Nostalgia Critic Real Thoughts on: Quest for Camelot 

"A young woman and blind man go on a epic adventure and save a kingdom" If this was a studio ghibli that could be amazing. But in the hands of 90s hack WB producers no wonder it falls apart.

You guys should check out Lauren Faust's thoughts on the film. This was one of her first major professional animation jobs, and from what she said, the whole experience of everyone involved was pretty miserable. The executives apparently had no idea what they were doing. Apparently it started planned as a darker, edgier, PG-13 fantasy adventure film a la Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, but got morphed into Disney Lite.

As to who let Ruber in, I think it must have gone something like this: ARTHUR: "Now, Mr. Ruber. You're against everything we stand for, and you actually seem to be twitching with uncontrollable evil. Give me one good reason why we should hire you as a knight of the round table..." RUBER: *punches a dragon.* ARTHUR: "You're hired. We'll work out all the little details later..."

Fun Fact: Interestingly, a woman knight, either in role or title, though rare, was possible historically, as actual law basically said 'if the person in charge says it's ok, then it's ok'. For example, 'Dame' has some origin as the equivilant of 'Sir', though only in the UK since other countries didn't use either. I made a video on the specifics, but the short version is: it happened in real life, so her goal was rare, but actually possible, assuming she was WAY more competent than portrayed in the movie.

Disney animated films > Warner animated films Disney live-action films < Warner live-action films I´m talking in general, btw

Quest for Camelot was a movie I really, really wanted to like. It does so many things well. I like the setting. I like the music. I like the general idea. Even the animation is fine (minus the CG they used). But then, in other areas the film fails so, SO badly. The Iron Giant on the other hand did everything right, and yet no one knows it. UGH

quest for camelot could have been better if it was more like road to el dorado or emperor’s new groove. trying to make it some critically acclaimed epic was a bad move on wb’s part.

I loved Quest For Camelot when I first saw it, and I still do. Is it the greatest interpretation of Arthurian Legend I've ever seen? No. Is it loyal to the spirit that is the mystique and majesty of Arthurian Legend? Hell yes! And that's why I love it (I've been a fan of Arthurian Legend since I was around three. In fact, it's what introduced me to mythology as a whole).

Don't forget Cats Don't Dance, that was Warner Brothers too! Also, it looked better on paper for a reason: this was actually an incredibly altered adaptation of a book!

Every animator working on the movie hated it. It was orignally planned to be a much darker film (PG13?) more closer to the book, no songs, no comedic sidekicks. It was going to be directed by the makers of Ferngully, while that film in itself had some problems I could see them doing it a little better. Then the excutives decided they wanted to compete with Disney by making it more Disney-Like. The reason that the songs feel out of place was because the songs were written into the movie late having no variation on the story. Lauren Faust (she was an animator) had a very similar reasons to Doug on why she didn't like working on it. She despised Kayley's character, that her design was so much like Belle and even going a step further by saying Gareth was like the Beast in human form.

Well, there's one good reason that keeps me from forgeting this movie. It's one line of the main villain of this movie. "The ogre's butt"

I actually grew up with Quest for Camelot. I loved it as a child but I do see the flaws with the film now. This is what sticks out to me: -Animation: beautiful -Songs: beautiful...except for the villain song -Main character: easy on the eyes but not very interesting -Villain: not the worst but still kind of goofy -Story: confused the hell out me as child and still does today -Two-Headed Dragon: What did we do to deserve such torture?

When I was a kid I thought that Quest For Camelot was a sequel to The Sword In The Stone.

Rob's speech on Disney was pretty apt, and does go about explaining why the 2000's Disney era was such a shitty time for the company: They just didn't put their heart into the animation. The 2000's was dominated by all the Tweencoms, that they pretty much half-assed their animated movies and whored out all those DTV sequels. Seems that it was only when Lasseter too over, a guy who obviously had a HUGE heart for animation because of his work for Pixar, that Disney bounced back.

It has occurred to me that Kayley is essentially a gender bend of Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon, it's just that she sucks at her job: - She is non-Disney. - She lives in a a pre-Enlightenment setting inspired by a Northern European country. - She gets the help of a dragon and a love interest to fight against a bloodthirsty tyrannical warlord who wants to takeover the land they love, and the villain they fight has an evil animal for a sidekick. - She loses her father but keeps her mother. - She gets a position in the land's government through her quest.

It's official: Doug admits the animation in "Space Jam" was great and beautiful!

Real thoughts on Scooby Doo. Also, I think Doug should review Zombie Island during Nostalgiaween. Anyone agree?

I kinda wanna see these two covering the song "if I didn't have you"

My mom is a big fan of the song The Prayer, so I'm really tempted to show her the actual scene in the film. This is like if Prince of Egypt did its award bait song during the chariot race or when the Egyptian army gets drowned.

very late fact to point out, but Don Bluth never really worked with Warner Bros., Thumbelina and A Troll in Central Park were originally MGM, but they sold the rights to WB to cut their losses, Pebble and the Penguin became their big marketing push, but halfway through development Bill Mechanic from Fox invited Bluth to start Fox Animation in Arizona.

When I was a kid, I remember Mask of The Phantasm ads all the time. It looked incredible, and all I heard was good things. Maybe it was a regional thing, because I lived in NY. I remembered advertisements for this movie feeling like over saturation even as a kid. Not saying the movie wasn't good by any means. Just saying I remember ads for the Mask of the Phantasm being quite predominate for a while. I also remember not being allowed to see it, because my parents thought it was rate R.

I'm still amazed to this day that David Foster, one of my all time favorite music producers, the same guy who did soundtracks to St. Elmo's Fire and The Bodyguard was behind all the songs in this movie.

there is something very...off about the animation. it's the coloring, I think. And Garret has really bad anatomy. Even so, I saw it in theaters as a kid and i do love this. :)

I've always felt that Quest for Camelot seemed like a Legend of Zelda film in disguise. The main blind dude looks like Link without the hat. The main girl reminds me of a darker haired version of the cartoon Zelda, the silver winged falcon replaces the fairy. The villain is very close to Ganondorf, the Forbidden forest is darn close to the Lost Woods in which the find the Master Sword...I mean Excalibur.

Gary Oldman CAN SING!!! Just look up any video of him singing on RU-vid. Most specifically, the scene where he sings in the movie "Dead Fish". So Ruber is even more of a waste of his talents! In this movie's case, it's likely the fault of the direction, not him. Also going on your bit about Warner Bros. style animation, Im curious to see what he'd make of Osmosis Jones. I personally, love it! The animation and designs are especially beautiful. But hey, if he dosnt like it, I wont lose sleep over it. However I'd honestly like to see what he makes of it.

He ought to read original book, "The King's Damosel", by Dame Vera Chapman, on which the "Quest for Camelot" film was so very, very loosely based. Character name changes, rape of Linette (the Kailie character) (*spoiler alert*) Lucien (Garrett), the blind character dies, though for a brief time, his sight is healed, but then 3 months later--see spoiler. Oh, and Linette has a sister, too.

I have no shame in saying as a child I loved the swan princess. But for the life of me I could not fucking tell you why. Eight year old me was into some weird shit

What are your thoughts on Titan AE. Tell us.

I can see your points, but here are my thoughts: Story: What they had was a really unique idea (for the 90's), but it's executed pretty poorly. I like the blind knight thing and the two-headed dragon comic relief, hell I even like the concept of the enchanted forest, but my real problem with it is that it's REALLY rushed. If they would've probably extended the story a little, it would've been better but not by much. 6/10 Animation: The animation is actually really nice and beautiful most of the time. But when the animation really shines is during the musical numbers. The scenery in the enchanted forest is really, really good, but sometimes I notice some animation loops during a couple of scenes, so this is one of the positive things I can say about this movie. 9/10 Characters: The characters are at best okay, Kaylee is just your standard out of the box girl, Ruber is your typical over the top villain, the dragons while admitingly pretty funny, but very one-dimensional, Garrett however is CLEARLY the best character in the movie, his back story definetly very interesting and even pretty adult, the only thing about him, WHY DIDN'T HE GET HIS SIGHT BACK!?!?! 7/10 Songs: I FREAKING LOVE THIS SOUNDTRACK!!! This was clearly the highlight of the movie for me, that and I'm a David Foster fan. I Stand Alone is actually one of my all-time favorite songs, The Prayer is a classic, United We Stand is a great opener and has a nice beat, On My Father's Wings has a nice melody and a great beat, If I Didn't Have You while being one of the weaker ones, is REALLY freaking catchy, I couldn't stop singing it after listening to it, Ruber is definetly a pretty akward villain song, but it's so over the top I can't help but love it, that and it's pretty catchy. 10/10 Overall, I give this movie a 7.6/10, it's a fairly good movie but I say it's just a rental.

Rob & Doug have mentioned all of the Warner Bros animated features (Space Jam, The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot, The Iron Giant, Back in Action and The Lego Movie) except for one (Osmosis Jones).

Surprised they didn't bring up Balto.

I feel like newer movies like Tangled have more of the spirit of Quest for Camelot...It just took Disney a decade to really catch up to female hero idea. I mean we can argue Belle was one of the first , but only so much in comparison to Rapunzel, action wise.

Real thoughts on Thomas and the Magic Railroad, please.

"We're Back" was from Steven Spielberg's animation studio, Amblimation.

I'd like to see a "real thoughts" on "We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story". That movie meant a lot to me when I was a kid (though I don't mind hearing about it's flaws). And, the actual Nostalgia Critic episode was more about Doug's Hunter S. Thompson impression (which was enjoyable) than the movie itself.

Thoughts on We're Back please!!!!

Do Pokémon: The First Movie and AI next!

I really agree with what the guys say about Belle. I always thought she was a lot older and more mature than the other Disney Princesses and I liked her for that. the beast was 21, and i always thought Belle might have been a few years older than him.

How about real thoughts on another film with Gary Oldman in it: Lost in Space?

Personally I love "I Stand Alone". It's one of the few scenes of the movie I can remember.

11:44-11:58 Actually, that's exactly what happened during the production of this movie.

5:43 *fingers move away from keyboard* ...We're watching you Doug Walker, always watching

When I was about 12, this movie was my thing. I was just starting to get into fantasy novels and mythology at that age, and I recorded Quest For Camelot off pay-per-view or Cartoon Network or something. Back then, I didn’t know it was considered to be such a flawed film, and I was crushed when I found out how poorly regarded it was.

Watch Kevin Smith talk about his experience with WB and Superman: Reborn. This was one factor WB was doing during the 90's.

As far as Gary Oldman's character Ruber goes, since this is supposed to be a kid-friendly version of Arthurian Legend, I feel like the inclusion of a new villainous knight like Ruber made a suitable replacement for the true villain of Arthurian Legend (Arthur's bastard son, Mordred).

I just watched Quest for Camelot tonight, and I really enjoyed it.

I will admit I enjoyed Swan Princess and its sequels and I never really got to see Quest for Camelot. Now I grew up with it and I also collected the barbie films which I wish someone would review without seeing them as cheap girls movies, but I'm a sucker for musicals and I had a soft spot for untouched stories. Swan Lake much like Thumbelina and Princess and the Pea is one of those stories that everyone remembered but there really aren't that many movies about it. So as a kid I loved the diverse styles of music, and the goofy characters. I remember the frog who's name I can't spell, I still giggle at the Puffin, and the turtle. I wish I could have seen camelot but, again I can't seem to get my hands on a VHS copy FYI I collect VHS of shows and movies I loved as a kid or never quite got to see as a kid.

Real thoughts on the Star Wars Holiday Special

I can't help it but feel salty that this is the movie that WB pushed up and wanted to be the most successful and made Iron Giant's release a soft fart because they wanted to cash in on Disney. Fuck. I want to go in the alternate reality where Iron Giant was successful and WB did more stuff like that.

Studio interference? There's a FUCKTON of that with this one!

I think the PowerPuff Girls movie was released by Warner Brothers, and it was excellent! I saw it in theaters! But it didn't do well because it wasn't marketed properly or something like that. What the HECK is wrong with marketing people?

I love the end when her and the guy started to understand each other and fall in love

I'd like to see a Real Thoughts video on The Swan Princess. I didn't watch your Nostalgia Critic review of it, but it's a movie I enjoyed a bunch as a kid.

I went to a con once and I chatted with a Nostalgia Critic cosplayer and he said he had a soft spot for this film.

They forgot about the main girl character that wanted to be knight, but always have her ass saved

I remember liking this movie a lot, I think I was around 7 or something when I watched it, I have been tempted to watch it again but now I'm afraid to see how terrible actually is based on the mainstream opinion

I have my doubts if this movie is going to be rebooted into live-action, someday.

Do one for We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story please.

I wanna see your real thoughts on 'Small Soldiers'. I actually kinda like that one.

Um excuse me, the chicken was NOT voiced by Ving Rhames. He was voiced by Vin Diesel.

I remember seeing the movie, and then watching your review like a month later, and I remember more of the review than the movie.

what I mostly hated of this film was Merlin, why? he got 2 scenes in the whole film! We got magical forest, swords, dragons, potions, and a wizard that doesn't do shit! The first scene he shows up was to advice Arthur, and he asked "can't you use your magic to get Scalibur?" NOPE just have faith in your people.... oh like the badguy you trusted so much to have in your court? AND Merlin got the balls to show on pre-last scene to pet the eagle saying "good job", WTF! you been during battle?!

it's funny cause the guy the did the singing voice for the blind knight is Brian white. he's a country singer

When I was a kid I saw Quest for Camelot in theaters, loved it, but couldn't remember anything about it the next day except how the griffon looked and the dragon's song. That might have been my biggest clue as to the quality of the story.

Quest for Camelot I loved as a kid the sad thing is if I was to rewatch it again today I'd probably still like it I have weird taste when it comes to stuff I saw growing up as a kid and older. Like I accutaly sat through the whole son of mask years ago. I'm not sure how well quest for Camelot did finically. If you want to see something like this that' newer that might be good go try to watch maybe dragon heart 3 which I'm about maybe half way done with. I'm serious they actually made a third dragon heart they have a 4th on that a sequel to three in the works for direct to video also.

*Nerdy voice* Worst episode ever! I shall only watch it 6 more times.

I know that both here and in the "Top 11 Underrated Movies", whenever someone asked "Why didn't this do well in theaters?" you asked "Did you see it?" My older brother and I would have, but we were probably too young to see them in theaters. However, our parents had the good sense to buy Mask of the Phantasm and Iron Giant on VHS, and we freaking loved those movies.

I feel like I say this a lot, but this looks like a movie shown in an elementary school class when there's not much work.

Wow. Someone else knows the Gummi Bears show!!! I had never made the art style connection between the two, but the comparison is spot on!

I'm gonna play devil's advocate for this movie. The people that complain about the lack of explicit details when receive an explanation for the movie's "plot-holes", complain even more because it wasn't explicit, like the Chicken-Axe being a good guy, there was a subplot going on with him and his wife, by god, Critic showed that scene of the review. The forest is enchanted, what is there more to say? Do you want a complete backstory on why the forest is magic? A lot of plot points is explicitely stated in the movie. Can we talk about "ripping off Disney"? Just because another studio made a musical, does that instantly make it a rip-off? Does that mean the other studios shouldn't even try with this genre? Receiving accusations of having something original poorly done is something, but ripping off something else just because people say they are is really pushing, Rob stated about how the movie's scenery was distinct. I'm quite baffled on why this movie even needed to be reviewed, NC's maing point is showing people blinded by nostalgia that what they liked as kids isn't as good as they think, but left and right I only find people who either hated it or liked it and regreted, so what was the point on this one? To show that if you're not Disney, you shouldn't be doing animated movies? To reach that little fanbase and make them feel bad for liking it? Because other movies needed to be teared apart, but this one review was the overkill of the beaten dead horse.

"You know what, Camelot is a bit of a silly place"

Both Quest for Camelot and Swan Princess are movies that I grew up with and tbh - I still like them. I bet it's mostly due to the nostalgia factor doe...

I think the two best qualities of the movie are the color and the songs. I feel like the colors really stand out from other movies

All I remember in this movie was the two headed dragon and the blind man who looked like Derek in Swan Princess

I thought that *Warner Brothers* liked to mock *Disney* , at least from what I've heard and seen on 'Animaniacs' episodes. : )

Just realized this movie was made the same year Disney made Mulan, an animated movie about a headstrong young tomboy who saves her kingdom from an evil warlord with the help of a comic relief dragon.....the Hollywood system must be full of spies.

I'm Bias for Swan Princess since the character designs were done by Steve Gordon (Character designer on X-Men: Evolution, Ultimate Avengers, and the majority of Nest Animated Features)

Real thoughts on the thief and the cobbler maybe??

Oddly it seems like modern Disney is drifting towards slapstick and ripping off Dreamworks O_o

Nooooooo, i love both those movies :'( You crushed my childhood. :P

I loved that movie so much as a kid lol

Mask of the Phantasm was originally made for TV, but someone I don't who said: ''Hey you know what? You animators have done an impressive job with this movie we're gonna bring it to the big screen instead'' but like Rob said they pulled the advertisements for it. I think because Warner Bros. had second thoughts and thought it was going to bomb which made no sense, cause around that time Batman was a massive hit around the time of the 90's from the two movies (even though the second one didn't do too well) and the critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series which nearly everyone loved and praised so I don't know why they thought Phantasm would bomb, but putting so little faith in it they themselves made in bomb.

I know the villain in the movie was supposed to be intimidating, but I can't take him seriously due to the funny things he does during his song. Also... Devon and Cornwall are pretty hilarious when you realize they just want to be without each other and the fact that Devon breaks the 4th wall halfway through the movie. "We've explained that before are song."

In the 40s, Warner Bros created animated shorts specifically to compete with Disney. However, while it did copy some elements like titles (SILLY SYMPHONIES vs MERRIE MELODIES), the overall content was meant to be the exact opposite (what Rob described). They knew people would pay for a similar product that would also feel like an alternative. Actually, MGM and a couple of other studios did the same thing, but their styles are less characteristic. Almost every non-Disney animated movie in the 90s flopped because they were all copying Disney. Viewers weren't stupid. Especially when they tried to add the Disney tropes in properties where they didn't belong, like this movie (based on a book where the plot is very different) and TOM & JERRY: THE MOVIE. Dreamworks finally broke this trend. Not with THE PRINCE OF EGYPT nor ANTZ (they were hits, but the former was still too Disney-like and the latter unluckily came out the same year as a Disney movie with the same concept) but with SHREK. That movie was the exact opposite of Disney in terms of humour, choice of music, etc... That's why it's the only American studio that can reliably compete with Disney financially and critically: It's doing its own thing. Also, yes: In these videos, please talk about mainly the movie.

The Warner 'not being dedicated and just trying things' thing, still kinda happens. Their game department made a Deadpool game. But then they forgot to renew their contract with Marvel and now you can't buy it in stores anymore.

I've actually read on Wikipedia that this movie was loosely based on a book known as the King's Demosel. And it is very loosely based on it because I've read that the movie makes many changes and differences to the novel to the point where it barely even resembles the novel at all. First off the book from what I've read on Wiki is much darker and different in tone as well. Hell, the main character Lynette (in the movie it's changed to Kayley) is raped. Garrett's character in the movie is combined into two characters from the book called Gareth and Lucius. There are no talking two headed Dragons or Griffins I think. This just proves Warner Bros. took no time or really any thought or understanding of what they were adapting. If you want to know more about the differences between the film and book here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Damosel

Real Thoughts on A Troll in Central Park pleeeeease!

Now Warner Bros. is back to making animated films... all of which are based on Legos. *facepalm*

21:37 I laughed so hard at that Lion King chorus imitation it could be heard throughout the house.

The Prayer and Looking Through Your Eyes are gorgeous songs in a really, lazy, weakly animated movie. I thought the dragons were super funny. I want a live action of this!

It's still a childhood favorite along with Anastasia and Swan Princess

I loved and still love this movie. I didn't realize so many people hated it

IRON GIANT is a very adorable WB film well the main TITAN is a very adorable memorable char

There should so be a nostalgic review of anastasia :D

Doug I also would ask if you find time perhaps you could review Anastasia I would love someone to discuss how the musical numbers are done very much like a broadway musical.

I used to love this film as a kid and watched it all the time. I can see the flaws as an adult but I still kind of like it.

Then the screenwriter said,"Ha! Warners Bros can kiss my ass now since I have an Oscar for King's Speech bitches!"

It's even weirder for me since the Prayer is my mom's favorite song (mostly because she's a major Celine Dion fan)

The lesson that we've all gotten from this movie is this.....you can not get away without explaining what's going on in the story just because it's "meant for kids!" It doesn't work like that. "Just because something is written for children, doesn't make it a good story to begin with!" -An Old Proverb.

Link from Ocarina of Time is in this movie.