DAC 18-19: The Sword in the Stone & The Jungle Book

The Sword in the Stone - 7.1/10

It was...okay. Much like Alice in Wonderland, I have seen this before, but it was so long ago that I never officially counted it among my seen movies. There was a whole bunch of stuff about this film that I didn't remember, if I ever knew it in the first place.

First off, all of Merlin's anachronisms. They were mildly amusing I guess, and at least a reason is given for them rather than just being cheap jokes like some of the more modern films have been doing. But really, this movie doesn't seem to be about anything. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens. Merlin transforms Arthur/Wart into things and attempts to teach him stuff. That's about it. And none of the things being taught are ever really explored in-depth either, so it can't claim to be an educational film. The art and animation follows the sketchy look of 101 Dalmations, though they've managed to clean it up a little bit. On the flip side, they seem to have gotten really lazy with their backgrounds.

Nothing much else to say about this one, really (save that Arthur's voice actor was clearly going through puberty during production). It was amusing at times, but nothing special.


EDIT: I have just learned that Arthur was in fact voiced by three different boys. For some reason. Well that would explain it.


The Jungle Book - 7.7/10

This one was interesting. I did see it as a kid, but it wasn't one I watched very often (Kaa creeped me out). The sketchy style is still in effect, but isn't quite as obvious here, and they were putting a little more effort into their backgrounds. I did notice a couple blatant instances of recycled animation, though.

The film itself kind of feels like a road movie. It just moves from one wacky encounter to the next, and occasionally a character from earlier on will reappear. The villain, Shere Khan, is like a Bond villain - upper class accent, refined and superior, and willing to give his prey a "sporting chance" for showing "spirit - and it's awesome. He also has very little actual screen time - easily the least of any I have seen so far. The threat of him drives much of the movie, more than his actual presence. The main character, however, was really annoying and reminiscent of Scrappy Doo in his "I'm not scared!" followed by "HELP!" behavior.

The music was catchy. There were a couple of cool songs in it, along with one or two duds. Also, they got some Beatles impersonators to play a gang of vultures, or whatever.

Not one of my favorites, but altogether not bad.