A bit of a blast from the past, I found this treasure a while back on google videos. But I remembered it today, because I woke up with one of the songs in my head. (I have no qualms about watching the whole thing online, considering taping things off TV was never illegal and we had one, and it’s not ever coming out on DVD as far as I know so most people can’t watch it now anyway.)
And then I discovered it was directed by Richard Williams. This probably doesn’t ring any bells for anyone else, but he’s the author of “The Animator’s Survival Kit”, a textbook on animation. Also the director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) (He also came from Canada, Paulus, so =P …and then moved to Disney, but shush. )
Which is strange to me, considering the odd animation atrocity in the film (the lack of gravity, at some points. They might be dolls, but they’re still on Earth)
So anyway, I looked through the credits and saw (first on the list) Art Babbitt. Art Babbitt animated Gepetto in Pinocchio (1940) and was sacked in 1941 shortly before the animator’s strike in Disney. Since he worked with Williams, it shouldn’t really be surprising he worked with Williams again later. Those are the only names I recognise and the difference in quality is easy to see. Compare this sequence with this one with the fluid line (as much as you can for a Camel with Wrinkled Knees) and weight of the camel. Specifically with the former, the gravitationally challenged character doing a cartwheel in midair to celebrate their escape from the taffee monster at the end of the clip (which femalewarrior pointed out to me when she watched it)
It’s a kids film. I watched it religiously. But I think there’s two types of story - one that’s focused around an event, and one that’s focused around a character and their development. Personally, I like the latter, but usually a successful movie or story has both elements.
But Raggedy Ann and Andy, while getting across the personality of the main characters fairly well (I’d contribute that to the voice actors too)Â the side characters are just… what? Specifically, a wierd purple being in tin armour whose only purpose is to play practical jokes on people.
And why? Why, to aid his king?
The essential plot is= New toy arrives, new toy kidnapped, Ann and Andy to the rescue. Where does the king come in?
…Thats the problem. He doesn’t. The same way that The Greedy toffee monster has absolutely nothing to add to the plot, except perhaps “if you eat too many sweets you’ll grow moobs, like me!” The king doesn’t even have a moral message that I can think of. Perhaps “Entertaining people makes parts of them grow.”
Sound dodgy to you? I thought so.
And I’m still trying to figure out what this is:Â 
And what that thing attached to him is.
Everything between the leaving to rescue the kidnapped doll and actually rescuing the kidnapped doll is filler. Anyone remember Jungle Book (1967) where the main plot is Mogli, Sher Khan, village, but there’s all these side things, like the snake, the elephants, etc, that don’t actually have much to do with the plot. Well Jungle Book did actually use those extra things to progress the development of Sher Khan and Mogli, and temptations along the way (joining the monkeys and whatnot). But Raggedy Ann doesn’t. It’s one unrelated plot point after another, and a clumsy tie up of some of them at the end.
The main characters themselves seem like a nice sweet loving couple. Then you remember they’re siblings. Singing about how they love each other. I’m all for good family values but it honestly does not come across as brother-sister, it comes across as a couple. (I can’t find a link to the song where this is demonstrated, sorry. Unless anyone wants to watch the entire movie, I think it’s about 30 mins in)
Two people I know, as well as Wikipedia, have instantly pointed at the male protagonist as gay. Although it’s not mentioned in the film and doesn’t really have much relevence, it amuses me, since I believe it was around the 70s that homosexuality was no longer regarded as a mental disorder and therefore would have been risky to show in any TV, nevermind a children’s cartoon =P And apart from the fact that, well if you were a male dolly, you’d probably be a bit on the feminine side. And apart from singing about there being too many girls in one instance.
But anyway. The best parts of the film are probably about 25-40 minutes in and… yeah that’s about it =P I loved it as a kid though, and watched it over and over again, though even back then I hated the animation of the french dol (that gets kidnapped) and the pirate (that kidnaps her).
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