The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney, based on the 1938 novel by T. H. White. Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, the film features the voices of Rickie Sorensen, Karl Swenson, Junius Matthews, Sebastian Cabot, Norman Alden, and Martha Wentworth. It was the final animated film from Walt Disney Productions to be released in Walt Disney's lifetime.
Disney first acquired the film rights to the novel in 1939, and there were various attempts at developing the film over the next two decades before production on the film began. Bill Peet wrote both the story and the screenplay for the film. The songs were written by the Sherman Brothers and George Bruns composed the score.
The Sword in the Stone premiered in London on December 12, 1963, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 25. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office success, grossing $22.2 million in the United States and Canada.
Plot
After the King of England, Uther Pendragon, dies, leaving no heir to the throne, a sword appears inside an anvil atop a stone, with an inscription proclaiming that whoever removes will be the future king. None succeed in removing the sword, which becomes forgotten, leaving England in the Dark Ages.
Years later, a 12-year-old orphan named Arthur, commonly called Wart, accidentally scares off a deer his older foster brother Kay was hunting, causing Kay to launch his arrow into the forest. While retrieving the arrow, Wart meets Merlin, an elderly wizard who lives with his talking pet owl Archimedes. Merlin declares himself Wart's tutor and returns with him to his home, a castle run by Sir Ector, Wart's foster father. Ector's friend, Sir Pelinore, arrives to announce that the winner of the upcoming New Year's Day tournament in London will be crowned king. Ector decides Kay will be a contender and appoints Wart as Kay's squire.
To educate Wart, Merlin transforms them both into fish. They swim in the castle moat to learn about physics, until an angry pike attacks the pair. After the lesson, Wart is sent to the kitchen as punishment for attempting to relate what happened to Ector and Kay. Merlin enchants the dishes to wash themselves, then takes Wart out again for another lesson, turning them into tree squirrels to learn about gravity. After they return to human form, Ector accuses Merlin of using black magic on the dishes. Wart defiantly defends Merlin, but Ector refuses to listen and punishes Wart by giving Kay another squire, Hobbs.
Resolving to make amends, Merlin plans on educating Wart full-time. However, Merlin's knowledge of future history confuses Wart, prompting Merlin to appoint Archimedes as Wart's teacher. Merlin transforms Wart into a sparrow and Archimedes teaches him how to fly. Soon after, Wart encounters Madam Mim, an eccentric, evil witch who is Merlin's nemesis. Merlin arrives to rescue Wart, and Mim challenges Merlin to a wizards' duel. Despite Mim's cheating, Merlin outsmarts her by transforming into a germ that infects Mim, illustrating the importance of knowledge over strength.
On Christmas Eve, Kay is knighted, but Hobbs comes down with the mumps; therefore, Ector reinstates Wart as Kay's squire. This causes Merlin to think that Wart is forsaking education, and when Wart defends his choices, Merlin angrily transports himself to 20th-century Bermuda.
At the tournament, Wart realizes he left Kay's sword at the inn. It is closed for the tournament, but Archimedes sees the "Sword in the Stone", which Wart removes almost effortlessly, unknowingly fulfilling the prophecy. When Wart returns with the sword, Ector recognizes it and the tournament is halted. Ector places the sword back in its anvil, demanding Wart prove that he pulled it. He pulls it once again, revealing that he is England's rightful king, earning Ector and Kay's respect and the former's apology.
Later, the newly crowned King Arthur sits in the throne room with Archimedes, feeling unprepared for the responsibility of ruling a country. Merlin returns from Bermuda and resolves to help Wart become the great king he has foreseen him to be and ensure his legacy.
Voice cast
Sebastian Cabot as Sir Ector, Arthur's foster father and Kay's father. Though he clearly cares for Arthur, he often treats him more like a servant than a son. Cabot was also the film's narrator. Karl Swenson as Merlin, an old and eccentric wizard who aids and educates Arthur. Rickie Sorensen, Richard Reitherman, and Robert Reitherman as Arthur (aka Wart), the boy who will grow up to become the legendary British leader King Arthur. Junius Matthews as Archimedes, Merlin's crotchety, yet highly educated, pet owl and servant, who has the ability to speak. Ginny Tyler as the Little Girl Squirrel who immediately develops an attraction to Arthur upon encountering him as a squirrel. Martha Wentworth as Madam Mim, a black magic-proficient witch and Merlin's nemesis. Mim's magic uses trickery, as opposed to Merlin's scientific skill. Wentworth also voiced the Granny Squirrel, an elderly squirrel who is attracted to Merlin while Merlin is a squirrel. Norman Alden as Sir Kay, Arthur's morose and inept older foster brother and Ector's son. Unlike his father, he has much less regard for Arthur and thinks little good of him. Alan Napier as Sir Pelinore, Ector's friend, who announces the jousting tournament.
Thurl Ravenscroft voiced Sir Bart, one of the knights seen at the jousting tournament. Jimmy MacDonald voiced the Wolf who has several encounters with Arthur and attempts to eat him, but is constantly met with misfortune. Martha Wentworth and Barbara Jo Allen voiced the Scullery Maid who works in Ector's castle and believes Merlin to be an evil sorcerer. Tudor Owen voiced one of the knights or nobles in the crowd during the tournament.
Production
Development In early 1939, Walt Disney purchased the film rights to T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone, which he revealed in February. Following the outbreak of World War II, the studio focused instead on producing cartoons for the United States government and armed forces such as Der Fuehrer's Face (1943). In June 1944, following the successful re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Disney assigned writers to work on The Sword in the Stone, along with Cinderella (1950) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). It continued to be announced that the project was in active development throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s. In June 1960, Disney told the Los Angeles Times that, following the release of One Hundred and One Dalmatians, two animated projects were in development, which were Chanticleer and The Sword in the Stone. Around that same time, Disney's elder brother Roy O. Disney attempted to persuade him to discontinue their feature animation division, as enough films remained to make successful re-releases. The younger Disney refused, but because of his plans to build another theme park in the United States, he would approve only one animated film to be released every four years.
Chanticleer was developed by Ken Anderson and Marc Davis, who aimed to produce a feature animated film in a more contemporary setting. They visited the Disney archives and decided to work on adapting the satirical tale after glancing at earlier conceptions dating back to the 1940s. Anderson, Davis, Milt Kahl, and director Wolfgang Reitherman spent months preparing elaborate storyboards for Chanticleer. Following a silent response to one pitch presentation, a voice from the back of the room said, "You can't make a personality out of a chicken!" When the time came to approve either Chanticleer or The Sword in the Stone, Disney remarked that the problem with making a rooster a protagonist was, "[you] don't feel like picking a rooster up and petting it."
Meanwhile, The Sword in the Stone was developed solely by veteran story artist Bill Peet. After Disney had seen the 1960 Broadway production of Camelot, he approved the project to enter production. Ollie Johnston stated that Kahl "got furious with Bill for not pushing Chanticleer after all the work he had put in on it. He said, 'I can draw a damn fine rooster, you know'. Bill said, 'So can I. Peet recalled about "how humiliated they were to accept defeat and give in to The Sword in the Stone... He allowed them to have their own way, and they let him down. They never understood that I wasn't trying to compete with them, just trying to do what I wanted to work. I was [in] the midst of all this competition, and with Walt to please too."
Writing in his autobiography, Peet said he decided to write a screenplay before producing storyboards, though he found the narrative "complicated, with the Arthurian legend woven into a mixture of other legends and myths" and that finding a direct storyline required "sifting and sorting". After Disney received the first screenplay draft, he told Peet that it should have more substance. Peet lengthened his second draft by elaborating on the more dramatic aspects of the story, which Disney approved of through a phone call from Palm Springs, Florida.
Casting Rickie Sorensen, who was cast as Arthur, entered puberty during the film's production. This forced director Wolfgang Reitherman to cast two of his sons, Richard and Robert, to replace him. This resulted in Arthur's voice noticeably changing between scenes, and sometimes within the same scene. The three voices also portray Arthur with an American accent, sharply contrasting with the Arthurian setting and the accents spoken by most of the other characters. Mari Ness of the online magazine Tor.com suggested, "given that the film is about growing up, this problem might have been overcome" with the three voices being interpreted as symbolizing Arthur's mental and physical development. However, she noted Reitherman "inexplicably chose to leave all three voices in for some scenes, drawing attention to the problem that they were not the same actor."
Reitherman estimated that 70 actors read for the part of Merlin, but none of them had eccentricity that he was looking for. Karl Swenson initially read for Archimedes, but he was instead cast as Merlin.
Animation The film continued the Xerox method of photocopying drawings onto animation cels that had been used in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). An additional animation technique, "touch-up", was created during production to replace the clean-up process. The clean-up process had required assistant animators to transfer the directing animators' sketches onto new sheets of paper, which were then copied onto the animation cels. To do a touch-up, the assistants would instead draw directly on the animators' sketches. This streamlined the process, but it also caused assistants of directing animator Milt Kahl to fear they would ruin his linework.
Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were proud of their work on the final film and stated on their website that "Some of our best animation is scattered throughout this lively film. "
Release
The Sword in the Stone premiered in London on December 12, 1963. It was released to theaters on December 18 in the United Kingdom and on December 25 in the United States. It was re-released on December 22, 1972. The film was again re-released to theaters on March 25, 1983, as a double bill with the animated short Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore.
Home media The Sword in the Stone was released on North American VHS, Betamax, and Laserdisc in 1986 as an installment of the Walt Disney Classics collection. It was re-released on VHS in 1989 and on VHS and Laserdisc on July 12, 1991. It was first released on VHS in the United Kingdom in 1988, followed by a re-issue the following year. Another re-release on VHS and Laserdisc occurred on October 28, 1994, this time as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection.