Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure

This is a very strange film by director/animator Richard Williams. All who know of William's work know it's a bit off-kilter (if not ingenious) but this one takes the cake.

It features two hapless ragdolls who have to save their owner's new French doll from a lustful pirate toy and find themselves at the mercy of several bizarre characters along the way. The strength in this movie lies primarily in its aesthetic quality; its strange character designs, its powerful animation, and its stark contrast of the sweet and scary. Williams' brilliant animation portrayed Raggedy Ann and Andy as real rag dolls, floppy and darned, rather than simple cartoon versions of the dolls, which made it more believable (at least in a visual sense). The animation shines on the bring us the Camel-with-the-Wrinkled-Knees, whose body walks with two different personalities controlling each end, the silent-movie chase with Sir Leonard Looney and, of course, the Greedy.

The Greedy animation, on its own, is possibly the most exquisite psychedelic animation I've ever seen. There's something about this animation that just makes your jaw drop--and every second it's something new. Living in what was deemed "the Taffy Pit," the Greedy is a massive blob man that lives in and mercilessly eats sweets. He sings a song that I can't help but feel hold some sexual undertones, then tries to kill Raggedy Ann for her candy heart.

The only complaint I have about this film is that there are too many songs. It continuously bogs down the movie's pace because there are SIXTEEN of them. There are about six good songs (which should have been the only ones) including "I Look, And What Do I See?", "No Girl's Toy", "Blue" (though they didn't need to make him sing it twice), "I Never Get Enough", "Because I Love You" and maybe "I'm Home." The others just seem unnecessary and frankly aren't too amazing to listen to.

This is a weird film with strange undertones, but if that's what you're looking for, you won't find better.

Richard Willaims is an animation god. He was hampered in directing this film by the producer. The final product is a very uneven film with a very convoluted story, but some amazing moments of animation (like Emery Hawkins' "Greedy"). Joe Raposo's repetitive music doesn't help either. It was made in wide screen so the VHS doesn't show it in all it's glory, let's hope for a letterboxed DVD someday. Still it's worth watching for some eye popping animation.

The last time I saw the movie I was around seven years, so my opinions might be jaded over time. At the time I enjoyed the filming that switched between cartoon and live action. At the time I felt sad for the blue camel and his sad life. Also I felt glee when after Captain Contagious kidnapped the heroine (a princess or toy shepherdess) the tables the were turned on him. Unfortunately the producers never decided to transfer this movie to VHS, so all I have are twenty year old memories. I am sure that if I saw the movie again I would consider it corny and sappy, but I really enjoyed it the movie at the time.

I actually found a copy of this movie recently. I hadn't seen it in easily twenty years and its one of those movies that ALWAYS had stuck with me. Every time I mentioned it to someone, they would look at me a little strangely. Watching the film again brought back alot of memories and I was amazed at how much I had actually retained.

The animation style is very interesting because each character is done by a different animator, each using their own style. At times this is a little jarring but overall it adds to the mood of the movie which is WEIRD. The film switches from happy musical numbers to the dolls getting trapped in a pit with a grotesque, horrifying candy monster (one of the images that was burned into my memory 26 years ago.) Definitely a great deal of imagination involved in this film. If you can find this, its definitely worth watching.

Hey, kids! Let's play a game! I'm going to make a point about a particular animated film and we'll see whether it succeeds in intriguing you despite whatever else the press has said in the past! Sound like fun? Ok, hang on tight and here we go!

If you ask anybody who loves animation to tell you what they think are the absolute lousiest animated films ever created, you can bet the farm on the fact that their list will include at least one of the follow titles: "My Little Pony", any one of the "Care Bears" movies, "Rainbow Brite and The Star Stealer", "Raggedy Ann and Andy", "Wizards", "The Pebble and The Penguin", "The Lord of The Rings" and "Thumbelina" among countless others.

It's hard to argue with any of those titles. Put simply, they are almost all completely down the row horribly written, terribly produced movies.

But I want to point out one of these titles to you: what I'm about to say is a really wild nonconformist recommendation. I'm going to recommend one of these films I just listed. It's not as bad as the press has claimed. Heck, I even think it's pretty good.

Which movie am I talking about? This particular title, of course. Richard Williams' expensive animated bomb "Raggedy Ann and Andy".

Well look, I did warn you that I was going to make a really wild nonconformist recommendation. But think about it a moment--here is a film with the finest talent on hand, gorgeous animation and art direction and genuinely terrific songs. It's enjoyable--except for the holes that drag down the lot a bit (some scenes, such as the opening dollroom segment, the Greedy sequence and the meeting with King Kookoo, could have been neatly chopped in half and bettered the pacing here).

The problem is that Richard Williams was inexperienced as a feature film producer and was given an incredibly short production schedule. I mean hey, YOU try creating an absolute masterpiece under those conditions! Williams was fighting a losing battle, but he still tried.

The results aren't guaranteed to please everybody out there (fans of "wild" animation who hate children's material will gag on it, I'm sure), but that doesn't mean it's not fun. The whole routine with the French doll and the Captain is so hysterically ridiculous that you can't help but smirk at the whole situation--you'll see what I mean later in the movie. The scene-stealing section here is a song feature a dancing Camel With The Wrinkled Knees, which is gorgeous both in art and in music. Other musical faves here include "I Look and What Do I See?", the title piece and especially "Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers". There are others just as charming here... this soundtrack really deserves to be released on CD. Plus, the whole thing has a genuinely warm ending to it that will please the young at heart everywhere.

While animation diabetics will most likely get cavities from it, everybody else who loves hypnotically lovely children's stories will enjoy it. It's certainly not without flaws, but it has special moments in it that you'll genuinely fall in love with. Give it a chance.