A Disney Surprise

I was perhaps a little hard on Disney in my last post for committing the crime of not being all they are cracked up to be if you're looking for movies for preschoolers. But we recently stumbled on a forgotten classic. I don't think any of us had ever seen The Sword in the Stone, but it was excellent.
One of my pet peeves about kid's movies is this standard plot structure:

1. main character has a flaw/makes a bad decision
2. problems ensue
3. main character wises up 
4. credits role

This plot is presented as educational, but the moral only comes out in the last five minutes of the movie. The preschool viewer spends over an hour watching the person they are supposed to identify with acting the wrong way, and five minutes looking at good behavior. I don't know about you, but my kids remember the bad behavior. And copy it forever after.
The Sword in the Stone does not use this plot. Nor does it have a standard good guy/bad guy story either. In fact, it is based on T.H. White's Once and Future King. I just read this book last year, and think it is brilliant. Disney did a remarkable job of staying true to a story that is way above the target age. Of course they stop short of the whole Guinevere mess, and wisely focus on Arthur's education.
My two year old was a little nervous when the giant pike almost ate Arthur, but the wizard's duel and squirrel courtship had my seven year old (and me) laughing out loud. 
I couldn't believe that I had never seen this movie before, because now that I have, it is my opinion that The Sword in the Stone is one of the best movies Disney ever made.