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It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since the Disney classic A Kid in King Arthur’s Court hit theaters and changed lives. To think, one movie introduced an entire generation to Arthurian legend, the work of Mark Twain, and the time-travel movie genre all with a single swing of its broadsword. We truly live in a post-AKiKAC world.
Okay—I’m obviously exaggerating the importance of A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (although I have to admit, AKiKAC is a righteous acronym and I’m gonna make it happen). In the grand pantheon of ’90s live-action Disney movies, it was definitely not up there with Flubber or The Santa Clause. It wasn’t even on the level of Blank Check or Angels in the Outfield. AKiKAC came and went in theaters, and of course I saw it in the theater because I was 11. It was my sworn duty as a tween to see any Disney movie in the theater, including First Kid (which somehow did better at the box office than AKiKAC!).
This may be why two actors have been able to coast by for a quarter-century without it becoming common knowledge that two of the biggest stars of the past 25 years are in this movie: Kate Winslet and Daniel Craig.
Yeah—Oscar-winner Kate Winslet and Daniel “James Bond” Craig are somehow both in A Kid in King’ Arthur’s Court, a film that is so deeply silly that I feel it’s disrespectful to the term “hijinks” to apply it to this movie. But there they are—Kate Winslet, playing the eldest daughter of King Arthur between her roles in Heavenly Creatures and Sense & Sensibility.
And there he is—Daniel Craig, playing King Arthur’s #1 Knight. He’s 11 years away from becoming the most iconic spy in history, and he’s sporting the exact same hairstyle that every single 11-year-old boy had at the time.
Honey, that bowl cut made me feel seen in 1995.
You can tell that Winslet and Craig’s stars were burning at 1/1000th of their peak luminosity because they get 5th and 6th billing in the credits, respectively. And since this movie didn’t even come close to hitting the popularity heights of, say, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Winslet and Craig’s latter success allowed their roles as Princess Sarah and Sir Kane to become lost in time.
Not anymore! This movie is streaming on Disney+, along with Jungle 2 Jungle! It’s time to revisit the role that definitely did not make Kate Winslet or Daniel Craig famous—and, in fact, is probably a movie that both Kate Winslet and Daniel Craig would kindly like you to forget. Can you imagine if this was the film that launched their careers? The Kate and Daniel that exist in the post-AKiKAC world I described at the start of this article play nothing but royalty and knights in endless medieval dramas. There’s a different Rose clutching that chunk of wood in those icy waters, and another beefcake James Bond in those teeny tiny blue swim trunks. No thanks!
And to be honest, AKiKAC is not a… good movie. It’s a ridiculous movie where, every now and then, you get to think to yourself, “Wait a second—that’s a 7-time Oscar nominee and f’ing Benoit Blanc sharing a scene and swapping spit.”
Honestly, if that’s not a major selling point for watching A Kid in King Arthur’s Court 25 years after it did next to nothing at the box office, I don’t know what is. All hail A Kid in King Arthur’s Court—the mediocre movie that thankfully did not make either of these icons famous!
