Feature Animation and directed by Frederik Du Chau and very loosely based on the 1976 novel The King's Damosel by Vera Chapman.
It features the voices of Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Eric Idle, Don Rickles, Jaleel White, Jane Seymour, Pierce Brosnan, Bronson Pinchot, Gabriel Byrne, John Gielgud (his final film), Frank Welker, and Sarah Rayne.
Andrea Corr, Bryan White, Celine Dion, and Steve Perry perform the singing voices for Gilsig, Elwes, Seymour, and Brosnan.
The story follows Kayley (Gilsig), the adventurous daughter of a Knight of the Round Table killed by the power-hungry Sir Ruber (Oldman).
When Ruber's renewed attempt to usurp Camelot from King Arthur (Brosnan) by stealing Excalibur goes awry, Kayley enlists the help of the blind hermit Garrett (Elwes) and a two-headed dragon, Devon and Cornwall (Idle and Rickles), to help her retrieve the sword and save the kingdom.
Creative differences spurred by these alterations resulted in prominent members of the animation and management staff, including Kroyer, leaving the project.
Kayley and Garrett encounter a wisecracking two-headed dragon named Devon and Cornwall, whose two heads can not stand each other and dream of being separated, and can neither fly nor breathe fire.
After reaching the end of the forest, Garrett decides to stay behind, claiming he does not belong in Camelot, and gives Excalibur to Kayley.
Bladebeak reconciles with his constantly henpecking hen and frees Kayley from her ropes, and she warns the guards of Ruber's trap, exposing him and his steel men.
Kayley and Garrett enter the castle while Devon and Cornwall rescue Ayden from the Griffin by breathing fire at the creature.
Later, with Camelot and Excalibur restored to their former glory, Kayley and Garrett marry and become Knights of the Round Table before they ride off into the distance together on their horse.
The initial story centered around a young female character named Susannah, who embarks on a dangerous quest for the Holy Grail to save her sister from a ruthless and powerful knight.
[4] Following the departure of the Kroyers, two supervising animators along with several employees in the studio's art department subsequently left the project.
[13]: 218 [17] The supervising animators were Athanassios Vakalis for Kayley, Chrystal Klabunde for Garrett, Cynthia Overman for Juliana, Alexander Williams for Ruber, Dan Wagner for Devon and Cornwall, Stephan Franck for the Griffin and Bladebeak, and Mike Nguyen for Ayden.
[18] To create the rock-like ogre and other computer-generated effects, the production team used Silicon Graphics' Alias Research software.
The fast food restaurant chain Wendy's had toys based on the characters included in a kid's meal, while Kodak had print advertisements on over 200 million photo processing envelopes.
[26] Quest for Camelot was released on VHS and DVD by Warner Home Video in the United States and Canada on October 13, 1998.
To help promote the home video release of the film, Warner partnered with Act II Popcorn, Smucker's, American Express, Continental Airlines, Best Western Hotels, CoinStar and UNICEF, which advertised its trick-or-treat donation boxes before Halloween arrived.
The website's critical consensus reads, "Diminished by uneven animation and treacly songs, Quest for Camelot is an adventure that ought to be tossed back to the Lady in the Lake.
[29] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B+ on a grade scale from A to F.[30] Owen Gleiberman, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, wrote, "The images are playful and serviceably lush, but the story and characters might have come out of a screenwriting software program, and the songs (sung by Celine Dion and Steve Perry, among others) are Vegas-pop wallpaper.
"[31] David Kronke of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "formulaic" and wrote that it was "a nearly perfect reflection of troubling trends in animated features".
He called Kayley "a standard-issue spunky female heroine" and said that "Garrett's blindness is the one adventurous element to the film, but even it seems calculated; his lack of sight is hardly debilitating, yet still provides kids a lesson in acceptance.
"[32] Critical of the story, animation, characters, and music, James Berardinelli of ReelViews wrote that the film was "dull, uninspired, and, worst of all, characterized by artwork that could charitably be called 'unimpressive.
'"[33] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "Coming on the heels of 20th Century Fox's lush but silly Anastasia (a much better film than this one), Quest for Camelot suggests that Disney still owns the artistic franchise on animated features.
"[34] Kevin J. Harty, an editor of a collection of essays titled Cinema Arthuriana, says that the film is "slightly indebted to, rather than, as Warner publicity claims, actually based on" Chapman's novel.
[35] Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the film is "a spirited adventure with generous romantic and comic charms" that "aims to please a range of ages, with loopy gags, corny romance, an oversized villain and catchy tunes performed by Celine Dion and LeAnn Rimes, among others.
"[36] Joe Leydon of Variety considered the film as a "lightweight but likable fantasy that offers a playfully feminist twist to Arthurian legends" and noted that the "animation, though not quite up to Disney standards, is impressive enough on its own terms to dazzle the eye and serve the story.