My turn to say this about a film - this movie is crap.
For starters, there's far too much padding in the movie. All that learning Arthur's made to do by Merlin (a) never gets used in the movie and (b) he never GETS anywhere with any of it.
For seconds, the characters are so badly drawn and so unappealing - EXCEPT the two squirrels which I'm sure were drawn by the same artist who did Thumper in Bambi, they ARE good. The rest of them were, I'm sure, drawn by the Pete's Dragon artist - curved jaws, naff expressions, cringe movements.
Thirdly, Madam Mim's never USED. One scene in an old house and a fight scene. There's no PLOT holding all the scenes together. Which is why I come to part four of this.
WHY only use the first chapter of the book for the whole movie? Why not at least bring in elements from the other chapters to flesh out the plot into a decent storyline?
This movie isn't underrated, it's just a mess. Now if you WANT an underrated Disney cartoon, that's the Black Cauldron. No songs (YIPPEEEE!!) GREAT storyline - almost anime-worthy in its own way and, as you know, any anime can knock the socks off any Disney movie - I've seen Black Cauldron many times and it grips me all the way through.
As far as the modern ones being 'forgettable' goes, watch Madagascar 2 (not the first one, second one's miles better) and Cars. And the new one, the Frog Princess which, for some reason, isn't getting the publicity it deserves. Now THOSE are 3 movies that will still be being watched in years to come. Not to mention my all-time Disney fave - Wall-E. Which I think was a VERY brave film to release, as it doesn't rely on humans for its heroes - if anything, they're the inactive villains of the piece - and uses virtually no dialogue. And STILL manages to be repeatedly watchable!
Disney's still making great movies. And, as always considering the amount of films it churns out, it's making stinkers. The stinkers, though, usually turn up on their TV stations these days and generate money that way.
I say 'Sword in the Stone' sucks, apart from the squirrels! Get Black Cauldron, or download Frog Princess (there's a good copy out there, I've got it) and watch a couple of GOOD Disney Cartoons (I suppose the purists out there will say the Pixar collaborations I mentioned earlier don't count!)
Yours respectfully
ulrichburke