Joe Bum Bum, un viaggio nell'alveare

This is a cartoon about a group of boys (Boy Scouts, possibly) who encounter a spooky castle during a camping trip. The boys discover a very large man living there. Although the man is not a giant, he soon looks like one when he traps the boys in a shrinking machine and reduces them to the size of flies. One boy, Johnny, escapes and has an adventure in a beehive. When he gallantly saves the hive, the Queen Bee knights him. Then Johnny organizes the bees and other woodland animals to attack the castle and rescue (and restore) his trapped friends. The story, while familiar,is told with imagination and life. The animation was a notch before state-of-the-art in 1975: passable, but possibly a turn-off to kids who grew up with Disney. Biggest drawback: The dialogue is almost non-existent. Perhaps Jean Image cut all talking to a minimum to make the film more open to international markets, but the decision hurts the film more than it helps.