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Quest for Camelot
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==Production== In May 1995, ''The Quest for the Grail'' was [[Warner Bros. Feature Animation]]'s first announced project. [[Bill Kroyer]] and [[Frederik Du Chau]] were announced as the directors, with Sue Kroyer serving as co-producer. Elizabeth Chandler, who had co-written the screenplay for ''[[A Little Princess (1995 film)|A Little Princess]]'' (1995), was enlisted to write the script, but was eventually replaced by a trio of writers before [[Kirk DeMicco]] eventually got the job (who would go on to direct animated features such as the 2023 film ''[[Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken]]''). 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 [[Red Knight|a ruthless and powerful knight]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Berman|first=Art|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-26-ca-6143-story.html|title=Movies: Warners Does a Disney|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=May 26, 1995|access-date=September 8, 2017|archive-date=May 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524171255/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-26-ca-6143-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> According to [[Lauren Faust]], who was an animator for the film, it was initially envisioned with a [[Motion Picture Association film rating system#Ratings|PG-13 rating]] and was meant to draw homage to [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s ''[[Wizards (film)|Wizards]]'' (1977), but it was changed to be more family-friendly to compete with the [[Disney Renaissance]] films.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-05-11 |title=Why Lauren Faust Hated Camelot |url=https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13051478140A91478000 |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=[[TV Tropes]] |archive-date=March 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240319220531/https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13051478140A91478000 |url-status=live }}</ref> The film was put into production before the story was finalized. However, during the fall of 1995, the animators were reassigned to finish ''[[Space Jam]]'' (1996). Meanwhile, in April 1996, [[Christopher Reeve]] was cast as King Arthur.<ref name="Reeve">{{cite press release|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Christopher+Reeve+signed+to+provide+character+voice+for+Warner+Bros....-a018146804|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909095622/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Christopher+Reeve+signed+to+provide+character+voice+for+Warner+Bros....-a018146804|title=Christopher Reeve signed to provide character voice for Warner Bros. Feature Animation's ''The Quest For Camelot''|agency=[[Business Wire]]|via=[[TheFreeDictionary.com#TheFreeLibrary.com|TheFreeLibrary.com]]|archive-date=September 9, 2017|date=April 1, 1996|access-date=August 12, 2019}}</ref> During the interim, several story changes were made that resulted in creative differences between the Kroyers and the studio management. In particular, Excalibur replaced the Holy Grail, which Warner Bros. Feature Animation president [[Max Howard]] felt better reflected the film's setting: "The symbol of Camelot is the power of Excalibur, and that became a more interesting theme: Whoever held the sword, held the power."<ref name="BoxofficeGrail" /> By the middle of 1996, the Kroyers were allegedly fired by Howard,<ref name="MisguidedQuest">{{cite news|last=Wells|first=Jeffrey|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60193384/article-about-quest-for-camelot/|title=A Misguided 'Quest'?|newspaper=[[The Record (Bergen County)|The Record]]|page=41|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|date=February 27, 1998|access-date=November 25, 2018}} {{Open access}}</ref> who later moved on to developing another project at Warner Bros. Feature Animation.<ref name="BoxofficeGrail" /> Following the departure of the Kroyers, two supervising animators along with several employees in the studio's art department subsequently left the project.<ref name="MisguidedQuest" /><ref>{{cite news|last=Horn|first=John|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-01-ca-64365-story.html|title=Can Anyone Dethrone Disney?|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=June 1, 1997|access-date=November 25, 2018|archive-date=March 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311144817/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-01-ca-64365-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The film's initial producer, Frank Gladstone, left the project in February 1997 and was replaced with Dalisa Cohen.<ref name="MisguidedQuest" /> Effects supervisor [[Michel Gagné]] recalled that "People were giving up. The head of layout was kicked out, the head of background, the executive producer, the producer, the director, the associate producer—all the heads rolled. It's kind of a hard environment to work in."<ref name=beck/>{{rp|218}} Eventually, Du Chau was promoted to be the film's director.<ref name="MisguidedQuest" /> Meanwhile, Reeve was replaced by [[Pierce Brosnan]] when he became unavailable to record new dialogue.<ref name=beck>{{cite book|title=The Animated Movie Guide|last=Beck|first=Jerry|url=https://archive.org/details/animatedmoviegui0000beck|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/animatedmoviegui0000beck/page/217 217]|quote=Quest for Camelot jerry beck.|publisher=[[Chicago Review Press]]|year=2005|isbn=978-1556525919}}</ref>{{rp|217}}<ref name="BoxofficeGrail" /> In an article in ''[[Animation Magazine]]'', Chrystal Klabunde, the leading animator of Garrett, stated, "It was top heavy. All the executives were happily running around and playing executive, getting corner offices—but very few of them had any concept about animation at all, about doing an animated film. It never occurred to anybody at the top that they had to start from the bottom and build that up. The problems were really coming at the inexperience of everyone involved. Those were people from [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Disney]] that had the idea that you just said, 'Do it,' and it gets done. It never occurred to them that it got done because Disney had an infrastructure in place, working like clockwork. We didn't have that."<ref name=beck/>{{rp|218}} Reportedly, "cost overruns and production nightmares" led the studio to "reconsider their commitment to feature animation."<ref name=Miller/> Filmmaker [[Brad Bird]] (who directed ''[[The Iron Giant]]'', Warner Bros.' next animated film) thought that micromanaging, which he said had worked well for Disney but not for Warner Bros., had been part of the problem.<ref name=Miller>{{cite web |url=http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=1185 |title=Lean, Mean Fighting Machine: How Brad Bird Made The Iron Giant |access-date=December 9, 2008 |last=Miller |first=Bob |date=August 1, 1999 |work=Animation World Magazine |publisher=[[Animation World Network]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203154900/http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=1185 |archive-date=February 3, 2009|url-status=dead }}</ref> ===Animation=== The film was mainly animated at the main Warner Bros. Feature Animation facility located in [[Glendale, California]] and [[London]], [[England]].<ref name="Reeve" /> In January 1996, the London animation studio was opened where more than 50 animators were expected to animate 20 minutes of animation, which would be sent back to Glendale to be [[Traditional animation#ink and paint|inked-and-painted]].<ref>{{cite press release|title=Warner to open London animation studio|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920045036/http://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/01/05/Warner-to-open-London-animation-studio/1680820818000/|url=http://www.upi.com/Archives/1996/01/05/Warner-to-open-London-animation-studio/1680820818000/|location=[[Burbank, California]]|agency=Warner Bros.|via=[[United Press International]]|url-status=live|date=January 5, 1996|access-date=September 19, 2017|archive-date=September 20, 2017}}</ref> Additional studios that worked on the film included [[Yowza! Animation]] in [[Toronto, Ontario]], where they assisted in [[Cleanup (animation)|clean-up]] animation,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.durhamcollege.ca/new-notable/focus-on-innovation/durham-college-and-yowza-digital-inc-announce-research-agreement-to-create-new-transmedia-production-process|title=Durham College and Yowza Digital Inc. announce research agreement to create new transmedia production process|publisher=[[Durham College]]|date=August 19, 2010|access-date=September 19, 2017|archive-date=September 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920044757/http://www.durhamcollege.ca/new-notable/focus-on-innovation/durham-college-and-yowza-digital-inc-announce-research-agreement-to-create-new-transmedia-production-process|url-status=live}}</ref> Heart of Texas Productions in [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], and [[A. Film A/S]] in [[Copenhagen]] where, along with London, about a quarter of the film was animated overseas.<ref name=beck/>{{rp|218}}<ref>{{cite news|last=Solomon|first=Charles|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-03-ca-18862-story.html|title=Drawing on Talent Overseas|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=August 3, 1997|access-date=September 8, 2017|archive-date=November 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121221628/http://articles.latimes.com/1997/aug/03/entertainment/ca-18862|url-status=live}}</ref> The supervising animators were [[Nassos Vakalis|Athanassios Vakalis]] for Kayley, Chrystal Klabunde for Garrett, Cynthia Overman for Juliana, [[Alexander Williams (cartoonist)|Alexander Williams]] for Ruber, Dan Wagner for Devon and Cornwall, Stephan Franck for the Griffin and Bladebeak, and [[Mike Nguyen]] for Ayden.<ref name="ProductionNotes">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030816150610/http://www.filmscouts.com/scripts/matinee.cfm?Film=que-cam&File=productn|url=http://www.filmscouts.com/scripts/matinee.cfm?Film=que-cam&File=productn|title=Quest for Camelot: About The Production|publisher=Film Scouts|archive-date=August 16, 2003|access-date=September 8, 2017}}</ref> To create the rock-like [[ogre]] and other computer-generated effects, the production team used [[Silicon Graphics]]' [[Alias Research]] software. According to Katherine Percy, the head of CGI effects, the software was originally designed for special effects used in live-action films.<ref name="ProductionNotes" /><ref name=AnimationProcess>{{cite AV media |title=Quest for Camelot – Special Features: The Animation Process (text) | type=DVD | publisher=Warner Home Video |date=1998 }}</ref>
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