Roger Ebert of "The Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film stars out of four praising the film as "a rip-roaring tale of swords and sorcery, evil and revenge, magic and pluck and luck...And it takes us on a journey through a kingdom of some of the more memorable characters in any recent Disney film." He noted how "involving" the story was, and felt "the key to the movie is in the richness of the characterizations, and the two best characters, I think, are the Horned King and a fuzzy little creature named Gurgi."