Movie Project – Day 12: The Sword in the Stone

On a snowy day, what better movie can you think of that teaches the importance of brain over brawn. However, it was also Sunday, and watching a movie that features sorcery and wizardry as the main elements of the plot would seen as a poor choice of film for today. I find solace in the fact that I'm educating my daughter in the history of animated film, and not forcing a perfect piano performance out of her. That'll be for next week. Maybe. Though Rini is starting swimming lessons this week, so that gives us something for her to excel in and a channel for my wife and I to push her extreme limits and heap our aspirations of her competing in the 2024 Olympics Games.

Oddly enough, that segues rather nicely into the movie we watched today. Here you have this little kid, 10 maybe 12 years old as Merlin puts it, and he goes through all sorts of rigors to get an education about how the world works. Wart has no idea what this is all about, and Merlin doesn't either. All Merlin knows is that educating this child is a very important thing, and he keeps pushing him to learn. It's done in a very entertaining and enjoyable way, but then again the movie is not even an hour and a half in its runtime. Not much time to show how rote repetition makes for an excellent education.

Rini's favourite part was the Wizard duel. I was quite pleased that she knew the names of most of the animals involved in the Merlin and Madame Mim's manic morphing. Ending the duel with a crazy illness had Rini giggling pretty hard too. Wait. I take that back. Rini's favourite part would have to be the squirrels. Aside from doing our Doug impersonations, she just loved how they played with each other, and you do have to admit they do look rather cute.

The animation style is very similar to other 1960's Disney films, and the you can see where some clips were recycled. Perhaps it was fixed for the remastered version that was released a few years ago in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the film. The version I have is a part of the Gold Collectio and it has some uneven audio in places, such as when Arthur (the fish) is being chased by the massive pike. But the story still carries just as well as the day it was released into theatres.

The special features bored Rini pretty solid, even though it was about the songs in the movie. But the two shorts included on the disc, A Knight for a Day and The Brave Little Tailor had her attention fixed for the entirety of fifteen minutes. That's the problem with shorts. They're short.

To think that Rini may not remember these movies when she's older has crossed my mind, but then it was just be a new experience for Bronwyn when she's about Rini's age. Then Rini can remember what it was like to watch a movie with her sister for the first time.

Truth be known, Bronwyn did watch the movie with us, and she was awake for the entire time, but if she is ever stretched out on a psychiatrist's couch someday, I doubt she's going to tell about how watching “The Sword in the Stone” ruined her chance for ever achieving happiness in her life. If anything, I would hope that she would have a subconscious adoration for the movie because she was able to watch it with her daddy.