Arthur! And the Square Knights of the Round Table

I have fond memories of 'Arthur And His Square Knights Of The Round Table' as I used to watch it as a pre school kid back in the late '60s. The Lancelot character always stuck in my mind because of his whistling 'ess' sounds. When recalling children's Television programmes down the pub I found that no-one remembered it but me and I only later discovered that it was only seen in the UK on certain regional commercial channels and having lived at the bottom of a hill, I was one of the few locals in our area to receive this alternative signal. About a year ago I was browsing in a second hand VHS store and found a compilation of 6 episodes, 'There's An Elephant At The Drawbridge', 'A Nice Knight For A Wedding', 'Paris Picnic', 'Octopus', 'Would You Believe A Beanstalk' and 'Which Wizard Versus Which Witch'. This was available on 'The Family Hit! Collection' produced by Castle Communications PLC. The quality is excellent as is the sound. Hope this is of use! Les.

Les.

Well, it had to be: it was the first one. At least, to the best of my understanding, 'Arthur' was the first Australian-produced TV cartoon series. It was a regular and favourite show on Sunday nights when I was a kid, and it was in fact a long, long time before I found out that it wasn't American.

Since then I've read interviews with the series' creators, who admitted they had no idea at all what they were doing. Perhaps this is why it worked so well. It had a slightly off the wall eccentricity to it which set it apart from other similar fare. The voice characterisations were great (Lancelot, Arthur and the Black Knight's voices are still embedded in my brain 35 years later. I'm fairly sure that John Meillion (known to US audiences mainly via Crocodile Dundee) was responsible for some of them, though I can't prove this.

An objective critical review of something I haven't seen since the late 60's is pretty difficult, so I won't even try: I'll just say that it has a lot of fond memories associated with it, that Black Knight was sometimes in drag, that Arthur reminded me (physically) of the King in The Wizard of Id, and that I can still hum the theme song.

It was a bunch of Australian animators having a go an art form which didn't even exist here at the time, and pulling it off surprisingly well. I saw a video of it in a supermarket about 10 years ago and am still kicking myself for not buying it.

Like the other reviewers I have never forgotten this series since seeing it. It's obviously a take on the traditional Arthur legend but done with wit and a certain sense of mad style that just works.

As an idea of what its like there is a character called Sir Jasper who is the Camelot head of security always sneaking around and wearing disguises. Thus the following exchange: Jasper: "What a marvellous disguise even my own mother wouldn't recognise me". (old lady goes past) Old Lady: "Hello Jasper" Jasper: "Hello Mother"

I was lucky enough to come across a couple of the Castle VHS tapes in a supermarket a few years ago but have never seen any since.....shame as my kids (teens) love them.

'King Arthur and the Square Knights of the Round Table' was an above-average children's cartoon series. The animation was bouncy and colourful, and the dialogue was fairly funny. The theme song is cheerful and upbeat without being funny. Nothing great here, but certainly well above the usual Saturday-morning dross.

For some reason, IMDb's listing says that this series is based on 'novels' by Chrétien de Troyes. Up to a point, Lord Copper. Chrétien de Troyes was a mediaeval historian who wrote about the Arthurian legend. This series is very nominally based on King Arthur and the legend of Camelot, but its historical content is nil. In fact, we get all the usual misconceptions about Arthur: ie, his knights wore armour, rode horses, and so forth. The real Arthur, if he existed at all, dwelt in sixth-century Cornwall: hardly mediaeval, and no horses nor armour were on offer at the real Camelot.

But this cartoon series is meant to be funny, not a history lesson. It largely succeeds in its humour. The King Arthur depicted here is a jovial little runt, a good-natured version of the king in 'The Wizard of Id'. He frequently addresses his wife Guinevere as 'little queen', even though (as drawn here) she's nearly twice his height. Interestingly, Queen Guinevere in this children's cartoon series is drawn with cleavage ... an artistic device that would never have been accepted if this series had been produced in America!

The resident villains are the Black Knight and the seductive witch Morgan Le Fay, always plotting to take over Camelot. For some reason, the scripters of this series had a penchant for gags involving big brawny men in dainty female disguises. There are several episodes in which the Black Knight or some other macho villain ends up unconvincingly disguised as a damsel. The genuinely female characters in this series - both goodie and baddie - are drawn to look quite attractive without ever being sexualised like the characters in Japanese anime. The villains are very non-threatening; there's never any doubt that Camelot will safely remain in Arthur's capable hands. The violence is far less than usual; more cartoonish and less distressing than is typical for this sort of fare. The voice talent for this series, male and female, are above average yet not in any way distinctive.

'King Arthur and the Square Knights of the Round Table' is no milestone in comedy nor in animation, but it's much better (and funnier) than most other children's cartoons, and the sprightly animation is distinctive. And I can still hum that theme song after all these decades. I'll vote this series 7 out of 10.

It's funny how far a little creativity can go... There is no way that the Austrailian (Really? Blew my mind when I found this out) authors of these zany pieces could have thought that kids in Africa living rooms would be tuning in to watch when it hit the screens of the Lagos State broadcaster TWO DECADES later, yet I and probably several thousand now-middle-aged Nigerians grew up watching endless repeats of a dozen or so episodes of A&TSKOTRT. I'm still wracking my head trying to remember the names of the haunting tune that was used for continuity (of course the Theme Song itself is indelible "...if you're locked up in a tower/he's at rescues on the hour/ he's Aurthur! Aurthur!) but there were one or two sax pieces which I can only vaguely grasp and it's KILLING ME to recall now. Anyway, I never tired of it then, and I'd bet my kids and I would still love it now...