The Sword in the Stone (thing)

Disney Animated Features
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Release Date: Christmas Day, 1963

My original text for this node:

Disney animated film about a young King Arthur. The Sword in the Stone is not Excalibur, but rather another sword placed firmly into a rock by Merlin. Only the one destined to be King of the Britons ('King of the who?') could remove the sword, and that turned out to be a young aspiring squire named Arthur (or Wart).

This was the climax of the film; the early part chronicled Merlin's attempts to mold Arthur into a wise and just young man, as only he knew Arthur's true destiny.

All true, but I'll add some to it now. The film was based on a book of the same name by T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King. As was typical, Disney took several liberties with the source material, but, despite protestations by purists, that's what needs to be done to create a viable animated feature.

The film garnered one Academy Award nomination: Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment, for George Bruns.

Other than that, there isn't much to say about this relatively unassuming film. It's good entertainment while it lasts, and if helps get kids interested in the stories of King Arthur, all the better. Of course, the same could be said for Monty Python, too.

Postscript: I just realized something. This film was released a mere 33 days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, whose administration has often been referred to as Camelot. Isn't it ironic?

Information for the Disney Animated Features series of nodes comes from the IMDb (www.imdb.com), Frank's Disney Page (http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~fp/Disney/), and the dark recesses of my own memory.