Quest For Camelot

Animation flat, music mediocre, characters dull

There was a time when Warner Bros. studios could boast having quality animated films on par with those from Disney (at least with its "Looney Tunes" shorts). Unfortunately, that time has long since passed.

The studio's 1997 animated musical "Cats Don't Dance" was a flop financially. And if anything, its newest, "Quest For Camelot" is even less memorable, with flat and at-times shoddy animation, mediocre songs and characters and situations that have virtually no impact.

Perhaps the most telling sign in this lifeless cartoon adventure, however, is that it's difficult to recognize most of the voices behind the characters, including Gary Oldman, Pierce Brosnan and Jane Seymour. That's probably because their performances are every bit as uninspired as the animation.

Based on the fantasy novel "The King's Damosel," the film is something of a feminist revision of "Camelot," following the adventures of Kayley (voiced by Jessalyn Gilsig), a young girl trying to become the first female knight of the Round Table.

She gets her chance when the evil Ruber (Oldman) steals King Arthur's magical sword Excalibur and plots to take over the kingdom. But Ruber's lackey, the Griffin (Bronson Pinchot), loses Excalibur while flying over the Forbidden Forest.

While searching the future to retrieve the sword, Kayley finds unexpected allies in Garrett (Cary Elwes), a young blind warrior more than capable of defending himself, and Devon and Cornwall (Eric Idle and Don Rickles), a two-headed dragon with split personalities.

As mentioned, the animation is pretty shoddy. Most of the characters have expressionless faces and the backgrounds are fairly unimaginative. Worse still, probably the most dazzling creation of the lot is a computer-generated ogre, rather than a traditionally animated creation.

It doesn't help that the lead characters (as well as Gilsig and Elwes' performances) are so dull, and the action positively drags from scene to scene.

In fact, much of the story seems to exist to create song opportunities, and given the fact that the majority of the movie's numbers (from the team of Grammy winner David Foster and Oscar winner Carole Bayer Sager) are mindnumbingly awful, that's a calculated mistake.

"Quest For Camelot" is rated G but does contain some animated sword fighting and other animated violence.