The Sword in the Stone: Deep Thoughts About Animation, Squirrely Romance, and Merlin's Terrible Pedagogy

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

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In revisiting this classic Disney animation from 1963, Tracie found that the charm she remembered from her childhood wasn't nearly as charming this time around. While the comedy of Merlin, Archimedes the Owl, and Arthur (known as the Wart) was still humorous, the film feels more like a series of unconnected events rather than any kind of storytelling. The only named woman in the story is Madam Mim--although looking for feminism in any kids movies from the 1960s, animation or otherwise, may be a fool's errand--but at least she's a wonderfully subversive pop culture witch who is fun to watch. But the oddest thing about the film is Merlin's ineffectiveness as a teacher. His instruction does nothing to help Arthur pull the sword from the stone. In fact, the wizard is a terrible and irresponsible tutor.

Even with these uncomfortable realizations, there's much to admire. Even though The Sword in the Stone was made during Disney's low period, the animation is lovely and there are several parts that made Tracie laugh out loud. Just make sure that's really a squirrel before you fall head over heels in love with him!

To and fro, stop and go, listening to podcasts makes the world go round!

Mentioned in this episode:

https://disnerdmoviechallenge.com/blog/review-the-sword-in-the-stone-dmc-38

This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

פרקים

1. Childhood Memories of The Sword in the Stone (00:00:00)

2. Synopsis: Arthur, Merlin, and Magic Lessons (00:06:46)

3. Gender Roles and Madame Mim (00:14:18)

4. Merlin as a Problematic Mentor (00:22:22)

5. The Missing Character Growth (00:30:47)

6. Animation Style and Final Thoughts (00:39:50)

7. Episode Wrap-Up and Next Week's Preview (00:51:32)