Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) - Weird, bizarre, over-stimulating... and one of a kind.

I'll be honest, for the most part I try to avoid reviewing movies I don't actually own copies of, there are exceptions of course, but generally if a blog has the "Review" tag, that typically means I own a copy. I can really only think of two instances where I decided to review something despite not owning a physical release of the movie. The first was "Duck Duck Goose" which was a Netflix original and then there was "The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut", which I don't think has a physical release. Well, I am going to add another film onto that list, and what a coincidence that I mention The Thief and the Cobbler because this movie was also directed by Richard Williams.

I think Richard Williams is in that grey zone where people know him and his work, but he isn't a big name like Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki or even Ub Iwerks. He's done a lot of fantastic stuff and I really think all of his work is worth checking out just for the animation alone. However, I do have to look beyond the animation and see if the movies have more to offer, so, for no real reason whatsoever, I just felt like it, let's take a look at the 1977 box office flop that is Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure.

In a small room lives a group of dolls, which include Raggedy Ann and her brother Andy, owned by a young girl named Marcella. One day, Marcella's birthday, she gets a new doll from Paris named Babette. Unfortunately, one of the denizens of Marcella's playroom, a pirate in a snow globe named The Captain, kidnaps the French doll and Ann and Andy have to rescue her, coming across bizarre and nonsensical locations and characters along the way. So yeah, this is a pretty typical animated adventure flick, and much like Yellow Submarine, it's more focused on the locations than the plot. That being said, the plot is... not exactly very clean. They kind of just randomly appear in locations, literally one character pops out and chases them into a different place, and after that we find the Captain's ship and see that Babette is now the captain and... I guess in the long run it isn't a messy plot, it is easy enough to follow and is, at its core, easy enough to understand. I guess I'll give it a C grade for plot.

Animation wise, well it's a Richard Williams production, the animation is wonderful. Now, I watched a 35mm Film transfer from YouTube, so the quality may have been affected by that. That being said though, the animation is energetic, fluid and smooth. Raggedy Andy's movements during his song number, when he is twisting himself all over was almost hypnotic to watch, and The Greedy is just beautifully animated, always morphing and melting. In fact, the animation may be too energetic. There is always something moving and it can be a bit over-stimulating. There are times when it does slow down and keep everything subdued, but lots of the song sequences and The Greedys scene have lots of movements and while it kept me interested, it was also really exhausting. It's all amazing animation, but it really can be overstimulating.

The audio can be overstimulating too. Looney Land especially is over-stimulating to the nth degree. Everything is laughing, so many sounds play out and the music is going, and it gets too much too fast. In fact, most of the audio in this movie is mixed. On the one hand, it does have some nice songs, "No Girl's Toy" is fun and a lot of people seem to like "Blue" and "Rag Dolly", which aren't bad, but this movie has the same problem, the exact same problem as the Steven Universe movie and Arlo the Alligator Boy. Too many songs that aren't spaced out enough. At least the songs aren't too bad, though a lot of them are very unnecessary. It also doesn't help that the singing voices aren't always great. While Mark Baker does an excellent job as Raggedy Andy, a performance that lots of viewers have literally fallen in love with, Didi Conn's Raggedy Ann is... Well, she can't exactly hit a lot of the notes the songs require her to hit, which is probably why people remember "Rag Dolly" over her first song "What Do I See?".

The characters are for the most part, very simple. I don't know if that is really a criticism or not because most of these characters are not really major, The Greedy is gross and a big eater, the Camel with Wrinkled Knees is lonely and miserable, Leonard Looney is unforgivingly annoying, Looney Land's King is small and angry, no character really gets a lot of... well character. Even our leads, Raggedy Ann and Andy have rather basic character. They weren't completely boring to watch, they weren't ever unengaging, so for characters I'd give this movie half marks.

In fact, I'd say this movie as a whole deserves half-marks. It's not paced very well, its plot isn't very fleshed out, the songs are too numerous and too inconsistent in quality, the animation and audio can be over stimulating, the characters aren't very complex... But this movie is one of a kind.

I know I brought up Yellow Submarine, which I do think is a better movie, but Yellow Submarine did not have this level of animation, this level of bizarre stuff happening, this level of "I don't even know what to describe". It's like Yellow Submarine dialed up to twelve. So, on some level I can recommend this movie and can even see people enjoying it. It's definitely one of a kind, and worth seeing at least once. That being said, it still has plenty of problems that can make watching it a more negative experience, so if the problems sound too much for you, I don't think you're going to miss a whole lot. So I can't fully recommend it, but I thankfully have a rating for films like this. I think this may actually be the perfect example of a "Slight Recommendation".

The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled Cut (2013): A much better film than what was officially released

In my last review I looked at the officially released, highly edited version of The Thief and the Cobbler. I said it was one worth avoiding because there was an alternate version that was more in line with the late Richard Williams' vision. This is the Recobbled Cut, and is it overall a better film than the Miramax release?

The plot is the same, a young cobbler named Tack gets in trouble with the grand vizier named Zigzag after scuffling with a thief, which gets him taken to the palace where he meets the Princess Yum-Yum. After the thief takes some magical balls that protect the Golden City in which they live, the king panics, especially after hearing that the evil King One-Eye is coming to conquer their city. Now, Tack and the Princess must find a way to protect their city and defeat the evil King One-Eye, but the vizier Zigzag has his own plans to wed the princess and rule the city. Again, the plot is solid, nothing special but I gotta say, the inclusion of some deleted scenes make the plot so much better than a B, definite A- grade. We actually get to see the villain's demise, see what Zigzag was planning to do with the imprisoned Tack, and the Witch in the desert even tells the group what they need to do to defeat the villain. Again, this plot is nothing special, but including these scenes took the plot from a B to an A- in grade.

The characters have been improved a little bit too. First off, the narration is gone! That's right, the re-edit removed Tack's narration, in fact, the film removes Mathew Broderick completely, and now Tack no longer comes off as a generic hopeless romantic, it's really funny how removing a character's dialogue can actually improve them. Speaking of which, they also cut out Jonathan Winters from the film, and trust me when I say that makes this film a lot better. There is no more annoying dialogue that shoe-horns in modernisms and references, and so much of the Thief's thoughts are communicated through his body language, which is so much more interesting than having someone narrate everything he thinks. The other characters don't have too much drastic changes from them, but I don't think they're too bad. The characters no longer come off as generic tropes, which is a drastic improvement. While they still are not the best characters, they stand out a bit more from the Miramax version.

In some other good news, this film has no songs! Hooray! The songs really were the worst part of the Miramax cut, since they tried way too hard to be a Disney movie and it really showed in the songs, which were weak and forgettable. That being said, not everything I didn't like about the Miramax cut has been removed, the "Night on Bald Mountain" reference is still there, and some of the editing I mentioned is still here. In the case of the latter, I'm going to assume the film was going to be like that in the first place, probably not how I'd do it, but it is what it is. In the case of the former, I'm going to assume that because "Night on Bald Mountain" is a public domain piece, it really didn't matter. Oh well.

The animation is, again, superb, beyond excellent. It's so smooth and fluid and even surreal at times. The Recobbled Cut also includes some unfinished test animation, storyboards and deleted scenes, and the flux in visual quality can be a bit distracting, I never thought it was too much. There are times they cut to an unused shot that is only about half-a second long which got a bit distracting, but other than that I was not too bothered by it. I suppose it will depend on the viewer, so if the constant cutting from completed footage to incomplete storyboards will bother you, I get it, but if you can let it slide, well then I'd recommend checking out this version.

Yeah, I think this is a much better cut of the film than the Miramax cut. I'd go as far to say that this is the only version that anyone should view. The characters are better, the plot is better, it feels less like it's trying to be a Disney film. It's funny how slight improvements to the elements make this a much better film. Overall, while I can't say it's incredible or that great, it is definitely worth checking out. You can find it online if you're curious, though depending on where you live that might not be very easy to find. Still, if you're willing to search, I'd recommend it, it's a fascinating and beautiful film and a great way to honour the legacy of the late Richard Williams.