This is How Movies Should Be Made

That was an excellent one.

not as good as all the hype

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A Kid in King Authurs Court is just about the worst Disney movie I have ever seen. The plot was fairly predictable, except for Princess Sarah being the black knight. I mean, come on, a Disney movie where the princess doens't marry her true love? Puh-lease! The acting was okay, Thomas Ian Nicholas was okay, but seemed to be there mostly for eye candy. I thought Paloma Baeza did a good job as princess katy, but wasn't as fantastic as I think she could be in other roles. Kate Winslet, as usual, did completely fantastic as Princess Sarah, as in all her other roles, she added a lot to the movie. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't even have watched the movie anyways. Art Malik was quite good as Lord Belasco, and Ron Moody was a great choice for Merlin. So, mostly good acting, but a not so story.

This movie is best for 9-14 year old kids. I use it in my middle school history class to see what life was like in the middle ages. If your looking for a movie for adults, or an accurate version of the King Arthur story, this is NOT the movie for you. This is a great movie, very funny! The Jokes are timeless and the story is cute. Even boys who can't stand "history" movies like this because of it's jousting and swordplay scenes. It is an adventure without being grotesque or scary. The girls like the underlying love story. I have shown this movie to over 400 students and they all had positive comments about it. These days it is hard to interest kids without video games or swear words. This gets the job done.

It sounds stupid to try and dissect a film like this that was made for pure amusement of children and families alike. But, it's not at all unreasonable. Sure it's quirky, stupid, and laughable. But, the manufactured King Arthur's Court supplies the setting for a young man's triumph over his battle with his own self esteem and lack of dignity. In an our era where we would call Calvin (Nichols) a geek, dweeb, etc. But, when he is transformed into another world where he is feared, respected, and set on a high honor for his vi rage of instruments, (Rollerblades, Mad Dog Bubblegum, Rock N Roll) and his curious language (cool is hot?). But, in the end he comes to grips with reality, and with himself. He comes to realize that he is more than what people may think of him. He gains courage and self respect. Now, even if that is done in a pop culture/bubble gum sort of way, it should be respected.Plus Kate Winslet looks just as hot now as she did ten years ago.

Spoilers herein.The magic of the legend is that it is presented through the prism of Merlin's magic. It is the English thread of self-referential literature that balances the Spanish Don Quixote. In this thread, the teller is a magician and all of the "reality" we see is fabricated as the illusion, some of which sometimes exceeds the control of the teller.Disney on the other hand is the great flattener, someone who squeezes all the subtleties and depth out of a story in order to appear to the lowbrow as lowbrow.In between, we have the illustrious Mark Twain. I say Illustrious because his talent was in taking all sorts of literary devices and recasting them as scenes that have commonplace reality.Here we have the magic of the legend (and the very root of English narrative) transformed into American vision by Twain and then flattened to cartoon by Walt's zombies. It is interesting if for no other reason than as a lesson in how the narrative form gets shaped.But for me, there are two other features. This has Kate Winslet as the focus. She had just done "Heavenly Creatures," a project based on exposing the plastic nature of film reality. With that, she started a brilliant career. After this, she would be introduced to Americans through "Sense and Sensibilities" which tackles to other side of invented reality. Here, she figures in a odd way as the manipulator of events.The other notable thing is the influence of Disney's fabled Character Lab. This is the lab that is -- among other things -- reinventing what it means to see redheads. Every female in this is a redhead of some sort: Calvin's Mom and sister: his girlfriend and HER sister (Kate). Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.