Quest for Camelot

Quest for Camelot (released internationally as The Magic Sword: Quest for Camelot) is a 1998 American animated musical fantasy film directed by Frederik Du Chau. Loosely inspired by the 1976 novel The King's Damosel by Vera Chapman, the film stars Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Eric Idle, Don Rickles, Jane Seymour, Pierce Brosnan, Bronson Pinchot, Jaleel White, Gabriel Byrne and John Gielgud (in his final film role). The story follows Kayley (Gilsig), an adventurous young woman whose father was a Knight of the Round Table killed by the power-hungry Sir Ruber (Oldman). When Ruber's renewed plot to usurp Camelot from King Arthur (Brosnan) by stealing Arthur's sword Excalibur goes awry, Kayley joins the blind hermit Garrett (Elwes) and a two-headed dragon, Devon and Cornwall (Idle and Rickles), in a quest to retrieve the sword and save the kingdom.

Initially titled The Quest for the Holy Grail, the film was announced in May 1995 as Warner Bros. Feature Animation's debut project, with Bill Kroyer and Du Chau jointly directing the film. It began production later that year, but faced delays when animators were reassigned to help finish Space Jam (1996). During the interim, the story was heavily reworked, with the narrative's central focus being changed from the Holy Grail to Excalibur. Creative differences spurred by these alterations resulted in prominent members of the animation and management staff, including Kroyer, leaving the project. Due to its troubled production, the film's release was pushed back by six months. Animation was mostly done in Glendale, California and in London.

Quest for Camelot was released by Warner Bros. under their Family Entertainment label on May 15, 1998, in the US and Canada. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office disappointment, grossing $38.1 million worldwide against a $40 million production budget. One of the film's songs, "The Prayer", won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.