Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure

People not quite into their twenties take for granted the warm, feel good animated films that are available to them these days. Starting with Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988 (though unfairly attributed to The Little Mermaid a year later), a renaissance of animation had begun that is still going strong today (thanks mostly to Pixar). But the privileged children of the 90's would never know of the cold, bleak wasteland of theatrical animation in the 1970's. With the advent of Fritz the Cat in 1971, soft, fuzzy, family-friendly animation fell out of favor with the studios, and ushered in the dark wave of adult themed cartoons. Ralph Bakshi led the pack with such topical and wholly adult productions as Coonskin (a.k.a. Streetfight), Wizards, Heavy Traffic, the original Lords of the Rings, and the previously mentioned Fritz the Cat. Soon his violent vision was adopted by other renegade animators and before long, virtually all animated films were saddled with either a PG or dreaded R rating. So it goes without saying that a sweet little film like Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure hardly had an audience when it was released in 1976. The fact that it ever got made is a testimony to the desperation of the studios and people who so desperately missed the sweet and touching films in the old Disney vein. This film dared to be cute, had the tenacity to be sweet, had the temerity to be gentle, the chutzpah to be (GASP!) KID FRIENDLY! In all fairness, it must be stressed that RAAA was not alone in their attempt to bring softness back into modern animation. Charles Schulz's wonderful Peanuts characters had two great attempts in the seventies with Snoopy, Come Home and Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown. And the usually rigid and slap-sticky Hanna Barbera brought us that lovely tear-jerker of a cartoon, Charlotte's Web. But these productions were far and few between, and never on such a grandiose scale as their more violent bretheren. With RAAA, director Richard Williams (the real brain trust behind Who Framed Roger Rabbit, not Robert Zemeckis, who only directed the live action) not only attempted to revive family friendly cartoons, but also attempted to bring back lavish, fluid animation and movie musical sensibilities. In doing so he brought back some of animation's pioneers to make sure the film was done right. Grim Natwick (creator of Betty Boop, animator of Snow White and Richard's mentor) lent a hand, along with countless others, in the creation of The Greedy, King Cuckoo, the Camel with the wrinkled knees and the rest of Johnny Gruelle's storybook menagerie. The Brilliant Joe Raposo (of Sesame Street fame and brain trust of Kermit the Frog's Bein' Green)provided delightful songs for the film (The Camel's sweet and somber song alone is worth watching this film), and Didi Conn and Mark Lynn-Baker voiced the title characters to perfection. The net result of this creative hodge podge was one of the warmest, most entertaining and family friendly cartoons to break through the doom and gloom of standard 70's animation.

Regretfully, movie critics denounced the film for reasons too varied and unfounded to mention here. That, coupled with the fact that RAAA became avalanched by the glut of violent animation and the wealth of bad family films, resulting in it barely making a blip on the pop culture radar. Thanks to old school television programming (does anyone else recall Nickelodeon's Special Delivery?), I re-discovered this long lost treasure in the mid 80's, and had the foresight to immortalize it (along with some vintage 80's commercials) on Beta video (and you don't get much more vintage that Beta). This has been a gem in my movie collection ever since, and still holds a special place in my heart and my childhood. So modern movie going audiences, count your blessings. You have warm, family friendly animation dropped at your feet these days. But you never know. The day may come again soon where such kid-oriented fare becomes passe, and the studios return to churning out violent, bleak animation, just as they did in the 70's. If that day does come, however, I still have a copy of Raggedy Ann and Andy to see me through the darkness, comforting me in the knowledge that, at least in animation, good will always rise out of the ashes of evil.

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.

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.

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.

I have very fond memories of this film, as I saw it with my two younger sisters when it first shown theatrically in 1977 and I was eight years old. Apparently it was deemed a failure - and is now practically forgotten (the pan-and scan videocassette - which never did justice to the picture or it's ambitious Panavision compositions is now out-of -print.) The film is very stylized (shades of YELLOW SUBMARINE) and admittedly uneven. Some of the characters and sequences are exquisite while others are somewhat juvenile and undistinguished. The sad discarded blue camel (shades of Eeyore) and his blue song are truly heartwarming. Joe Raposo's songs are for the most part simply beautiful. Definitely a worthwhile curiousity that will probably (sadly) fall into total obscurity.