Animation Celebration Saturday - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Golden Films, 1996

Voices of Susan Silo, Charles Martinent, Jeff Bennett, and Cam Clarke

Directed by Diane Paloma Eskanazi

Music and Lyrics by various

Though Golden Films did occasionally dip into original material, like every other direct-to-video animation studio in the 90's and early 2000's, they mostly put out imitations of whatever Disney movie was out at the time. This may have been one of the most unlikely. People at the time were shocked that Disney put out an animated version of this dark, religion-soaked story...and then every direct-to-video studio in existence started doing their versions. Given that the original novel is pretty heavy-going and doesn't even have a happy ending, how does Golden Films deal with those dark themes? Well...they pretty much ignore them. Let's see how different things are in this retelling, starting with a song about spring in Paris...in a story set in the early 1800's...

The Story: Melody (Silo), her mother, and their fellow gypsies are persecuted by the handsome but greedy Jean Claude (Martinent), who has eliminated all magic and music from Paris. Melody and her singing and dancing musical instruments are forced to flee for Notre Dame. There, she falls in love with shy Quasimodo (Bennett) the bell ringer. Melody and the instruments leave when Jean Claude takes Melody's mother hostage, but Melody ends up captured herself. The instruments are the ones who must warn Quasimodo and encourage him to put aside his shyness and rescue his beloved Romani girl.

The Animation: Same as all the other Golden Films productions. The colors are gorgeous, bright and saturated, but the characters all have the same pale blue eyes and no expressions whatsoever. They don't even have the lavish costumes worn by characters in some of the other Golden productions. Everyone wears the same clothes throughout the movie.

The Song and Dance: Well...as out of place as they are, some of the songs are mildly catchy. Bennett at least sounds appropriately gentle and kind as Quasimodo, and there's those bright colors. They help bring a lot more zip to this otherwise pedestrian retelling.

The Numbers: We open with "Dance to the Music of Paris," in which the gypsies celebrate every Parisian stereotype that likely didn't exist in Paris in the early 1800's, including cafes and can-can dancers. "When I'm Looking at You" is the jaunty love song Melody and Quasimodo perform with the bats and mice who live in Notre Dame as Quasimodo rings the bells. Melody turns her prison into a beautiful room in the upbeat and completely inappropriate "When the Magic Is In Your Heart." "It's Like We're Alive" sing the people of Paris after Quasimodo rescues Melody. The movie ends with a reprise of "When I'm Looking at You" over the end credits.

What I Don't Like: What in the heck is this? Disney's version has its fair share of problems and flaws, but at least they retained the book's somber tone and dark look at religious hypocrisy. "Upbeat Broadway musical" does not suit this story or these characters. This feels more like Beauty and the Beast with a hunchback beast, up to and including the Gaston-like Jean Claude. Did Jean Claude and Quasimodo need to be brothers? They did nothing with that after Jean Claude's info dump in the opening. 

The bats, mice, and talking instruments are even more worthless as sidekicks than the annoying talking gargoyles in the Disney film. The instruments admittedly do help rescue Melody, but the bats and mice are useless beyond the "When I'm Looking at You" number. Every single song is an upbeat dance number, even ones like "When I'm Looking at You" and Melody's prison number that are performed during romantic or somber moments. In fact, they totally ruin the impact of those moments. 

How about all those anachronistic Paris stereotypes in the opening, or the dated depiction of the Romani, or the random scene where Melody's mother makes all the animals on the farm dance that's there for no reason, or Quasimodo is less frightening and more "shy, slightly hunched over good looking guy." And even Disney didn't marry him off to the Esmeralda character, something that definitely did not come from the book. 

The Big Finale: This is by far the worst and most ridiculous of the Disney imitations of the 90's and early millennium I've seen. Don't even bother with this one unless you have very, very bored younger children who want to watch something online and won't mind the lack of book-accuracy, dull characters, and out-of-place songs.

Home Media: If you absolutely must see this, it can be found on DVD paired with four other Golden Films titles and solo on streaming. 

DVD - Magical Tales

Tubi

Happy Go Lovely

RKO/Associated British-Pathe, 1951

Starring Vera-Ellen, David Niven, Cesar Romero, and Diane Hart

Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone

Music by Mischa Spoliansky; Lyrics by Barbara Gordon and Mischa Spoliansky

William Bendix wasn't the only American film star to work in England during the 1950's. Vera-Ellen, Cesar Romero, and director H. Bruce Humberstone joined British star David Niven to make this veddy English take on the backstage extravaganza. How does the story of a chorus girl who mistaken for the sweetheart of a millionaire look nowadays? Let's begin in a theater at Edinburgh, Scotland, during the first preview of the show Frolics for You and find out...

The Story: Right now, it's looking like there might not be a show. Director-producer John Frost (Romero) can't afford to pay his cast, let alone his creditors. Chorus girl Janet Jones (Vera-Ellen), desperately late for rehearsal one day, gets a ride from Bates (Hugh Dempster), the genial chauffeur for millionaire B.G Bruno (Niven). The moment she's seen stepping out of a millionaire's limo, everyone at the theater thinks she and Bruno are an item. Frost decides to use this to his advantage, giving Janet the star role after the original star quits and telling his creditors he now has a millionaire backing his show. Janet even gets a visit from the dressmaker (Barbara Couper) who had been hounding her to pay her before to make new clothes.

The clothes bill finally gets back to the real B.G Bruno. Bruno is an unassuming young greeting card tycoon who is more interested in his business than romance. He goes to Janet, only for her to mistake him for the reporter who is supposed to interview her, Paul Tracy (Gordon Jackson). B.G is so charmed by her, he lets her think he's Tracy. She and her friend Mae (Hart) even convince him to "play" B.G Bruno when Frost demands to see him. Bruno does give him money for the show...but now Janet thinks he's in trouble for forging a check and tries to get him out of that theater, and fast!

The Song and Dance: Debonair Niven and sassy, charming Vera-Ellen aren't the first people I'd pair off, but they're surprisingly cute together in this really fun backstager. His wiry charm and her brittle warmth play off each other well, and they have so much chemistry, I wish they'd worked together again. They're backed by a lovely production at England's Elstree Studios, with a gorgeous soft Technicolor palate, lovely gowns for the ladies, and fine suits for Niven.

The Numbers: The movie opens with the lavish "Macintosh's Wedding," the original big number before the star quits. A young Scotsman isn't thrilled to marry his sweetheart, until a bump on the head convinces him otherwise! The lovely "One, Two, Three" is a charming ballet with Janet and the chorus dancing in frilly white dresses over rainbow petticoats. "London Town" is the other big chorus routine, a ballet with Janet as a tourist who falls for a British guard. "Would You, Could You?" ends the film with Janet's big solo ballet, pirouetting in a gorgeous white and gold dress as she dances for the audience, but only has eyes for B.G.

Trivia: This is a loose remake of two earlier European movies, the German And Who Is Kissing Me? from 1933 and English Paradise for Two from 1937. 

What I Don't Like: Cute though it is, story is not this movie's strong suit. The backstage aspect is nothing you haven't seen in put-on-a-show films on both sides of the pond, while the romantic aspect is so tangled, B.G isn't the only one questioning his identity by the end! Romero is less charming and more annoying as the other transplanted American (though interestingly, he doesn't end up paired off with Mae or one of the other chorus girls, which I thought they might end up doing). 

The Big Finale: If you love Niven, Vera-Ellen, or 50's musicals, you might want to travel over to Scotland and give this highland fling a shot.

Home Media: It's in the public domain, so it can pretty much be found anywhere on DVD and streaming.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Saluting Our Veterans - Idol On Parade

Columbia, 1959

Starring Anthony Newley, William Bendix, Anne Aubrey, and Lionel Jeffries

Directed by John Gilling

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's celebrate Veteran's Day overseas and honor those who fought and died in Europe with this British comedy. Elvis Presley being drafted into the Army in 1958 made so many headlines, it became fodder for everything from Broadway musicals to TV show episodes. Anthony Newley was an up-and-coming star songwriter and performer in England around the same time. He'd started out as a child actor in the late 40's, but by 1959, was one of the most popular singers in the country. This low-budget black and white comedy was the movie that made him a star, but does it still entertain 60 years after Elvis came back from the Army? Let's begin with Newley's character, rock star Jeep Jackson, at one of his concerts and find out...

The Story: Jeep is shocked when he's mistaken for another J. Jackson and called into military service. He's not popular at first. He's used to the rock star life and keeps trying to sneak out the camp or return to his recording career. He's popular with his fellow recruits, who enjoy hearing him sing spoofs of the officers, but not with said officers. Irish Drill Sargent Lush (Bendix) is particularly fed up with his antics. The ladies are more pleased, especially Caroline (Aubrey), the friend of wealthy Bertie Barnett (Jeffries). It's not until he records a best-selling ballad that the rest of the camp comes to appreciate him...and he begins to realize that there's a lot more to serving your country than playing jokey songs about your superior officers.

The Song and Dance: Bendix and Newley are almost the whole show in this cute spoof of Royal Army life in 1959. Newley is charming enough that I can understand why he was so popular in 1959. Although his singing style is closer to crooning than Elvis, he still has a way with his own songs and other people's. Bendix is hilarious as the lug of a drill sergeant who spends most of his time screaming at Jeep, and even manages a semi-credible Irish accent.

The Numbers: We open with "Idle On Parade" as we see why girls are so crazy about Jeep at one of his concerts. "Won't Get No Promotion" is his spoof of the officers, including Lush, for the men in the barracks. "I've Waited So Long" is performed several times, including Jeep's attempt to sing it after having done drill sergeant work with Lush and the silkier version heard on that hit record. "Idle Rock-a-Boogie" and "Saturday Night Rock-a-Boogie" are his songs performed near the end, before he leaves.

Trivia: The movie the soldiers go see, The Cockleshell Heroes, was one of Anthony Newley's earliest film appearances. 

Known in England as Idle On Parade.

What I Don't Like: This is pretty obviously a British B comedy from the late 50's. Jefferies isn't bad as the snobbish Bertie, but Aubrey's character isn't much more than a love interest. Despite "I've Been Waiting So Long" being a #3 hit in England, the songs aren't all that memorable, and the plot is even less-so. The second half in particular, with Jeep managing to continue his singing career, gets a little too fluffy for its own good. 

The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of Newley, Bendix, or the British or rock musicals of the 50's and early 60's.

Home Media: Only on DVD in the US as part of the Sony Pictures Screen Classics By Request made-to-order DVD line.

DVD

Animation Celebration Saturday - The Sneeches (2025)

Netflix, 2025

Voices of Amari McCoy, Sophie Peterson, Christopher Fitzgerald, and Cristina Valenzuela

Directed by Bronah O'Hanlon

Music and Lyrics by Greg Nicolett

This isn't the first time we've met the Sneeches, the class-conscious yellow critters with stars on their bellies who live at the beaches, at this blog. I reviewed the half-hour anthology special they debuted in, Dr. Seuss on the Loose, last year. Netflix got the rights to make children's cartoons from beloved Seuss characters who hadn't turned up as often in animation. They already did One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Horton the Elephant as children's shows. This is their first special, and the first Seuss special since Daisy-Head Mayzie in 1995. How does this class-war parable look on streaming? Let's begin with the pelican Daniel (Fitzgerald) and the story of how the Sneeches fractured into two warring groups and find out...

The Story: The Sneeches make up two groups, the star-bellies and the moon-bellies, each of whom believe their tummy symbol to be the better one. The star-bellies live in trees, while the moon-bellies make their homes by the ocean. That's the way it's always been, until imaginative star-belly child Stella Sneedly (McCoy) takes her many creative ideas to the beaches. There, she meets moon-belly Pearl Puddlesnuff (Peterson), a shy young miss who can build everything Stella comes up with. They become instant best friends, sneaking away to see each other whenever they have the chance.

Stella insists on meeting Pearl's parents and seeing her world. Given the animosity between the star and moon-bellies, this is impossible, until Stella invents and Pearl builds a machine that can erase and change symbols. Now the girls can visit each other's worlds...but Stella has no idea about living on the seas, while Pearl is upset and offended by the star bellies' Star Festival with speeches that verbally attack the moon bellies. When a huge storm threatens both groups, it's up to Stella and Pearl to come up with a way of protecting everyone and proving that "no Sneech is the best on the beaches."

The Animation: Colorful, rounded, and utterly charming. Netflix really had fun with this. You can see every bit of fur on the girls and every line of those green symbols that cause so much trouble. There's so much detail the girls' worlds, especially by the ocean, that you wish you had more time to explore it all. Honestly, it seems a little bit too soft and round for the bright, sketchy world of Dr. Seuss...but it works fine for a young children's show.

The Song and Dance: Divorced from its source material, this is a charming and lively little parable about two very different kids who become friends and just want to see how the other lives. McCoy is a sweet ball of energy as Stella, while Peterson's more nervous energy is adorable. The colorful animation is another plus, with it's incredible attention to detail. 

The Numbers: We open with Stella's "Something Wonderful" as she dances among the star-belly Sneeches, creating new inventions and pointing out how much fun something different can be. She reprises this after arguing with her family over the Star Festival and her inventions. Pearl and Stella say "Me Too!" when they realize how much they have in common when they first meet. "Look at This!" says Stella as she and Pearl explore the moon-bellied Sneeches' ocean-going world. "Something Wonderful" is reprised in the finale when all of the Sneeches come together to admit that being different can be pretty cool.

What I Don't Like: Um...what does this have to do with The Sneeches? In the original story and the 1973 special, there were only star-bellied Sneeches and Sneeches with nothing on their bellies. The star-bellied Sneeches snubbed the ones with no stars. Sylvester McMonkey McBean was a con-man monkey, not a kid's pet, and the original inventor of the symbol-removing machines. In the book (and a subsequent Russian short based on it), the Sneeches never do learn their lesson. The 1973 version comes a little closer to this, with the Sneeches realizing that "no Sneech is the best on the beaches." All of this is cute, but it's not nearly as memorable as the rather cynical original story or the slightly-more-hopeful 1973 cartoon.

The Big Finale: Great for families with young kids who'll appreciate the story and the engaging central best-friend pair and won't care about the lack of book-accuracy. 

Home Media: This is currently a Netflix exclusive. 

Netflix

Cult Flops - Something to Sing About

Grand National Pictures, 1937

Starring James Cagney, Evelyn Daw, William Frawley, and Gene Lockhart

Directed by Victor Schertzinger

Music and Lyrics by Victor Schlesinger

I Go Pogo was far from the only independent movie that ran into trouble with distributors. Grand National Pictures began in 1936 as an alternative to the many B-level Poverty Row studios. Hiring James Cagney, who was then feuding with his usual home-base Warner Bros, was considered a great coup for them. They threw Cagney into two lavish (for them) films, of which this is the second. It's also Cagney's second time singing and dancing on-screen. He started out as a hoofer on Broadway and still considered himself to more-or-less be one. How does Cagney's second foray into musicals after Footlight Parade look nowadays? Let's join Terry Rooney (Cagney) and his band at their latest nightclub and radio gig and find out...

The Story: Terry is off to Hollywood to make movies with studio owner B.O Regan (Lockhart). He leaves his band and his fiancee Rita (Daw) behind, promising to return. Terry doesn't find his time in Hollywood easy. Fearing his new discovery getting a big head, Regan has ordered his people not to praise Terry in any way. This culminates in an onscreen fist fight that turns too real for Terry's liking. He leaves and goes back to the band, marrying Rita. When he returns, he discovers that the movie has been released and was a huge success. 

The studio already has his second movie planned. They convince him to keep his marriage silent. Studio publicist Hank Meyers (Frawley) plants news stories claiming Terry and actress Stephanie Hajos (Mona Barrie) are an item. Terry is kept in Hollywood for so long dealing with all this and his new contract, Rita feels neglected and returns to the band. Terry has to finally take control of both his careers and prove his marriage to Rita is more important to him than any movie.

The Song and Dance: And "dance" is the real operative word here. We do get to see Cagney strut his stuff, including three solo dances. Great cast for what amounts to a B-pick here, too. Frawley and Lockhart are hilarious as the publicist who thinks he can drum up interest no matter what the real story is, and the studio head who worries that his new discovery will get too big for him to handle.

The Numbers: We open over the credits and in the first few minutes with Rita performing the title song. Terry gives us his first dance sequence, tapping in a rather Fred Astaire-like top hat, white tie, and tails across the nightclub floor. His second instrumental dance number is as he's about to leave for Hollywood. He shows off for Rita and the band, this time in a simpler suit and bucket hat, even swinging an amused Rita around. Rita and the band perform their new ballad "Right or Wrong" over the phone for Terry. 

Terry sings "Any Old Love" with a bevy of ladies in the movie-within-the-movie. His third solo is dancing with two officers (Cagney's real-life partners and teachers Johnny Boyle and Hartland Dixon) on the tramp steamer that takes him and Rita to the South Seas for their honeymoon. Rita sings "Out of the Blue" when she rejoins the band on the East Coast. She sings "Loving You" and reprises "Right or Wrong" at the nightclub in the finale. "Loving You" also gives us one last dance from Terry.

Trivia: Grand National threw everything they had into their Cagney pictures...too much, as it turned out. This and the comedy Great Guy were too lavish for their audiences. Between that, the difficulties a newly-formed company had bucking the studio system of the time, and no breakout hits in the so-so score, Sing About wound up a flop...and took down Grand National with it. Grand National closed their doors in 1940. Warner Bros ended up buying Cagney's contract and the next movie Grand National had intended to make with him, Angels With Dirty Faces. 

What I Don't Like: Cagney, his dances, and the decent cast are pretty much the only things of interest here. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious this was a low-budget B-film from the late 30's. As mentioned, the songs are dull, the story perfunctory, the Hollywood satire toothless. This isn't anything you haven't seen in countless spoofs of the movies going back to the silent era, and this does nothing really new with it other than the idea of Terry walking out.

The Big Finale: Only for the most devoted fans of Cagney and the cast. 

Home Media: This is in the public domain, so it's easy to find anywhere in most formats. It's currently streaming on Tubi with commercials. 

DVD

Tubi

Election Day Special - I Go Pogo

21st Century Film Corporation, 1980

Voices of Skip Hinnant, Johnathan Winters, Vincent Price, and Bob McFadden

Directed by Marc Paul Chinoy

Music by Gary Baker; Lyrics by Tom Flora

Our first review this week is so obscure, I never even heard of it until last week. I have, however, heard of the comic strip it's based on. Walt Kelly's Pogo started in 1948 and became one of the most popular comic strips of the 1950's and 60's. Its homespun characters, creative use of language, and spot-on political satire made it a favorite of kids and adults alike. The comic had already begun falling out of favor when Kelly passed away in 1973. There had already been two attempts at putting the strip on TV, but this would be its first and only movie outing. How does this laid-back stop-motion comedy compare to the much-loved strip? Let's begin in Georgia's Okefenokie Swamp as the title song introduces our main premise and characters and find out...

The Story: Everyone in the swamp is bound and determined for Pogo (Hinnant) to run for president...except Pogo himself. Pogo would rather be fishing and thinks the entire process is nonsense. Molester Mole (Winters), Deacon Mushrat (Price), Albert Alligator (Stan Freberg), and Howland Owl (McFadden) in particular are determined for Pogo to win the nomination for the presidency. They think of everything they can do to force him to campaign, from painting him as part of "Mount Rushmore" on a fence (his head gets stuck) to attempting to marry him off to skunk Mis Mam'selle Hepzibah (Ruth Buzzi) so he'll have a first lady. Molester and Mushrat even call on the unreliable Wiley Katt (Winters) at one point. In the end, as Pogo and the narrator point out, the more they try to fix things to their own ends, the more of mess they make of it all.

The Animation: The stop-motion has been criticized for not looking much like the characters in the comics. Not having read the comics, I can't make the comparison there. I can say that, though they move decently enough for the time and their facial expressions are occasionally hilarious, they're all so rounded and undefined, it's hard to tell what animal most of them are supposed to be. (I would not have guessed "possum" for Pogo, for instance, or muskrat for the Deacon.)

The Song and Dance: I will give them credit for assembling such a wonderful all-star cast. Hinnant is a charming Pogo, while Price actually manages a decent southern accent as the conniving Deacon. Freburg and McFadden also make the most of the twisty and frequent dialogue. Buzzi does well by her two very different characters, making Hepzibah sweet and silky and motherly Miz Beaver warm and no-nonsense.

The Numbers: We open with the title song as we see the locations that will later turn up in the film. Porky Pine (Winters) laments that "It's Hard to Be a Friend" when the others are all busy with the campaign and he has no one to fish with. It's "Convention Time," and the animals cheer Pogo on. "Pogo In Desperation" is an attempt to point out to the others that he's not suited to the candidacy. The others would rather give "Hail and Cheers" at the rally. "The Chase!" is on as everyone goes after their candidate in the finale.

Trivia: 21st Century Film Corporation pulled a little chicanery of their own when they told the animators they would get this national distribution in time for the 1980 election, with a one million promotional budget and a "Pogo for President" write-in campaign. They ended up sending it straight to video instead. It was only available through Fotomat's rental service.

An edited version with added narration would eventually turn up on cable, including HBO, Showtime, and The Disney Channel. This version would also be re-released on video by Disney in 1984 and 1989. (It's this version that I based my review on.)

Skip Hinnant's last theatrical film.

Among the later cartoonists Kelly's work inspired were Gary Trudeau (Doonsbury), Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), and Jeff MacNelly (Shoe). 

What I Don't Like: For all the great characters, first of all, there's too much talk and way too little action. Three fourths of the movie is just characters plotting and plotting with very little to show for it. The narration they added for cable only makes things more confusing. The plot is barely existent, and is mainly there to show off the cast and Walt Kelly's trademark unique words. And once again, I've never read the comics, but some comments online say this lacks it's charm and wordplay. I have to agree with another comment that the stop-motion doesn't really seem to suit the characters. They would have been better off in regular 2D animation. 

The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of the Pogo comics or the cast. Everyone else can leave this one alone in the swamp.

Home Media: This is so obscure, it's never been on DVD, to my knowledge. The only way you can find it is in the cable-edited version with the narration on YouTube.

YouTube

Animation Celebration Saturday - Willy McBean and His Magic Machine

Magna Pictures Distribution Corporation, 1965

Voices of Billie Mae Richards, Larry Mann, Alfie Scopp, and Paul Kligman

Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Kizo Nagashima

Music and Lyrics by Edward Thomas, Gene Forrell, and James Polack

We kick off November with Rankin-Bass' first foray on the big screen. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer had just been a sensation about six months before they released this. Unfortunately, Rankin-Bass doesn't seem to have ever had the same luck in the theaters that they did on TV. All of their theatrical films were eventually relegated to children's matinees and after-school showings on local stations, but does that mean they're without merit? To find out, we begin not with the title character, but with the evil Professor Von Rotten (Mann), who is gloating about his inventions to the talking monkey Pablo (Scopp).

The Story: Professor Von Rotten has invented a magic time machine that'll allow him to change history and become the first to do something great. Pablo breaks loose and runs off to find help. He ends up at the home of Willy McBean (Richards), a young boy who loves tinkering with his own inventions and finds studying history to be boring. He gets an eye-opener when Pablo tells him about the Professor's plan. Willy is able to create his own "magic machine," allowing him and Pablo to go back in time and stop the Professor and discover that history is a lot more exciting than it looks in school books.

The Animation: Actually a bit disappointing for Rankin-Bass. You can tell this one of their earlier efforts. The characters aren't as expressive as they are even in Rudolph. They move jerkily, and sometimes limbs or pieces will be missing or in the wrong place. That said, everything is fairly detailed, especially the backgrounds in the Wild West and Camelot.

The Song and Dance: Decent first movie effort from Rankin-Bass is anchored by some really fun performances. Mann in particular has a blast as the overly dramatic Professor, who is less evil than determined to be the first at something, anything, and leave a lasting legacy to history. Richards has some funny moments as skeptical Willie, while Kligman and Claude Rae throw themselves into their many characters with relish. And yes, that is a young James Doohan, just a year prior to Star Trek: The Original Series, as the voices of General Custer and Merlin. 

The Numbers: The chorus begins and ends the movie by describing "The Magic Machine" and what it can do. "Professor Rasputin Von Rotten" introduces himself and his desire to be remembered through history for something major shortly after the opening credits. Sitting Bull (Kligman) and Pablo admit "We Got Showbiz." Christopher Columbus (Kligman) and the sailors claim "Gotta Go West to Go East." The Professor tells Queen Isabella "I Am For Hire." Arthur (Claude Rae) and his men introduce themselves as "We're Knights of the Round Table (Not the Square)." The dragon (Scopp) they're supposed to fight claims "I'm the Most Exciting, Horrible Dragon In All of Camelot"...but he's really far from it. King Tut (Bunny Cowan) listens to his chorus girl queen (Corinne Conley) complain about being the "Poorest Queen" in all of Egypt. "A Caveman's Lot" is a difficult one for the neanderthals Willy and Pablo encounter.

What I Don't Like: First of all, this hasn't dated well at all, and not just the jerky animation. Name your stereotype, from Italian to Native American to Chinese, and it's probably here. Not to mention, I think this is intended to be a spoof of history. People knew the world was round years before Christopher Columbus, his men mutinied because he was a lousy sailor and a bad captain despite his ambitions, and though the Arthur legends may have their basis in fact, they're really more myths than history. 

Second, the whole idea is just too bizarre for words. Couldn't the Professor have found a far more evil reason for wanting to go back in time than just being first at something? Like most Rankin-Bass villains, he's rather easily reformed in the end, too. Pablo and his silly Mexican accent get really annoying really fast, too. 

The Big Finale: Bizarre bit of lunacy is mainly for Rankin-Bass completists and those trying to amuse their elementary-school age children for an hour and a half online.

Home Media: Which makes it just as well that, to my knowledge, this has never been released on disc in North America. The only way you can currently find it is on YouTube. 

YouTube