Ya know folks, this review just doesn't seem right. First off it's positive and it's about QUEST FOR CAMELOT!!! There's no way that's true right? Surely something with trailers that hideious must in fact be horrible, right? Well, I have seen the newer, more adult trailer. And it did look 'better', but I won't forget all the super lame looking stuff from the other trailer. Ahh hell, I see all animated films anyway, so who am I kidding. I will be soooo stunned if I like this one. Kinda like the way I felt coming out of DEEP IMPACT, 'whoa, that didn't totally suck! Cool!' Well here's Ignatz the Mouse's review....
i just got back from seeing a special sneak preview for "Quest For Camelot," and the consensus for me, being an animator is, SURPRISINGLY GOOD. yes, i was one of those naysayers who poo-pooed the trailer when viewing it before "Anastasia," but i have to say, do NOT let the trailer make up your mind about what the film is like. it was very much the adventure/action animated flick that i was hoping for. the trailers make it out to be a sappy, straight-for-the-heart, goody-goody movie for the kiddies, but it is not. as "Anastasia" went for the little girl-audience, "Quest" goes for the boys. BUT--there are TOO MANY SONGS in this movie. sometimes i wish "Little Mermaid" hadn't done as well as it had, but there are two sides to every coin, i guess. in this case, we have a wonderful option to Disney fare, but unfortunately, there are the stinkin', corny, sappy, "soft-rock" songs that we have to slog through. but i digress...
the story is fast-paced and to the point. the motives for the characters are not bogged down with any extraneous material. the heroine, Kayley, is believable as a female knight-wannabe. she has the guts to go up against some vicious bad guys, but has the sensibility to be a real warm-blooded human being. i cared for the characters, and i got caught up into the story and their dilemma. the hero, Garrett, was a believable character for me as well. it was also cool for the filmmakers to not treat his blindness as some sort of crutch. he kicked ass. seriously. the love story between these two characters did not seem forced, but i found the young boy in front of me shrug a "oh, fur pete's sake" shrug as Garrett began to sing his song, the same time i was rolling my eyes. it was like the feeling i had when Hercules began to sing is vomit-inducing, sappy solo in "Hercules."
the villian, Ruber, was COOL. Gary Oldman did his voice and i didn't even know that until after the film. he did such an amazingly chilly villian. his motive was more clear-cut and better than Rasputin's in "Anastasia." the animation for him and his huge pet Griffin was incredible. almost anime-like.
the two-headed dragon, Devon and Cornwall was pretty funny, but it was just an excuse to include pop-culture references like Elvis (which was in the trailer-ugh...), "houston, we have a problem," etc. i think the cultural references would've worked better for me if they were sort-of based on the culture at that time, in King Arthur's England. Eric Idle and Don Rickles did the voices and they were top-notch.
oh--and the best character in the film, by far is the OGRE. man, this guy was friggin' COOOL. aCGI character that literally ROCKED. the filmmakers did a good thing in not over-using him, as i wanted to see more of this character, but it was good not to over-do it. definately check this guy out. by the way, the CGI elements in this film meshed in very well with the settings, much better than the odd elements in "Anastasia."
overall, i feel that this movie is just as good as the other Disney-competer, "Anastasia," maybe even better. being a traditional animator, i think that the animation was not over-animated like "Space Jam," which was stupid in my book. the anime feel to Ruber and the Griffin and to Ruber's croonies (which also were very COOL) was a much needed jolt to what could've been a crappy animated film for just the kiddies. i think the adults were just as entertained as the kids. excellent job to the WB crew for making a very good start to a hopefully prosperous career in the full-length animated feature market.
you can call me: ignatz the mouse.
