The Sword in the Stone is still a nice story all these years later and an entertaining film as a whole. The Blu-ray released by Disney, however, isn’t fun. While the audio track isn’t very dynamic and the video is downright disappointing, the features also have much to be desired with Disney not bothering putting any new material such as a retrospective and/or impact the movie has had.
The Sword in the Stone: 50th Anniversary Edition (1963)
Genre(s): Animation, Adventure, Family
Disney | G – 79 min. – $36.99 | August 6, 2013
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Wolfgang Reitherman
Writer(s): T.H. White (book); Bill Peet (story)
Voice Cast: Rickie Sorensen, Sebastian Cabot, Karl Swenson, Junius Matthews
Theatrical Release Date: December 25, 1963
DISC INFO:
Features: Featurettes, Deleted Opening, Bonus Shorts, DVD Copy, Digital Copy
Number of Discs: 2
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0), French (DTS-HD HR 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), Portuguese (Dolby Digital 2.0), Russian (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.75
Subtitles: English SDH
Disc Size: 24.4 GB
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A, B, C
THE MOVIE
Take an amazing journey with a young orphan named “Wart” and the extraordinary wizard Merlin. According to legend, only someone with the purest character and inner strength can pull the enchanted sword from the stone and claim the throne of England. Armed with new-found confidence and the power of friendship, Wart discovers his destiny and learns the best magic is the kind you find inside yourself!
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.25/5
This release comes with a glossy and embossed slip cover. Inside is a standard DVD Copy and a Digital Copy download code.
Alternate Opening: Where Wart Meets Merlin (4:02; SD) is an unfinished alt opening shown via storyboards and light-hearted narration.
Music Magic: The Sherman Brothers (8:00; SD) – This featurette is an interview with the brothers, probably filmed a few years ago, discussing the music behind Sword in the Stone. This is easily the best feature on the disc…
All About Magic (7:19; SD) is an excerpt of a Disney special hosted by Walt Disney himself talking about magic and fantasy.
Also included are two animated shorts, “A Knight for a Day” (7:06; SD) and “Brave Little Tailor” (9:01; SD) and a Sing-Along version of the film.
VIDEO – 2.75/5
The Sword in the Stone arrives on Blu-ray thanks to Buena Vista and has been given a cleaned-up 1080p high-def transfer presented in its original 1.75 widescreen aspect ratio. Upon further examination, however, the picture, although is cleaned up, only was scrubbed by Disney (or more than likely an outside company) showing softness. The colors are boosted showing brightness and there aren’t any obvious signs of aliasing, but indeed the picture is disappointing especially for classic animation.
AUDIO – 3.75/5
On the same note, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is more than adequate showcasing clear dialogue levels while the other elements, such as ambient noises, successfully come through and make use the front and rear channels. This isn’t an awe-inspiring lossless track but it’s serviceable for the material and like the video transfer, is a notable improvement from the DVD.
OVERALL – 2.25/5
Overall, The Sword in the Stone is still a nice story all these years later and an entertaining film as a whole. The Blu-ray released by Disney, however, isn’t fun. While the audio track isn’t very dynamic and the video is downright disappointing, the features also have much to be desired with Disney not bothering putting any new material such as a retrospective and/or impact the movie has had.
Published: 07/28/2013
This transfer is DNR’ed to death. Just look at that blurry mess in the screenshots! I fail to see how this deserves 4 out of 5 stars for video quality.
You are of course correct. With so many reviews over the past week, I mixed this one (and Sword which was also bad) up with Robin Hood, the only one of the three with a decent transfer. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
It’s a shame that all three received shoddy releases (not only the picture for Sword and Oliver) but no new features and what is there, very basic. It’s obvious these were quick cash grabs for the Mouse Company.