Arthurian Medievalism in Avalon High

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Arthurian Medievalism in Avalon High                        

Avalon High movie
               Introduction     

    Arthurian Medievalism has its ways of making appearances in many Disney movies throughout the years. Sometimes the hints can be very small to the point where the audience doesn't pick up on it, if they are not familiar with Arthurian medievalism. Then there are shows and movies that are fully based on this kind of medievalism. Let's dive right into it and look at one of the movies!

                                                      

                      Avalon High Plot

    Avalon high is a movie that was released in 2010, formally based on the book Avalon High written by Meg Cabot (2). In the movie the main character Allie Pennington who is the daughter of two medievalism professors at the university. When arriving at Avalon high she starts to realize she is involved in the reincarnation of King Arthur. Each movie character has the same characteristics as characters in the King Arthur stories. As the story goes on and the prophecy unfolds (1) Allie finds herself protecting another main character Will against evil forces for, he is believed to be King Arthur against the dark ages approaching.

                                            

                                                Avalon High Characters

    As I said previously, each movie character is very similar if not exactly the same as characters in King Arthurs court/story. Will, who is the football quarter back in the movie possess the characteristics of King Arthur(4). He is kind to those around him and is the leader of their friend group. His girlfriend, Jen, and best friend, Lance are like Queen Gwenivere and Sir Lancelot. They sneak around and apparently

Two main characters: Will and Allie (the real King Arthur)
 are "meant to be together" but they cannot because it will ruin Will such as it would have ruined King Arthur. The character who I would assume audiences like very much is Miles, a reincarnation of Merlin. He has the power of seeing the future, giving advice to those around him, and showing up when someone is in trouble because he "had a feeling". Then there is the bad guy of the story who is much like a hard pill to swallow, Marco. Marco is Mordred of the story, except in King Arthurs story Mordred is the illegitimate son of Arthur by his half-sister, Morgause. Whereas, in Avalon High he is the stepbrother, I'd assume to make plot events not weird for a pop culture film. This all changes when there is a plot twist that Mr. Moore, a schoolteacher, is actually Morded who is trying to destroy Allie who is shockingly King Arthur. King Arthur being a girl in the story give's audiences a new, fresh, pop culture feeling although it does go against the original story.

              

                  How do the setting and other factors relate to King Arthurs tale?

       Not only does the movies characters show a direct relation to the tale of king Arthur but so does the setting and other details throughout the movie. The movie taking place in Avalon is significant because it is the place where King Arthur went to heal and restore his powers when he was injured in battle (3). There are also references made in the story about the high school football teams names. There are the teams the knights and the crusaders which we all know is not a coincidence. There are plenty of details that relate back to the tale of King Arthur in medieval times whether it is the characters or aspects of the setting. Despite Arthurian Medievalism being developed hundreds of years ago it is still making its appearances in pop culture!



                                                                  Citations

1. “Avalon High.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 12 Nov. 2010, www.imdb.com/title/tt1614950/.

2. “Avalon High.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Sept. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon_High.

3. Prof. Geller, et al. “Avalon - Legendary Island.” Mythology.Net, 14 Jan. 2017, mythology.net/others/concepts/avalon/.

4. “Stream Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Nat Geo.” Disney+, www.disneyplus.com/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2023.

Comments

  1. Eliana TateOctober 8, 2023 at 2:15 PM

    I completely forgot this movie existed! Knowing more about the Arthurian world now certainly makes the plot and characterizations make much more sense. The revisions of Mordred's relation to the Arthur character(s) and gender-swapping Allie/Arthur are sensible revisions for a contemporary audience, particularly a Disney audience.

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