Back in the days when there is no such Oscar category as "The Best Animated Feature of the Year" , animations were for family use only. It's obvious that by 2001, adult themed animations began running off readily. Looking at the year 1998, alongside of Antz, Mulan, and Toy Story 2 ; Quest for Camelot was another successful blockbuster hit in the animation genre.

It's an adaptation to Vera Chapman's novel "The King's Damosel", the writer of which is the founder of the J.R.R. Tolkien Society of Great Britain. Though, most fun and joyful parts of the novel are missing in this film. The basic formula of creating a Swashbuckler Adventure out of a heroic journey story has been applied again just like The Mummy, Robin Hood, Indiana Jones, Conan the Barbarian and so on.

What's so good and staying within living memory? 1/First of all, it's very entertaining for everyone who like Swashbucklers. Must be rated "E". 2/A sense of Tim Burton style singing dialogues. 3/All the cruel and bloodthirsty fantasy world creatures are pleasant looking: Dragons, Drakels, Ogres, and the very special Two-Headed Dragon. 4/The Dark Jungle with Necromancer Trees. 5/The lost sword of Excalibur. 6/The legend of the Three Circles. 7/The story is centring on a girl who wants to be a knight! Praise for Hayao Miyazaki 8/The first time when Garrett and Kayley meet the two-headed dragon: -Garrett:What are you? -Dragon:We're the reason cousins shouldn't marry. 9/The back story of a blind farmer, and his success story becoming a knight 10/The blind farmer's silver winged falcon, and all the scenes that it's fighting with either dragons or ogres.

What's not to like and to forget? 1/The overall animation quality is only as good as a computer game except the music. 2/Some scenes and sequences are giving homage to Star Wars, Indiana Jones and even the Taxi Driver; and those homages are stomach aching. 3/King Arthur is very weak, he is half the size of Merlin and shorter than Kayley 4/Merlin is not the Merlin as we know him, he's afraid to cast spells, and not able to protect Arthur's castle 5/The moment when King Arthur grabs the Excalibur from the stone, he seems like a 4-year-old kid pretending that he's He-Man and the people around him are the Masters of Universe 6/The fact that King Arthur is Pierce Brosnan's worst voice acting ever 7/Character development and back stories of the characters are very weak except Garrett's character 8/Visual Effects are awful 9/Over 350 animators have worked to create this animation, but it's still not "animating" what needs to be animated, 'cause the action sequences and the human movements/reflexes are dreadful 10/Sound Effects are not synchronized properly

Give it a shot, this is at least worth watching, catch it on Youtube.

I first saw Quest For Camelot when I was ten years old (I saw it in theaters) and it was one of my favorite movies. I'm seventeen now, and yesterday, I watched this movie with my little brother. Of course, it was a lot more immature than it was when I was ten, but I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. This is truly a fun, wholesome movie.

The story centers on Kayley, a young girl who wants to become a knight in Camelot. When King Arthur's sword Excalibur is stolen by the evil Sir Ruber, and then lost in the Forbidden Forest, Kayley sets off to recover the sword and save Camelot. Her quest is also crucial because Ruber had killed her father ten years before, and has now taken her mother hostage. In the Forbidden Forest, Kayley is joined by Garrett, a blind hermit who doesn't welcome her company at first, and his falcon Ayden. They are also joined by Devon and Cornwall, an odd and bickering two headed dragon, while being followed by Ruber and his metal minions.

This a movie that is a cute relief to many Disney movies, and I love the music in it much more than most Disney sing-along songs. While some songs are simply silly and fun, like "If I Didn't Have You" sung by Devon and Cornwall (which I laughed all the way through due to its nudges at 20th century pop culture), many of the songs express morals and feelings that the audience can take to heart. "United We Stand" is sung by the knights of the round table, saying that "no one shall be greater than all", something that the villain Ruber doesn't like very much. "I Stand Alone" tells how Garret does not trust the world around him, having been shunned for his blindness, yet at the same time, he is opening his world to Kayley. And my very favorite song is "Looking Through Your Eyes", the love song between Kayley and Garrett, which is honest due to the fact that neither let Garrett's blindness stand in their way.

The emotions in Quest For Camelot are also real because although there are plenty of funny moments, these are balanced by dark and serious moments. These include Kayley's father's death scene, his funeral, and Ruber's witchcraft scene. Ruber's song is creepy and dark, and seriously scared me when I was younger. And one scene that really jerks the tears for me is when Kayley and her friends reach the end of the forest, with Excalibur in hand. Garrett tells Kayley to go on without him, because he does not "belong in that world", and thinks that he doesn't deserve to love Kayley. After he leaves, Kayley says "but you belong in mine" before going on. It's really pure of heart, and made me sad. Or maybe I'm just a sap. Oh well.

All in all, I think that everyone should give this movie a try, even teenagers. Heck, I'm a teen and I love this movie. I won't pretend to be "too old" for a cartoon sing-along movie. (In fact, I love these songs so much that they stay in my head forever and drive me crazy) Quest For Camelot may not be the best made movie, and yes, it does have plenty of flaws, but if you look past that, you're guaranteed to laugh and smile, and it leaves you with a good feeling at the end.

Quest For Camelot(aka The Magic Sword:Quest for Camelot) is a 1998 Warner Bros animated film starring the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, Cary Elwes,Jane Seymour and the singing talents of Andrea Corr from the Irish band The Corrs,Celine Dion and Bryan White and tells the story of a young girl called Kayleigh voiced by Jessica Hahn who goes on a quest to find the magic sword for Camelot and teams up with a blind man named Garrett voiced by Cary Elwes and a two headed Dragon voiced by Eric Idle and Don Rickle. But will the gang retrieve the sword before the evil Ruber voiced by Gary Oldman can get his hands on the sword?

Overall I loved this film. The animation is gorgeous and the charcthers are great. This film also is famous for the song The Prayer which is sung by Celine Dion and Andrea Boccelli in the film. I havent seen this film since i was a kid so i was happy to track it down in CEX for a euro.

If you haven't seen this film I suggest you try and track it down as it's a very hard film to find.

7/10

B-