Quest for Freedom
When it comes to 1990s animated movies, most ones that come to mind are from Disney or Pixar. There's no denying Disney rolled out a ton of classics - The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Tarzan, and so on. Then, of course, there was Pixar with Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and (the underrated) A Bug's Life. However, there's a few non-Disney movies from the 1990s, ones that often get lost in the mix. There's Don Bluth's Anastasia (another underrated film), Universal's Balto or DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt. Then, there's one animated movie from the 1990s that's managed to be so forgotten that it's not even famous for being forgotten/underrated like some of the other non-Disney films: Quest for Camelot. If you have seen or are familiar with that one, hats off to you. It's definitely one of the more obscure non-Disney films of the 1990s. I have vague memories of seeing it in the theater with my Dad and Sister, and more specifically remember watching this one on VHS. Oh, the nostalgia...
For those not familiar or with the vaguest of memories of Quest for Camelot, the movie's about a girl name Kayley wanting to be a knight like her late father. Years later, a man named Ruber (the same man that killed Kayley's father), plots to overthrow Camelot and steal Excalibur from King Arthur. Kayley then goes on a...quest for Camelot, where she encounters Garrett, a blind hermit and Cornwall and Devon, a two-headed dragon. During one of the song's musical numbers, Cornwall and Devon sing a song longing for individual freedom, lamenting all that they could be if they didn't have one another and weren't stuck together. The recurring line in the song is the two singing in unison "Oh, what I could be if there was only me. Oh what I'd do if I didn't have you".
In one way or another, I think we have all felt like Cornwall and Devon at one point. Well, minus the whole being a dragon in a kid's movie that's stuck to another dragon part. But other than that, we can relate. Kidding aside, there are times in our lives where we lament what we could be if only there wasn't something in our way or something keeping us down. That something could be anything - our situation, another person, and even ourselves. It could be that our situation is holding us back - that we're stuck by no fault of our own and there's no clear way out or easy fix. It could be that another person is holding us back - intentionally or unintentionally (Cornwall and Devon would relate to the latter). Sometimes the only thing that's truly holding us back is ourselves, whether that's self-inflicted or not truly believing in ourselves that we're capable of reaching our potential or changing something in our lives. We may believe that our weaknesses or faults are what's keeping us down. that we could be so much more if we didn't have them. Whatever the case may be, we perceive that someone or something is keeping us down, like gravity.
There may not be a more helpless feeling out there than being "trapped" with no way out. No matter what we do or say, we're still trapped and can't get out. When this happens, it is easy to fall into another trap - becoming resigned or distant and believing that nothing will ever change. There's also the trap of self-pity here. Once one falls in to those traps, it's really hard to get out of them. Falling in to those traps tends to be the culmination of past events, so getting out of it isn't as simple as flipping a switch and being okay again. It takes time, often longer than we'd like it to take. At the risk of defaulting to cliches, this is where someone would tout the importance of never giving up. After all, everyone loves a good overcoming story. To get to where we want to be or to be what we want to be often involves overcoming something. You know, overcoming the very things that are keeping us down or holding us back. However, there is good news: there's someone that is pretty darn good at helping others overcome all sorts of obstacles: God.
A few months ago, there was a sermon at church that talked about how God is in the overcoming business. The specific example used in the sermon was Moses. When Moses encounters God at the burning bush in Exodus 3 (and later is talking to God in Exodus 4), he gives God reasons why he can't do what God wants Him to do - he questions whether he should be the one to go to pharaoh (Exodus 3:11) or whether the Israelites would actually believe that God sent him (Exodus 3:13) or that they would believe him at all (Exodus 4:1). After all, this was the same guy who killed a man and ran way. And, of course, Moses tells God about his weakness: public speaking (Exodus 4:10). However, every time Moses lists something that he perceives to be holding him back, God provides him assurance and reason to believe that he can overcome those things and ultimately lead the Israelites to overcome enslavement from the Egyptians.
Of course, Moses isn't the only example of God being in the overcoming business. Flash forward years after Moses to when Joshua takes over as leader, and God helps the Israelites overcome Jericho, the city standing between them and the Promised Land. There's also the story of a man being sent from God and dying for our sins and ultimately overcoming the impossible: death. You know, the story of Jesus Christ. We lament reasons why we can't do something; God finds reasons why we can. God has a way of making the impossible possible and of freeing us from the very things that are keeping us down.
To close, I'll ask a simple but important question: what's your gravity? What's keeping you down or holding you back? Is it past struggles? Your situation? Others? Yourself? For Devon and Cornwall, they thought it was one another that was keeping them down -- figuratively and literally. It turns out (21 year spoiler alert!) that it was their inability to work together. Once they worked together, they were able to do things like fly or breathe fire. We're as free as we choose to be. Whatever may be keeping you down, know that you can overcome it with the help of God. And oh yeah, Quest for Camelot is available for streaming on YouTube.
For those not familiar or with the vaguest of memories of Quest for Camelot, the movie's about a girl name Kayley wanting to be a knight like her late father. Years later, a man named Ruber (the same man that killed Kayley's father), plots to overthrow Camelot and steal Excalibur from King Arthur. Kayley then goes on a...quest for Camelot, where she encounters Garrett, a blind hermit and Cornwall and Devon, a two-headed dragon. During one of the song's musical numbers, Cornwall and Devon sing a song longing for individual freedom, lamenting all that they could be if they didn't have one another and weren't stuck together. The recurring line in the song is the two singing in unison "Oh, what I could be if there was only me. Oh what I'd do if I didn't have you".
In one way or another, I think we have all felt like Cornwall and Devon at one point. Well, minus the whole being a dragon in a kid's movie that's stuck to another dragon part. But other than that, we can relate. Kidding aside, there are times in our lives where we lament what we could be if only there wasn't something in our way or something keeping us down. That something could be anything - our situation, another person, and even ourselves. It could be that our situation is holding us back - that we're stuck by no fault of our own and there's no clear way out or easy fix. It could be that another person is holding us back - intentionally or unintentionally (Cornwall and Devon would relate to the latter). Sometimes the only thing that's truly holding us back is ourselves, whether that's self-inflicted or not truly believing in ourselves that we're capable of reaching our potential or changing something in our lives. We may believe that our weaknesses or faults are what's keeping us down. that we could be so much more if we didn't have them. Whatever the case may be, we perceive that someone or something is keeping us down, like gravity.
There may not be a more helpless feeling out there than being "trapped" with no way out. No matter what we do or say, we're still trapped and can't get out. When this happens, it is easy to fall into another trap - becoming resigned or distant and believing that nothing will ever change. There's also the trap of self-pity here. Once one falls in to those traps, it's really hard to get out of them. Falling in to those traps tends to be the culmination of past events, so getting out of it isn't as simple as flipping a switch and being okay again. It takes time, often longer than we'd like it to take. At the risk of defaulting to cliches, this is where someone would tout the importance of never giving up. After all, everyone loves a good overcoming story. To get to where we want to be or to be what we want to be often involves overcoming something. You know, overcoming the very things that are keeping us down or holding us back. However, there is good news: there's someone that is pretty darn good at helping others overcome all sorts of obstacles: God.
A few months ago, there was a sermon at church that talked about how God is in the overcoming business. The specific example used in the sermon was Moses. When Moses encounters God at the burning bush in Exodus 3 (and later is talking to God in Exodus 4), he gives God reasons why he can't do what God wants Him to do - he questions whether he should be the one to go to pharaoh (Exodus 3:11) or whether the Israelites would actually believe that God sent him (Exodus 3:13) or that they would believe him at all (Exodus 4:1). After all, this was the same guy who killed a man and ran way. And, of course, Moses tells God about his weakness: public speaking (Exodus 4:10). However, every time Moses lists something that he perceives to be holding him back, God provides him assurance and reason to believe that he can overcome those things and ultimately lead the Israelites to overcome enslavement from the Egyptians.
Of course, Moses isn't the only example of God being in the overcoming business. Flash forward years after Moses to when Joshua takes over as leader, and God helps the Israelites overcome Jericho, the city standing between them and the Promised Land. There's also the story of a man being sent from God and dying for our sins and ultimately overcoming the impossible: death. You know, the story of Jesus Christ. We lament reasons why we can't do something; God finds reasons why we can. God has a way of making the impossible possible and of freeing us from the very things that are keeping us down.
To close, I'll ask a simple but important question: what's your gravity? What's keeping you down or holding you back? Is it past struggles? Your situation? Others? Yourself? For Devon and Cornwall, they thought it was one another that was keeping them down -- figuratively and literally. It turns out (21 year spoiler alert!) that it was their inability to work together. Once they worked together, they were able to do things like fly or breathe fire. We're as free as we choose to be. Whatever may be keeping you down, know that you can overcome it with the help of God. And oh yeah, Quest for Camelot is available for streaming on YouTube.
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