"The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot" (General) Nationwide Things are hotting up in the children's market as Warner Brothers' cartoon-buster goes head to head with Disney's rereleased The Little Mermaid for a share of the summer holiday spoils. The studio that produced Space Jam has plumped for retro this time with its "loose" adaptation of Vera Chapman's Arthurian novel The King's Damosel. "Set a thousand years ago in the British Isles"; that's what the studio publicity says anyway. There's more than a touch of the auld Riverdance about the opening scenes, and the Irish connection continues with music provided by The Corrs, and Gabriel Byrne and Pierce Brosnan giving generously of their vocal skills. More Cork than Camelot really.
Legendary inaccuracies aside, this is an enjoyable little romp through a magical world which benefits from its perky female lead. Kayley, androgynously attired in doublet and hose (take note, please, Disney), is determined to buck the trend and become a Knight of the Round Table like her late father, Sir Lionel. She gets her big break when Ruber (an inveterate baddy with the speaking voice of an English soccer hooligan) kidnaps her mother, Lady Julianna, and heads for Camelot with his hostage.
Kayley escapes and must make her way through a dangerous and enchanted forest, retrieve the magic sword Excalibur and warn King Arthur of Ruber's impending arrival. In the forest, heroine meets unlikely hero and two-headed dragon equipped with a sackful of meaty one-liners. The rest, as they say in Hollywood, "is history". No, of course it's not history - nothing like it, in fact - but at least you won't know the ending before you see it, and children under 10 will love it.
"Paulie: A Parrot's Tale" (General) Nationwide As parrot movies go, this one's a cracker. Not convinced? Don't worry, you're not alone. Even the film's director, John (War Of The Buttons) Roberts, admitted that he thought twice about taking on the project at first, knowing only that it was a film about a tropical bird. But Roberts made the right call.
Grab yourself a bag of nuts and a mango and go to see it. If you have kids take them, they'll love it - if you don't, go anyway.
Less a case of the casting couch, more the casting perch, the leading bird is a real discovery. My kids tell me it was a model parrot some of the time, but I don't believe them. The supporting cast, which includes Gena Rowlands, do themselves more than justice, anyway as Roberts says: "It takes a special kind of actor to be willing to support a bird."
The twist in this parrot's tale is that he can talk, not just mimic like his lesser brethren, but actually converse (and crack great jokes while he's at it). Paulie's first love is a little girl called Marie, whom he helps overcome a speech impediment, learning to talk himself in the process. His big mouth eventually gets him into trouble and the film charts the story of Paulie's separation from, and then long search for, Marie.
Not being your average pretty Polly, Paulie gets involved with a flock of esoteric characters along the way, ending up in the basement of a research institution with a Russian janitor who used to be a professor of literature. It is to Misha that Paulie tells his story, warning him: "It's a long one". "I don't mind, I'm Russian, I like long stories," Misha replies. It is a long story, but it's an absorbing one.
