Still holds the test of time pretty well.

The plot is alright enough, but it seems to end on an unresolved chord. It's very abrupt; Arthur wants to run away from his responsibilities as a young king. Clearly his biggest challenges lie ahead of him. But none of that matters to Merlin, who just tells him, they'll write stories about you, you'll go down in history!! This attitude is destructive. You don't want a young person thinking that their battles have already been won, that they don't have to worry about anything the rest of their lives. In medieval times, the king wasn't *supposed* to be a slob that just sat there grinning that he won the throne (and yes, the throne of any kingdom was contantly contested by those who had any claim, so it had to be won). The reason western society rejected kings is because it was proven, through trial and error, that serfdoms, feudalisms, and monarchies weren't and could never be meritocratic. But at the time, when it was all they knew, the king was the leader of the country, and nobody tended to like him when he was full of himself and thought he could do whatever he wanted. This is exactly why the story of Arthur was so significant to the period; it encapsulated the idea that a King, in order to be a good King, must  first be a good *man*. This is exactly why the sword couldn't be pulled by the vast majority of the men in the kingdom; they were all vying to fill the power vacuum, as men are wont to do, when the person who truly deserved the kingdom was the person who didn't want it in the first place. In truth, nobody truly wanted the kingdom, because being the king comes with responsibilities. The people who wanted the kingdom wanted to abuse the position of power. This is certainly very politically relevant today. But in context of the final scene in the film, Merlin's words of encouragement are useful in that Arthur should feel confident in his responsibility, but what it would result in is a lack of fortitude, conviction, and discipline that leads to complicit behavior that leads to oppression, and beyond.

Merlin's character is interesting. I forgot that he was a time traveller. But I do wonder if he's potentially from further into the future than we would think. This comes out of the poignant question of the difference between technology and magic; that when we don't know how it works, we may think technology is magic. I wonder if he uses technology to do his magic and just guises it as magic in the medieval situation. But I do kind of wonder how his foresight works. He knows someone will be dropping in, but not exactly. I wonder if it's similar to some kind of forecast, or a mathematical algorithm that simulates what will happen, which is why he went to the dark ages. I find it interesting that he calls the 20th century "one modern mess." Sort of makes you think, that he starts out the film with disdain for medieval times, but upon returning to later times, finds that humans still haven't figured out how to create a utopia, and that maybe we've always been the best we can be at any given time...

I like Madam Mim's line, where she says that to her, Good is Bad. This is simplified, but it actually highlights the key difference between a good and bad villain/antagonist, as I expounded upon in my last review. She's saying that all that Merlin thinks is good, she has the opposite perspective. It's not saying that she knows she's bad and is proud of it, it's saying she knows Merlin thinks she's bad, but she disagrees and doubles down. Like, "sure, if you want to call me bad, I guess I'll own that". It's self-justifying, self-righteous behavior, and highlighting that weakness in antagonists like her is exactly how to make a good villain.

Not perfect, but pretty charming from Disney as always. If every new Disney film were like this, they'd have a lot more social capital with me. Not great, but stands for something and tells a coherent, albeit flawed story, making up for a plot that expires somewhat towards the end. Perhaps an additional five minutes to tie up loose ends would go a long way.