This sword has it's flaws but it's still likeable.

Author's Rating:

Pros: some likeable charecters, funny sequences

Cons: 

The movie in a lot of ways seems like a bunch of shorts patch together.

The Bottom Line: 
they may make a motion picture of this someday.

Author's Review
I got Disney's Sword in the Stone about a month ago when I saw it rereleased and on sale. It's been a while since I have seen this Disney Classic. The Sword in the Stone is of course a 1960 Disney movie about a relationship between Merlin and a young pre-teen and pre-king Author. The movie does have a lot of charms but it also has quite a few flaws, is it any wonder why this is the only 60's Disney movie that never has a 2 disc set or a sequel. Oh well at least Merlin was an over used plot device in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Story.
The story begins with the good king of England dying without an heir to the throne. It looks like the country of England would be split apart and civil war will break out. In till a miracle of heaven happen, a sword in the stone appeared out side of a London Church with the letters engraved whoever pulls out this sword is destine to be king of England. All the bravest knights pulled on the sword but none of them could remove the sword. The miracle hadn't work and a dark age has begun. One day while hunting with his adoptive brother Kay young Author (but everyone calls him the Wart) is sent into the forest to retrieve an arrow and runs into Merlin who was expecting him. He offers to be the Warts teacher and give him an education beyond the medieval arts. The two agree and return to Warts home to find Warts adoptive father Sir Hector against it but he quickly finds out he can't get rid of Merlin so reluctantly agrees has long it doesn't get in the way of Warts chores.

The movie goes from to be a bit episodic with Merlin using his magic to transform Wart into various creatures, a fish, squirrel, and a bird so he can learn a lesson living life has each one of them. In between them they go back and find that something has happen in Warts absence and he usually gets into a shouting match with Hector before Merlin whisks him away into another adventure. The last scene of course takes Wart to England where he forgets Kay sword for the knights tournament and seeing how the sword in the stone is the only sword he can find pulls it out.

There is no real villain in the movie each little skit kind has it's antagonist. In the fish it's a shark, in the squirrel a wolf, and the bird has the only real villainess and that is the horrible mad madam Mim. But she's just a song, a huge but beautiful animated fight with Merlin (more on that when I talk about the animation), and she leaves even quicker then she is introduced. The only recurring bad guy would be Sir Hector and Kay. Hector isn't necessarily a bad man just a misguided man he doesn't see Wart raising above his current life and wants him to become a squire because that is the best he can do. Merlin sees Wart becoming a lot better then that. Has for Kay he seems to be a rather stupid brawny individual, the only bad thing you see in him is that if he wins the knight competition to become King of England that he reign would be disastrous.

For the comedy part Merlins comic foil comes in his Pet Archimedes the educated Owl. Archimedes wouldn't fall into a typical Disney animated cartoon side kick. He's sarcastic, grumpy, and likes to rub it in whenever Merlin screws something up. But he is a likeable character and he gets plenty of laughs. Merlin also gets a few good visual gags with his beard.

The animation is top notch for a 1960's film, while it does show it's age there is a lot of animation. The tree top scenes to underneath the water all have there own life. And of course the fight with the movies only villain even if she is in it for 10 minutes, Madam Mim being a fellow wizard she challenges him to a duel. In this duel we see them change into all sorts of animals and the Disney animators had a field day transforming them into different animals and then animating them. While the individual skits may be short they are enjoyable when lumped together.

One final thing about the movie that bothered me a bit is the voice acting for Wart. It's not that the people who did the job did a horrible job with him, I said people because there are 3 VA's for Wart and it's not because his voice changes for different animals. Rather my guess is young boys voices change and sometimes to need replace. But the voices don't change every scene they can change every line. Some scenes have Wart deliver lines from all 3 VA's one after another. It can be a bit distracting to say the least.

The DVD
The DVD all though not a 2 disc set does have it's charm. We have interviews with the people who wrote the music and the songs for the movie. We have 2 Disney shorts one with Goofy jousting and the other has Mickey has a tailor. We also have some text trivia and some art designs for the character. Not a bad DVD list even if there have been better.

Final Recommendation.
While Sword in the Stone isn't going to win a reward for being my favorite Disney film of all time it's entertaining despite some of it's flaws.