Jessalyn Gilsig, Carey Elwes, Gary Oldman, Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, Eric Idle, Don Rickles, Broncent Pinchot, and Jaleel White
Warner Brothers second attempt at an animated feature that will compete with Disney. After Fox's sucess with Anastasia the possibility was there... but could they close the gap with Quest for Camelot? By the looks of the "cast" they definitely paid out the bucks for voice talent, but everything else about the movie is a tremendous disappointment.
Jessalyn Gilsig as the voice of Kaley
There are more then a few problems that Warner Bros. failed to provide in order to make Quest a success: First, and most important, the plot of this movie can be described in about three sentences. Kaley's (Jessalyn Gilsig) father, Sir Lionel (Gabriel Byrne), is killed at the round table saving King Arthur (Pierce Brosnan) from the evil knight Ruber (Gary Oldman) whose plan is to eventually take over Camelot. After Kaley has grown up, she goes off to find Excaliber after it has been stolen Ruber's henchman and lost in the Forbidden Forrest where she meets he eventual love interest Garrett (Cary Elwes). Before they get the sword, Ruber finds it and goes to Camelot to kill Arthur, but Garrett and Kaley stop him and save the kingdom. That's it, stories over, there is nothing more to tell. Allthough Quest for Camelot is at least as long as Anastasia, it has no story and nothing to hold the lack of story together.
Cary Elwes as the voice of Garrett
Second, there are no interesting characters. Kaley is a very boring character with no depth... in fact she is just a brat. The only interesting thing about Garrett is that he is blind. Ruber is a lackluster villian who really gives no sense of fear. Devon and Cornwall (Eric Idle and Don Rickles) are the closest you can get because they are a two headed dragon who get a few (very few) good one liners in throughout the film, such as when we first meet them they introduce themselves as "The reason why cousins shouldn't marry." Other than that there is no character that provides much needed comedy relief, a necessity for an animated movie. Every Disney movie has one, and Anastasia had Bartok (the bat).
Devon (Eric Idle) and Cornwall (Don Rickles)
Finally, the creators of Quest for Camelot felt the need to have a song every few minutes. Way less then halfway through the movie we had heard five songs and one reprise, and every major character and one of the minor charaters had their own song. This would be all right if Warner Bros. had gotten composers good as Disney usually has, but these songs showed no imagination and none of them mad you want to sing along.
I left the theater after Quest for Camelot extremely disappointed. I may be a self problaimed Disney fanatic, but I wanted Warner Brothers and Fox to give Disney some competition. After Anastasia I thought they might do just that, but Quest for Camelot set them back farther then if they had never tried. I feel bad camparing this movie to Fox's earlier attempt and to Disney but lets face it, if Warner Bros. wants to have a chance they are going to have to copy the formula Disney established long ago... Good Plot + Interesting Characters + At least one completely comedic character + Well written songs - One song every few minutes = Successful Animated Movie. Unfortunately Warner Brothers failed this lesson with Quest for Camelot.
