Willy McBean and His Magic Machine

I grew up watching Rudolph and other Christmas specials using stop-motion, and re-watching them now brings back fond memories of family and more loving and peaceful times. I had never heard of this particular film, and have to say I loved it. The quaint songs "you have to go west to go east" and others are catchy. Kids of the 60s and 70s must have loved this. While kids today might like it, it may be a little slow paced for them. But it kind of reminds me of Super Why or one of the PBS Kids shows, a little learning, history, with fun for kids. I know kids these days have more tiktok level attention spans, but you should try to get them to sit through this if you can. Let them develop special memories too.

From Rankin/Bass, the creators of holiday staples such as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" & "Mad Monster Party", comes yet another gem filmed in their trademark "Animagic" stop-motion animation process. This movie, which was made at the same time as "Rudolph" was not a made-for-TV special, but a full-length feature released in theaters.

It concerns a young boy, Willy, who learns of the Mad Professor Rasputin Van Rotton's plans to go back into time so that he can take credit for different feats and inventions (such as the discovery of America, invention of fire, etc...) by beating the real heroes to the punch. I guess he felt that building the world's first time machine would not provide enough stature! Anyway, with the help of a stereotypical Spanish monkey, Pablo, who takes great pride in announcing the fact that he is "one great lateen luvur" (that's "latin lover" in Spanish monkey talk), Willy builds his own "Magic Machine" and travels through the ages to foil the Mad Professor's plans just in the nick of time.

Packed with dinosaurs, mad professors, the wild west, cavemen, knights, pirates, Indians, cowboys and many other such subjects, this is sure to delight any young boy (well.... maybe any young boy from the 50's) but may be a bit tedious for adults if they are not a fan of stop-motion animation. But if you were a young boy in the 50's AND are a stop-motion fan then this movie with its retro-puppet-appeal will rock your world!!! It rocked mine!!

Back in the 60s and early 70s, the Rankin-Bass company made some of the best and most iconic Christmas specials ever, such as "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". If these films are the only Rankin-Bass films you've seen, then films like "Willy McBean and His Magic Machine" will come as a surprise for several reasons. First, the company didn't just make Christmas or other holiday specials. Second, the quality of their productions varied tremendously...and some, like this film, look a tad shabby by comparison. I am not completely sure why, but it may be because the Rankin-Bass folks farmed the animation out to studios in Japan...and which Japanese company made them changed several times. All I know is that this feature-length movie just isn't the same quality of the great Christmas shows. Now I am not saying it's bad...but it certainly isn't great.

The story begins with the evil Professor Von Rotten building a time machine and planning to go back in history to make himself one of the most important figures ever. But his monkey, Pablo, steals the blueprints and brings them to Willy McBean, who is sort of like a Dexter or Jimmy Neutron...a brilliant kid with super-special scientific skills. So Willy makes his own time machine and takes Pablo with him through history to stop the wicked Professor!

On the plus side, one or two of the songs are catchy...one in particularly got stuck in my head. And, I am sure it took a lot of work to create this stop-motion film...I do appreciate that. But the story and characters are pretty forgettable and I have a hard time imagining kids today sitting through this film. Interesting for nostalgia sake but otherwise a film that is, at best, a time-passer. If you are curious, it's currently posted on YouTube....along with several other Rankin-Bass full-length films and specials you probably never saw before or have long forgotten.

The magic machine of the title is actually created by supposedly scientific means rather than magical. Disappointingly it just looks like an alarm clock strapped around Willy's waist and is rather perfunctorily employed to spirit him from one historical era to another rather as a blow on the head often does in fiction.

The original creator of the machine, Professor Rasputin Von Rotten, is neurotic rather than evil, motivated less by a desire to actually change history than to just claim the credit from others. (If he was smart enough to create a time machine, surely he should have made a name for himself legitimately?)

The stop-motion animation is very primitive, but you get used to it; while the designs are attractive, the songs lively, and it contains whimsical, mildly satirical interpretations that deflate the likes of General Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody (whose spelling of "Buffalo" has to be corrected by Sitting Bill), King Arthur and King Tut.

All in all a likable, flavourful little trifle.