I cracked the code
of King Arthur cheap animated movies! I think these should be the correct names/dates/covers.
The top one called "König Arthur und die Ritter von Camelot" which has a very similar image for "Quest for Camelot"?
This is just used sometimes at random, but it usually refers to that image that says "Merlin" (circled in blue).
Both those covers all refer to this 1998 animated movie called "Camelot" which is about young Arthur being mentored by Merlin and then going on adventures with Cynthia, Merlin's apprentice, and finally becoming king. How do I know? I bought that "König Arthur und die Ritter von Camelot" on amazon, and it was the same as "Camelot 1998", which has the same cover as that "Merlin" cartoon. This movie is also sometimes identified as from 2008, but no Camelot movie exists from 2008.
Now, I said that the first picture is sometimes ambiguous, why?
Well, it is sometimes used with a different title and for another movie from 1998 called "The Sword of Camelot" by Dingo pictures. This movie is an ABOMINATION. It is this one. It is basically Merlin narrating in live action and some animation in between (mainly Arthur, Mordred, the holy grail). Mordred is definitely drawn in anti semitic way, and in general the whole animation is atrocious.
Here are the covers you can see if you are looking for this movie:
Keep in mind the art used in these covers looks NOTHING like what is in the movie. Furthermore the covers have events and characters that have nothing to do with the movie at all (the two kids with the dragon? no those are not in the movie).
This movie seems to simply steal other movies' covers. So be careful. If you see a translation of "The sword of Camelot" it is this abomination. Why using this title with random art? Well, that is the German title for the much more popular "Quest for Camelot" and the art was often used as a way to clearly trick people into thinking it would be something similar to that.
Let's move to the next one. In 1998 there were two other animated movies about King Arthur.
One is "Camelot, 1998" which is probably the best one in the lot. It is a musical animated movie that follows the life of Arthur from his teen years to his death. This is the imbd page.
The covers for this one are pretty consistent and always use this picture:
The second 1998 movie is called "Camelot: The legend" and is a bit more goofy. It has an adult Arthur travelling to a council with Guinevere and Mordred, and meeting Lancelot. Mordred is the classic villain.
The covers are similar to the previous movie, but usually less cartoony:
To conclude, the animated king Arthur movies are only these (I highlighted the ones I talked about in this post):
- 1963 Sword in the Stone
- 1970 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
- 1978 A Connecticut Rabbit in King’s Arthur Court
- 1990 Ai to Ken no Camelot
- 1998 Quest for Camelot
- 1998 Camelot (with kid Arthur and Merlin, sometimes labelled 2008)
- 1998 Camelot (musical animated movie, adult Arthur, to distinguish I use Camelot 1999 tag on this blog, as I used to think it was from 1999 in my dvd)
- 1998 Camelot: The Legend
- 1998 The Sword of Camelot (don't watch this)
- 2010 Merlin and Arthur the lion King
- 2020 Fate/Grand Order THE MOVIE -Divine Realm of the Round Table (two parts)
- 2020 Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs
- 2021 Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob