Customer Reviews

Quest for Camelot

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

QUEST FOR CAMELOT is a charming, if somewhat derivative, animated film the whole family should enjoy. Loosely based on the King Arthur and Excalibur legend, the story follows a young girl whose knight father was murdered by the evil knight Ruber. She enlists the aid of a blind young man and his magic bird, and also a two headed dragon, added for humor and ultimately to help save the day.
With animation reminiscent of early Disney and one CGI segment involving a sleeping ogre, CAMELOT has all the ingredients for a musical toon. The songs written by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster are more pop oriented but performed well by Bryan White, The Coors, Celine Dion and some of the cast members.
The characters are voiced nicely by Jessica Gelwig (Kayley), Cary Elwes (Garrett), Gary Oldman (Ruber), Jane Seymour (Julianna); Pierce Brosnan (Arthur), and of course Don Rickles/Eric Idle as the dragon.
It's probably not destined to be a classic, but it's fine entertainment for the whole clan.

Stretching the truth of the Knights Of The Round table, just a little, this is a great story for kids. Teaching them courage and trust and friendship.

The voices are great, Cary Elwis, Pierce Brosnen, Jane Seymore, John Cleese, Don Rickles and the singing talents of the Corrs, Celene Dion and Steve Perry. This has a wonderful score and the soundtrack is just as good. Great lyrics and music.

The DVD has three fun features that make it just as interesting for the adults and the kids, but I am sure the kids will have far more fun. Technically it is a well put together film and the music and sound effects are brilliant.

The story is sweet and touching and the comedy sprinkled throughout. A must for every family or animated feature fan!

I ordered the Quest for Camelot dvd for the wonderful Steve Perry video that was included on the disc. Having never watched the movie before I was pleasantly surprised. My 10 year old loves the movie and she loves the games that are included on the disc.

True that this movie doesn't have the animation of a disney movie but it has a better story than many I have seen and its characters are so diffrent from the usual prince and princess. Kaley is a wide eyed adventurous daughter of a Knight of the round table. She aspires to be a knight even after his untimely death. This is the topic of one of the best songs in the film, and there are many of them. Garret who is given voice by Cary Elwes (Wesley from Princess Bride) is an ex stable boy who, blinded in an accident, hides himself away in the Forbidden Forest where he learns to cope with his lost sense with the help of an extremely well created Silver winged Falcon named Ayden. Together they search for Excaliber and find themselves. With names such as Don Rickles, Eric Idle (Monty Python), Gary Oldman, Jane Seymour (singing voice Celine Dion), Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, Bronson Pinchot, Sir John Gielgud, and Jaleel White how could this movie be passed up? Plus Steve Perry's beautiful voice graces the soundtrack! I assure you, if you love fantasy and Camelot, you will enjoy this picture.

Quest for Camelot is my favorite movie. I love how a blind man can be so efficient and how a young girl can see him beyond his abilities.

It might be easy for the rushed and hurried to quickly label this gentle animation as just another passable direct-to-video disneylike flick, but hold on, this isn?t one of them. This is a generous, colorful, thoughtful sophisticated movie, which achieved even more than it was intended. Particularly in one scene, which elevates this movie to the epic level.

Kayley, is chased by bad guys, and instead of your typical Indiana Jones like, brass and drums chase scene orchestral score..you are unexpectedly treated with an lovely, gentle, vaguely eerie song, (The Prayer) providing a big contrast with the intense and aggressive horse chase. (and its NOT in slow motion) "I pray you'll be our eyes, and watch us where we go...". Instantly you?re really worried with the mother, and those mildy cartoony villains become a real textured menace. They really made this work, and this movie is applause worthy for this scene alone.

I give this movie four out of five stars because it was memorable and fun, but it wasn't fantastic. It was comical and light, so it was good to watch while I was pretty much brain dead. Light entertainment. So here's what I thought.
First of all, the songs were sub-par. I really liked the song "Looking Through Your Eyes". I think that song should be among the famous love duets. My favorite song however was "Prayer", sung by Lady Juliana, Kayley's mother, as Kayley runs from those wacko tool shed villains. It was very pretty and had a nice effect. Plus it also gave Lady Juliana depth. "If I Didn't Have You" was comical and fun. However, The songs, "On My Father's Wings" and the opening song weren't really memorable for me and the opening song lacked the power and umph that I generally like in animated movies. Ruber's, the bad guy, song was weird and I didn't realize he was even singing until about halfway through the song. I thought that he was just chanting along to that weird music.
Okay, the characters. Kayley was nicely done and she was a good, interesting heroine. I give her a thumbs up. One comment on her though-would they really allow girls to wear that sort of outfit in the middle ages? It seemed kind of boyish and out of place, even though it was cool. I thought Lady Juliana was a really good minor character because she had so much faith in her daughter and never gave up. She is also very strong and isn't afraid of anyone. I loved her. I thought that the female characters in this movie were drawn stronger than the males. The guys all looked awkward. Anyway, moving on. Garet was a good character and I liked him, although his song (which I forgot to mention above) was merely okay. He was strong and could fight very well for a blind guy. I thought Ruber, the bad guy, was pretty weak. He didn't seem scary to me, just really weird. I think if I met him I would laugh in his face at how bizarre he is. What was with the snaky lip and eyebrow thing? His minions were pretty weird too. He certainly is creative with his plans. Personally if I was planning to take over Camelot, I would choose to do it with those Cauldron-Born in The Black Cauldron than with peculiar mechanical robots that shoot shovels out of their arms. But I did like the griffin. It had a cool voice.
In response to all those people who say that Garet and Kayley started off hating each other, that's not true. Garet was annoyed by her at first because she wouldn't shut up and Kayley never seemed to dislike Garet. Not to mention if Garet really had a problem with her than he wouldn't have given into her so fast. She says, "let me come with you" and he says "no" and she replies, "please?" and he says "fine."
Here are some random things I liked about this movie. I liked the part in "Looking Through Your Eyes" were Kayley was wrapped in pink and purple smoke and pretty designs. It was so pretty. I also liked how Devon and Cornwall broke up Garet and Kayley when he was holding her after she fell on him and Cornwall elbows Garet and says "Nice try buddy!" and Devon is talking to Kayley. Don't ask me why, I really liked that part. Oh and I loved Kayley's white dress at the end.
Here are some random things I thought were weird. First of all, Ruber's minions as I've said before. You really just have to wonder what was going through that guy's mind. And the movie never explained Ruber's fascination with Lady Juliana. I would have liked to know. And were the people trained to recognize different horn blowings and their meanings? They blow the horn in Camelot and everyone all over the countryside goes, "Excalibur has been stolen!!!" And WHAT was with the weird chicken romance??? What did that have anything to do with anything?? The rooster that would flirt with all the hens and that one hen who got all mad at him. The chicken later was turned into Blade. Whose evil grin in that one scene I really liked by the way.
Overall this was a good, sweet movie. It made me laugh and it was light. It was weird, but I still recommend it because it had good themes and a fun, energetic heroine. Im sixteen years old in case that helps anyone. Please enjoy.

I honestly don't see why Quest for Camelot gets so much abuse from critics. It was a great movie. Visually, it was near perfect. The characters were well designed (I loved Ruber's nervous twitch - great detail for a villan!), and the colours were very nice too. The music in general was excellant, and the songs were even better (how can you argue with talent like The Corrs, Steve Perry, and LeAnn Rimes?). Kayley, the main character, is a great role model for young girls. She's tough, can fend for herself, isn't as anorexic as most female characters, yet she's feminine all at the same time. WHat more could you want in a cartoon? Oh, and the DVD transfer for this movie is probably one of the best I have seen so far. The picture is EXTREMELY clear.

In my newly-arisen rise of fancy towards animation, few films disappointed me as much as "Quest for Camelot". Since it came very much off the heels of the super-successful Space Jam, I had high hopes for a sword & sorcery adventure from the promising studio that brought us decades of Looney Tunes; perhaps they were ready to step away from serial cartoons and become an empire like Disney. I mean, who wouldn't be impressed by simply looking at the mighty list of talent hired to voice the characters? - Jessalyn Gilsig ("Boston Public") as the spunky young heroine, Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) as the aspiring knight, and Gary Oldman (Bram Stoker's Dracula) as the menacing villain, with stars as diverse as Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye) and Jaleel White ("Family Matters") bringing up the supporting cast. In addition, the film's soundtrack - fronted by LeAnn Rimes, Steve Perry, and Celine Dion - was destined for greatness of its own, so how could this film go wrong? Well, read on!

Based upon the novel The King's Damosel by Vera Chapman (who would not live to see the completed picture), the plot of "Camelot" incorporates bits of the Arthurian myth with Disney-esque adventure and humour. Kayley (Gilsig) is the daughter of a slain knight of the Round Table who takes on a quest to find the sword Excalibur and deliver it back to King Arthur (Brosnan), from whom it had been stolen by Sir Ruber (Oldman) - a sorcery-practicing traitor to the kingdom. Along the way, she's accompanied by the blind young hermit Garrett (Elwes) and pair of quarrelling dragons that share a body with two heads (Eric Idle from "Monty Python" and Don Rickles of Toy Story). All the while, they are pursued by Ruber and his minions - a giant, goofy griffin (Bronson Pinchot, "Perfect Strangers") and a small gang of enchanted iron monssters, including a Dirty Harry-quoting chicken with an axe for a beak (White).

My disappointment lies mainly in the production: though director Frederick du Chau would go on to direct a couple big-name features for Disney, the biggest mainstream features he had worked on prior to "Camelot" had been Tom and Jerry - The Movie, which hasn't exactly been venerated. In addition, the art direction was run by a duo whose accomplishments were mostly made up by direct-to-video animation. It's this style of animation that brings me my first complaint about the film: at its best, "Camelot" is on par with a Disney feature but at least half of the time the film only offers boring camera angles, flat storyboarding, and inconsistent animation, giving the impression that you're watching exceptionally nice Saturday morning cartoon.

Also exceptionally down-letting are the characters themselves. Though Kayley and Garrett are well-rounded and undergo character development, the likes of Ruber and Devon & Cornwall (the dragons) stand out specifically as bland and flawed: Ruber makes more threats than evil deeds and is generally more humorous than villains in his position are supposed to be, while Devon & Cornwall are not nearly funny enough in their role of comic relief. Meanwhile, potentially intriguing characters like King Arthur and Merlin (John Gielgud, Gandhi) aren't given a lot of screentime and are unable to detract from the film's overbearing one-note-ness.

As for the rest of the picture, as much as it tries to live up to the standards of Disney, it ends up floundering on a downward tromp set by the lacklustre script. The heroes are not put in nearly enough peril to make their quest seem epic and Ruber and his minions come off as too big of pushovers to make the eventual showdown in Castle Camelot seem justified. The soundtrack is the brightest aspect of the feature, but even it is repressed by having performers sing the in-film versions of the eventual chart-placers (e.g. Bryan White dubs Steve Perry's "I Stand Alone"), neccessitating you to buy the soundtrack or skip to the special features to enjoy the songs.

I'd advise you to give this film a rent before considering a purchase. At its most basic, "Quest for Camelot" is a failed attempt at effectively cloning the formulas and style of Disney, whose shadow the picture never manages to break out of.

Plot in a nutshell - Baron Ruber (voice of Gary Oldman) wants all the power & wealth in the land, is thus expelled from the Round Table for it, and vows revenge on King Arthur (voice of Bond star Pierce Brosnan) and all who inhabit his realm. Years later, Ruber steals the sword Excalibur and plunges Camelot into chaos. The only hope is Kayley (voice of Jessalyn Gilsig), the plucky, super cute farm girl tomboy teen-aged daughter of a Round Table knight Ruber killed years ago, who manages to rope a blind forester/former stable boy named Garrett (voice of Cary Elwes) and a two-headed dinosaur/dragon mutant (voiced by Don Rickles and Eric Idle) into helping her retrieve Excalibur. Comedy, chaos and mayhem ensues.

Maybe not the best animated feature ever made, but still enjoyable in its old fashioned Disney kind of way. Combination of traditional hand-drawn animation set against CGI backgrounds makes for a beautifully uneven visual feast. Characters are fairly likable and good-natured enough not to annoy anyone.

Based on the book "The King's Dam0sel" by the late Vera Chapman.