Early anime movie
So for the first time in decades I watched Alakazam the Great, a 1960 anime movie that I saw on TV several times in 1963-64 while living in California. I always have held it in some affection because of those memories. Now I notice that it is largely taken from the popular Chinese story, Journey to the West. Alakazam is Sun-Wukong, the Monkey King. Lulipopo is Sha Wujong or Sandy, and Sir Quigley Broken Bottom (voiced by Jonathan Winters) is Zhu Bajie or Pigsy.
These days I guess the main reasons to watch it are to see one of the very first anime movies to ever be shown in the US (even if it was a box office failure), to hear the singing of Frankie Avalon and to see how pervasive the archetypes of Journey to the West are in Asian art forms.
These days I guess the main reasons to watch it are to see one of the very first anime movies to ever be shown in the US (even if it was a box office failure), to hear the singing of Frankie Avalon and to see how pervasive the archetypes of Journey to the West are in Asian art forms.
- icarpenter
- Jun 17, 2018