Disnability

Quest for Camelot is a fictional children’s fantasy story based loosely around King Arthur and the story of Excalibur. A brief, brief summary of the film’s story line is that the story of excalibur has been stolen and then consequently lost. Kayley, the girl in the image above, who’s father was a knight at King Arthur’s round table before he was killed, decides to go after searching for the sword. Along the way, she meets several disabled characters and picks up some friends along the way to retrieving the sword and returning to Camelot.

A better summary can be found online, but for the purposes of our disabilities focus, this will suffice. One of the major characters in the film is Garrett, who happens to be blind.


Garrett

Garrett used to be a stable boy in Camelot until an accident left him blind. After the accident, surprisingly enough, Kayley’s father taught Garrett how to survive and function with his disability. I’m not entirely sure why Garrett moved out into the wilderness alone, but i am assuming it is because he felt outcast because of his disability. He confesses in the film that he once desired to become a knight, but that dream was lost when Kayley’s father passed.

Garrett’s explains his story at approximately 6 minutes.

Garrett’s character exhibits some of the same characteristic as discussed in the “Avatar: Airbender” post written on this blog as the two characters in both films share the same disability- blindness. For most of the film, as is most children’s films, Garrett’s blindness seems to go unnoticed as he is perceived as pretty much normal. However, his blindness also causes several important scenes to occur in the film.



Now to investigate Garrett’s depiction in the film and how his disability is portrayed:

1. Garrett is displayed as a Supercrip. As quoted before, according to Rachel M. in “Stop Harping on What We Can’t Do and Start Thinking About Who We Are,” “Supercrip provides a way for non-disabled folks to be “inspired” by persons with disabilities without actually questioning—or making changes to—how persons with disabilities are treated in society…. Supercrip cannot just be human; she or he must be superhuman and surpass not only her/his disability, but the realms of “normal” human achievement. Supercrip allows some non-disabled folks to feel better about themselves; this is quite evident when it comes to statements like, “What an inspiration!””
   
   Garrett functions with his disability through an uncanny and almost inhuman ability to hear, sense direction, and mobilize with his walking stick. Albeit, he does receive a little help from his falcon friend Aiden, Garrett’s depiction of a realistic blind person is a little far fetched.
   
   Not to seem patronizing to blind people in general, but i believe Garrett’s portrait of a disabled person is indeed a little, to repeat the term, patronizing. It gives children the expectation that all blind and/or disabled people should be able to lead from rock to rock in a pit of molten lava with the help of a falcon, or be able to cross a highway while skillfully dodging 80mph cars ( this part is not in the movie, i’m just comparing)
2. Garrett’s personality is also very defensive, following the “Legacy of Negativitism” that Jack Nelson discusses in his article ” Broken Images: Portrayals of Those with Disabilities in American Media. He states, “the personality traist most depicted were ’ dull, impotent, selfish, defensive, and uncultured.” Garrett exemplifies some of these qualities: he is selfish as when he first meets Kayley, he refuses to help her and wants to “stand alone.”
   
   “I Stand Alone” sang by Bryan Adams.
   
   
   
   Ironically enough, Garrett see’s Kayley (the not disabled person) as the burden, with Kayley begging to accompany Garrett through the forbidden forest in search of Excalibur.
   
   
3. Garrett also fulfills the stereotype of ” The Disabled Person Unable to Live a Successful Life.” He feels ostracized in the civilized city of Camelot and so he barricades himself alone in the forbidden forest so that he wouldn’t have to deal with people. Media has stereotyped people with disabilities as being defined by their disabilities:” they (disabled) are seldom seen in normal situations such as the workplace, carrying out their daily affairs, as they do in reality.” —> Point made, Garrett lives in a forbidden forest with people eating rocks and walking, flying flowers. Far from normal.

Another set of characters in the film that portrays disability are the conjoined dragons Cornwall and Devon.

Cornwall and Devon



Cornwall and Devon are conjoined dragons that Garrett and Kayley met along their journey. The first impression audiences receive of these dragons is that they are constantly picked on and are in hiding from the other “normal” dragons.
They exert their disabilities portrayal in an interestingly different way than Garrett does:

1. Their personalities are not defensive in any way, nor are they depressed. Cornwall and Devon both have very different personalities and the only strong opinion they seem to have is about one another. They wish desperately that they could be separated, singing an entire song about ” If I Didn’t Have You” they could each accomplish such great things and be considered “normal” i would say.
   
   This falls into the stereotype category of ” The Disabled Person as Maladjusted”— his own worst enemy.. literally in this case (sorry). Further along in the story, Garrett lectures the two dragons about not being able to breath fire because they were constantly bickering with one another. Therefore, their lack of teamwork caused them to be able to produce fire, thus setting them straight. Then from thereon, Cornwall and Devon could breath fire and help save the day: ” such stories imply that if only disabled characters were not so bitter and would acept themselves, they would have better lives” (Nelson, 8).

“If I Didn’t Have You”

A real life example of conjoined twins is Abby and Brittany Hensel. They are nineteen-year-old conjoined twins from birth.



Here is a clip about them.

As the clip stated, they both have “never wished we were separated cause then we wouldn’t.. ( be able to do things together).” Abby and Brittany have both lived relatively normal lives, as the narrator states, and from the looks of their lives seem to be accepted in their high school. They can also amazingly do things such as driving, which surprised me i’ll have to confess.

Abby and Brittany’s disability (as well as Devon and Cornwall’s) bring up the interesting prospect of the ” Freaks,” as mentioned in our class, and the topic of the human gaze. Is it alright to stare, to not stare, etc.

Anyways, back to Quest for Camelot.
At the end of the film, it leaves the audience with a surprising conclusion. There is a point where exclabur is restored and some sort of magical wave runs through the kingdom twice. The first time, it is shown that Devon and Cornwall receive their wish of having separate bodies. However, as soon as they are separated, they look back at one another with a sad expression and hug one another as the second magical wave runs through. (this all sounds ridiculous, but if you watch the film it’ll make sense). The second wave unites them again, rendering them conjoined twins once more which is their final state that they remain in. The same situation happens with Garrett as he is granted his sight, but in the end still stays blind.
So it was interesting to see that both disabled character choose to stay in their original “disabled” forms, thus re-emphasizing that disabled people are no different than normal people and should not have to want to be anybody else.

I just wanted to add this in here because i have no real grounds to make any justifications for it: Kayley could potentially be a devotee because she ends up with Garrett and chooses to stay with him in the end even though he’s blind. Like i said, i have no proof, but it is interesting to think about.