King Arthur Collection (242 page)

Film, TV and Theatrical Adaptations
 

The Matter of Britain stories, focusing on King Arthur, are one of the most popular literary subjects of all time, and have been adapted numerous times in every form of media. Catalogued here are the most notable adaptations in in film, TV, stage, comics, music, and even games.

Film Adaptations
 

• Parsifal (1904)
  
• Launcelot and Elaine (1909)
  
• Il Re Artù e i cavalieri della tavola rotonda (1910)
  
• Parsifal (1912)
  
• The Quest of the Holy Grail (1915)
  
• The Adventures of Sir Galahad (serial) (1949)
  
• Knights of the Round Table (1953), based on Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory, with Robert Taylor as Lancelot, Ava Gardner as Guinevere, and Mel Ferrer in the role of Arthur.
  
• Parsifal (1953)
  
• The Black Knight (1954)
  
• Prince Valiant (1954)
  
• The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (serial) (1956)
  
• Lancelot and Guinevere (1963), a film directed by Cornel Wilde and starring Mr. Wilde as Lancelot, Jean Wallace as Guinevere, and Brian Aherne as Arthur
  
• Siege of the Saxons (1963)
  
• Camelot (1967), film adaptation of the successful 1960 Broadway musical of the same name, in turn heavily based on the last three of T.H.White's quartet of novels. It starred Richard Harris as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guenevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot.
  
• Gawain and the Green Knight (1973)
  
• Lancelot du Lac (1974)
  
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
  
• Perceval le Gallois (1978)
  
• Parzival (1980)
  
• Excalibur (1981), John Boorman's film based largely on Malory and probably the highest rated serious Arthurian film. It features Nicol Williamson as Merlin and Helen Mirren as Morgan Le Fay.
  
• Parsifal (1982) (a film version of the performance of the Wagner opera by Hans-Jurgen Syberberg)
  
• Camelot (a videotaped stage performance of the musical, presented on HBO) (1982)
  
• Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)
  
• Merlin and the Sword (aka Arthur the King),TV movie (1982,aired 1985)
  
• Les Chevaliers de la table ronde (1990)
  
• Ginevra (1992)
  
• Guinevere (1994)
  
• First Knight (1995), movie based on the abduction of Guinevere by the knight Malagant. It featured Sean Connery as Arthur, Richard Gere as Lancelot, and Julia Ormond as Guinevere.
  
• Prince Valiant (1997)
  
• The Mists of Avalon (2001)
  
• King Arthur (2004), claiming (despite being heavily criticized for its historical inaccuracies) to be more historically accurate about the legend of Arthur as a 5th-century, British-born, Roman commander, with respect to new archaeological findings; similar in story line to Jack Whyte's books.
  
• The Last Legion (2007)
  
• Pendragon: Sword of His Father (2008)
  
• Merlin and the War of the Dragons (2008)
  
• Merlin and the Book of Beasts (2009), Laura Harris plays the daughter of Guenevere and Arthur. She must defeat Mordred her half brother and his book of beasts.
  
• Choir of Camelot (2009)
  

• Knights of the Square Table (1917)
  
• King Arthur Was a Gentleman (1942)
  
• Knightriders (1981)
  
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
  
• The Fisher King (1991)
  
• Seaview Knights (1994)
  
• The Four Diamonds (1995)
  
• Kids of the Round Table (1995)
  
• Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996)
  
• Lancelot, Guardian of Time (1997)
  
• Arthur's Quest (1999)
  
• Merlin the Return (2000)
  
• Avalon (2001)
  
• Stargate SG1 Season 9 to 10 (2006–2007)
  
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
  
• Avalon High (TV 2010)
  

• The Sword in the Stone (1963), Disney animated film about Arthur's childhood, loosely adapted from T.H. White's take on the legend.
  
• Arthur! and the Square Knights of the Round Table - Australian animated cartoon series of the late 1960s
  
• A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur's Court (1978)
  
• King Arthur - Japanese animated cartoon series (1979-1980)
  
• Merlin and the Dragons (1991)
  
• The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991–1994)
  
• King Arthur & the Knights of Justice (1992–1993)
  
• Quest for Camelot (1998)
  
• Tristan et Yseut (2002)
  
• Fate/stay night (2006)
  
• A scene in No Time for Nuts (2007)
  
• Shrek the Third (2007)
  
• Fate/Zero (2011)
  

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
  
• Sir Gadabout: The Worst Knight in the Land (2002)
  

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1921)
  
• A Connecticut Yankee (1931)
  
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), a musical film adaptation of Twain's novel, with Bing Crosby as the time-traveling Yankee and Cedric Hardwicke as Arthur.
  
• A Connecticut Yankee (1955 TV movie)
  
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1970)
  
• Unidentified Flying Oddball, also known as The Spaceman and King Arthur (1979)
  
• New Adventures of a Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1988)
  
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1989 TV movie)
  
• Army of Darkness (1992)
  
• A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1995)
  
• A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995)
  
• A Knight in Camelot (1998)
  
• Black Knight (2001)
  

• Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness has time-travelling hero Ash meet a king called Arthur, in 14th century England.
  
• Shrek the Third has a character named Arthur "Artie" Pendragon (voiced by Justin Timberlake), who is the next king of Far Far Away.
  
• The Last Legion - a film about the last Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus who survives his fall from power and finds a new life in Britain. The movie links Romulus to the legends of King Arthur. In this movie, Arthur's father Uther Pendragon is brought up by a Roman general and a Malayalee woman (Aishwarya Rai)
  
• The Mighty - A story about two children in whose exploits are influenced by the story of King Arthur.
  

Television
 

• The 1998 television mini series Merlin showing a tale of Arthur and his knights.
  
• Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon was made into a miniseries by TNT in 2001.
  
• BBC Series The Legend of King Arthur 1979 directed by Rodney Bennett Released BBC Video 1985 BBCV 9024
  

• The 2004 History Channel special Quest for King Arthur, hosted by Patrick Stewart, with an introduction by Ioan Gruffudd, highlights several historical figures who may have contributed to Arthurian legend. It was shown on the History Channel just prior to the release of the film King Arthur (2004), which featured Gruffudd as the character Lancelot and doing a voice-over introduction. The obvious tie-in was to assert the historical accuracy of the film.
  

• The 1950s British television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, based around the knight's exploits, featured Arthur and many other characters from the legends. This was the first British television series ever to be made in colour (although surviving episodes are in black and white) and one of the first to be aired by an American network.
  
• The 1970s British television series, Arthur of the Britons, starring Oliver Tobias, sought to create a more "realistic" portrait of the period and to explain the origins of some of the myths about the Celtic leader.
  
• The French series Kaamelott features a humorous take on the legend.
  
• The 2008 BBC series Merlin is a reimagining of the legend in which the future King Arthur and Merlin are young contemporaries, however Arthur's father Uther Pendragon has banned magic in Camelot on pain of death. It showed the growth of King Arthur from a young, self-absorbed boy to the mighty king we all know as well as Merlin's colossal role in the creating the powerful Camelot. It was immensely popular and very well received by the public. It ran for five seasons and ended in December 2012, with a total of 65 episodes.
  
• Camelot is a series on Starz that debuted April 1, 2011. It begins at the very earliest story, with twenty year-old, long lost son Arthur being crowned king after half-sister Morgan poisons their father King Uther. A more adult-oriented take on the Arthurian legends than the concurrent series Merlin, it was cancelled after one season.
  

• The late 1969 Australian animated cartoon series Arthur! and the Square Knights of the Round Table was a typically wacky take on Arthurian legend.
  
• King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Entaku no Kishi Monogatari: Moero Arthur), a Japanese anime series produced by Toei Animation in 1979, followed by King Arthur: Prince on White Horse (Moero Arthur: Hakuba no Oji) in 1980
  
• The animated series The Legend of Prince Valiant followed the adventures of three young warriors training to become Knights of the Round Table. Originally aired in the early 1990s, it featured Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, and Gawain in its main cast and several other Arthurian characters in recurring roles.
  
• The animated series King Arthur & the Knights of Justice premiering in 1992 featured an American Football team called the Knights led by quarterback Arthur King. When the "real" Knights of the Round Table are captured, Merlin magically transports the Knights football team to Camelot to defend the kingdom and rescue the captured knights. The show was cancelled in 1993.
  
• The British animated cartoon series King Arthur's Disasters in 2005. Where Arthur is voiced by Rik Mayall.
  
• In the Japanese anime adaption of the visual novel Fate/stay night, Arthur is portrayed as having been a woman (named Arturia) whose spirit is resurrected to serve a mage in the modern day with history recording her as a man for political correctness. She reprises this role in Fate/zero.
  

• The animated series Gargoyles featured several tales of Arthur (who was prematurely awakened in Avalon by Elisa Maza in a time of need) and the magic and inhabitants of Avalon. Arthur would later deputize a London Clan gargoyle, "Griff", as his knight and champion within the storyline. A proposed spin-off, named "Pendragon", for the character never materialized.
  
• The 100th episode of the television show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Once Upon A Future King, featured a young Arthur sent back in time by Merlin to learn from Hercules.
  
• Arthurian legend is central to the plot during the 9th and 10th seasons of the science-fiction series Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007). The idea was that, like other mythologies present in the show, the legends were influenced by the interference of powerful alien beings—in this case Merlin and Morgan le Fay—with the people of Earth. Other notable elements of Arthurian legend used in the show include Avalon (the place where Merlin showed Arthur how to ascend to a "higher plane of existence") and the Sangraal (Holy Grail), actually a powerful weapon created by Merlin, capable of destroying ascended beings. It was hidden by Morgan le Fay, who set up a series of tests to prevent the weapon from falling into the wrong hands.
  
• King Arthur appears in the Babylon 5 Episode "A Late Delivery from Avalon." See Babylon 5 influences for more discussion on the King Arthur myths evident in Babylon 5.
  
• In the seventh season of MacGyver, the two part episode "Good Knight MacGyver" has MacGyver apparently transported to the court of Camelot after a blow to the head.
  
• In the sixth season of the supernatural drama Charmed, King Arthur is reincarnated in Wyatt Halliwell, Piper (a Charmed One) and Leo's (a powerful whitelighter) first-born, a twice-blessed child believed to be the future leader of the magical community, as prophesied by an apothecary from the 18th century.
  
• The Doctor Who serial "Battlefield" is based on the Arthurian legends, featuring Mordred and Morgaine as warlords from another dimension, as well as the Seventh Doctor discovering that he will apparently become their version of Merlin in his future. The earlier serial The Stones of Blood indicated that Morgaine was based on an alien posing as a Celtic goddess. The later BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel Wolfsbane features the amnesic Eighth Doctor working with a young man from Arthur's era who has been awakened in 1936, having been imprisoned by a dryad after discovering the Holy Grail, to defeat a woman who believes herself to be the reincarnation of Morgaine le Fay, the story concluding with a briefly described trip made by the Fourth Doctor- unaware of the presence of his future self- to take the young man back to his own time.
  
• Into the Labyrinth TV series, the last episode had an appearance by King Arthur.
  
• The animated series Thundercats episode, Excalibur, featured the villain Mumra disguising himself as King Arthur in order to obtain the sword Excalibur to destroy the Sword of Omens.
  
• The Pokémon episode "A Crowning Achievement!" is a subtle parody of King Arthur. In the episode, all the Slowpoke want to become Slowking, but only one, named Arthur, succeeds.
  
• In the 27th episode of The Time Tunnel (1967), Merlin presses the time travelers into service to help preserve the life of young Arthur Pendragon so that he may become king in his future.
  
• In an episode of the Nickelodeon television series Fairly Odd Parents, Timmy wishes himself back to the time of King Arthur and Excalibur.
  
• The TV Anime Code Geass Features many mecha, battleships, locations, and people named after various characters from King Arthur's Story.
  
• In the Anime / Manga Cardfight!! Vanguard two units from the Royal Paladin clan are possibly based on King Arthur; King of Knights, Alfred and Alfred Early respectively.