Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Pass The Popcorn: Raggedy Ann and Andy:A Musical Adventure

In which sanity takes a vacation.
 
 
WOOHOO! 300 POST ALL COUNTED! YAAAAY! DA-DAAAA-DA, DA-DA-DA-DAAAA-DA, DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAH! YEAH! (Ahem,) Well, moving right along...(Incidentally, is this joke getting overdone? Little bit? Ookay...:-D)
 
 
 
In this highly-surreal movie/musical starring Johnny Gruelle's famous pair of ragdoll siblings, when Babette the French doll is kidnapped by the lovestruck pirate doll Captain Contagious(Who might possibly be Sneezy's long-lost uncle), Annie and her brother Andy set out to rescue her, along the way meeting such memorable characters as the sad, lonely Camel with the Wrinkled Knees(Whom they quickly befriend), the Greedy, a giant, ever-morphing taffy monster who eats everything in sight, and the crazy-mad denizens of Loony Land.
 
My thoughts: There have been two things that everyone(Including me!) has been able to agree on about this movie:
 
1. It's a very good movie.
 
2. It's also a very STRANGE movie! 

Basically, this is a very good, high-quality movie, directed by Richard Williams who was best known for his magnum opus The Thief and the Cobbler.(Which, itself was pretty surreal.) The characters are likeable and relatable, the songs are Broadway-musical quality, and the artwork is nothing short of a masterpiece. A few people incidentally have noticed several similarities between this movie and the famous Pixar movie Toy Story, to the point where one wonders if one inspired the other. If you like Raggedy Ann, you like weird and wacky movies, and especially if you like weird and wacky movies about Raggedy Ann, this is the movie for you!

While the movie regrettably hasn't been released on DVD yet, there is a video of it available on Amazon:

 
 
A soundtrack of the movie was also made, which is available at the link below:
 
 
 
 
A book of the movie was also made, which shows up on ebay from time to time.
 
BTW, here are a few of my favorite songs from the movie, for your listening pleasure:

A very sweet, touching song.
 
 
o.O
This is all I have to say for this sequence. To this day,
no one is quite sure what this sequence was supposed to mean,
speak of.(BTW, notice the Greedy quoting Shakespeare
at one point; perhaps he's trying to inject some culture
into this?)
 
 
 
"I'm just a rag dolly."
 
 
 

 
 Fun fact: Richard Williams' daughter plays Marcella in the live-action segments of the movie.


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