The Sword in the Stone vs. The Once and Future King

A detailed Summary of The Sword in the Stone vs. The Once and Future King

The 1963 Disney film, the Sword in the Stone (2) was the first Disney film to give sole directorial credit to anyone involved in the film process (3). In the case of this movie that credit went to Wolfgang Reitherman. The movie was adapted from T. H. White's Once and Future King, (1) and was understandably a very large undertaking, necessitating the use of a sole director. The change of medium used to depict this story resulted in the changing of parts of the story. The restrictions and conventions of movie making, namely, time span, and target audience, had the largest part in shaping the direction the movie took with the adaptation of White's classic. The work of the writer and director of the film in the changing of the medium will be examined in the first few scenes of the movie, where Wart meets Merlin for the first time. This will be compared against the depiction of the tale in White's book, and the shaping forces of movie convention pointed out.

In Disney's Sword and the Stone, Wart meets Merlin in the following way:

Wart and Kay are spending part of their afternoon hunting deer in a clear, sunny field. Wart poises and steadies himself on the branch of an old dead tree, waiting quietly for Kay to release an

After a nice, hot July day of "Hay Making" Wart suggests that he and Kay take Cully, their Hawk, to catch some rabbits. To this Kay agrees, but only if he can hold the hawk. Wart wonders, however, if they should fly their goshawk when it is so "deep in the moult". Kay replies yes, of course they can, so the two proceed with the plan. As it turns out, the hawk was not at all in the mood to hunt rabbits, and when it was released into the air, it perched high in a tree out of reach of the boys instead of back on the shoulder of Kay where it belonged.

All was not lost, however, because Wart heard the "clank" of the bucket and chain Merlin was using to draw water from a well. Wart followed the noise to Merlin's cottage, and proceeded to ask him if he knew how to get back to Sir Ector's castle. Merlin then asked him if his name was Wart, and later, "after all the formalities", asked him if he liked peaches and invited him into his cottage for breakfast. The breakfast was one of the most extravagant ones Wart had ever seen. There were peaches, strawberries and cream, rusks, trout, perch, devilled chicken, kidneys and mushrooms on toast, fricassee, curry, coffee and hot chocolate with cream, and a mobile, personable mustard pot.

Number two, the movie deals only with Wart's childhood, so characters such as King Pellinore, wouldn't serve much purpose if they were developed as fully as in the written material. This is probably why Disney's Merlin assimilated the personality of White's King Pellinore. This allows Disney to retain the gems of the book, while cutting unnecessary material. In a classic heroic tale, the conception and birth of the hero is discussed, as well as the remarkable childhood (which is inevitable if one is to be a hero), the heroic establishment is established, and lastly, the death or retirement of the hero is shown. Because this movie only deals with the childhood of Arthur, it is easily understood why his death/retirement is not depicted. As far as conception and birth, all we know from the movie is that Wart is a foster son. Also, in the book, Merlin comes in and out of the story as needed. In the film, Merlin is the cornerstone of Wart's childhood. There is virtually not a scene without him.

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Approximate Word count = 1834
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies