Score: 30/30
St: *****
Cr: *****
Co: *****
Vs: *****
Au: *****
Fn: *****
Rated PG
Size: 7.69 MB  |
Description:
Welcome to world of The Knights of Camelot, a rich fantasy land of high adventure, incredible riches, good friends, and dastardly foes. Join Sir Flodbottom, a brave warrior and former soldier, Jimmy, his eccentric midget friend, and Sir Bugger, a one-armed genius, as they embark on a quest for the legendary treasure of Camelot. SuperSonic Pictures blasts into the foreground once again with this absolutely fabulous movie, one that you simply cannot miss if you value your sense of humor. Smooth, witty, and very lifelike, The Knights of Camelot is an instant classic if I ever saw one. Highly, highly recommended.
Storyline: *****
Okay, so here's the gist of the story. Sir Flodbottom finds a map to the treasure of Camelot, picks up some sidekicks for the journey, and sets off to find it. Of course, somebody is out to foil his endeavors. Simple, right? Well, actually, that's absolutely right… and that's one of the reasons this movie is absolutely wonderful. Its underlying premise is too weak to really make it on its own; as such, it requires additional stories to help it up, more specifically stories of friendship. And that is what Knights is all about… comradery in the face of adversary, hard times, and, well, unusual circumstances. And funny ones. Such a basic message, portrayed so subtly yet so well at the same time, is one of the many things about Knights that makes it an absolute gem.
Creativity: *****
Creativity in a movie often comes in just one aspect. For example, a director may have a whiz-bang idea of how to make a super-ultra-HOLY-COW realistic explosion, or perhaps there's a neato plot twist that nobody else would ever think of. In these cases, the resulting movie usually revolves around that one aspect; though unique and cool, it's just one aspect. The Knights of Camleot is an example of a well-rounded movie in the sense that there is no clear-cut point at which the film shouts, "Okay, pay attention, this is where my genius comes in!" True geniuses don't need to go around proclaiming it... and Knights truly is pure genius. Several very unique and developed characters populate the film, and they live in a one-of-a-kind fantasy realm somehow stuck in 3DMM. Witty humor permeates this realm, and the little oddities that make life interesting and fun to live are all present. What a deal for just eight megs, huh?
Construction: *****
One of the first things you will probably notice about The Knights of Camelot after you download and open it up in 3DMM is that there are no actors. That's right, none at all. That is because the entire movie is made out of props and 3D words, including the characters. Not only does this allow the movie to take on any shape imaginable (in this case, medieval Camelot), it also allows for infinite creativity in the characters. There are several distinct "types" of characters in this movie, all of which are built exceptionally well and are very lifelike. One of the most wonderful features about the characters are their very humanlike facial expressions. Some are quite obvious while others are quite subtle, but the full range of expressions exist and that calls for some extreme applause. For crying out loud, we even have lip-synching with these cartoony characters, too! Well, that is, if the characters have mouths… otherwise, I suppose you could call it teeth-synching. In any case, one of the things that I was very pleased to see about Knights was that it was not ALL about the handmade characters. That is to say, Tom didn't make a spiffy movie to showcase his neat HMC techniques; he made a movie to showcase his directing abilities, and those abilities encompass a LOT more than just stellar HMCs. While many of the scenes may not be the most visually stunning ones that are possible in 3DMM, the fact of the matter is they are built WELL. This entire movie is built well. Amazingly well. It's one of the most movie-like movies here on Dragon Films.
Visual Appearance: *****
These days there is a lot of controversy over just how much graphics should play into movies, video games, what have you... and 3DMM is no exception. You have people who proclaim that graphics should contribute NOTHING to a movie whatsoever and that if you spend more than five minutes building a scene you should be shot... and then you have people who decide to devote 99.9% of the construction time of a movie to making it look as lifelike as possible, and then stick 0.1% worth of story, characters, music, continuity, etc. etc. into it seconds before you release it to the world. I think The Knights of Camelot is a good film to reinforce the standpoint of this issue that I personally believe in: you make your movie the way it is supposed to be. Sure, Tom could have gone all-out and spent another year adding all sorts of nice eye-candy to the film, and it sure would have made it look a lot cooler. But, in my honest opinion, Knights didn't need much more than it had. While a lot of the texturing was done using cubes and spheres so that you had the default 3DMM shading most of the time, I think that fit the "visual mood" of the movie quite well. Of course, this is not to say the movie doesn't look fantastic anyway. The director's persistence in getting it to look right really, really shows.
Audio: *****
First of all, I must say that the voice acting in Knights was some of the finest I've heard in a long time. Each character has a very distinct voice, both aurally and in terms of their inner character, something that a lot of movies don't manage to pull off. Sound effects were placed and adjusted very well and the choice of music was fantastic, but I really think the place this movie absolutely shines is in the voice acting. Sir Bugger's dry, drab, logical drawl, Jimmy's overenthusiastic chattering, Sir Flodbottom's cool-headed and straightforward assertiveness, King Arthur's maniacal... er, voice. They're all absolutely wonderful. Even the minor and "extra" characters are very well-done; no aural stone was left unturned, if you know what I mean. Heh heh, yeah, that was awful.
Fun to Watch: *****
Back so many years ago when Tom first told me that he was making a movie consisting completely of handmade characters, I was quite impressed. Back then, something of that magnitude was quite unheard of... at least, in terms of the complexity that he spoke of. To be honest, I was skeptical for a little while, and for the longest time I thought the project had been scrapped because I hadn't heard a peep about it for a while. But let me tell you, I'm absolutely thrilled to have had the opportunity to finally watch such a masterpiece. This movie is short enough to watch over and over with your friends, and fun enough to keep you amused as you show it again for the twentieth time. It's paced just like a really good short flick should be paced: it's not an epic crammed into 15 minutes, nor is it a cheesy joke stretched out longer than it's worth. It is The Knights of Camelot, a movie I am glad to add to my mental list of "All-Time Favorite Movies in 3DMM." I highly, highly recommend this film; it appeals to people of all ages, carries a simple, true message, and, gosh dang it, it's a blast to watch. My hat goes off to SuperSonic Productions and Actual Reality Pictures. What an awesome job. Congratulations!
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The Theater
