgud)

Storyline

During the times of King Arthur, Kayley is a brave girl who dreams of following her late father as a Knight of the Round Table. The evil Ruber wants to invade Camelot and take the throne of King Arthur, and Kayley has to stop him.

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Plot Keywords:

knight | excalibur | camelot | sword | hermit | 

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Taglines:

Ruber: An evil knight gives nobility a bad name.

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Genres:

Animation | Family | Adventure | Fantasy | Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Warners

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 May 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Čarobni mač

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£126,160 (UK) (24 July 1998)

Gross:

£927,569 (UK) (28 August 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of three 1998 animated films Eric Idle performed a voice in, the other two being Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie and The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue.

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Goofs

When Garrett is crossing the acid lake he gets almost to the end. However when Kayliegh tells him to hurry, the shot goes back and it shows him back at the start.

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Quotes

Garrett: [to Ayden] You don't understand. In Camelot, she'd only see me through their eyes. Not a knight, not a man, not anything.

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Connections

Referenced in The Nostalgia Critic: Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw (2010)

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Soundtracks

"I Stand Alone"
Written by Carole Bayer Sager, David Foster and Steve Perry
Produced by David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager
Performed by Steve Perry
Courtesy of Columbia Records

User Reviews

Heart is in the right place, but flawed...

I am going to agree with the majority of the other posters here. There is a lot of good elements in this movie, but it is all put together as much more of a cliche then it had to be.

It seemed like there were too many singing scenes and they were too abrupt and not integrated into everything. Every time one started, I couldn't wait for it to be over so we could get back to the story. And as others mentioned, the singing voices were too different from that of the characters themselves. Imagine if they had used the time during the songs to actually give more plot and character development.

Everyone seemed too two-dimensional. As someone else pointed out, how did the bad guy even get to the round table in the first place? He was charming in his own way, but too cookie-cutter.

As others mentioned, the animation is very hit-or-miss. The backgrounds and overall mood are very well done, but a lot of the characters were just not animated well, the hawk was frequently deformed, etc. It stood out badly due to the quality of everything around it. Take a look at something like Princess Mononoke to see characters animated on a limited budget that meshes much better with everything else, with a lot more visual style.

It seems like it would have a feminist bent, but then she is still rescued most of the time, and the dress scene at the end seems especially absurd in the context of everything else.

Some of the comedy elements were cute, but I did dislike all of the movie references and everything. Since everything else seems centered in the world, it seems out of place.

Like the Black Cauldron, this was an OK movie that could have been a lot better. But at least BC didn't have all that singing. Sword in the Stone also worked a lot better while being in a similar vein.

If you want an American animated movie that is really consistent with its own world, animated well, has good characters, etc. check out the Secret of Nimh. You can get it really cheap on DVD now. Seeing Quest for Camelot the day after Nimh, there really is no comparison...