Lightyear Entertainment/The Disney Channel, 1995
Voices of Hume Cronyn, Sasha Gronim, James Earl Jones, and Dai Dai Ming
Directed by Aleksey Alekseev, Vladen Barbe, and Joshua M. Greene
Music and Lyrics by various
Sometimes, I run across a musical even I never heard of. Such is the case of our next review. I was wandering around Tubi when I stumbled across this animated special. Based after a picture book that's been in print since the 1980's, this celebration of the many cultures around the world shows us why diversity and celebrating our differences is so important. How does it look today, when diversity is even more important than ever? Let's begin with Cara (Gronim) as she travels to New York on a crowded subway to visit her grandfather (Cronyn) and find out...
The Story: Still smarting from her parents' acrimonious divorce, Cara wishes everyone was the same. That way, no one would fight. Her grandfather takes her on a walk around his multicultural Manhattan neighborhood, encountering everyone from a Tibetan candle seller (Ming) to an African flower merchant (Ophelia Essen). As they explore the city, Cara and her father meet many different people and learn about their cultures and lifestyles. Cara finally realizes how important diversity is when she loses her father during a rainstorm and has a harrowing dream about a world where everyone is the same...
The Animation: The song segments are more-or-less music videos with their own distinct styles. The opening is gorgeous soft pencil artwork reminiscent of the classic Christmas special The Snowman. Two sequences, including Cara's nightmare, are stop-motion clay animation that looks like Gumby meets George Orwell. The African Storyteller's (Jones) sequence is startlingly realistic black and white pencil art depicting a war between animals in such violent terms, it frightens Cara. It almost looks like a black-and-white version of the adult animated films Ralph Bakshi did in the 70's and 80's.
The Song and Dance: A sweet and charming special with a very important message. Cronyn is warm and lovable as the much-traveled grandfather who teaches his granddaughter a lesson about diversity and why it's good to be different. Gronim is equally good as lively Cara. James Earl Jones' warm rumbling tones give a lift to the dark African animal war story sequence.
Favorite Number: We open with that stunning colored pencils sequence, the softly shaded description of the "Children of the World" depicting people from Neanderthals to New York. "The Body Song" is our first Claymation sequence, celebrating every body and skin type around the world. "Welcome to Our World" is the flower seller's story of growing up in Africa and the culture and rituals that she remembers from her childhood done as a somewhat bolder colored pencil sequence. Cara may not think much of the fried bugs and fruit at the Middle Eastern market, but the fruit seller considers it to be a "Garden of Delight."
"The Playing Field" is another lovely colored pencils sequence, this time depicting diversity in athletics and the importance of working as a team. Cara thinks if kids ruled the world "Under the Same Sun" they wouldn't fight at all in an adorable number done with artwork made to look like children's drawings. "Believing" follows up the intense animal war with a soothing power ballad revolving around religions of the world and humanity's need for faith and healing.
The instrumental "Festival Brasilera" is the big, brilliant parade Cara and her grandfather encounter on their way home. They join in the neon celebration as people around the world celebrate what makes everyone special. The film ends as Grandfather puts Cara to sleep...and children around the world and all over New York do the same...to "How Wonderful We Are."
What I Don't Like: First of all, plot is not this special's strong suit. It's mostly about the music, animation, and the diversity message. Cara and her grandfather weren't even in the original book. Some of the special can get pretty dark, too. There's the African storyteller sequence with the incredibly violent and realistically animated animal war and Cara's terrifying Orwellian nightmare of a world where everyone is the same. These scenes upset Cara and may do the same to sensitive children.
The Big Finale: I'm glad I found this. The special's message of diversity and cultural heritage may be even more relevant now than it was in 1995. Show this to your older elementary schooler or pre-teen if you want to give them a good lesson on just how important our differences are.
Home Media: To my knowledge, this is streaming only at the moment. Tubi currently has it for free.
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