Despite its title, 2024’s Arthur the King lacks any connection to Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Instead, we find a tale of a man and his dog.

When Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg) botches an “adventure race” that gets his team literally stuck in the mud, he takes a break from his athletic career. After three years of ignominy and restlessness, he decides to give it another go with a new squad.

Along the way, Michael meets a new “partner”: Arthur, a stray dog who refuses to leave his side. With this new furry companion, Michael and crew battle for supremacy.

Regular readers will know of my intense affection for canines. This means any movie that prominently features a furball starts off with a factor in its favor.

So King gets that boost. Does it manage to satisfy for reasons unrelated to its shaggy star?

Unfortunately, no. King exists as a tedious inspirational action-drama without any real creativity along the way.

We get a hint of the clichés soon to come right out of the gate. When we meet Michael, we quickly view him as stubbornly driven and not a team player.

Gee, you don’t suppose he’ll need to learn how to work with others and think beyond himself, do you? And that his new furry pal will help in that regard, do you?

Actually, King skimps on usage of its canine lead a lot more than one would anticipate. While the film introduces Arthur early, he doesn’t really turn into a factor in the story until about halfway into the tale.

This leaves us with Michael and his colleagues, a choice that turns King into a one-dimensional and tedious affair. As noted, our initial impression of Michael paints him in a simplistic manner, and the film never broadens those impressions.

Oh, of course Michael changes, but his evolution occurs in such a predictable manner than nothing interesting ever materializes. We get a cartoon selfish competitor who turns into a cartoon team player.

We just find little reason to invest in Michael or his story. We get a token look at his lovely wife and adorable young daughter, but they exist just for cheap emotion.

Basically every “twist” we find come telegraphed a mile in advance. For instance, as soon as we see that Michael’s team will use a zipline, it becomes utterly inevitable that they will encounter a glitch that causes danger.

Outside of Ukai, the main canine actor behind Arthur, the actors add little to the movie. Not that I can blame them given the thin characters, but don’t expect Wahlberg or the rest to bring spice to the proceedings.

King remains professional enough that it doesn’t become a painful viewing, and I appreciate its pro-animal rescue message. The movie simply fails to rise above generic tropes.

Arthur the King appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie offered a fine transfer.

Overall definition seemed positive. Only an occasional sliver of softness materialized, so the movie mostly appeared accurate and concise.

I noticed no signs of jaggies or edge enhancement, and shimmering was absent. The film lacked print flaws and seemed clean.

As expected, colors tended toward golden tones and teal. These appeared fine within the film’s stylistic choices.

Blacks seemed dark and tight, and shadows demonstrated good clarity. This added up to a satisfying presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack opened up the film in a moderate manner. Though the mix didn’t give us a lot of theatrics, it managed to use the spectrum well.

The film’s competition-related sequences boasted reasonable breadth and activity, with moments on the water as the most involving. While the soundscape didn’t stun, it provided enough to succeed.

Audio quality seemed consistently solid. Speech appeared natural and distinctive, so no edginess or other issues marred the dialogue.

Music sounded warm and full, while effects showed good clarity and accuracy. When necessary, bass response came across as deep and tight. All of this brought the track to “B” status.

King provides a whopping three separate audio commentaries, the first of which comes from director Simon Cellan Jones and author Mikael Lindnord. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters, the real situations behind the tale and various liberties, cast and performances, stunts, music, sets and locations, and connected domains.

Despite a lot of the usual happy talk, this nonetheless becomes a fairly engaging chat. It helps to get Lindnord’s perspective, as the film tells his story and he gives us a good look at what happened vs. the fictionalized elements.

For the second chat, we hear from producers Tucker Tooley and Tessa Tooley. They sit together for their own running, screen-specific discussion of essentially the same topics from the first commentary.

Of course, the Tooleys approach these domains from an alternate perspective, but their POV doesn’t seem different enough to mean that we learn much that we didn’t already get in the prior chat. They become less and less active as the discussion progresses as well, so don’t expect much fresh info from this inconsistent track.

Finally, we locate a track from producers Mark Canton and Dorothy Canton. As expected, they sit together for another running, screen-specific view of… you guessed it: basically the same topics examined in the prior two tracks.

Even without that redundancy, the father/daughter discussion becomes the least interesting of the three. Mark doesn’t talk much, and Dorothy tends to narrate the movie or offer bland notes. This one becomes a forgettable dud.

We locate three featurettes. Finding Arthur spans nine minutes, 19 seconds and involves Mark Canton, Jones, Tucker Tooley, Lindnord, Tessa Tooley, head dog trainer Mathilde De Cagny, and actors Mark Wahlberg, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Suliman, and Simu Liu.

We get notes about the real Arthur and the use of animal actors in the movie. We find a smattering of notes and a positive message about adoption.

A Love Letter to Arthur goes for five minutes, 29 seconds. It brings notes from Wahlberg, Tucker Tooley, Lindnord, Mark Canton, Tessa Tooley, Jones, Liu, and Dorothy Canton.

"Letter" looks at the source story and its path to the screen. Expect a mix of facts and fluff.

Next comes A Dog’s Journey. This one spans 11 minutes, 32 seconds and involves Jones, Wahlberg, Liu, Emmanuel, Tucker Tooley, Dorothy Canton, Mark Canton, Liu, Suliman, stunt coordinator Sean Graham, stunt double Chase Armitage, production designer Mailara Santana and actor Juliet Rylance.

Here we cover cast, characters and performances as well as locations, stunts/action and challenges. Though still superficial much of the time, this one comes with a decent mix of notes.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we wrap with a PSA called Mark Wahlberg and Best Friends Animal Society (1:02). As the happy "daddy" to two rescues, I approve.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we wrap with a PSA called Mark Wahlberg and Best Friends Animal Society (1:02). As the happy "daddy" to two rescues, I approve.

Despite a heart-warming true story at its core, Arthur the King never rises above ‘inspirational movie’ clichés. It tugs the expected strings and never becomes especially involving. The Blu-ray offers solid picture and audio as well as a mix of bonus materials. The dog lover in me wants to recommend the film but the movie critic sees it as thin and forgettable.