By Todd Garbarini
Walt
Disney’s The Sword in the Stone,
which opened on Wednesday, December 25, 1963, may not be all that familiar to
young viewers unless they grew up seeing it on VHS in the 1990s or on its
maiden DVD release five years ago. I first saw it in January 1973 during a
re-release and again in elementary school in the all-purpose room on 16mm in 1975,
which was a real treat as it was rare to see a feature-length film in school
(the obvious exception being Charlotte’s
Web (1973) which was de rigueur
for elementary school students.) Having
just viewed the new 50th anniversary Blu-ray, I was shocked to
realize just how little of the film I had remembered other than the jousting
sequence.
Based upon the 1938 novel by Terence
Hanbury White, who passed away some 24 days after the film’s release, The Sword in the Stone
concerns the death of King Pendragon, a British ruler whose demise has left his
country reeling due to the lack of a successor. In London, the titular sword is
buried partially in stone. Upon the
sword is an inscription which states that whoever manages to remove the sword
from the stone will be ordained the new king of England. Naturally, many overgrown brutes try their
hand at it and fail to budge it. Sometime
later, a young orphan by the name of Arthur (who is also referred to as Wart) joins
his foster brother Kay on a hunting trip. Through a misadventure, he ends up in the home of a magician by the name
of Merlin who takes Arthur under his cape, so to speak. When Arthur returns to his foster father, Sir
Ector, he introduces him to Merlin. Sir
Ector is more concerned with the upcoming annual jousting tournament which is to
be held, conveniently enough, in London. Kay will be trained for the event and young Arthur will be his squire.
Merlin
takes Arthur through a series of transformations in the hopes of giving the
young lad an education. They temporarily become fish in a sequence that
predates Finding Nemo by 40 years,
and also become squirrels to comprehend the finer aspects of gravity and
romantic love in a cute sequence. At
this point, Archimedes, Merlin's owl, enters the picture. He is gruff and full
of wisdom and takes a “tough love†attitude towards Arthur. The sequence where Merlin begins to wash
dishes with his magic will delight children who have seen the Harry Potter films.
Arthur
then learns how to fly by being turned into a sparrow and studies under Archimedes’
tutelage. Arthur makes his way down the
chimney, the roof of the house shaped just like a witch’s hat – Harry Potter references again – and
finds himself in the house of Madam Mim, who ends up in a duel with Merlin, the latter
of whom stops the former by transforming himself into a germ and infecting her.
It is now time for the tournament and
Sir Ector, Kay, Arthur, and Archimedes go to London. Naturally, Arthur has forgotten Kay's sword
at the inn which turns out to be closed and he just happens to notice the sword
in the stone. He extricate said with
minimal effort and brings it to his father who was stunned when he reads the
inscription on. Needing to see his son remove the sword from the stone with his
very eyes, he replaces the sword in the stone. When Arthur removes it, it is
obvious that he is the chosen King of England.
The Sword in the
Stone contains a handful of entertaining songs and the lyrics are
enough to baffle both Willy Wonka and Dr. Seuss: “Higitus Figitus†is a tongue-twister. The score was written by the Sherman
Brothers, the most prolific songwriting team in the history of film. The
film received an Oscar nomination for Best Score - Adaptation or Treatment in
1963, but lost out to Irma La Douce.
The new Blu-ray, which also contains a
standard definition DVD and a digital copy, is a revelation to behold. The picture can only be described as gorgeous
and does not give a hint as to being over fifty years-old thanks to digital restoration. Colors are bright and sharp and look sterling
on a large high definition display.
The extras on the disc consist of:
Alternate
Opening - Where Wart Meets Merlin
(4:02) – this is a look at how the film was originally going to open as seen
through storyboards and voiceover.
Music
Magic: The Sherman Brothers
is an eight-minute featurette on the gentlemen who wrote the music. While is it interesting to watch, I would
have liked to have seen much more of them!
All
About Magic
(Excerpt) – (7:19) is a neat feature in black and white of Walt Disney
performing magic tricks. Some are obvious
(like the “levitating†table that is being hoisted by strings) and some are a sight
to see.
A
Knight for a Day (7:06)
is a color cartoon featuring Goofy which was released on March 8, 1946 and
makes its appearance on this disc thanks to the jousting theme. There is a fair amount of dot crawl on the characters
in certain shots as the cartoon has not been restored and appears to be
transferred from a theatrical print.
Brave
Little Tailor
(9:01) is a color cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse that is set during the Middle
Ages. It was released on September 29,
1938. Like A Knight for a Day, there is some dot crawl on the characters in
certain shots as the cartoon has not been restored and also appears to be
transferred from a theatrical print.
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