The 1963 Walt Disney animated feature The Sword In The Stone follows the adventures of a boy named Arthur (voiced by Rickie Sorenson) or, as everyone else calls him, Wart, who has been adopted by a loud, brash man named Sir Ector (Sebastian Cabot) to work towards being the squire to his son, Sir Kay (Norman Alden). Although he's taken advantage of by Ector and the dim witted Kay, Wart works hard at his duties. His destiny changes one day when he quite literally falls through the roof of a hut inhabited by the wizard Merlin (Karl Swenson). As Merlin has travelled into the future, he knows that Wart is far more important than anyone else realizes and so he takes it upon himself to give him an education.

So as Wart and Merlin walk down this road, Merlin teaches him various lessons, be it how to do the dishes more efficiently by using an assembly line, what it's like to be a squirrel in love or how to fly like a bird. With some help from his cantankerous owl friend, Archimedes (Junius Matthews), Merlin's lesson get Wart into tip top shape in no time at all but when he mouths off to Ector and almost loses his chance to go to London as Kay's squire, he soon finds himself in a predicament. And yet, no one but Arthur knows the real reason Wart must go to London and even the sage old wizard seems unaware of what will happen should he make the trip and pull the fabled sword out of the stone… a task believed by most to be impossible and which, if accomplished successfully, will make he who can do it the King Of England.

This isn't the best Disney movie of the sixties but taken on its own, The Sword In The Stone is… fun. It's not deep, it's not a touching as some of the more established classics and many of Merlin's little songs sound like variations of Cinderella's 'Bippity Boppity Boo' but this is a good eighty minutes of light entertainment. There are good morals here as Merlin insists that Wart improve himself by continuing with his education and the movie makes a nice point about the merits of trying to do the right thing and also teaches younger viewers that appearances can be deceiving. We like waifish Wart early on, we see when he goes into the cave after Kay's stray arrow that not only is he brave but he also has a strong work ethic and takes his duties are a prospective squire very seriously. In short, he's a nice kid, the kind you wouldn't mind hanging around with your own. Merlin is a mix of crafty and bumbling, a fool based on mannerisms and outside appearances but clever enough to know that there's more to his new friend than meets the eye. His time travel experience gives him a perspective that differs from others and while his songs may seem like little more than gibberish, his back and forth with Archimedes offers some good comedic entertainment.

The quality of the hand drawn animation in the movie, if not on the level of some of Disney's better efforts, is still very good. Character design doesn't deviate too far from what you'd expect from the House Of Mouse but background designs are interesting to look at. We get some nice gothic styled interiors in the insides of the different castles and the design work on display in the hawk/sparrow chase scene is slick and eye catching. There are some memorable moments here, the most obvious being when Merlin and Wart turn into squirrels and Wart gets chased by a female squirrel completely unaware that he's going to change back into a human boy soon. She falls in love with him very quickly and when he reveals his true self, she watches him walk away and sheds a tear. The scene is kind of corny and more than a little ridiculous but it works in the context of the story, that being a context in which realism is never a concern and doesn't ever really need to be. In the end, the Sword In The Stone is a nice mix of action and adventure with some effective comedy and enjoyable characters that puts entertainment first and is all the better for it.

Video:

The Sword In The Stone: 50th Anniversary Edition arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.75.1. Touted as a new digital restoration, image quality looks pretty good here… at first. Eagle eyed viewers might note some banding here and there and there are some scenes that are soft, though this looks like an issue with the source material more so than with the transfer itself. Until the movie goes on, and the whole thing seems soft, scrubbed even. Those who like really clean, grain free presentations will probably be pleased, but those expecting this to look like traditional hand drawn animation presented on film will probably not be so thrilled. Colors look good, they're well defined and don't bleed over one another, but a lot of detail seems to have been washed away in an avalanche of smeary noise reduction filtering. Only minor compression artifacts show up, it's not really an issue and only noticeable in a couple of seconds worth of the movie, so on that level the disc is encoded well enough, but it doesn't stop there. Though not all of the compositions seem to be compromised, you have to wonder during some of the scenes that look a little tight if previous fullframe DVD presentations weren't a better option in terms of framing. Which aspect ratio is correct will probably be the subject of some debate but those who want it don't get a fullframe option here (the DVD that comes with the Blu-ray offers the same transfer).