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.
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