Sword in the Stone

Coming near the end of Disney's second high-point era, Sword in the Stone is one of the less memorable films when compared to the more big name ones such as Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. With that said, despite not being quite as memorable, and fairly obscure, I still grew up with this film and it was one that I remember enjoying.

The main flaw that I have with this film is simply how badly the story is handled. While having an episodic film is certainly nothing new by this point in the Disney canon, it simply feels like things don't quite flow as smoothly from sequence to sequence. With this said, each sequence is actually fairly enjoyable and the most memorable sequence would be that of our hero, Wart, meeting Mad Madame Mim and the ensuing wizards duel. We don't really get a lot of time to learn much about Wart's current situation or have his relationship with his foster father extrapolated upon. Would this improve the film? Well.... maybe...Given how this film is a bit short, an extra ten minutes would certainly have helped in smoothing out the story problems.

Despite a clunky story, this film is heavily driven by the characters. Our hero Wart is rather innocent, though not fully entertaining like the others. The strongest characters here are Merlin, Archimedes, and Madame Mim. Each of these three really bring their own unique strengths, with Merlin he is so much fun to watch and quite delightful. Archimedes is also quite fun to watch and brings a more sarcastic side to play off of Merlin. Then we have Madame Mim who is easily one of Disney's most fun and enjoyable villains, quite an oddity given how villains are more scary than anything else. There is something simply enjoyable in just how crazy Mim comes across and is evil just for the sake of being evil. One of the lesser characters in this film that I have an odd soft spot for is the wolf who tries his best to eat Wart, when our hero is making his way to and from Merlin's home, and once again near the middle when Wart is transformed into a squirrel. The poor wolf just can't catch a break.

Normally this is where I would comment on the music, and yet Sword in the Stone isn't very memorable when it comes to the music. Most of the songs are quite forgettable and perhaps the only one that really stands out is Higitus Figitus even if it's a tad short. Despite not being very memorable, most of the songs still work well enough within in the film itself.

Even with nostalgia working in this films favour, it's still hard to overlook the flaws that Sword in the Stone has, and yet still manages to come out as being a rather decent entry into the canon.

3/5