A 1995 Disney flop that launched the careers of two future Hollywood icons
In short: Before they were household names, Daniel Craig and Kate Winslet appeared in this 1995 fantasy adventure. Loosely inspired by Mark Twain, the film follows a California teenager transported to Camelot, where he uses modern gadgets to save King Arthur’s throne. Despite critical panning, it remains a curious piece of cinematic history.
Released on August 11, 1995, A Kid in King Arthur's Court was directed by Michael Gottlieb in his final film before his 2014 death. The story centers on 14-year-old Calvin Fuller, a baseball player from Reseda, Los Angeles, who is swallowed by the earth during an earthquake. He emerges in 6th-century Camelot, where he is hailed as a messianic figure predicted by Merlin. Armed with a knapsack containing a CD player, a Swiss Army knife, and inline skates, Calvin helps an elderly King Arthur navigate political betrayal by the villainous Lord Belasco.
The production utilized diverse locations, filming the 6th-century sequences in Budapest, Hungary, while the 20th-century scenes were shot in September 1994 at an American school in High Wycombe, England. The film is notable for featuring early roles for Daniel Craig and Kate Winslet, though it struggled significantly with critics. It holds a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews, with a Metacritic approval rating of 34%. Despite this, audiences polled by CinemaScore awarded the film an 'A' grade.
The narrative concludes with Calvin returning to his own time, just in time to hit a home run in his baseball game. A sequel, A Kid in Aladdin's Palace, followed in 1998, though it was released direct-to-video without Disney’s involvement. While the original film debuted at number 9 at the box office, it quickly slipped to number 10 in its second week, marking a rare misfire for the studio during that era.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: A Kid in King Arthur's Court
- Also: Wikidata — A Kid in King Arthur's Court · CC0
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