I's quite a confession to make but I rather enjoyed this movie. That may be because Disney live-action films have become more sophisticated since I last saw one or it could be due to the strong British influence in this particular production. At times, in fact, it seemed almost Monty Pythonesque in its approach, reminding me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Jabberwocky. Not, I hasten to add, that it's as funny or in as excellent bad taste as the above two films – the aim of the Disney organisation is still, after all, to provide family entertainment – it's just that it was more amusing than I expected a Disney film had the right to be. But perhaps the Disney concept of what constitutes family entertainment is beginning to change ... I mean there are even some jokes about sex in this film, a subject that never reared its head in the Disney films of my youth (it was all dogs, horses, penguins, bears and the occasional giant squid).
With The Spaceman and King Arthur the Disney people do at least have the advantage of having a good, reliable tale to base their picture on – that of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. As far as I know it's been filmed at least three times before: back in the silent days, in 1933 with Will Rogers and in 1940 with Bing Crosby - and the device of having some modern character get knocked on the head and dream he's back in the past (it's invariably medieval or Roman times) has been exploited countless times by film makers. Most of the humour is generated by t he culture clash – confusion over the difference in customs, amusing anachronisms, misunderstanding of slang and so on. The only major difference in this Disney version is that the hero goes back via a time warp rather than by a bang on the head.
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