My Review of Quest for Camelot · 3:10pm April 20th

Rating Scale:

12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made

Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for you today. This morning, I will be reviewing Warner Bros’ animated feature film called “Quest for Camelot”, released in 1998. Earlier this week, I watched it for the first time which proved to be quite a fun experience. However, the movie itself isn’t necessarily great; it is a pretty good movie, but it left a lot to be desired.

This film is about a young girl who wants to be a brave knight like her father and wants to do adventurous stuff, but a treacherous knight named Ruber seeks to overthrow King Arthur and seize the Excalibur as his own weapon to rule Camelot with an iron fist. She and her new friends must protect the sword before he gets his hands on it.

To be honest, this movie could have been so much better if it wasn’t laced with a heavily predictable plot. You can already tell where things are heading and how they will be concluded or handled even before the film even reaches to its second and third acts. And the thing is, the story as a whole felt a little lackluster.

How so? Well for one, the voice acting is overall mixed. Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes, and Jane Seymour sounded like they were reading lines for a fanfic; that’s how stale their voice acting was. They weren’t too bad, but they could’ve recorded better takes for their lines of dialogue.

Another thing is how flat and boring most of the characters are. Kayley says she wants to be a good knight one day, but the movie barely shows her training how to be one. Sure, she goes through a heart-stopping adventure which is a lot of fun, but the movie kept focusing on her chemistry with Garrett.

By the end of the movie, her dreams come true, but it feels a little unearned because the film rushed her character development, and she didn’t even put up much of a challenge to the villain.

Judging by those two elements alone, I can say for certain the story is lackluster and left a lot to be desired. Those are the only issues I have with this movie, and unfortunately it brings it down quite a lot. Nevertheless, there are a lot of things I actually like about it.

Garrett himself is overall decent as a character, and the fact he is blind but still can perform a lot of stuff with the help of his falcon is really impressive.

Most of the songs are sung beautifully and are very profound. My favorite song is Looking Through Your Eyes because it has so much emotional depth, speaking volumes of how both Kayley and Garrett feel about each other.

The way the characters emote and move around are flawless too, and I appreciate just how consistent they are from start to finish. I might not like how they speak their lines, but their singing really sets the mood just right.

Devon and Cornwall are the most entertaining characters in the whole movie. Their sense of humor is a little similar to that of Timon and Pumbaa, and their comedic timing is great. Eric Idle and the late Don Rickles were terrific in their respective voiceover performances.

But the most outstanding performer out of the whole cast is none other than Gary Oldman himself. His animated voice for Ruber was so good he almost becomes unrecognizable in the role. Not to mention how awesome his design looks, especially his eye-twitching which is a significant factor of his insane thirst for power.

I even like his villain song although my only issue is how awkward and dry the tone of the song is. It’s forgettable compared to more legendary villain songs like Be Prepared and Hellfire, but I still find it to be very catchy.

The animation is definitely lovely to behold which means the animators put a lot of heart and soul into making the movie visually stunning and appealing.

From what I got out of this movie, it’s the importance of true valor and courage in hard times that will earn us the victory. It’s a very cliché moral, but it’s fine. That’s basically the main takeaway from this story.

Overall, it’s pretty fun. “Quest for Camelot” suffers from shallow writing and a badly predictable storyline, but it has wonderful animation, inspiring music, good comedy, a fun villain, and a decent adventure. Therefore, it gets a 7/10.

Peace out.