La rosa di Bagdad

This was Julie Andrews first movie and she made it when she was only 14 years old. Since it's animated you of course don't see her face but her voice is very recognizable. It has a typical plot with the typical good-guy-saves-the-day sort of thing. It's very similar to Aladdin in many ways. I didn't find it particularly interesting but it was still cool to hear Julie singing when she was so young! One dis-advantage was that the film was very bad quality because it was made so long ago. Overall a very sweet movie but I would only recommend it to young children and Julie's biggest fans! It's hard to get a hold of so if your looking for it go to www.half.com

Like I said, animation is an art form, and in a few countries in the world, there are some excellent animations. In this beautifully animated film, the beautiful princess Zelia is betrothed to the cruel sheik Jafar, thanks to the power of a magic ring given by his sorcerer. And so, her minstrel/friend Armin uses Aladdin's lamp to rescue her.

Julie Andrews, in her film and voice-acting debuts, supplies the voice of Zelia in the film. The film was originally made in Italy in 1949 and later released in an English-language version around 1952; my very first glimpse of Italian animation was the TV series Winx Club. The influence of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is clearly evident in the film's look, the plot, and the characters.

As I said, I am starting to love fantasy movies (animated or live-action) set in Arabia. My favorite characters from the film are Calina, Armin's little magpie, and the princess herself too. You know, not many discuss the Non-Disney Princesses, and I have added Zelia to the list I had made of the Non-Disney Princesses: Glory from Gulliver's Travels; Odette from The Swan Princess; Thumbelina from Don Bluth's film version of the story; YumYum from The Thief and the Cobbler; Anastasia; and Kayley from Quest for Camelot. So overall, I really love this rare animated film.

Pretty similar to the classic tale of Aladdin, you'll see a beautiful young princess with a bumbling father who's influenced by the powerful magician Jafar, and all in the exotic Arabian locale. You'll see a little boy who tries to save the day and win the heart of the princess, but he needs the help of a genie in a lamp. But most important is what you'll hear: a fourteen-year-old Julie Andrews. Anyone who has heard her sing "I Could Have Danced All Night" knows she had a significantly more grandiose voice than she utilized for the rest of her career, but until you've heard her singing opera as a teenager, you won't know the full extent of her operatic potential. She "dummied down" her voice for the next forty years to appeal to the general public, but you can imagine the types of songs she would have sung if she hadn't.

The Singing Princess really isn't great. It's an Italian cartoon dubbed in English, and it's obviously made with cultural differences. There are large portions when you'll be rolling your eyes hoping Julie Andrews will show up again soon, so you really have three options: fast-forward the scenes she isn't in, hang in there, or skip the movie and find old recordings online of her teenage splendor.

I saw this film at a children's Saturday morning matinée in 1958. I was bowled over by it, and have tried to find it, but it has never resurfaced. The basic story is the usual tale of Arabian Nights princess escapes a wicked Vizier, is saved by a good looking lad and it all ends well. It has never appeared on video - even though the voice of the young Julie Andrews would surely be guarantee of a decent sale if only out of curiosity. Is the film lost, I wonder? Julie Andrews was a child prodigy, and at the time this film was made was doing the rounds of the music halls which were then in the process of dying away in the face of competition from films and (eventually) television. Her singing and acting were marvelous - although she must only have been about 12 at the time.

In response to the last written comment on this film, « The Singing Princess » ( English translation ) with Julie Andrews as the voice of the princess, I want to say that I also know this film from my childhood and loved it very much ...with the difference that I was born in the eighties. My mother had rented it from a movie store in Sudbury, Ontario. So it does exist in more recent years than the fifties, and has appeared in VHS form, which means that if the original, archived film is lost, ( this being the only real loss of a film ) it was in the last twenty years or so, but I know of no information to support this. There was at least one existing, good quality master tape ( original source tape ) available which served for mass produced, VHS release around the 80's. Copies may be lost, but copies have also still existed around 1990, and there are good chances that some still do. It is a question of finding one, which will certainly take time. Succeeding in finding a copy on DVD or VHS for personal use may be difficult, as it would almost be guaranteed that it would not be found on most if any commercial sites, since sales would not be anywhere near high today. You may have to write to the makers of the film, or search for it in used VHS format in second-hand shops, or in older, less updated VHS movie rental stores, which may still have a copy, like the one in Sudbury, and offer to buy it off them. If you find a movie rental store that once had it in stock, as them who their supplier was. Tell them you're a collector - they may be more willing to help you in your search.

As for the quality of the film, as others have stated the VHS copy I saw badly needed to be restored, but was nevertheless in viewable condition - enough to get me hooked to it as a child! The limited palette is disappointing for modern standards, comprising of black, white, reds and sepia tones, with very little if any other colours. The pace of the film is much slower and the action would probably seem dull in the eyes of a child of today, used to much more busy, contemporary footage...though I may be wrong. I would definitely love to see this film restored!