There is a certain charm in looking back at a film that you watched as a kid. 1995’s A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, from director Michael Gottlieb and writers Michael Part and Robert L. Levy, was an easy choice for family movie night. It stars Thomas Ian Nicholas as Calvin, a young baseball player from Reseda, California, who is sent back in time to King Arthur’s Court by the waterlogged wizard Merlin. As an adult, I can appreciate the originality of the adaptation, even though it’s a spin-off of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. I can also appreciate the future Oscar-winning actors and actresses who appear in the movie before they’d hit their career prime.
Calvin is thrown into a world without modern technology, but full of knights, strange rustic food, and, of course, King Arthur (Joss Ackland). But the King Arthur he meets isn’t the one he knows from legend. Calvin quickly discovers that there’s no round table, no Lancelot and Guinevere, but instead a smarmy Lord Belasco (Art Malik) stealing from Camelot’s people. Excalibur is covered with spider webs, and Merlin (Ron Moody), who died long ago, is now a disembodied head residing in a reflection in a well of water. Through the power of roller blades, rock and roll, and a Swiss army knife, Calvin restores the Camelot of legend, all while nurturing a grade school romance with King Arthur’s daughter, Princess Katey (Paloma Baeza). And oh yeah, he casually changes the course of metallurgy and blacksmithing all while doing that.
Thomas Ian Nicholas is endearing as the young lead in this film and brings a lot of the same appeal here as he did in Rookie of the Year. That film, just a few years earlier, had the actor as a baseball player too. And casting, rightly so, decided he played that niche nicely. In both instances, he’s a young teenaged baseball player thrown into an unfamiliar world. He’s believable as someone who is trying to make the best of the situation and do good, all while trying to get home. And Nicholas has enough adolescent swagger to pull off the reverse-mentorship twist in the film well, helping the elder King Arthur see what’s been going on in his kingdom and how to right it. Though this role offers up a lot of funny moments for the actor, it’s very different than his most famous comedic role that would come later in his life, in American Pie.
Kate Winslet is the other of King Arthur’s daughters, Princess Sarah, in this film. She was about 20 years old when the film came out and had only been in a few movies and shows prior to that. (It wouldn’t be until 1997 that she would become a worldwide name with Titanic.) Still, there is something truly engaging about her performance, despite her limited screen time. In the moment where she takes off her helmet and reveals that she is, spoiler alert, the Black Knight, I wanted to cheer. The idea of King Arthur having a daughter who masquerades as a knight is not new, having its basis in Irish literature 500 years ago. But that doesn’t make it any less refreshing in a Hollywood context.
On the same note of future stars, Princess Sarah’s love interest is Master Kane, played by Daniel Craig. This was eon’s before he’d be Bond and was only the actor’s third movie role. Still, his ease here, especially opposite Winslet, is interesting to watch.
Story-wise, A Kid in King Arthur’s Court is not complex. But it doesn’t have to be. Going into it, you have an expectation that it will all work out in the end. And I think this is partly because the intended audience isn’t die-hard cinephiles, but kids. I can report that 30 years later, it holds up and is captivating to children. It hits the same note that has made The Magic Treehouse series of books so successful, and serves as a scaffold for kids’ imagination. It’s hard to say whether it’s historically accurate, but the overall aesthetic of the film effectively channels the time period in England, allowing it not to distract from the unfolding story on screen. It’s similar to A Knight’s Tale in this sense.
The ending is satisfying and ties everything in a bow quite neatly – the bad guys get their comeuppance, good prevails, Camelot is restored to its rightful place, and Calvin of Reseda goes home. And there’s a little twist in the final scene on the baseball diamond that invites a sense of whimsy. A Kid in King Arthur’s Court is a charming film from a different time. Though it’s a children’s fantasy and adventure film, adults will enjoy spotting future Oscar winners in their early roles.
A Kid In King Arthur’s Court is available to stream on Disney+.
Learn more about the film, including how to watch, at the official Disney site for the title.
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