The ’90s Animated Fantasy Adventure New Generations Will Never Find
Disney has always been the leader in the West regarding animated films. To this day, other studios struggle to match up with their beautiful designs, catchy songs, and impressive humor. Quest for Camelot was one such film, and it ended up being a huge failure due to production struggles, though there are still a fair amount of fans who enjoyed the movie when they were young.
Kayley’s Quest
The story follows a girl named Kayley, whose father was a Knight of the Round Table before Sir Ruber kills him. When she gets older, she ends up searching for the legendary sword Excalibur for King Arthur. Along the way, she meets a blind hermit named Garrett, a two-headed dragon, and Merlin’s falcon as she hunts for the sword and attempts to outsmart and be faster than the traitorous Sir Ruber.
Each member of the ragtag team has to learn to overcome their past traumas, work together, and grow to fight the villain and achieve their lofty dreams. Overall, the plot sounds like a cute and classic story full of catchy musical numbers.
Amazing Talent Involved
Quest for Camelot uses some pretty famous names for its voice actors, such as Jessalyn Gilsig (Glee, Vikings) for the voice of Kayla, Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride ) as Garrett, and Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight) as Ruber. Eric Idle (Monty Python and the Holy Grail), Don Rickles (Casino), and Pierce Brosnan (Mamma Mia!) are a few additional voices you’ll find throughout the movie.
Temporarily Shelved For Space Jam
This movie was one of Warner Bros.’s attempts to fight against Disney. While it originally might have had potential, Quest for Camelot faced a few production issues. The first was that the movie was shelved so the animators could work on Space Jam. During that time, the story was completely rewritten.
Then, several supervisors and employees in the animation department left, meaning that a rather clueless team was left in charge. The movie was off to a bad start when this team was mixed with cost overruns and other production nightmares. In fact, Quest for Camelot did so badly that Warner Bros. hesitated to make more animated films until The Iron Giant marked the end for non-Disney animated musicals for a long time.
Poor Planning Leads To Poor Reception
With all of these problems, it’s no surprise it didn’t do well, though not as badly as you might expect. It was a commercial failure, not even breaking even on the budget, but that may be more to improper planning of the budget than anything. On Rotten Tomatoes, Quest for Camelot has a 43 percent average score from critics and 60 percent from audience members.
Despite the bad reviews, the film does have one thing going for it. The soundtrack for Quest for Camelot is pretty amazing. “The Prayer” actually was nominated for an Oscar.
Only Available On-Demand
GFR SCORE
Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find Quest for Camelot included on any streaming platform. However, you can rent or buy it on Google Play, AppleTV, or YouTube if you really want to watch this movie.
