The Sword in the Stone

The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and released December 25, 1963. The eighteenth full-length animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, it was the last Disney animated feature released while Walt Disney was still alive.

The film is loosely based on the novel The Sword in the Stone, the first book of T.H. White’s tetralogy The Once and Future King. From Merlin’s statement that The Times won't come out for another 1200 years, it may be extrapolated that the film is set circa A.D. 600.

Plot
The Sword in the Stone follows the future King Arthur’s life during his education by the wizard Merlin. Arthur, called “Wart” by his family, is a 12-year-old orphan who lives with Sir Ector, his foster father, and Kay, his older foster brother. One day, as Wart searches the woods for a lost arrow, he meets the wizard Merlin and his talking pet owl Archimedes. Merlin sees great potential in the boy and commits himself to Arthur's education, which is to consist of reading, science, and magical transformations. Sir Ector, on the other hand, plans to teach Wart about fighting and chivalry to prepare him to be Kay’s squire.

For his first transformation lesson, Merlin turns Wart into a perch. In fish form, Wart is chased and attacked by a huge pike. He works to outsmart the beast but is nearly caught. Archimedes flies down and plucks Wart from the pike’s jaws, saving him, but the owl later denies any altruism, claiming instead, "I intended to eat him! Young perch is my favorite dish!"

For his second lesson, Merlin transforms Wart to a squirrel. Though Wart begins by learning about the principle of gravity, he ends up learning about male-female relationships when he runs into a female squirrel who becomes infatuated with him. Merlin is amused until another female squirrel finds him attractive as well, and the student and teacher are forced to fend off the amorous attentions of both females. After a wolf nearly eats Wart, Merlin transforms both of them back into humans. While Merlin’s squirrel companion is merely horrified, Wart’s companion is visibly heartbroken.

For his last lesson, Merlin transforms Wart to a bird. Merlin doesn’t join him; instead, Archimedes teaches Wart the principles of flight. Wart’s skill and enjoyment rapidly become apparent to Archimedes, but his daring forces him to flee from the pursuit of a hawk. During his escape, Wart is taken hostage by "The Marvelous Mad Madam Mim," a witch in competition with Merlin. She claims that her magic, which is based on selfishness and trickery, is more useful than Merlin's magic, which is "for educational purposes." After Merlin locates his hostage student, Merlin and Mim engage in a wizards' duel in which each seeks to defeat the other. As they transform into a series of creatures, it seems that Mim’s dragon form will win. However, Merlin transforms himself into a germ and infects her, leaving her bedridden and furious.

Later, Wart begins his service as squire to Kay. Merlin, disappointed that Wart still prefers war games to academics, transports himself to 20th-century Bermuda. Ector, Kay, and Wart travel to London for a Christmas tournament which will decide who will be the next King of England. As Kay’s turn to fight approaches, Wart realizes that he has forgotten Kay's sword at their inn. He tries to retrieve it, but the door is locked, and he frantically searches the town for another sword for Kay. He sees a sword protruding from an anvil on a stone in a churchyard, and pulls the sword from the stone, unwittingly fulfilling the sword’s prophecy and making himself king.

Though Sir Ector, Kay, and the other knights initially don’t believe Wart is the foreordained king, they are forced to accept him when it becomes clear after repeated tries by others that he alone can pull the sword from the stone. Arthur, feeling unprepared and apprehensive of his failure, calls to Merlin for help. After the wizard appears and the facts become apparent, Merlin is elated to find that Wart will be the King Arthur that he has seen in the future. Merlin tells Arthur that he will rise and lead an order of heroes, and reveals other anachronistic information.

Cast

 * Sebastian Cabot: The Narrator/Sir Ector (voice)
 * Karl Swenson: Merlin (The Powerful Wizard) (voice)
 * Rickie Sorensen: Arthur (Wart) (voice)
 * Junius Matthews: Archimedes the Owl (voice)/Horse (speaking)
 * Ginny Tyler: Little Girl Squirrel (voice)
 * Martha Wentworth: Fat Old Lady Squirrel/Madame Mim (voice)
 * Norman Alden: Kay (voice)
 * Barbara Jo Allen: Scullery Maid
 * Alan Napier: Sir Pelinore (voice)
 * Richard Reitherman: Wart (voice)
 * Robert Reitherman: Wart (voice)
 * Thurl Ravenscroft: Knight at Tournament (voice)/Horse (singing, uncredited)

Musical pieces

 * "A Most Befuddling Thing"
 * "Mad Madame Mim"
 * "That's What Makes the World Go Round"
 * "Higitus Figitus"
 * "The Sword in the Stone"

Animation

 * Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston said that Milt Kahl's animations of Sir Kay and Sir Ector were "the best human figures ever done at the studio."
 * The climactic battle between Merlin and Mad Madam Mim is often cited by animation experts as some of the best character animation to that date. The characters go through numerous physical transformations during battle, yet retain their identifying features; Merlin's guises are blue and include his glasses and a facial hair, while Mim's are pink and have her messy hair.
 * Some of the animation cells of Arthur walking through the dark forest to find Kay's arrow were later reused in a similar scene in The Black Cauldron in which Taran looks for Hen-Wen.
 * When Sir Ector and Kay are in the kitchen fighting against the enchanted dishware, Sir Ector yells and swings his sword so hard that it hits Kay on the head; Jasper and Horace in One Hundred and One Dalmatians are animated in the same way during the fight scene with Pongo and Perdita.



Trivia

 * The R2 DVD release has a scene trimmed by the BBFC involving Mad Madame Mim's first encounter with Wart. In the current version she says, "Sounds like someone's sick, how lovely!" In the uncut version she continues, "I do hope it's serious, something dreadful!"
 * This was the first animated feature scored by the Sherman Brothers.
 * The Sword in the Stone is the only production in which Robert and Richard Reitherman appear. They were the sons of director Wolfgang Reitherman and brothers of Bruce Reitherman, the voice of Mowgli and Christopher Robin.
 * The scene where Arthur is being licked by the castle dogs is mirrored by that of Mowgli being licked by his wolf friends in The Jungle Book four years later.
 * Merlin appeared in the Square-Enix and Disney game "Kingdom Hearts" as a resident of Traverse Town, and later in Kingdom Hearts II, a resident of Hollow Bastion. His house in Kingdom Hearts II was used as a base where the security system of Hollow Bastion could be controlled.

Worldwide release dates

 * Japan: July 18, 1964
 * Mexico: December 10, 1963
 * Sweden: December 14, 1964
 * France: December 16, 1964
 * West Germany: December 17, 1964
 * Italy: December 23, 1964
 * Denmark: December 26, 1964
 * Norway: December 26, 1964
 * Finland: December 17, 1965
 * Spain: December 20, 1965

Titles in different languages

 * Bosnian: Mač u kamenu
 * Bulgarian: Мечът в камъка
 * Chinese:      石中剑
 * Croatian: Mač u kamenu
 * Danish:        Sværdet I Stenen
 * Dutch:          Merlijn de Tovenaar
 * Finnish:      Miekka Kivessä
 * French:        Merlin l'Enchanteur
 * German:        Die Hexe und der Zauberer (also known as Merlin und Mim)
 * Hebrew:        החרב באבן
 * Italian:      La Spada Nella Roccia
 * Japanese:    王様の剣
 * Maltese:      Ix-Xabla fil-Ġebla
 * Norwegian:  Sverdet I Stenen
 * Portuguese: A Espada Era a Lei
 * Polish:    Miecz w kamieniu
 * Romanian:    Sabia din Piatră
 * Russian:      Меч в камне
 * Serbian:      Mač u kamenu
 * Spanish:      Merlín el Encantador
 * Swedish:      Svärdet I Stenen
 * Turkish:      Taşa Saplanan Kılıç
 * Vietnamese: Thanh Gươm Trong Đá