Sometimes, we often find things that appear in our lives that we will often never forget it in any way since that certain object is possibly one of the creepiest things ever. For me, I can think of no better example from my past than Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.
I always thought these things were creepy as hell with their huge heads, oddly shaped limbs, and those haunting black soulless button eyes that will always enter the darkest of the mind…well at least they do for me.
Anyways, somehow the dolls got a film adaptation which was made something around the ‘70s and was forgotten until I stumbled upon it. Oddly though, the film is so insane and filled with creepy imagery, I’m surprised that it was lost among the many animated films of the past. So I decided to share its insanity with you today with a review of Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure.
Raggedy Ann and Andy are a couple of toys among many others that belong to a little girl who come to life whenever she’s not around. One Day, their owner is celebrating her birthday and gets a new toy from her family.(This is starting to sound very familiar to another animated film I know…) Moments after arriving in the new home, the new toy immediately hates being there and is then abducted by a Pirate in a snow globe which then leaves the house and Ann & Andy then go after them to bring her home.
You’d think that a film about two dolls that don’t have any personalities to them would make a terrible film, mainly due to not knowing what the film would be about. With that being the case, They threw in every insane thing they came up with. They go to all sorts of different places like a giant pit that’s actually a monster named the Greedy, a place where people speak in sound effects, and all sort of other bizarre places while encountering very strange characters along the way. Basically, the whole thing felt like it was made up as production went on.
Ann and Andy seems like rather dull characters to me. They didn’t have much to them except for the fact that they care about each other and Andy tries to act tough. The doll they want to save is very stuck up and, to me, doesn’t seem worth it since she wanted to leave anyway. Plus they add in some bizarre characters as well such as the Greedy whose basically a gigantic ocean of food and molasses, A king who is ridiculously small and can only grow if he’s laughing, a donkey who’s possibly high, a Knight who wears a trash can among others of that nautre, and these things…
…I have no words to describe them properly…I guess odd would be appropriate.
The only thing that I think is the most redeeming factor is the Animation.
The film was directed by the very talented Richard Williams (Roger Rabbit, every version of The Thief and the Cobbler) and he definitely did a great job with it with great attention to detail on the backgrounds and the characters. It was obviously the best part of the film.
The songs in the film pop up frequently whenever they meet a new character in the film. I didn’t find them to be very memorable and they seem to help make the film go by quicker and that’s pretty much all I can say about them that would be positive.
Final Thoughts: This was a mess. The Animation was really good, but that alone can’t help the rest of the film with all the problems it has with it. If it had some more work done on it, it would have turned out to be good.
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