
And watch her where she goes
And help her to be wise
Help me to let go
Every mother's prayer
Every child knows
Lead her to a place
Guide her with your grace
To a place where she'll be safe"
Quest for Camelot (also known as The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot outside North America) is an animated film made by Warner Bros. Animation in 1998. Its voice cast includes Jessalyn Gilsig as the female lead Kayley; Cary Elwes as the male lead, Garrett; Gary Oldman as the villain, Ruber; Pierce Brosnan as King Arthur; John Gielgud as Merlin; Gabriel Byrne as Kayley's father, Sir Lionel; Jane Seymour as Kayley's mother, Lady Juliana; and Eric Idle and Don Rickles as a two-headed dragon with the names Devon and Cornwall. The songs also got a cast of singers like CƩline Dion, Steve Perry, LeAnn Rimes, The Corrs and Bryan White.
The film is loosely based on a book by Vera Chapman called The King's Damosel (AKA The King's Damsel), which in turn was inspired by Arthurian Legend. However, the movie has very little in common with the book, with many of the changes (songs, cute animal characters, anachronistic jokes) being done to ape the successful formula that Disney had crafted with its animated films throughout that decade.
This film provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects:: The film uses CGI to render and animate the giant ogre. Some scenes in the film were rendered in CGI as well, such as the Round Table room, and the Stonehenge-ish circle with the stone where Excalibur came from.
- Adaptation Title Change: Quest for Camelot is a loose adaptation of the novel The King's Damosel.
- Affably Evil: The Griffin, at least when he isn't interacting with the good guys; could arguably even be an example of Dark Is Not Evil, since he's just Ruber's pet anyway. Below is a memorable quote by said Griffin (upon being berated by Ruber for not replying):Griffin: Sorry, master, my mouth was full.
Ruber: Typical! Of all the evil creatures in the world, I had to find one with table manners! - Age Cut: Done at the start of "On My Father's Wings", when the young Kayley looks at her reflection in the pond as she sheds a tear. The said tear ripples the water, which shows Kayley as a pre-teen until the water ripples again where Kayley has grown into a young adult.
- Alas, Poor Yorick: After a skeleton of an animal falls on Kayley and Garrett, Cornwall thinks that the skeleton is their Uncle Yorik, prompting Devon to whip out a dragon skull by saying "Alas, poor Yorik, I knew him well."
- All There in the Manual: The film novelization and toy merchandise give the names of three of Ruber's mechanical army: Bowhands, Spike Slinger and Swordhands.
- Animated Musical: Originally planned without songs, it was turned into this by executives that wanted something more in the Disney Renaissance vein.
- Animation Bump: A number of the film's song sequences (particularly Ruber's...song (it's more of a deranged chant) and Devon and Cornwall's number "If I Didn't Have You") Also of note is that most of Ruber's animation is more fluid and three-dimensional than the rest of the film's animation, mostly during his chant and the climatic Camelot sequence (what else would you expect from the son of the guy who animated these?)
- Applied Phlebotinum: Ruber's potion, which somehow transforms his henchmen into metalized versions of themselves. Not that it helps anyways.
- Award-Bait Song: "Looking Through Your Eyes" is the one that has all the trope characteristics, but "The Prayer" was the one which actually won an award (although the pop recording of "The Prayer" by Dion and Boccelli has a verse with a melody sounding identical to "Looking Through Your Eyes," and so this trope technically applies to both).
- Ax-Crazy: Ruber — his Twitchy Eye makes it clear. And he's so glad you noticed! He's been working at it for years!
- Badass Normal:
- Ruber, the villain, is an ordinary man in a world of Arthurian legend (which has magic, dragons, and the like). However, his skills as a warrior make him borderline unstoppable even before he gets his hands on Excalibur.
- Garrett survives in the forest without any help but a bird, a staff, and his knowledge of the place.
- Beak Attack: The Big Bad uses an evil potion to transform a barnyard rooster into Bladebeak, an armored avian with an axeblade for a beak. Subverted though, despite Taking a Level in Badass, Bladebeak remains inept and incompetent Plucky Comic Relief.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Ruber is the only knight of the round table who is not generically attractive. He promptly betrays everyone else - and kills Kayley's father — for his own ambitions.
- Become Your Weapon: Ruber uses a potion that can merge soldiers with their weapons.
- Big Bad: Ruber, the main antagonist of the film, is responsible for the danger in the film's plot. Kayley and Garrett stopping his plans are their main goals.
- Big Damn Heroes: Towards the climax, just as Kayley is cornered by two of Ruber's thugs on the edge of Camelot's ramparts, she loses her balance and begins to fall, only for the timely arrival of Garrett, with assistance from Ayden and Devon and Cornwall, to save Kayley from the thugs who are promptly knocked into the moat below by Devon and Cornwall.
- Big "NO!": Kayley yells "No!" when she realizes Ruber is about to fuse Excalibur to his hand with his magic potion.
- Big "WHAT?!": Garrett, after Devon and Cornwall tell him that Ruber has captured Kayley and managed to obtain Excalibur.
- Blind Weaponmaster: Garrett is blind and wields his quarterstaff expertly nonetheless.
- Bloodless Carnage: Both Arthur and Garrett are quite seriously injured at certain points but neither bleed.
- Bound and Gagged: Kayley is captured by Ruber after leaving the forest. She is then placed in the wagon tied up to be used as leverage on her mother, and gagged so she can't warn the gate guards.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor, poor Griffin. First he is harassed by a falcon that is ten times smaller than he is, then at the very moment we discover he is owned by Ruber he is threatened and harmed. It's all downhill from there, as no matter how loyal he is, he's incompetent as hell, and Ruber has no problems with punishing him for that. At the end, when he finally gets to have revenge on the falcon, he is burned, presumably to death, by a two-headed dragon.
- The Cameo:
- When Ruber and his mechanical army arrive in Camelot at the film's climax, Buffy Binford from Brad Bird's Family Dog can be clearly seen in the background. Clearly animators from The Iron Giant came in and decided to have a little fun.
- Brosnan and Gielgud voice-acting could be considered cameos given how little they do.
- Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood can be seen in the "If I Didn't Have You" musical number.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Ruber is bad...and PROUD OF IT. It's a wonder King Arthur never banished him from the realm before then.
- Character Tics: Ruber has an eye tic when he's agitated, and his irises even tend to disappear.
- Chekhov's Gun: Although its significance is not apparent until the climax, here the Stone where Excalibur was drawn from is inside Camelot itself, as Camelot was built around it.
- Chekhov's Skill: Garrett teaches Kayley how to counterattack, or at least dodge at the last possible moment, with Ayden providing a cue. The two use this technique to make Ruber plunge Excalibur back into The Stone.
- Circle of Standing Stones: A circle of stones are the place where The Stone holds Excalibur is located. This is where Arthur draws the sword and becomes king. It is also the location where the final battle with Ruber took place.
- Clothing Damage: Happens to Arthur after he is badly wounded by the Griffin's beak. Later on in the middle of the film, Garrett receives a small slash on his right side of his tunic from an arrow shot by Ruber's men. However, it is repaired when Kayley healed his wound.
- Composite Character: Garrett appears to be a cross between Gareth (would-be knight, the name) and Lucius (blind loner) from The King's Damosel.
- Cool, but Inefficient: Once Ruber has Excalibur, he fuses it to his arm so that he can hold it forever. The end result is cool looking, but it doesn't seem to benefit him in any way in terms of sword-fighting and it later gets him killed.
- Cool Sword: Excalibur, of course.
- Cyborg: Ruber's Mooks, although they're a Magitek version. They're people fused with their weapons and armor by the potion. Ruber refers to them as "mechanical".
- Dark Reprise: Garrett's "I Stand Alone" gets a brief and impressively bitter reprise after he decides not to go with Kayley to Camelot.
- Deadpan Snarker:
- At least half the words that come from Garrett's mouth are dripping sarcasm at his companions' naivety or inexperience.
- Devon and Cornwall engage in Snark-to-Snark Combat with each other in this fashion. Their lines in "If I Didn't Have You" are also jabs at each other.
- Dead Hat Shot: After Ruber is vaporised into smoke by the Stone, one of his pauldrons falls back to earth next to the Stone.
- Deus ex Machina: In the climax, Kayley (with Garrett's help) causes Ruber, who has fused his arm with Excalibur, to thrust the sword back into the stone — as he is not the rightful king, he cannot remove it. This is clever. However, it then turns out the inherent magic of the stone, which was only hinted at visually, serves as the legitimate example since it kills Ruber and heals everyone except Garret.
- Didn't Think This Through: After finally obtaining Excalibur, Ruber fuses it with his arm to make sure nobody would take it from him despite knowing that Excalibur is a sword that, once stuck into a certain stone, cannot be removed from it by anyone other than the rightful King.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: More of a dragon in this case. Ruber does this to one of the evil dragons while it has him cornered, despite seemingly giving in by tossing away his sword first.
- Die Laughing: As Excalibur unleashes its World-Healing Wave, Ruber smiles his usual deranged smile and laughs right before he explodes.
- Disney Acid Sequence: "If I Didn't Have You" is a particularly jarring example as it looks like the kind of short funny cartoon Warner Bros. is rightfully better-known for — randomly placed in the middle of what's supposed to be a dramatic epic.
- Disneyfication: The original film treatment was supposed to veer closer to the original book, with a serious approach, but ended up as a family-friendly, Disney-esque Arthurian Legend movie, in the vein of the movies Disney was releasing at the time. Ironically, Warner was trying to compete with the House of Mouse during the same period.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: Kayley, Garrett, Ayden, Devon and Cornwall manage to locate Excalibur which is now in the possession of the giant stone ogre. According to Garrett, ogres sleep during the day and warns that the slightest noise will wake the ogre and the group will be doomed. They all form a human chain where Kayley is at the end to recover Excalibur. However, Ruber, the Griffin and his henchmen have showed up as they are also after the sword. Unfortunately, the ogre begins to wake up when the Griffin sneezes at the wrong moment. Kayley manages to temporarily lull the ogre to sleep and recovers Excalibur, and the group manage to get to safety as the ogre wakes up.
- Dramatic Drop: When Kayley is collecting the eggs after an argument with her mother about going out to look for Excalibur, an ominous shadow of Ruber (with his helmet) loams over her. The rooster squawks in fright and Kayley gasps in horror before she drops one of the eggs she was collecting.
- Drives Like Crazy: Garrett, being blind, does this with a stable wagon full of hay to transport him and Kayley to the stables. As he was enjoying himself while driving, a frantic Kayley has to shout directions to him to avoid Ruber's men and the fire. The hay in the wagon does catch fire and the wagon crashes, catapulting both Kayley and Garrett onto flour bags for soft landing at the stables.
- Ear Ache: Played for Laughs; Ruber grabs the poor Griffin by the ears thrice.
- Embodiment of Virtue: During "United We Stand", as the knights take their places at the Round Table, they raise their shields and declare what virtue each of them embodies, including "liberty", "justice", "trust", "freedom", "peace", "honor", "goodness", "strength", and "valor".
- Enchanted Forest: The Forbidden Forest turns out to be this as it is home to plants and trees that are magically alive and serve as obstacles to Kayley and her group.
- Enemy Rising Behind: Briefly, during the fight scene with the ironmen, a mace-wielding thug rises behind Garrett seconds before he whips around and whacks his staff in the thug's crotch.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: When Ruber finally has the sword Excalibur in his possession, he then uses his magic potion to merge the sword to his right arm. As Kayley slumps at her failure, Ruber icily rubs his fingers under her chin as he mocks her.Ruber: Don't worry, little girl. I'll make sure Arthur gets it back. Or gets it in the back. (laughs) As the case may be! (to his henchmen) Throw her in the wagon.
- Excalibur in the Stone: The fact that only the rightful king can remove this sword from this stone becomes very important in the climax since Ruber is not the rightful king.
- Expy: As pointed out by The Agony Booth
, the Nostalgia Critic
and Lauren Faust (who worked on the film as an animator) Kayley is, both looks and personality-wise, Belle. Faust, commenting
on the similarity, goes even further and points out that Garret looks like the human form of the Beast. - Evil Redhead: Ruber is pointed out as the villain of the movie from scene one, first by defying Arthur's wish for equality for the Round Table Knights, then plots to steal Excalibur and rule Camelot.
- Failure Montage: The film starts with Sir Lionel, Kayley's father, telling her the story of Excalibur through a flashback with a brief montage of men trying and failing to pull the sword from the stone until the future King Arthur steps up to the stone and succeeds in drawing the sword from the stone.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Kayley and Garrett, during their "Looking Through Your Eyes" duo.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: At the end, Ruber meets his demise in that manner where he dissolves into smoke after returning Excalibur back to its stone.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: There are a few in this film:
- At the beginning of the film, Ruber whilst in a rampage, whacks Sir Lionel hard enough with a mace that this kills him, throws down a knight and head-butts another one. Viewers who pay close attention will notice that the mace made contact with Lionel's head.
- The Griffin severely wounds Arthur in the arm, whilst grabbing hold of Excalibur by its large beak.
- Near the climax of the film, Ruber charges through several knights with his horse, and his henchmen defeat and injure several knights. Plus, Ruber attempts to strike Arthur with Excalibur which is attached to his arm, and tries to attack Kayley and Garrett later on.
- Faux Action Girl: Kayley has a few awesome moments (being able to swing a heavy mace at Ruber, saving Arthur during the climax) but for the most part can't back up her claims that she will be a great knight. While it's justified, since she is a normal girl with no real combat training, it does seem that the narrative wants to present Kayley as a strong action girl. Since it doesn't succeed in that, this trope still applies.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Kayley begins to lure Ruber to The Stone, which he is not aware of yet, she dodges his attack and rolls over to The Stone. When she places her hand on it, small blue magical swirls appear briefly around her arm. Moments later, when Ruber is tricked into sending the sword back into The Stone, it works its magic that reverses all of Ruber's dark magic and disintegrates him.
- Flashback: Around halfway through the film and after hearing Kayley mention her late fatherās name, Garrett reveals to Kayley how he knew her father. The flashback shows Garrett used to live in Camelot as a young stable boy and dreamt of becoming a knight. One night, while rescuing the horses from a stable fire, one of them accidentally kicked him in the head, resulting in his blindness. Sir Lionel felt sorry for Garrett and personally trained him to adapt by using a quarterstaff for knightly combat. The flashback ends with Garrett, in the present time, stating his hopes of becoming a knight died following Sir Lionelās death.
- Following in Relative's Footsteps: Since childhood, Kayley wanted to become a knight, just like her father, Sir Lionel. Although he died while saving King Arthur from Ruber's attack, Kayley still looks up to his memory and intents to follow in his footsteps.
- Forbidden Zone: Entering the Forbidden Forest is normally a death sentence to anyone who enters. The Big Bad and all his minions leave Kayley alone when she escapes into it.
- Foreshadowing:
- After Ruber gets rebounded by Arthur with Excalibur, he snarls "One day that sword will be in my hand!" before he leaves in exile while clutching his right arm. This is exactly what happens near the climax, Ruber finally got Excalibur in his right hand after capturing Kayley and uses his potion to magically attach it to his arm.
- In the scene when Sir Lionel and the knights arrive in Camelot, they pass by the stables where a young boy, who has cloudy eyes and is wearing armor, is practicing combat skills with a quarterstaff. As Lionel passes, he took a moment to glance the young boy practicing on his own. 10 years later, this links up to Garrettās backstory where he was that young boy working at the stables and how he knew Sir Lionel, who personally taught him after losing his sight while saving the horses from the stable fire.
- As Garrett explains to Kayley that Ayden taught the secrets of the Forbidden Forest, and he mentions the healing plants. Later after Garrett is badly grazed by an arrow fired by Ruberās men, Kayley finds a healing plant and uses it to heal Garrett's wound.
- Gasp!:
- Juliana does one when Ruber reveals himself, and she has a big one when she realises that Ruber is threatening to kill her daughter.
- After the Griffin sneezed in the ogre's cave, Ruber, Cornwall, Garrett and Kayley does one individually during their Oh, Crap! moment, knowing that the ogre is waking up.
- The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Devon and Cornwall. Also Bladebeak quoting Dirty Harry for some damn reason.
- Genki Girl: Kayley is high-spirited and energetic.
- Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword: Once Excalibur lands in the Forbidden Forest, the rock ogre recovers it and takes it to his cave where he uses it as a toothpick until Kayley recovers the sword when the ogre is asleep.
- Gilligan Cut: This occurs after Garrett reluctantly allows Kayley to join him when she finally catches up with him at the end of "I Stand Alone" musical number, and Ayden is growing attached to her.Kayley: I just need your help, this once.
Garrett: Oh, all right, all right! But don't give me any trouble!
(Cut to Garrett being drenched on the head with purple slimy liquid from a giant flower in the part of the forest.)
Garrett: (groans, whilst wiping off the liquid from his hair) It's a fine mess you've gotten us into, Ayden. - Glowing Flora: When Garrett is injured by Ruber, Kayley rescues him and escorts him to a small cave. Based on what he showed her earlier, Kayley uses some healing leaves to heal his wound, which glows as the process occurs until Garrett is fully healed back to his strength.
- A God Am I: Ruber claims this in the climax as he attacks Arthur.Ruber: Say hello to your new king!
Arthur: (gritting his teeth) You're no king!
Ruber: You're right. Perhaps I'm more of a GOD!!! - Gonk: Ruber's ugliness is particularly hilarious when compared to the other knights, they look like they're from completely different movies.
- Green Around the Gills: When Devon, after making his speech about helping Kayley to find love following Garrett's departure, accidentally kisses Cornwall, and turns green and nauseous afterwards.
- Green Is Gross: When Kayley is cautiously backing away after a rock nearly fell on her and seeing silhouettes of dragons from above, she accidentally steps on one of the dragon eggs and is disgusted when her foot was covered in green slime. While shaking the slime off, Kayley didn't know that Garrett ventured on without knowing what's happened until he was nowhere in sight. Later when the dragons face Ruber and his army after the heroes evaded them, one of them corners Ruber as he lets out green drool before Ruber punches it.
- Handicapped Badass: Garrett is a blind hermit and the only human to survive the Forbidden Forest. He's quite good at using his quarterstaff despite this, and even becomes a knight later.
- Hand Wave: The only explanation for the moving plants is a blink-and-you-miss-it reference to the forest being "enchanted". Where Ruber got his potion might also qualify - he states in his Villain Song that he bought it from some witches.
- Handshake Substitute: The Knights of the Round Table do a forearm clasp as they greet each other during "United we Stand".
- Happily Ever After: The ending features Kayley and Garret riding off together on a horse which is adorned with a sign reading "Just Knighted." One presumes there was a wedding in there too, but it's never specifically stated.
- Happily Married:
- Kayley's parents. He takes care to kiss her goodbye before riding off to Camelot, and it's clear she misses him after his death.
- Though they're not married per se, Kayley and Garret are as close as ever following knighthood.
- I Have Your Wife: Juliana is blackmailed into betraying her king after her teenage daughter is threatened. Said teenage daughter then escapes and goes off on a dangerous quest to warn the king of the plot, pursued by a madman's minions who are more than capable of killing her.
- HeelāFace Turn: Bladebeak undergoes one of these after he finds his mate locked in a cage by Ruber, though he was hardly the embodiment of "evil" to begin with.
- Heroic BSoD: Kayley falls into a brief depression when Ruber kills her father. She perks up by the time of the main narrative by using his chivalric legacy as a coping mechanism.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kayley's father dies attempting to stop Ruber's attempts to kill Arthur in the beginning of the film.
- The Hermit: Garrett lives in the Forbidden Forest in self-imposed exile. He's developed a great deal of wisdom there.
- High Fantasy: The film is loosely based on Arthurian Legend and involves returning a magic sword to the rightful king so he can put down an evil and ugly usurper.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Magically melding Excalibur to his hand proved to be Ruber's ultimate demise because it meant he couldn't let go of it when he was tricked into returning it to the stone. He is then disintegrated to his death, being destroyed by the very same power he planned to obtain.
- Horrible Judge of Character: King Arthur is one of these for knighting Ruber in the first place. It's implied that the latter has been a selfish brute for a while, which even Arthur himself notes. Yet he is surprised that such a selfish brute isn't satisfied with a small domain.
- Hypnosis-Induced Slumber: Kayley puts a giant to sleep by using herself as a pendulum. She nearly falls asleep herself.
- "I Am" Song: Garret's "I Stand Alone" describes his emotional state and worldview in contrast to his unwelcome guest, Kayley.
- Identity Concealment Disposal: When he attacks Juliana's farm, Ruber enters the house wearing a face-concealing horned helmet that he then takes off, tosses aside and never puts on again for the rest of the film.
- Impairment Shot: Happens to Garrett during his backstory after he was accidentally struck in the head by one of the horses, and he describes how his sight becomes blurry and blackens completely.Garrett: (voice-over) First, all I could see was shapes...then shadows... ...and finally, my world went black.
- It's All About Me: Ruber. In the words of King Arthur, "Sir Ruber....always thinking of yourself."
- It's All My Fault: While tending to Garrett's wounds after he was injured by Ruber's men, Kayley says this word-for-word whilst blaming herself for inadvertently causing Garrett to miss Ayden's urgent warning about Ruber's ambush due to her frustrated rambling after only finding the belt of Excalibur.
- "I Want" Song: Kayley's "On My Father's Wings," in which she expresses her desire to become a knight. The other characters get their own songs, too.
- I Work Alone: Garrett has a song about his solidary life style — "I Stand Alone". Except he doesn't work alone; he has the silver-winged falcon Ayden to serve as his guide. And he also lets Kayley come along with him literally as soon as the song is over.
- Just Between You and Me: Ruber details his Evil Plan to Kayley and her mother, mostly in song, after he captures them.
- Kissing Cousins: Apparently, Devon and Cornwall are the result of this.Devon: Frankly, we're the reason cousins shouldn't marry.
- Knighting: At the end of the film after saving Camelot from Ruber, King Arthur knights Kayley and Garrett, which officially earns their status as Knights of the Round Table.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Garrett is a grumpy and pessimistic guy but he has some buried heroism in him.
- Large Ham: Ruber loves acting theatrically, such as turning his army into monsters through a song and dance number. Ironically, he's voiced by Gary Oldman, who is not known for such roles.
- Left Stuck After Attack: This is how the Big Bad meets his end. The wicked Ruber has used a magic potion to fuse the Excalibur sword onto his hand. With this, he tries to impale Kayley and Garrett, but misses. The blow implants Excalibur firmly in its original stone where the ancient magic detects that Ruber is not the rightful ruler, and disintegrates him for such presumption.
- Lighter and Softer: The original novel the film is based has a much darker tone and more mature content (in the book, the main character was raped as a kid by a family friend, for crying out loud). The film adaptation was intended to be darker, but was significantly toned down to make it more family friendly.
- "Lion King" Lift: During Cornwall's verse of "If I Didn't Have You," Devon holds him up from a Pride Rock-esque ledge, matching the lyric: "Cornwall, they would sing/ 'Cause I would be the dragon king."
- Little "No": Kayley can only say a quiet "No..." when she discovers that her father is dead.
- Low-Tech Spears: Mentioned in the climactic fight, when King Arthur is missing Excalibur and so picks up a spear.Ruber: A spear! How stone age!
- Man-Eating Plant: The Forbidden Forest has surprisingly few of these. Out of all the dangerous things in there, only a couple patches of grass actually try to eat Kayley, though plenty of things menace in other ways.
- Match Cut:
- During "On My Father's Wings" as Kayley remembers her memory of her younger self playing with Sir Lionel, he playfully tosses her in the air and the flashback fades back to the adult Kayley in the same pose as she lands on one of the rocks at the coast.
- During the flashback scene where Garrett explains his backstory of how he knew Sir Lionel, the final shot of a young Garrett and Sir Lionel standing in front of each other fades back to the present time with an older Garrett and Kayley in the similar positions.
- Meaningful Echo: "I will not serve a false king!" Said first by Lionel to Ruber and then, later, by Kayley.
- Meaningful Funeral: Sir Lionel dies after attempting to foil Ruber's assassination attempt on King Arthur, and his body is taken back to Juliana's farm and placed in a stone coffin by Arthur and the knights for his funeral. At the start of the memorial service, Arthur tells the recently-widowed Juliana that the gates of Camelot will always be open to her before he gives his eulogy for Sir Lionel. After he finishes, Arthur and the knights draw out their swords and hold them in the air in respect.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The movie starts with Kayley as a child, later followed by a cameo of a young Garrett during the first song.
- Minor Character, Major Song: Juliana is important enough to the plot, but the fact that her song "The Prayer" - and not a song of Kayley's, Garrett's or even Ruber's - became the film's signature song, was nominated for an Oscar and a Grammy, won a Golden Globe, and is now one of the most popular duet songs of all time, makes this trope applicable here.
- Mood Dissonance: Infamously so with The Prayer, a soothing yet bittersweet tune that is being played against scenes of Kayley fleeing desperately from Ruber's cartoonish henchmen giving chase on wild hogs. The result is as confusing and awkward as it gets.
- Musical Number Annoyance: While Devon and Cornwall's musical number "If I Didn't Have You" did baffle Kayley a bit, the number implied to have annoyed Garrett, which is evident with his scowl as he follows Kayley and the two-headed dragon in a tunnel that leads back into the forest and out of Dragon Country. When he does reluctantly agree to Kayley's request to let Devon and Cornwall join their quest, he doesn't allow them to do anymore singing.
- Musical World Hypotheses: The film seems to take place in an Alternate Universe where breaking into song is commonplace. Ruber calls the song "United We Stand" a "charming sing-along", Cornwall asks Devon if he's ever sung before at the end of "If I Didn't Have You" (Kayley is even seen applauding once the song ends), and, as mentioned above, Garrett lets Devon and Cornwall accompany him and Kayley only on one condition: "No more singing!"
- Multiple Head Case: Devon and Cornwall are a two-headed dragon. They argue and this is why they can't fly or breathe fire.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Due to Kayley's insistence of blaming Garrett for making the group stop the night before, causes him to miss Ayden's signal and is wounded. She then regrets it when treating Garrett's wound, blaming herself for putting him in harm's way, but Garrett forgives her sympathetically.
- Nature Hero: Garrett lives in harmony with the Forbidden Forest but that's because such a lifestyle is the only way to survive there.
- Near-Villain Victory: After capturing Kayley and bonding Excalibur to his arm with his potion, Ruber continues with plan where his steel men terrorise Camelot while Ruber enters the castle. He almost claims his victory while trying to kill an injured Arthur until Kayley intervenes by luring Ruber to the Stone where she and Garrett trick Ruber into sending the sword back in the Stone which leads to his demise. Had he not toyed with Arthur, Ruber would've won.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
- Ayden intervenes with the Griffin's theft of Excalibur, causing it to fall in the forbidden forest where lives not just ferocious dragons or the creatures, but a giant rock ogre! Granted, this is preferable to Griffin getting away with the sword, but also makes the sword difficult to recover.
- After only finding the belt of Excalibur in one of the giant footprints, Kayley's frustrated ranting towards Garrett for making the group stop for the night unintentionally distracts Garrett at the wrong moment as he was trying to listen to Ayden's urgent warning, and he is grazed by an arrow shot by Ruber's men.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Fusing Excalibur to Ruber's own hand might as well be the case to be his ultimate downfall, when he accidentally returns the sword back to the stone. The stone's magic reverses the effects of the potion on his henchmen and Excalibur where it dangerously disintegrates Ruber to his death.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Devon and Cornwall fall under this, as do Bladebeak and Ayden because all of them assist the human hero characters.
- No Place for Me There: How Garrett feels about Camelot after he was blinded. He briefly parts ways with Kayley when they're about to return Excalibur to King Arthur, as he feels that despite all his bad-assery, in Camelot he would simply not measure up when compared to the Knights of the Round Table. As he tells Ayden, he feels Kayley would only see him "through their eyes. Not a knight. Not a man. Not anything..."
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Don Rickles as Cornwall makes absolutely no attempt to hide his American accent, unlike the other few American actors who worked on this film.
- Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Kayley says something like this after noticing that Garrett, who had just saved her from two of Ruber's steel men, is only paying attention to his ruined fishing net.Kayley: That was... incredible! How you, smashed those creatures! How you-you avoided that-that-that, thing! You're amazing! You're... not even listening to me.
- Obviously Evil: At the beginning of the film we get a panning shot of the Round Table. Seated at it are several identical-looking generic knights... and one creepily deformed one with a banana-shaped head, greenish skin and yellow eyes.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The looks on the knights' faces when Ruber whips out a mace before he charges towards Arthur.
- Arthur, before he grabs Excalibur at the right time when he sees Ruber charging towards him with a mace.
- Kayley when she realizes that her father's dead.
- The rooster has one when his mate comes up to him and grabs him.
- Arthur and his knights all have one when the Griffin burst in the round table tower through the roof.
- The Griffin, when he sees thorny hands poking out from the forest's thorn branches.
- Both Kayley and the rooster have one when a shadow of Ruber looms over them.
- Juliana and her servants each get one when Ruber's henchmen break into their house.
- Juliana has a bigger one with a Gasp! when she realizes that Ruber is threatening to kill Kayley and notices her daughter held hostage by two of his men.
- The Griffin has one after he realizes that he lost Excalibur that Ruber needs.
- Kayley has one after seeing two of Ruber's men in the distance before she enters the forbidden forest. She has few of these when they chase after her.
- Garrett seemingly has one when he hears two of Ruber's men landing in the pond.
- Kayley has one when she realizes that Garrett has disappeared out of sight after hearing a dragon roaring. Fortunately for Kayley, he was hiding in one half of an eggshell and pulled her in when her back was turned.
- Devon and Cornwall, and Kayley and Garrett each get one when they hear a dragon.
- Ruber, Cornwall, Garrett and Kayley each have one after the Griffin sneezed in the ogre's cave when the owner is asleep.
- Ruber and the Griffin, before the ogre sits on them.
- The Griffin has one when he realizes that he is flying straight into Ruber who is on the cliff. Ruber has a brief one afterwards before the Griffin crashes into the cliff.
- Kayley has one when Ruber's minions capture her. She has another one when Ruber merges Excalibur to his hand when his potion.
- The knights, and the citizens all have one, when Ruber reveals himself, so do the henchmen afterwards, and charges straight towards the castle.
- Kayley, when she sees the Griffin flying towards her, before he destroys the scaffolding that she was on.
- Ruber when he sees Kayley about to attack him with a huge wooden beam.
- Ruber has a bigger one when he realizes that he replaced Excalibur back into the stone, where its magic breaks loose.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They're conjoined twins, they're purple and they can't fly (for which they even say they're shunned by their own kind).
- Our Gryphons Are Different: He looks like a traditional griffin, but the one in the story is kind of weird. The bird front half is much larger then the lion hindquarters, and rather than eagle-like the head must belong to a bat-eared-cat-eyed-vulture-beaked thing.
- Parental Substitute: During Garrett's backstory of how he lost his sight which impacted his dreams of becoming a knight and how no one saw potential in him, Sir Lionel, who is a father himself, stepped in to become this for Garrett. He personally trained him to adapt to his disability and taught him to fight with a quarterstaff.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Devon and Cornwall are like the stereotypical school athlete and drama club member. This is unfortunate for them, as they cannot fly so long as they disagree on everything.
- The Power of Friendship: Devon and Cornwall lament their inability to fly through most of the movie, then find themselves able to do it once Kayley is kidnapped. Garrett realizes that they can't fly unless they agree on things, and pushes them to do so by prompting, "You both love Kayley, don't you?"
- Prophet Eyes: While not a prophet, Garrett has these eyes because he can still "see" in the Forbidden Forest through his other senses and experience.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Arthur wisely states that he and the knights' obligation is to the people in Camelot, not to themselves. Arthur refuses Ruber's demand of his share of the lands to be more than everyone else's.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Garrett delivers one of these to Kayley when they first meet about how she is naĆÆve, ignorant of the forest and would only slow him down. It doubles as his character song.
- Rescue Introduction: Kayley meets Garrett after he saved her by defeating two of Ruberās men in some of the traps when they chased her into the Forbidden Forest. Of course, Garrett refuses to acknowledge it as he was complaining about his fishing net that got damaged when Kayley fell into the pond and when Garrett is fending off Ruberās men.
- Rock Bottom: When the ogre unknowingly sits on Ruber and the Griffin after they were knocked off-course from flight from the ogre's yawning.Ruber: The ogre's butt...
Griffin: Well, master. At least things can't get any worse.
(Unfortunately after he said that, the ground begins to rumble.)
Ruber: Wanna bet?
(Cue the ogre farting, catapulting Ruber and the Griffin towards the heroes.)
Cornwall: Whoa! Watch it!
(They duck just as the two villains flew right above them and crash into the rock wall, just barely dodging the stalactites as the group run past them.)
Ruber: (high-pitched) Seize them!
Griffin: (high-pitched) Yes, master! - Rock Monster: The ogre has this look complete with being covered in moss in some places.
- Reveling in the New Form: The Big Bad Ruber uses a witch's potion to convert his loyal mooks into walking weapons, with cutlasses and maces for arms. Even a barnyard chicken gets a dose, and becomes Bladebeak with a battle-axe for a head. The most delight comes from Ruber himself, when he finally attains King Arthur's sword Excalibur. The potion fuses the sword to his right hand, which becomes a steel mechanism that can rotate the blade. This also ensures nothing can detach it from him as long as he lives.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Camelot was not a newly built capital, it was actually a pre-existing city, Winchester in fact.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Garrett is the Savvy Guy trained in the art of knighthood to Kayley's inexperienced but Energetic Girl.
- Scotireland: Camelot basically turns into this for some reason, largely thanks to the sorta-Celtic-ish soundtrack. Riverdance was popular at the time and there's also the involvement of The Corrs. Their style is specially prominent in "On My Father's Wings," which almost sounds like ripped off from their album Talk On Corners.
- Shout-Out:
- There are lots of Looney Tunes gags to be found here.
- Most obviously, ACME being written on Ruber's potion.
- Also during Devon & Cornwall's musical number, at one time they're falling down a canyon ripped straight from a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.
- Red from Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood makes a very brief cameo appearance in the number, too.
- The aforementioned number also includes plenty of others:
- At one point, Devonnote references the Parrot Sketch when he declares, "You'd be nothing without me — you'd be extinct! You'd cease to be!"
- During the lines when Cornwall sings about being "the Dragon King", he holds Devon up on a kopje in open parody of Simba's presentation in The Lion King (1994).
- During the scene where Cornwall has a chainsaw, he is wearing a hockey mask. (Although Jason Voorhees isn't the slasher who wields a chainsaw)
- The boulder rolling towards Devon is a homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Devon and Cornwall dress up in a japanese kimono and The Phantom of the Opera respectively. Also, they dress up as Sonny and Cher and Elvis Presley.
- Devon turns into Godzilla during the song, with the line "I'd be a fire breathing lizard!"
- Garrett is a teenager/young adult dressed in green with a wooden weapon looking in an enchanted forest for a mythical sword. Think about that for a second.
- During the Final Battle, John Williams ' Superman Main Theme makes an appearance - although, oddly, the subtitles for this scene refer to it as "Star Wars Theme".
- Garrett and Kayley's embrace during the Through Your Eyes segment resembles the poster from The Princess Bride, which also starred Cary Elwes.
- Upon seeing a giant skeleton of a animal falling onto Kayley and Garrett, Devon and Cornwall thinks that the skeleton may be their Uncle Yorick, where Devon quotes Hamlet as he cradles a dragon skull: "Alas, Poor Yorick! I knew him well."
- Bladebeak quotes Dirty Harry at one point. "You get to ask yourself: do I feel clucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
- There are lots of Looney Tunes gags to be found here.
- Sickly Green Glow: Ruber's magic potion contains glowing bright green liquid that magically merges weapons to any living being. He puts a few drops down a well at Juliana's farm and his human henchmen all jump down the well to transform themselves into the steel army. The potion is so powerful that it erupts clouds of green flames, smoke and light which occurs during the henchmen's transform and when Ruber later uses the same potion to meld Excalibur to his hand. In the climax after Ruber was tricked into returning Excalibur back into The Stone, clouds of green smoke explode as a result of The Stone's powerful magic removing the taint of the potion from Excalibur, and Ruber's eyes glow bright green before he is vaporised with streaks of green light bursting from his chest.
- Sidekick Song: "If I Didn't Have You" is sung by Devon and Cornwall. It is a comical and silly diversion from action and the guy they're a sidekick to, Garrett, forbids them from doing it again.
- Silence, You Fool!: Ruber says this that way in his first verse of his song:Ruber: Let's go back to war and violence! I was so bored with peace and [to a servant suddenly when he drops a cup in fear] SILENCE!!
- Slipknot Ponytail: During her escape, Kayley runs into a forest where one of the branches snags her hair tie and undoes her ponytail. After she's freed from Garrett's net a short time later, she's seen finding another hair tie and fixing it back up.
- Song of Prayer: "The Prayer
" is sung by Kayley's mother as her daughter is being pursued by Ruber's men into an uncertain future. - Soundtrack Dissonance: "The Prayer" plays over a desperate chase scene where one of the monsters actually shoots at Kayley. Justified, as Juliana is praying for her daughter to come out alive and well.
- Stopped Dead in Their Tracks: When Garrett decides to stop the group somewhere in the forest for the night to make camp, Kayley objects to this by asking about going for Excalibur only for Garrett to state that no one travels in the forest after dark prompting Kayley to respond with "My father Sir Lionel would have." This makes Garrett freeze in shock after hearing Kayley mention her father's name and realises that Kayley is Lionel's daughter where Garrett starts to lighten up and explains to her how he knew her father a long time ago.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Ruber's minions being the idiots in question. They take Bladebeak's mate along, but allow Kayley to escape.
- Technicolor Death: In the climax as The Stone's magic is purifying Excalibur back to normal, Ruber's mechanical arm is being dismantled with his armor blown off before his entire body blackens with his eyes glowing bright green. Then a huge flame of green light bursts from his chest and he is disintegrated into smoke.
- Transformation Potion: The rogue knight Ruber has a vial of greenish fluid that he pours into a well, then dunks his mooks into it. This transforms them from brutish humans into walking weapons, with helmets for heads, and blades and maces for arms. He even pours a small amount on himself to fuse the Excalibur sword to his hand, making him into a cyborg. Some of this stuff drips onto a farmyard chicken, transforming him into Bladebeak, an apt moniker. As a Mythology Gag, the vial is labeled "ACME," the go-to producer of Warner Bros. props, hinting that Acme Products are Older Than Feudalism.
- Travel Montage: The filmās opening during the musical number āUnited We Standā shows Sir Lionel and the knightsā journey on their horses from Julianaās farm to Camelot.
- Treants: Several of these live in the patch of thorns where the Griffin dropped Excalibur and prevent him from diving down to get it. They're rooted in place, but their gargoyle-like torsos can be pulled over, which Kayley uses to trap Ruber and his henchmen while she is rescuing an injured Garrett.
- Trojan Horse: Ruberās plan to invade Camelot, using Julianaās caravan.Ruber: In the back of your wagons, my men will all hide. Youāll sit up front as the gates open wide.
- Try and Follow: The entire "I Stand Alone" musical number has this entire sequence as the blind forest warrior Garrett attempts to ditch Kayley. But at the end of the number, he finally and reluctantly allows her to join him.
- Uptown Girl: Kayley is the daughter of a slain Knight of the Round Table and Garrett was a former stable boy (and former apprentice/squire of said slain knight). They're implied to be married after bonding through their adventure.
- Villain Ball: Sure, Ruber's death by accidentally thrusting Excalibur back into the stone may be ludicrously contrived, but how dumb was Ruber to go back to the one spot in the world where he could possibly be defeated?
- Villainous Breakdown: Ruber first launched into one when Sir Lionel triggered his Berserk Button, until his Unstoppable Rage ends when Arthur rebounds the barbaric knight backwards. He attempts to kill Kayley after she intervened with his attempted assault on King Arthur, just like her father.
- Villainous Valour: Ruber is a psychotic murderer, no doubt of it, but you must admit he is also exceptionally strong and brave.
- Kayley tries to hit him from behind with a good-sized mace. He turns around, catches it, and then twists the head. Never mind that the spikes should have skewered his hands.
- He kills a scary-looking dragon with his bare hands and then cooks it for lunch.
- Villain Song: "Ruber's Song", though with no melody, tune or rhythm it truly stretched to the vaguest of limits what qualifies as a "song". There actually is a bit of rhyming in it, so it's less of a "song" and more of a "long-winded poem". (Then again, it's Ruber. He's a bit too erratic for a proper song. Oh, and that chugging, insistent music in the back of it all? That's electro-rock music! That's pretty badass.)
- Virtue/Vice Codification: Various virtues are lauded in a song sung during the introduction to Camelot such as "trust", "strength" and "valor".
- Walk This Way: Done as Ruber takes his steel minions towards the sleeping ogre holding Excalibur. Ruber isn't happy that they took his order so literally.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Kayley blames Garrett for having the group to stop for camp the night before after only finding the belt of Excalibur. She later regrets it after Garrett is wounded because he couldn't hear Ayden's signal, due to her scolding towards him.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Devon and Cornwall are drawn to look rather silly and harmless. Bladebeak is also silly-looking. Ayden has a round, sweet face, big soft eyes and cute fluttery movements. In contrast, the "evil" dragons are sharp-toothed, have squinty eyes, and look altogether more feral, and the griffin henchman has another set of scary evil eyes, a long crooked beak, bat ears, and a small head compared to his thick-maned neck ā and the voice of Bronson Pinchot (we're not sure what to make of that last thing).
- What Would X Do?: Juliana and Kayley get into an argument about Kayley's dream to become a knight. After her daughter runs off in anger, Juliana wonders what Lionel would have done about the issue.
- When Trees Attack: The sentient trees in the Forbidden Forest try to attack the Griffin by grabbing hold of his wings and tail once he tries to recover Excalibur whom he dropped in the forest of thorns. Later when Ruber and his men ambush Kayley and the group, they unknowingly woke up the sentient trees and they try to swat Devon and Cornwall. Coming up with an idea, Kayley manages to loop a vine around one of the sentient trees' arm and tugs it to temporarily trap Ruber and his men.
- With My Hands Tied: Kayley is captured and tied up, but is able to sweep her legs under a mook's feet while still tied, giving her time to free herself with Bladebeak's help.
- The Worf Effect: The dragons are established as fearsome creatures. Ruber kills one with a single punch.
- World-Healing Wave: After Ruber plunges Excalibur into the Stone, a burst of magic reverses the potionās effects on Ruberās thugs and Bladebeak, temporarily separates Devon and Cornwall, and heals Arthurās arm, before the Stone finishes off Ruber.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Garrett finishes narrating his backstory and how the death of Sir Lionel impacted his dreams to become a knight, Kayley gives him reassurance by saying this:Kayley: I felt that way, too. But I knew he would never want me to give up. He wouldn't want you to give up either. You're as good as any knight in Camelot.
Garrett: You really think so? - You Can't Go Home Again:
- Why Devon and Cornwall stick around with the group. Apparently, dragons are forbidden to interact with humans.
- Evoked with Garrett as well when he initially declines to return to Camelot with Kayley after they get Excalibur: on one level there's probably still some bad memories of his time there and the events that led to him seemingly losing any chance of becoming a knight, and then of course his feelings that he would appear inferior and undesirable to Kayley when juxtaposed with the current Knights of the Round Table.
- You Killed My Father: Kayley's father was killed by Ruber in the opening and Kayley attacks him with a mace for this.
- Your Other Left: While Garrett (who is blind) is driving a wagon to the stables as well as avoiding the fire and Ruber's mechanical army with Kayley shouting directions to him: "Left! Go left! Your other left... No, Garrett, right!" In this case, it's Kayley confusing the directions and then correcting herself rather than Garrett mixing them up, but the effect is more or less the same.
- You're Insane!: This exchange when Ruber is revealing his plan to Juliana.Juliana: You're mad!
Ruber: I'm so glad you've noticed. I've been working at it for years.
