For the first time in SEVERAL years (I'm talking at least 20) I just re-watched Disney's animated feature The Sword in the Stone. I'm finding a new appreciation for it; it's one of Disney's best!
I imagined a live-action version of the film with very little change, except maybe play down the musical aspects. Merlyn and Mim talk-sing a lot, but mages tend to speak in verse because casting magic requires it. Their speech is even occasionally lyrical.
Keep all the anthropomorphic characters, from the sugar jar to the amourous she-squirrels! Archimedes: Perfect. As. Is. Talks like a man, behaves like a man, but for all intents and purposes, an owl. When Melyn and Wort are fish/squirrels/whathaveyou, make them look as real as possible, but still keep their human facial traits, especially the eyes.
I imagine Stephan Lang as Merlyn: absent-minded, eccentric, crotchety and cranky; even a little clumsy. With a walking stick that doubles as a wand. But without that running beard gag. You can tell his mind is crammed to the brim with knowledge and he is constantly rummaging through the pile that is his mind, trying to find the appropriate information for the moment at hand. And he'd still have that silver fox thing going on!
Helena Bonham Carter is an obvious choice for Mad Madame Mim! Manic, maniacal, with a childish glee toying with her prey like a cat with a mouse.
Mim might have more of a roll in this version, constantly trying to undermine Merlyn's good works simply out of rivalry, with an epic mage's duel climax!
Not really sure about casting Wort (Arthur). Nathan Gamble?
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