by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 26, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
In the 1960s there were Saturday and Sunday matinees for kiddie flicks, and it became something of a small market that existed into the 70s. One company named Childhood Productions run by producer Barry Yellen took European films, dubbed them into English, and adapt the edit of the film to fit into a more American format. They had done several of these, and actor/composer/writer Paul Tripp was a founder of the company, working for them in doing narration, etc.
Childhood Productions would make one original production that was released in 1966, the children’s film “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t”. It was shot in Italy with a mostly Italian cast, and a few American actors. The film was made without sound, and everything post synched in the dubbing process, like many Italian films of the time.
Paul Tripp plays Sam Whipple, a lawyer who tries to help Santa Claus (Alberto Rabagliati), Mrs. Claus (Lydia Brazzi), and Santa’s elves when they are going to be evicted from their home in the North Pole by a Scrooge-like character named Phineas T. Prune (Rossano Brazzi). Santa goes to work at a department store run by Mr. Prim (Sonny Fox, the early 60s host of “Wonderama”), trying to raise money, but Mr. Prune will not go down without a fight.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 25, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
46 years ago on 12/22/74 the classic animated special from Lutheran Television “The City That Forgot About Christmas” first aired in syndication.
This quiet little film, animated on a lower budget, is one of the most beautiful animated specials in capturing the true meaning of Christmas.
With a wonderful cast it tells the story of a boy, Benji, who’s grandfather (Sebastian Cabot) is able to let him know how important it is to remember the significance of the Christ child, and not the other things that detract from it just being a holiday. Charles Nelson Reilly, Louis Nye, Casey Kasem, Robie Lester, and Joan Gardner also lend their voices to this beautifully made film that stays with one for life.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 25, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
“He went down in history!”
56 years ago on 12/6/64 the most popular, and the greatest, Christmas animated special appeared on NBC’s General Electric Fantasy Hour. It used songs that existed of Johnny Marks and some he wrote for the special. It was the first big special for Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, Rankin/Bass, having done two animated series up to that point, “The New Adventures Of Pinocchio” in stop motion and “Tales Of The Wizard Of Oz” in cel animation, it having a sequel in 1964 called “Return To Oz” that aired on the GE Fantasy Hour of NBC.
After the huge success of the first airing of “Rudolph” the sponsor, GE, asked for some changes, since audiences complained that Santa didn’t rescue the misfit toys. An additional song, which ended up being “Fame And Fortune”, replaced a second version of “Misfits”, and the misfit toys were rescued at the end.
This all required some edits: “We Are Santa’s Elves” was cut in half, the reprise of “Misfits” was now the “new” “Fame And Fortune” song, after Santa takes off at the end, dialogue with the family is removed, as well as Yukon discovering a peppermint mine (with gorgeous animation), and the original end credits were removed, with the action of Santa delivering toys with the elves taking center stage, and the packages having the credits removed.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 24, 2020
“Everybody, everybody, everybody wants to be a cat!” “Why did I listen to that O’Malley cat!”50 years ago today Walt Disney Productions’ animated classic “The Aristocats” opened in theaters. It had a premiere in LA on 12/11/70 but opened two weeks later.
One of the most important films in my life, it was “The Aristocats”, and two weeks later “The Apple Dumpling Gang”, that I saw in the Walt Disney Summer Film Festival in 1975 that made my knowledge of what paradise was like in film. With its wonderful songs, from the opening titles with Maurice Chevalier singing the title song, to “Thomas O’Malley” introducing the Phil Harris voiced character, to most of all “Everybody Wants To Be A Cat” the film is a joyous affair from beginning to end. The songs were written by the Sherman Brothers, along with Terry Gilkyson contributing “Thomas O’Malley”, and Floyd Huddleston and Al Rinker contributed “Everybody Wants To Be A Cat”.
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by Pastor Rodriguez | Dec 18, 2020
A song a day keeps the coronavirus blues away:
“A hand for each hand was made for the world,
Why don’t my fingers reach.
Millions of grains of sand in the world,
Why such a lonely beach.
Where is a voice to answer mine back
Where are two shoes that click to my clack.
I’m all alone in the world.”
Back in 1949 a new animation studio that was trying to be the non-traditional, rebellious studio (essentially anti-Disney) established their first actual character Quiney Magoo, or simply Mr. Magoo, a short sighted, at times temperamental, and often hilarious charmer voiced by the great Jim Backus. It was rather rare for an animated leading character of cartoons to be a human, so he was unique right from his being a person and not an animal. They’d have several classic cartoons, winning Academy Awards for two of the Magoos, and Mr. Magoo would star in his own feature film in 1959, the classic “1001 Arabian Nights”.
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