Quest for Camelot

This article is about the film. For the video game, see Quest for Camelot (1998 video game).

Quest for Camelot
Theatrical release poster by John Alvin
Directed byFrederik Du Chau
Screenplay by
Based onThe King's Damosel
by Vera Chapman
Produced byDalisa Cooper Cohen
Starring
Edited byStanford C. Allen
Music byPatrick Doyle[1]
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • May 15, 1998 (1998-05-15)
Running time
86 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million[3]
Box office$38.1 million[3]

Quest for Camelot (released internationally as The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot) is a 1998 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and directed by Frederik Du Chau and very loosely based on the 1976 novel The King's Damosel by Vera Chapman. It features the voices of Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Eric Idle, Don Rickles, Jaleel White, Jane Seymour, Pierce Brosnan, Bronson Pinchot, Gabriel Byrne, John Gielgud (his final film), Frank Welker, and Sarah Rayne. Andrea Corr, Bryan White, Celine Dion, and Steve Perry perform the singing voices for Gilsig, Elwes, Seymour, and Brosnan. The story follows Kayley (Gilsig), the adventurous daughter of a Knight of the Round Table killed by the power-hungry Sir Ruber (Oldman). When Ruber's renewed attempt to usurp Camelot from King Arthur (Brosnan) by stealing Excalibur goes awry, Kayley enlists the help of the blind hermit Garrett (Elwes) and a two-headed dragon, Devon and Cornwall (Idle and Rickles), to help her retrieve the sword and save the kingdom.

In May 1995, the film, initially titled The Quest for the Holy Grail, was announced to be Warner Bros. Feature Animation's first project, with Bill Kroyer and Du Chau jointly directing the film. The film went into production later that year, but was delayed when animators were reassigned to help finish Space Jam (1996). During the interim, the story was heavily re-tooled; among these changes was its central focus on the Holy Grail being replaced with Excalibur. Creative differences spurred by these alterations resulted in prominent members of the animation and management staff, including Kroyer, leaving the project. Due to its troubled production, the film's release was delayed by six months, from November 1997 to May 1998. Animation was mostly done in Glendale, California and London, England.[4][5]

Quest for Camelot was released by Warner Bros. under their Family Entertainment label on May 15, 1998 in the United States and Canada. It received mixed reviews[6] and was a commercial failure, grossing $38.1 million against a $40 million budget.[7] One of the film's songs, "The Prayer", won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

  1. ^ a b "Quest for Camelot". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  2. ^ "THE MAGIC SWORD - QUEST FOR CAMELOT (U)". British Board of Film Classification. May 27, 1998. Archived from the original on January 19, 2018. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  3. ^ a b "Quest for Camelot (1998)". The Numbers. Archived from the original on August 3, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  4. ^ Mallory, Michael (November 17, 1997). "Warner Bros. searches for boxoffice grail". Variety. Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
  5. ^ Kenyon, Heather (April 1998). "An Afternoon with Max Howard, President, Warner Bros. Feature Animation". Animation World Magazine (Interview). No. 3.1. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  6. ^ Radulovic, Petrana (May 24, 2021). "Quest for Camelot marked the beginning of the end for the animated musical formula". Polygon. Archived from the original on October 19, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference LATimesEnding was invoked but never defined (see the help page).