Peculiar children's TV specials
On YouTube, the other night, I watched a few weird children's TV specials I vaguely remembered from my childhood. The first two were the second and third (I think!) Puff the Magic Dragon animated specials. These came out when I was VERY young, but I remember seeing them later, perhaps around the middle school age. They were very peculiar in that they commandeered the character (a very thin character they had to embellish almost entirely) from the song in order to teach children lessons. Weird. It did have the fantastic Bergess Merideth as the voice of Puff, though, which I had forgotten. I did not watch the original special, if indeed it was on YouTube.
The first was Puff the Magic Dragon and Mr. Nobody. (Pardon me if I get the names a little wrong here.) It was very strange and kind of mediocre. They couldn't seem to quite focus on what they were trying to say, and it was kind of all over the place. Indeed, I'm not 100% sure what they were trying to say. It was strictly mediocre with little merit. I hardly remembered it, though a little bit of it rang a bell. 4/10.
The second one I watched was Puff the Magic Dragon and the Land of the Living Lies. This one was a great deal better. It dealt with a real problem with sincerity. The basic premise is a little girl starts telling a lot of lies after her parents split up. She blames the dog for breaking a lamp and her mother is ready to get rid of the dog. (She's not crazy, she just thinks the dog's too big and energetic to keep in the house anymore.) It has original music, unlike the previous special, and bits of two of the songs have been burned into my brain for over twenty years now. It was a bit strange to hear those bits again. I remembered this one much better than the others, which I only had the slightest memories of. Anyways, it's a big improvement on its predacessor, since it deals with a real, relateable problem in a earnest way and shows a realistic repercussion of lying. (A lot of these "message" shows have really thoughtless messages with ridiculous situations and repercussions. Look at those stupid public service ads for anti-drugs or anti-drinking. What kid wouldn't roll his eyes at those? It's no wonder drug use is so common.) That said, it still wasn't great. I'd hesitantly give it a 6.
The third one I watched was actually one I'd only seen the slightest tidbit of before: Really Rosie. It was kind of crudely done in some ways, but had a good bit of charm. The premise was an animated adaption of some Maurice Sendak books, put to music by Carole King. In the immortal words of Julie's dad from the Maxx, with regard to Maurice Sendak, "He's God, man!" I heartily agree. And I feel similarly about Carole King, who wrote and co-wrote a great many of the non-Motown hits of the pre-Beatles era of rock, later going on to some singing success of her own. Here she has a charming Brooklyn accent. I wish I was the Pope so I could saint her. So, that pairing obviously meets with my approval. I had a little record with two of the songs from this movie as a kid, Chicken Soup with Rice and Pierre, but I only saw a tidbit of the movie, as I said. I don't remember the circumstances, but I saw the first few minutes at school with kids I didn't know before being taken some place else. So, watching it was kind of a coming-together of errant whisps of my youth. In spite of it being Maurice Sendak and Carole King (!), both of whom did excellent jobs for their contributions, it was kind of crudely put together in some respects and didn't quite come across as well as it could have. That said, it had a lot of charm and the good certainly outweighed the bad. It left us with some memorable song versions of good children's prose, if nothing else. A solid 6/10.
The first was Puff the Magic Dragon and Mr. Nobody. (Pardon me if I get the names a little wrong here.) It was very strange and kind of mediocre. They couldn't seem to quite focus on what they were trying to say, and it was kind of all over the place. Indeed, I'm not 100% sure what they were trying to say. It was strictly mediocre with little merit. I hardly remembered it, though a little bit of it rang a bell. 4/10.
The second one I watched was Puff the Magic Dragon and the Land of the Living Lies. This one was a great deal better. It dealt with a real problem with sincerity. The basic premise is a little girl starts telling a lot of lies after her parents split up. She blames the dog for breaking a lamp and her mother is ready to get rid of the dog. (She's not crazy, she just thinks the dog's too big and energetic to keep in the house anymore.) It has original music, unlike the previous special, and bits of two of the songs have been burned into my brain for over twenty years now. It was a bit strange to hear those bits again. I remembered this one much better than the others, which I only had the slightest memories of. Anyways, it's a big improvement on its predacessor, since it deals with a real, relateable problem in a earnest way and shows a realistic repercussion of lying. (A lot of these "message" shows have really thoughtless messages with ridiculous situations and repercussions. Look at those stupid public service ads for anti-drugs or anti-drinking. What kid wouldn't roll his eyes at those? It's no wonder drug use is so common.) That said, it still wasn't great. I'd hesitantly give it a 6.
The third one I watched was actually one I'd only seen the slightest tidbit of before: Really Rosie. It was kind of crudely done in some ways, but had a good bit of charm. The premise was an animated adaption of some Maurice Sendak books, put to music by Carole King. In the immortal words of Julie's dad from the Maxx, with regard to Maurice Sendak, "He's God, man!" I heartily agree. And I feel similarly about Carole King, who wrote and co-wrote a great many of the non-Motown hits of the pre-Beatles era of rock, later going on to some singing success of her own. Here she has a charming Brooklyn accent. I wish I was the Pope so I could saint her. So, that pairing obviously meets with my approval. I had a little record with two of the songs from this movie as a kid, Chicken Soup with Rice and Pierre, but I only saw a tidbit of the movie, as I said. I don't remember the circumstances, but I saw the first few minutes at school with kids I didn't know before being taken some place else. So, watching it was kind of a coming-together of errant whisps of my youth. In spite of it being Maurice Sendak and Carole King (!), both of whom did excellent jobs for their contributions, it was kind of crudely put together in some respects and didn't quite come across as well as it could have. That said, it had a lot of charm and the good certainly outweighed the bad. It left us with some memorable song versions of good children's prose, if nothing else. A solid 6/10.