The Wacky World of Mother Goose

This movie may be remembered fondly by people who saw it as children and have never seen it since. Looking at it as an adult, it's all that's wrong with animation from the 1960s: cobbled-together script, ugly character design, looped quarter-animation, songs that teach children Something Important and garish, almost psychedelic colors to garner the approval of children, with nothing at all for an adult who hopes for something magical, or at least funny. It makes one wish for the relative dignity of THE PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP, let alone the adventurous fun of JOHNNY QUEST.

You may, if you wish, assert that this was the best that the animation could afford at this time, but it requires more than putting one in the frame of mind of its intended audience of small children to make it work. Whatever it requires, I don't have it in me, nor do I have any regrets for that lack, just for ninety wasted minutes.

This animated movie has been all but forgotten today, despite it being made by Rankin/Bass, the people who gave us animated TV specials like "Frosty The Snowman". Watching it, it's easy to see why it's forgotten, and difficult to understand why it was unearthed for a DVD release! Though this movie was made for theaters, the animation is strictly at the level of Saturday morning TV cartoons of the time - which as you know wasn't that spectacular. The songs are terrible, though the song the three men in the tub does come close - but not close enough - to working. The screenplay doesn't show any feeling of a progressing story, with plenty of padding despite the running time only being 81 minutes long. And while there was one director, some jarring cuts in some scenes make it feel like several units were animating different stuff, and when put together don't have a cohesive feel. I know this movie was made for kids, but I am confident they will be bored and want to watch something else just from watching the first ten minutes. If you want to watch a GOOD Rankin/Bass animated movie, look for a copy of "The Last Unicorn".

This was made in 1967 and therefore seems dated to adults, but small children should love it. It even teaches boys that girls are just as ready for "rough" adventures as boys are. Good ultimately triumphs over evil in the traditional Mother Goose fantasy world that Frenchman Charles Perrault originally created.

Do not look for the racial and ethnic diversity that we see added to later revisions of such traditional European fantasy tales. Mother Goose lived in an all-Caucasian world, but we don't see much racial diversity in any of the ancient Old World cultural traditions in Asia or Africa either.

I'm actually rating this while seeing it on TCM. I'd thought that this would be fun; after all, it IS Rankin-Bass. I grew up watching their Christmas specials in the Eighties, and I'm a huge fan of The Last Unicorn. So it was natural that I'd expect good things of this.

Honestly, the only thing good about this is what an excellent job the animators did of making Mother Goose actually resemble Margaret Rutherford; but this is a severe waste of her talent, and it's a shame that this, of all features, was her last film.

I don't want to fault the animation TOO much. One must consider that this was in the early days of Japanese animation (as Rankin-Bass worked with a Japanese animation company), and that the animation is therefore going to be primitive. The flaws are in the voice acting (apart from Ms. Rutherford). For example, the villain's voice actor seems to be doing his best imitation of Christopher Lee--and his best imitation is HORRIBLE.

I'm sad to say it, but watching this is a wasted effort. I currently have it on Mute, because I can't handle it, and I plan to change the channel.

This movie has an awful story line. Stupid dialogue. It awful acting. It was very sappy. It is one of the most sappy movies I have seen. Do not see this movie. It is a waste of time. It is an awful movie do not see it.