Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / The Sword in the Stone (1963) - Wolfgang Reitherman | Houselights #148: Wing of King Arthur

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The Sword in the Stone (1963) - Wolfgang Reitherman | Houselights #148: Wing of King Arthur · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

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Welcome to the nerd Party. Welcome back to Houselights, our director discussion show
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here on the Nerd Party Network. Today we are starting the Wing of King
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Arthur. We will traverse through six motion pictures that tell the Authurian legend from
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nineteen sixty three to twenty seventeen, starting with The Sword and the Stone by
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Walt Disney Pictures and directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. I'm sir Darren Moser, and
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I'm joined by my friends, groundskeeper of the Sword in the Anvil Garden,
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Tristan Riddell and magician jovial John Mills. Now it is rare that we cover
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animated pictures here on Houselights, So prepare yourself for fish, birds and squirrels
1:02
in The Sword and the Stone. Yes, John, you are are always
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jovial John when we talk animated pictures. Oh, I thought it would just
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be because I'm forgetful and now I live in a place that's prone to lots
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of rain and weather inconveniences, but either works. I love being known as
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jovial, much like Merlin in this film is very jovial and full of modern
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twentieth century references. Despite when the story is set, I mean, it's
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we need to let the kids connect with him. He needs to be the
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favorite. Yes, well, and John, this is also the first time
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you've seen this picture. It escaped your viewing enjoyment throughout your youth. Did
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the Disney channel not come on to you know, Bob Iger not come out
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with that sweater and you know having a Disney Afternoon? No? No,
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no, See, when I was growing up, you had wide World of
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Disney on all ABC on Sunday nights, and no, this never came onto
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my radar. We were not a big Disney family. Like my dad and
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my mom. They grew up with it and there was a respect for it,
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but it was never anything that was even after we had you know,
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VCR and everything like that. I was deep in the tank for Star Wars
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obviously and also for you know, the Star Trek movies and stuff like that.
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So like by the time VHS came around and was a thing, I
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was sort of aging out. I saw a black cauldron in the Man Theater
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and you know, super poly bound plastic Disney VHS is that took up way
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more space than any other VHS of its type. You know, why why
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not create more space in the landfill with excessive packaging. It's always a good
2:50
way to go. But I think that, like, like what's interesting is
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when I was coming up, like I loved like Tron and the Black Hole.
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We saw the Black Cauldron in the movie theater or my dad and I
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loved it, and then it I just sort of like aged out of it,
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like a little too quickly, that sort of thing. Yeah, what
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about you, Tristan, is this another It's either one or the other,
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right, either staple of the Tristan household or never seen it. This was
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probably my favorite animated Disney movie for a very long time when I was when
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I was a wee lad, I loved Arthurian Legend. I think it was
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more just because I loved Wizards and the Arthurian Legend more so than I liked
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the movie. It was mainly just because I, like, I loved medieval
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stuff and everything like that. I mean, my name is Tristan, you
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know, you know my mother named me after one of the knights of the
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Round Table. And uh so, yes, whatever you want, you know,
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So this was yeah, this, this one was one that I watched
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all the time on that way too much plastic vhs. Yeah, and everything,
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Like, I mean, it's seventy nine minutes. Guys, I guarantee
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this is gonna be the shortest our, theory and legend of the six we
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cover by a long shot. And one thing that I like, you know,
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watching it on VIA speaking of the VHS and the plastic everything that watching
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it on VHS, it's crazy that it was. We were closer to the
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original aspect ratio with the VHS than we are with the modern HD releases and
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on Disney Plus. Because on Disney Plus it's all cropped to sixty by nine.
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I mean even in the theater it was one point seven five, but
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now it's I mean it's originally was the Academy ratio of one point three seven,
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and so we on the VHS we had it on one point three three.
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And it's just I hate when they do that. You think, like
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with Disney Plus, it would be like, no, like, let's let's
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give out the versions in every inch of animation, like it's there, there's
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detail on the frame. They're busy taking up that bandwidth offering you the IMAX
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versions of the MCU movies. Yeah, because what are you gonna do with
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that at home? What do you what do you don't have any What did
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Schindler say, Like, man, we got nineteen more lines of pixels the
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theater? Oh man, oh yes, well resolution lines are not the only
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thing we're talking about here on house lights. But yeah, this one for
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me, I don't think we owned it on VHS, but I did catch
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it, you know, Wonderful World, Disney and those kinds of things.
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I was much from this kind of sixties seventies era. I was much more
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a Robin Hood guy like that was what I love that story, and that,
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you know, was also what introduced me to that legend. As this
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movie I think probably introduced a lot of people too, the Artherian legend like
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it. Now I want to talk about factual as far as the legend goes,
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probably not the best source to be kidding your information from, but it
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does have Arthur. He does pull the sword out of the stone, and
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it's kind of like and then turned the page to hear the rest of the
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story. You know, we don't we don't cover that. We just get
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up to the pulling of the sword. What fantastical adventures he had with Merlin
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before that even happened. But yeah, yeah, yeah, you know it's
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sort of like watching the movie Jurassic Park and reading the book Jurassic Park.
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You know, there's similarities, but yeah, there's some liberalities taken with the
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storytelling naturally. But I think that this is and this is coming out as
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somebody looking at it for the first time. The overall experience is was very
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detached for me in the sense that the whole time I was watching it,
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it very much plays for this first time viewer as an artifact of its time.
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Okay, this is I think you made the joke earlier, Darren.
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We got to make something for the kids to relate to. This is very
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much a Hey, we're Disney, how do we do this? What's public
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domain? What can we do? And somebody said, well, there's King
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Arthur everybody. You can make King Arthur for nothing and you don't have to
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pay anybody in nothing. It's okay, great, all right, let's put
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that into development. Just have a script by the end of the week,
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and let's start storyboarding this thing like it even has that old schooly very hand
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drawn field where even in some of the frames you can see some of the
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guide shapes still in some hair and xerox era, which is kind of that
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early sixties where basically to save costs and to speed production, instead of the
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process where they would take the pencil sketches and then transfer them onto like a
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clean cell, they instead would just draw right over them, and so you
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get and also you know, you or you'd make a photocopy and then you
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would draw over that one. But so, yeah, you see that in
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you know, one hundred one Dalmatians a lot you see that in aristic hats,
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this kind of late six you know, early sixties, early seventies era.
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And then it starts to kind of to peter out to speak on our
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director for a second. So Wolf King rather man, he's been there since
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the beginning. He was an animator on snow White. He's done many many
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pictures, some of his first directed one where he was not just an animation
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director, but the director was one hundred one Dalmatians, which is what predates
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this movie. He also did Jungle Book, which you'll catch some of the
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similar voices. So you have like sir oh, certain, there's a lot
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of sirs in this one, U, sir ector. So the jolly man,
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the father ish figure maybe so he does Bagheera's voice in the Jungle Book.
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You also have you know Madam mim Is the Nanny and one hundred one
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Dalmatians. You have the Owl was the voice of Rabbit for decades in the
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Many Win of the Pooh. So not only did he do you know,
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he also did The Aristocrats, directed Robin Hood and the Rescuers. So he
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was kind of their sixties seventies guy. Well, he was known. He
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was one of the original nine Old Men. Oh, you're right, you're
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right in the in in that Disney era and he was he was also this
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director was the This was the first animated film to have a single director in
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Disney. Oh okay, I didn't realize that. And so this this guy
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has seen some things. He's been through it like he shaped history, he
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shaped our childhoods like this, this guy knows what he's doing and what he
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was talking about. And also like speaking of familiar voices like with Surrector Sebastian
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Cabot. I loved it, like because in the in the movie he says
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hold it kay, you know, to sir Kay, And in Jungle Book
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he says hold it car in the same exact way, like in the same
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exact cadence, and everything like that. I just absolutely love that little that
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little tidbit. Oh yeah. The voice cast, I think in this is
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is really like will you hear that Merlin? And like that's many people's first
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Merlin. Like they're just and there's not a very big cast. It's actually
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a very small amount of players in this story, but it seems to work.
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What did you think of the overall sound of it, John, You
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know, it sounded the way that I expected Disney movie from this era to
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sound. And I know that's fair. I know that sounds dismissive. Uh
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huh, but it really has that feel of sound booth, a sound booth.
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B Yeah, you know, Sebastian Cabot came in and gave us a
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couple hours. Let's just run with it. It wasn't what later era animation
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winds up being where the character animations like Robin Williams and Little Mermaid and that
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kind of it's not it's not tailored for the performance. This is And I'm
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not saying this to be dismissive of the voice talent because Sebastian Cabot I have
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a special place in my heart because if anybody is old enough to remember the
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album series Golden Throats, which is where we first got to William Shatner's musical
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forays, as well as Leonard Nimoy's. He did a spoken word album that
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included a version of Bob Dylan's it Ain't Me Babe, and I'll tell you
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it's a treat for the senses to listen to that thing. So whenever I
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think Sebastian Cabin, I think that, but these are really these are their
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different voices, well, their voices also where and I'm trying to try to
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very fine line, but it didn't matter who was doing the voice. Yeah,
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Aladdin is substantially different. If Robin Williams is not doing the Genie,
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or if any of those other voices were cast differently, it is absolutely a
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different film. It's a different film in Beauty and the Beast if they don't
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get the voice talent that they have Little Mermaid. So many things are key
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in that from you know, And and it's it's difficult because I do not
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belittle what these actors did, But at the same time, there was nothing
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that to my ear was particularly spel about what they brought to it. Now
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I hear that, I mean it Besides Arthur and Merlin and like Archimedes,
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maybe Madam mim as well, like the other players, like they almost don't
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have names, like they're they mean, they have names, but they're very
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forgettable in the fact that they're just kind of pushing the story along. They're
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almost background. But and yeah, so for Ricky Sorensen, who did the
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voice of Arthur, I think, you know, did fairly well for a
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younger voice. You know, he's speaking throughout almost pretty much the entire picture,
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so that but again he's in sound boost a maybe not saund Booth b
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with with Merlin. Three people did Arthur's voice throughout the movie, and there
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are certain times when you can really tell. Okay, that makes more sense.
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I was looking at the list and I got confused. I'm like,
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why are there so many? Are they all start with R? It's Ricky
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sper have a first first our name and a last our name as a prerequisite
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for being Arthur. I guess, yes, well, yeah it was.
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It was like you can really tell when like they're in the throne room and
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he says he's like I wish Merlin was here, and it's a completely different
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person, Like it doesn't even sound anything like Arthur from the from the from
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previous scenes. It's a I'm not quite sure why they did that, because
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it's not just like, oh, they did it in this part and then
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this part, like it goes back and forth. It might have been the
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length of production, because I think they took like three or four years to
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make each one of these movies, So it could just be their voice aged
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out and they needed a new squeaky kid voice. Well that's even in and
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of itself. I like I detected a different tone, but I I didn't
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hear it as a completely distinct voice. I chalked up the difference in voicing
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in all honesty too, because I didn't look at the credits that the you
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know, they brought the actor back in to do some stuff and the sound
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engineer just miked him up wrong or something like that. Whatever, just go
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with it. So that's like what it sounded like to my ear. So
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I'll give them credit at the very least that it just sounded like a sound
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engineering problem as opposed to completely different people to me. So, but I
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have old ears since we're talking about the sound. Well, one thing that
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bugged the crap out of me even as a child, and I counted it
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this time while watching it was when he falls and you hear the whoo,
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whoa, whoa. They used the same audio of that seven times, and
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I just don't understand why it was seven like twice. Okay, all right,
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I guess you're in a pinch and you don't want to bring him back
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seven time falls. That's the exact same sound effect. Well, that would
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I think speak to again. That whole idea of the voice talent was simply
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give me the lines that I need and I'll just patch them where I need
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to. I'm just going to spot this as opposed to tailoring anything, because
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what what is odd about that to me is that says to me, they
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didn't really have a lot of takes. It's not like they said, Okay,
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give me a fall, give me slightly different, give me more energy
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the fall, and that is your fall. And that they recorded it once
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and kept going instead of having seven seven different versions of it and seven different
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inflections. And that would speak to an economy of production cost more than anything.
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So okay, so we're introduced to this story. It's you know,
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we get this interesting minstrel song at the beginning, kind of setting the stage
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where it's like, you know, classic opened the book and you know it's
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a Disney movie. It's it's like, hey, here's a story and England.
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It's very very simple. It's like England War, Sword of the Stone.
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You know, it's a little tune. They didn't have a king and
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they didn't know what to do. Yeah, they didn't know what to do.
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And then they and some of those backgrounds were from Sleeping Beauty Gears.
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They totally forgot some really quickly. They forgot about the Sword and the Stone.
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Yeah, Like as I was like, I remember in preparation for this
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podcast, like when I was watching it and they said, they're like,
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oh and it was quickly forgotten. I was like, wait, how long
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were they without a Yeah, I'm kind of wondered about that too, but
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you know, it doesn't matter. Keep on moving. Here we go,
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Magic, Merlin, Hippity Kimmity. Yeah, so we get you know,
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Archimedes and and Merlin. Archimedes as an owl and that talks and it's a
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Disney movie talking animals. Check the box. But yeah, so he was
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my favorite part. I'm sorry. Archimedes was my only adults He's the only
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adult in this whole movie. Like as a kid, I don't know who
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it was it was, might have been Madam mim buts as a as an
16:59
adult, Archimedes I truly enjoyed and just like the who what what? Like
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I can't tell you how many times that's in my head and how many times
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they say it out loud. At least a couple of times a year.
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Oh, I'm surprised, but yeah, like it's with Archimedes, like you
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like you could just see how frustrated he was with everything and then he's just
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like fine, I will do it, you know, like he he just
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kind of takes it up. And then Merlin leaves he fs off, like
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he goes to Bermuda, but Archimedes stays with him, Like I kind of
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want to see that relationship a little bit more. Like Archimedes is the one
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who teaches them how to fly and then sticks with him and then you know,
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like you know, he becomes king and like he's coordinated. It goes
17:42
through his coronation and like Archimedes is there, Merlin's not. Yeah, They're
17:48
like, okay, so your advisor is the bird. Okay, yes,
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sir, you pulled that sword, so sure, Yeah, now and I'm
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assuming that Merlin did some sort of spell to make him be able to talk.
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Like he's the only talking creature in this entire movie, even the birds
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and fish and you know, squirrels don't talk like well, they giggle,
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but they you know, they don't have I love conversation Tylor's performance as the
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little girl squirrel, like I loved to say that. You know, I'm
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a sucker for that. Every single time Yeah tells all the Mickey Mouse sing
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It's like I'm not actually saying something, but you can tell I have I
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have thought. Yes, it's an interesting sequence. It was a little odd
18:37
because I don't know if this is a sign of the film not engaging me
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entirely. But I'm sitting there in my head because I'm I'm I'm old.
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Now fine, I get it, and I go my brain goes in direction.
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You should have watched with young children to really get like a feel for
18:56
I promise you my okay, first and foremost my two oldest or teenagers,
18:59
steady. I'm not saying I don't bet you had an option, but even
19:03
my youngest would have not dug this. This is not her speed whatsoever.
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And but that whole squirrel sequence. Like I get what they were going for.
19:14
It's a cute see you know, boys and girls fall in love sort
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of thing. But it was so weird because I was sitting there and I
19:21
was like Marlin, like, I'm like going down the moral implications of like,
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she's a squirrel. At the end of the day, he's still a
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human. Okay, I want to bring that up. Okay, John,
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because you texted me about this as you're watching it and I hadn't seen it.
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What was it? What was the text I need? I needed to
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give me a feel for it. Okay, give me the gist. The
19:45
gist was, and i'll i'll phrase it appropriately. Is it morally appropriate for
19:55
an old man to push a young boy to how sexual relations with a squirrel,
20:02
even if he is a squirrel temporarily himself? Oh? Man, So
20:06
the real question, fair question. It's a fair question. That is a
20:08
fair question. And that's the thing though, is that, like, man,
20:11
I don't remember that, and so I, as I was watching it,
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I was really looking for it. And I think you completely blew that
20:18
out of proportion because I did. I was looking for it because like Merlin,
20:23
he doesn't say, oh yeah, you know, going the back and
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you know, like you know, like show this snow girl squirrel what he's
20:30
just like, she doesn't know, she's she's like Merlin said, she doesn't
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she doesn't know. And he just kind of used it as a jumping off
20:37
point of saying, like, you know, lake love is a powerful thing
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and you know everything like that. He didn't say like you know, you
20:42
know, give it to her now. That's true. And the thing is,
20:47
I'm glad you bring up the text message because I was just kidding around.
20:51
But it's good that we bring it up here because it's but it's one
20:53
of those things where, like you look at it, it's like, you
20:56
know, at the end of the day though, like the emotional torment that
21:00
that little girl squirrel winds up feeling at the end of it, like they're
21:04
a little too of him. She's were broken and they little too effective here,
21:08
and they hang on it like they don't just hand wave it away like
21:12
they're like, oh, yeah, no, we did some stuff to this
21:15
to this little girl squirrel. She's not gonna need therapy. Yeah, this
21:18
little girl squirrel is probably never going to find a boy squirrel to settle down
21:22
with. They find one and then they stick with him, so it's like,
21:26
sorry, you picked the human for the hour, he was a squirrel
21:30
boy, and now you're out of luck. Well, despite what John claims,
21:34
they never consummated the relationship. So I think he'll she'll be able to
21:37
find something else. Okay. See this is where this is where my sense
21:42
of humor always gets me in trouble. But also like I I even feel
21:47
bad for the the Was it a barracouta that goes after him as a fish,
21:51
because it's what, Yeah, it's pretty much a barracud It looks like
21:56
I think it was just a pike. Yeah, okay, whatever, It's
21:59
like asking me to name what type of tree it is. I'm like,
22:00
scary fish, barracouta. Sure, it's one of those things. Were like
22:06
even the barracouta. They're like, the thing's just doing what it's supposed to
22:08
nature. And you know, if you could, if you're gonna be an
22:15
idiot and turn yourself into a fish and make yourself vulnerable to predators, I
22:18
mean, hey, look at the draw man and Merlin is like, no,
22:22
you gotta figure it out on your own. I can't help you.
22:25
Okay, you've never been a fish before you got to figure out how to
22:27
get through. It was the weirdest set of trials I think they could have
22:32
come up with too. It was, and it's I'm just being funny about
22:38
it, obviously, it's it's it's done intentionally and for the laugh and everything
22:42
like that, but it's again, I think it's one of those things that
22:45
just leaves it as a product of its time more than anything else. At
22:48
least the bird one makes sense with Archimedes, like because he takes over that
22:52
and like that actually makes sense. And but yeah, the fish one,
22:59
I mean, and there's that wolf also that's kind of like lurking around.
23:02
Like it's a really interesting set of trials, like you said, and the
23:04
wizard battle will get to that. But I liked the wolf because it was
23:11
a passive antagonist, right, like audience knows of the fear more than he
23:15
does, right, And he was just kind of an oath because I always
23:19
hate it, like when they show wolves as evildoers in movies, because wolves
23:26
will straight up leave you alone if you don't leave them alone. But with
23:33
this one, it was it was really much just going for the joke,
23:36
and he was just like he was just opening his mouth hoping that he'd get
23:37
a morsel of something, and he's just like, ah shucks. Now see
23:41
that's humor that works for me. Yeah, that's the type of humor that
23:45
that's me as a little boy sitting with my dad and we would have laughed
23:48
at something like that. That is absolutely up my alley. I love that
23:52
sort of thing. I agree with you. The wolf works very well because
23:56
I think that it's nice that they bring it through as well so that when
24:00
he's a squirrel, the poll shows back up and so the wolf isn't pursuing
24:03
him per se. It's just the wolf is you know, it's outing a
24:07
bad day. He's trying so hard and you feel for him. Yeah,
24:11
he's not trying to be a jerk or anything. He's obviously a little undernourished
24:15
here and just just trying to get a meal. Yeah. So I would
24:19
love to ask you guys about the structure of this of this movie. And
24:23
I know that this if it feels so weird to have this intense of a
24:27
conversation about, you know, an eighty minute kids movie, but I was
24:36
you know, this this movie is so different in memory than it is an
24:40
execution. I think for me, because nostalgia wise, I was just like,
24:44
oh, the Sword in the Stone, you know, the legend of
24:47
Arthur and Merlin, it's so fantastic, And then when you watch this movie
24:52
it's not. It's not that, it's not that story at all. The
24:56
meat of it is just him becoming a fish and then becoming a squirrel and
25:00
then becoming a bird. Like that's the story. That's the movie. And
25:03
then it ends with a wizard battle essentially, and the Arthurian stuff is just
25:10
literally bookends. Yes, and I mean almost there. For the whole Sword
25:14
in the Stone part, you almost get. Would you even go so far
25:17
as to say protagonist confusion of Merlin, Like Arthur is kind of just along
25:22
for the ride. He doesn't really guide his own destiny for the majority of
25:29
this movie, I would say structure wise, it's a movie that I would
25:36
say that this strikes me as standard for what I would classify as the lesser
25:41
Disney films, which is it's just a collection of gags. It's what can
25:45
we do the sences of the transformation first, and they're like, how do
25:51
we fit this into the Arthur They're not trying to tell a story, they're
25:55
trying to do. That's so spot on. That's exactly what this is.
25:59
It's a collection of it. It's a collection of gags. But the thing,
26:02
even the wizard battle doesn't make what does that have to do with Arthur.
26:04
That's that's gag number four. And yeah, you know, and the
26:08
and the laundry or the dishwashing sequence and the like, every every bit is
26:15
a bit. Yeah that, but that that wizard battle. I freaking love
26:18
wizard battles in it. Give me a wizard But it doesn't even matter if
26:22
it's part of the story or even if it's a part of a movie.
26:26
If they put a wizard battle in Driving Miss Daisy, I would be like,
26:29
yeah, what we need at this moment. Uh So, I absolutely
26:33
love this one. And I think the animation was just next level for time
26:37
on that. Yeah, and it's because you could. It's just the way
26:41
that they keep the characteristics, the color, just the the instantaneous transitions.
26:45
It was. It was so good. I love that bit. But one
26:48
thing, like Darren, you talked about how John would have benefited from watching
26:52
it with a young kid. I watched it with my two year old and
26:56
we don't show her that much TV or movies, because honestly, she doesn't
27:00
really have that much interest in movies and TV. And if we do watch,
27:03
if we do watch something with her, she'll stay for like ten minutes
27:06
and then go and play. She watched the entire movie with me. Is
27:11
the first time she was right in her spot? Yeah? Yeah, like
27:15
this, I feel like this is probably the first time she's ever watched an
27:18
entire movie from beginning to end. And I mean her eyes were glued on
27:22
the screen the entire time. And I think, honestly, it was because
27:25
it was a collection of gags, it was a collection of bits. It
27:29
was it was that thing like, is this a great story? No?
27:32
Is it well written? No? Is it well voice acted? No?
27:34
Is it? Is it animated beautifully? Yes? Is it entertaining for a
27:40
child? Yes? And I think that's the thing, is that, like
27:41
we need to put that in put that kind of thing in perspective. And
27:45
also, this was made for three million dollars and earned twelve I mean that's
27:51
huge. Yeah, No, it earned it had a lot of re releases
27:55
back and so it earned four point seven five on its initial release and then
28:00
two point five when it was really released in seventy two and twelve when it
28:04
was rereleased in eighty three, so it all like twenty two but still a
28:10
four point seventy five over a three mill budget. It's still like that's almost
28:15
doubling your money. So that's not well not quite, but it's still that's
28:18
profitable. Check that makin there, Darren. Yeah, I it's it just
28:25
does whatever I wanted to do. But but the thing is, this is
28:30
from the era, you know, obviously pre videotape and everything, So all
28:33
you need to do is knock it out, and so long as it makes
28:37
more than its budget, and you and people and you get another couple million.
28:42
Oh yeah, I saw that when I was three. Is it any
28:45
Oh? I can take my kid to go see it, and it's it's
28:48
the same thing that they do now when they have the two rare rereleases of
28:53
things where it used to I mean Disney it was great Star is the sixtieth
29:00
anniversary, so they could release something. They will probably do something this December.
29:04
Well not this December, highly highly doubt it, because Disney's movie division
29:10
is every run by just fools. But I think that there's a you know,
29:17
I mean the first time I saw Fantasia was in the movie theater because
29:21
it was the Disney Vault and they opened it up and my dad was like,
29:22
oh yeah, we'll go see Fantasia in the movie theater. Oh my
29:26
gosh. And I still remember the row I sat in and the friends that
29:29
we took and how mad my dad got because I kept having to go to
29:32
the bathroom every twenty minutes. And that's probably why I developed the whole thing
29:36
about not going to the bathroom during movies. But then there's this whole thing
29:41
where so long as it's not a complete flop, like it costs three million
29:45
and then you make one million back, you can bring it back every so
29:49
often, and there you go. This is I hate to put it this
29:55
way, but this is basically a straight to video philosophy before video came out.
30:00
We need something where we can rerelease it every so often in the lean
30:03
months when we don't have a new release, just to keep our name in
30:07
people's brain. It's it's got ketch, you know, and it's very formulaic.
30:10
It's got catchy Disney songs. It's like you're saying tristed. It's very
30:15
brightly animated. I mean, Merlin's always in blue. You know, Madam
30:19
Mim is always in pink. Arthur's always in like orange or red, and
30:23
it's like boom boom boom primary colors. Uh you know. Yeah, And
30:27
I again on the Wizard Duel, I love that Merlin always has his mustache
30:33
or beard and Madam min always has like her hair and no matter what type
30:37
of animals she's becoming. And again, that's just I think a really big
30:44
animation flex of the creativity of that sequence is really really well done. You're
30:48
like, oh, what are they gonna make next? And Madam MIM's like
30:51
kind of has the upper hand for like the vast majority. She's picking the
30:55
stronger animals and the bigger animals. And then at the end he gets her
30:59
with a germ, which is hilarious. We just learned what those are in
31:03
nineteen sixty three, so that's great put it in the movie. I was
31:07
just kidding. I don't know when that happened. Did any of you guys
31:10
actually read the book The Sword in the Stone? Nope? Okay, it's
31:15
just like this right, like line for mine. Yeah, I mean,
31:18
like, okay, so in the in the book that he does Merlin does
31:22
transform Arthur into animals Okay, there's something. So it wasn't an invention of
31:29
the of the of the movie. I mean the bird that I mean.
31:33
I think it was something like a it's like a rabbit or a badger or
31:37
something like that. Like it was some streamlined and Disney fight it. But
31:41
they streamlined Disney fight and everything like that. I think he was a duck
31:44
at one point or a goose. But they also went on human adventures too,
31:48
you know, And but the whole surrector stuff in the case stuff was
31:52
very similar. Like he was just like, oh he was a squire.
31:55
They went to London and he's like, oh my god, you know,
31:56
like I forgot a sword and go okay. So the reason for drawing the
32:01
sword is the same from the legend I do it was. It was so
32:07
long ago since I read it, but I think though. So what's interesting
32:10
to me though, is that there was a live action adaptation that was supposed
32:15
to come out, but I haven't heard news of it since since twenty eighteen,
32:21
so it's twenty twenty three as we record this. That's an eternity in
32:23
film development. That was a Sorcerer's Apprentice movie that was similar ish, like
32:30
it had Merlin and something in it that was like early odts, but I
32:35
barely know. I know there was one called the Merlin Saga that was that
32:39
was supposed to come out where this was going to be folded into it where
32:43
they were going to take Merlin and all of these different stories and then make
32:45
it a Disney Plus series or something. But I doubt that's gonna really doubt,
32:50
yeah happened at this point. Well but yeah, but at the end
32:53
of it, you have I think, like we said, there's a there's
32:57
a lot of chunks bits that are are are strung together, you know.
33:02
I mean, there's the bit about him talking about the future, there's the
33:06
bit of you know them like you said, them going to London, and
33:10
but it is funny. It's got humor in it, you know, the
33:15
h the when sir you know, sir Kay and answer actor are like in
33:21
the washtub being like, you know, washed by the magical brushes. Like
33:24
that's funny, Like I get that, Like that's very you know, that's
33:29
sixties level the Disney humor. But yeah, it's it's an interesting beginning to
33:35
our journey into the Arthurian legend because it's almost kind of like a like a
33:37
footnote at the beginning because it's I mean, we'll talk about later, we'll
33:43
get into next because that's going to be another interesting saga choice. But I
33:47
mean it in all honesty, I'm glad that we started here because it's it
33:53
shows that the Arthur legend is one that I know that myself and a lot
34:00
of other people are very familiar with in one way or another. I've never
34:06
seen this. I love seeing something new when it's podcast had homework, so
34:10
cool. But at the same time, what also makes it interesting is it
34:15
shows how once something enters the public domain, it's really up for grabs,
34:22
and I think that really makes for some interesting possibilities. And so starting with
34:30
an animated feature from the sis, But I mean that was the vibe.
34:35
You know that it makes sense that this is a Disney movie, that this
34:37
is how you started out, because it's gonna be very soft, It's gonna
34:40
be very kid friendly, which is what a fairy tale is. You tell
34:45
kids fairy tales, and Arthur is basically a fairy tale at this point in
34:50
history at least, and it's it's it's there's no Knights of the Round Table,
34:55
there's no like he just becomes king at the last act. It it
35:00
is, like you said, focusing on that Merlin trials, not trials adventures
35:07
with Merlin at the very beginning, but kind of like, oh man,
35:10
making me think of Hercules now, because Hercules had his trials. But they
35:15
also after that movie spun off a whole Disney animated show that was back in
35:21
the pre buff Hercules. It's like skinny Hercules, but he's going on all
35:24
these trials and adventures of the labors of Hercules as they were, and that
35:29
was a fun idea. You know. Animation quality wasn't quite there because it
35:32
was a TV show and that's what you got in the nineties. But I
35:37
always I always loved those those nineties Disney animated shows, like they did One
35:40
for a Ladd and that was really good. Mermaide I really, man,
35:45
why are those on Disney Plus? I think they are. I think is
35:49
the elating one on Disney Plus, given given what they available on Disney Plus.
35:53
I'm honestly surprised Sword in the Stone was on Disney Plus. Right,
35:59
you know what, Listen, Disney Plus has been a disappointment of a service,
36:02
and so I'm just pleased that they had this so okay, and until
36:07
I get hot lead and cold feet, I will continue to complain. So
36:10
there you go. Now what I know that we're we're about to give our
36:16
ratings and and and everything like that. And we were talking about how this
36:21
is the beginning of our of our walk through the wing of Arthur. One
36:25
thing that I really wish we could have talked about, but it's not a
36:30
movie because it's a mini series. And it was a mini series called Merlin
36:35
starring Sam Neil. Did you guys ever watch that? Oh, that's the
36:38
one with like the he's like looking through the reflection of the blade, like
36:43
that's I recognize that it's a purple cover. It's a purple box art and
36:46
he's looking through the blade. Never never saw but what I was it on?
36:51
I've heard of it. I think it was NBC that like that early
36:53
nineties. Everything's like sword and sorcery, like every very hercules zena. Everything
36:58
was hot. Right then, something in my brain that says, I want
37:01
to remember an ad for it, but near I've never watched it. It
37:07
you guys like, while we're I know we have a lot to watch with
37:12
this, but if you have the option to watch it, if you have
37:15
the time watch it and and then maybe we could have like a little footnote,
37:20
like maybe like like like five minutes, ten minutes. I mean it's
37:22
one hundred and eighty two minutes. It's like, I think it's only two
37:25
parts. So it's only two parts. It's only two parts, and we
37:29
talk about it. There's more of it coming back to me. I remember
37:31
ads for it. Martin Short's in it, and yeah, wait, well
37:37
ninety eight, so we could we could stick it in our in our queue
37:40
somewhere we got I mean, it's not it's not really good. No,
37:44
it's it's not a it's not a motion picture by a director on a topic.
37:49
So yeah, let's you know, maybe when we uh summarize at the
37:52
beginning of the next episode, we can, yeah, just try to touch
37:57
like that. Like honestly, I think you guys should. Yeah, came
38:00
out and nineteen ninety eight, and if you got connected more to the Merlin
38:04
side of this story, because you know that it's it's very much a Merlin
38:07
story than an Arthur story. It's it's very much a Merlin story, but
38:10
it does the Arthur story very well. And I think that's why that's why
38:16
I would love for you guys to watch it and we could just talk about
38:19
it a little bit, just for in contrast to some other stuff that we're
38:22
talking about. John Gielgud's did it? M Richer power, isn't it?
38:25
Miranda Richardson, Isabella Rosanini, hanld Bottom Carter, She's a great job.
38:30
Okay, I don't know why I didn't watch this. Oh wait ninety eight
38:35
Okay, I no, I didn't watch it. All right, it's it's
38:37
it's genuinely good. So if anybody who's listening to this, if you have
38:40
the option to watch it, watch it. It's on iTunes. I had
38:45
the VHS, but I also have the iTunes one, So yeah, anyway,
38:46
just say no, that's a great idea. Yeah, And I mean,
38:51
like you said, this is a good time to kind of dabble into
38:53
that as we're kind of slowly getting the ball rolling with the Arthurian legend.
38:59
But this was fun. I'm glad we kind of discussed this. You know,
39:01
we don't get to talk about animation or Disney very often because it just
39:05
doesn't really come up with our choices. So and I'm glad John you got
39:08
a chance to see it for the first time and uh, you know,
39:12
check that box on letterbox. So, John, any other final thoughts or
39:19
your final raking on the Sword in the Stone? Did you ever go to
39:23
Disneyland and try to pull it out? Of course? Yeah, it's right
39:28
in front of the carousel. Yeah, of course. There are a couple
39:30
of photos, like I didn't need to see the movie. It's like I
39:32
ever picked as the guy to try that never succeeded. No, No,
39:38
we always planned whenever we had a an annual pass that would be a gift
39:45
from Grandma and grandpa, Like we would go and it was never during showtime.
39:51
It was always very Yeah, we would always sneak up. It was
39:53
like, oh look picture time, Okay, go I never got the stone
39:58
the sword out of the stone. Very pointing. But yeah, my final
40:04
rating and I'm prepared for the hatred here it's okay, it's a two.
40:12
This is I'm not going to revisit this. There are some cute moments.
40:15
There's an emotionally traumatized squirrel that I'll never forget, and the wizard battles pretty
40:22
good, but yeah, not a classic. There's a you know, I'm
40:27
like, okay, it's really it's it's a two. All right, Tristan
40:31
pop up with that old VHS that I know you have copies of. I
40:37
know it was a little more of a classic to you. But overall,
40:38
as we are beginning our Arthenian legend, how do you rank the Sword in
40:44
the Stone? I think I give it a three because of the intended audience.
40:50
I'm really trying to focus on the intended audience here, because this was
40:53
not built for us of today, Like this wasn't built for twenty twenty three
41:00
adults. This was built for young kids. And this was made in the
41:02
sixties during the xerox era. And I probably would be saying something different if
41:09
I didn't watch it with my two year old, who was just enamored with
41:13
it, who is not enamored with anything on the screen. And so I
41:16
give it a three for that reasons. But I'm, you know, like,
41:20
as an adult looking at it from story structure and looking at it from
41:23
a production standpoint, besides the animation and everything like that, I probably lean
41:29
more towards John's rating, But I'm giving it a three. Oh right,
41:32
yeah, for me. The only funny thing about the Wizards duel is I
41:37
the way Metamim talks about it at the beginning, I'm like, am I
41:39
supposed to know what this is? Like? It sounds like this is a
41:43
thing, Like did I miss when we talked about what this was before?
41:45
Because she's so like, what do you want a wizard to do? I'm
41:47
like, what is that? Like? Why do I not know what that
41:51
is? But yeah, that's the highlight of the movie for sure. I'm
41:55
also going to give it a two. I totally get what you're saying,
41:59
trust and on. You know, it is shiny colors and talking animals,
42:04
so it's you know, it's great for the kids. For some reason,
42:08
my brain as I kept watching this kept jumping to like The Robin Hood Legend,
42:13
which I think is a vastly superior movie on teaching a legend of this
42:19
era. I mean, obviously different, different time period, but as far
42:22
as telling an old story, it kills this one. This one's like nowhere,
42:27
nowhere closed. So I'm also going to give it a two. But
42:30
that means our ratings can only go up from here, will they? Who
42:35
knows? Because next week we're jumping to nineteen seventy five as we continue in
42:39
the Wing of King Arthur with Terry Gilliams. Monty, Python, and the
42:45
Holy Grail Join the Revolution. Join the Nerd Party,