Rating: G
Genre:
Historical Film
Release Date: 03/20/2001
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: French/Espanol/English
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 79 min
Distributor/Studio: Walt Disney Video
1963's
The Sword in the Stone is
Disney's animated take on
Arthurian legend. In the midst of the Dark Ages, when England has no rightful ruler, a sword imbedded in a stone mysteriously appears in a London churchyard, bearing the inscription "Whoso pulleth out the sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of England." Scores of would-be kings travel to London to attempt the feat and thereby claim the throne. They all fail. Years later, in the English countryside, an 11-year-old squire nicknamed
Wart (
Rickie Sorensen) is devotedly helping his incompetent foster brother,
Kay (
Norman Alden), train to become a knight, when he meets the great magician
Merlin (
Karl Swenson). The well meaning, but absentminded, wizard declares himself
Wart's mentor and claims that he will lead the boy to his destiny. Spirited and full of spunk,
Wart (whose real name is
Arthur) approaches
Merlin's lessons with the same determination that he applies to
Kay's hopeless training and to the monotonous chores he is assigned by his guardian. He soon finds himself accompanying
Kay to London for a jousting tournament that will determine England's new king. There,
Wart forgets to bring
Kay's weapon to the joust, but finds an abandoned sword in a nearby churchyard -- which he effortlessly pulls out of a stone.
~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide