The Sword in the Stone (45th Anniversary Special Edition)

The Sword in the Stone was one of my all-time favorite movies growing up. At 23, I still get excited about it. It's so different than other movies, and allows a child to use their imaginations in a very special way. I can watch it over and over again, and I won't get tired of it. It's truly a classic.

If you did not get the previous DVD release, then this is worth getting. Disney claims this will be letterboxed 1:66-1, if it is anything like Jungle Book, this will be a mistake.

There is little reason to buy this if you already own the first FULL FRAME release. Most of the bonuses listed below were on the previous release, and that earlier release was nicely restored. I doubt Disney will do any further restoration.

BONUS FEATURES
* All-New Merlin's Magical Academy Game - In this all new game Merlin tests viewers' knowledge of the world as they are transformed into a fish, a squirrel and an owl--just like Wart in the movie.
* Knight for a Day - Goofy stands in for his master at a joust in this medieval themed short film. ***Also on the previous DVD release, and the "Complete Goofy" DVD set.***
* Brave Little Tailor - When Mickey tells a white lie about his fighting prowess, he ends up facing down a rampaging giant. ***Also on the previous DVD release, and the Mickey Mouse In Color DVD set.***
* Music Magic: The Sherman Brothers - A profile of the musical geniuses behind The Sword in the Stone and so many other Disney hits. Includes the deleted song, "The Magic Key." ***Also on the previous DVD release.***
* The Sword in the Stone Scrapbook - An exclusive behind-the-scenes interactive program featuring still-frame galleries and film facts. ***Also on the previous DVD release***
* Disney Song Selection
* And Much More!

The movie itself falls a little short of being a classic, it is the beginning of the weak period. Walt still had his hand in this, but he was more focused on his television show. Even the Sherman Brothers admit their music was below par, but they were new at scoring movies.

Though this 1963 animated musical is by no means a Disney classic, there is a lot to like. When an English king dies he leaves no successor, just a note that says whoever pulls a particular sword out of a stone is his rightful heir. After much help from a magical wizard, a young boy does just that, and becomes the legendary King Arthur. That's the plot of the first book of author T.H. White's classic The Once and Future King, which forms the basis of the story here.

The tale of a courageous child, the movie teaches the power of brains over brawn, the value of fair play and the reward of having one's worth acknowledged by one's peers. Colorful characters include the absentminded Merlin, his skeptical owl Archimedes and a wacky evil sorceress, Madam Mim.

The animation is, at times, superb. There's a thrilling encounter with the largest fish in the moat, and a delightful scene of an amorous female squirrel pursuing a mate. The movie's highlight is its climactic wizard's duel, a five-minute segment that offers some inventive visual ideas. As Merlin and evil witch Madam Mim transform themselves into everything from bunnies to fire-breathing dragons, the screen "shakes" with each collision and the color palette changes often. Everything is frequently interrupted by Merlin's witty references to the "future" 1960s, though many of these will be lost on anyone younger than say, 50.

Unfortunately, there's also a lot that falls flat. Many wonderful elements of White's story -- Merlin's magic, for example -- are treated as if they're ho-hum parts of everyday life. The opening scenes are overloaded with dialogue, the skit-style narrative has no real drive, and overall the animation is basic by Disney standards, much like The Jungle Book (some of it, in fact, was reused in that later film).

Still, the good outweighs the bad. As someone who has to be familiar with most all of great moments the Disney studio has given us, I find "The Sword in The Stone" easy to pick apart, but nevertheless surprisingly entertaining. For all its flaws, the movie still has just enough Disney magic to thoroughly engross a preschooler, and entertain many others.

In other words, as one of Disney's worst animated films, "The Sword in The Stone" is one of the best. In fact, the new book The Pixar Touch reports that this is the movie that caused a then-six-year-old John Lasseter, today's Pixar guru, to fall in love with animation.

The film is presented correctly, in its original "full frame" format. It is not letterboxed.

BONUS FEATURES

Movie-related extras include a good 8-minute featurette with the Sherman Brothers, who frankly discuss their contributions to the film (including the deleted song "The Magic Key"); Merlin's Magical Academy, a tongue-in-cheek series of quizzes and video games; a 7-minute clip black-and-white TV clip excerpt from the "All About Magic" episode of "Walt Disney Presents" with Walt doing magic acts; a series of film facts; and galleries of concept art.

The disc also has two Disney cartoons. When Mickey Mouse tells a white lie about his fighting prowess, he ends up facing down a rampaging giant in the 1938 classic "Brave Little Tailor." Meanwhile, a medieval Goofy stands in for his master at a joust in the 1946 short "Knight for a Day."

Me and my pals went to see this movie when we were kids and would choose characters to play (we saw it in the Summer, so we re-enacted scenes all the time). The film is still fun today. One question...where is the short film that was attached in the theatrical run, "Wart and The Wizard"?

Anything from Disney is timeless. I'm 53 and still love to sit and watch these classics that I grew up on. Whether your a kid or a kid at heart, you can't go wrong with "Sword In The Stone". What a great movie.