NOT THAT! satires: 2023

Friday, November 24, 2023

Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) - Movie review

Ever seen a movie so absurd it's charming? a movie so dull and boring that it's perfect the way it is? a movie with so many songs to cover up a short story OR a movie with so much craziness you just accept it before the movie even begins?!...

Well that's "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure" for you!

What do you expect from a 70s animated movie with a main character (voiced by Didi Conn - Frenchy from "Grease" (1978)) we nowadays only remember through either Ragatha from The Amazing Digital Circus OR the haunted Annabelle doll from the "Conjuring" franchise - based on the real Warren case

The movie begins with a real life shot of a girl coming out of a bus, going to a nursery. There we meet our misfit toys group in beautifully animated scenes - there's a handyman, a knitter, a clown and twins. After a musical number, Ann and her gang meet a new toy "Babette" (voiced by Niki Flacks), a homesick toy from France. The movie is starting to look like Toy Story (1995) before said movie existed. In the girl's room, there's a pirate captain in a snowglobe, who escapes and kidnaps the new doll. Raggedy Ann and her brother Raggedy Andy (voiced by Mark Baker) go through the "Deep Deep woods" to save the new toy. Meeting a blue camel plush with broken knees, a monster that lives in its own food and a bunch of nutcases - one of them being a small king who grows by laughing. The long adventure ends with every toy returning home safely with a new friendship created between Babette and Ann.

Now where is the problem?! The film is a hodgepodge of "different films". If you cut away the musical bits the film is loosely strung together by 2 characters. Let's take another colorful animated film for example: "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland". Here the plot follows one long narrative where each new character gets introduced along the way through Nemo and his dream. Here we jump from one location with a character to another without any connection...just Ann & Andy being there is why we're meeting this character. One of these out of place characters is the Greedy monster. They appear, they are set up as a villain but they turn up to be a minor nuisance cause after that the real "villain" appears: the King. It feels like these are 4 different stories told in one stewpot! You have...

Plot A: Babette kidnapped by the pirate - Ann & Andy have to save her.

Plot B: Ann & Andy meet a camel in the woods.

Plot C: Ann & Andy meet a monster that eats itself

Plot D: Ann & Andy go to the land of Loony.

Somehow all these plots come together in a strange ending that includes tickling and laughter and a big explosion. It's the exact strangeness you expect from a 70s movie.

The movie has great characters and great, catchy music. The colorful, bright animation brings dreamy fantasy elements to the movie. Love the creative way the credits roll at the beginning of the movie - also the animators getting their credit, as they deserve. That's all I have to say about this classic animation film.

Thanks to The Amazing Digital Circus, this film can get a great resurgence! Hopefully people will look at the film and main character past the haunted aura and the digital circus...