Yeah! That was it! I just did some digging myself and found it was also called "The Amazing Three." It premiered in Japan in 1965. It probably played here in the States for just one season back in '65/66, and was never seen again.
Amazing that I never forgot that big tire with the bubble in it. Must have made an impression on my six or seven-year-old brain.
I always liked THE SNOW QUEEN (1957), originally made by Russian animators. In 1960, it was released in the U.S. in truncated form, with voices by Sandra Dee and Tommy Kirk, as well as a cutesy song, accompanying re-edited shots, and a saccharine prologue with Art Linklater and some overdressed little kids. Both the original Russian version and the re-edited U.S. release are available on both YouTube and DVD.
There was a lot of Russian animation, much of which became available on now probably rare DVD's, which I have seen here and there, but don't have.
Curiously, there were also animated films made by the Nazis, which are, predictably, racist and anti-Semitic. Not pleasant, and not very well made. I saw some excerpts online at some point, but, besides being curious, they have no other value to me.
There was a lot of Russian animation, much of which became available on now probably rare DVD's, which I have seen here and there, but don't have.
Curiously, there were also animated films made by the Nazis, which are, predictably, racist and anti-Semitic. Not pleasant, and not very well made. I saw some excerpts online at some point, but, besides being curious, they have no other value to me.
That's so unlike the Nazis, isn't it? Being evil and offensive, I mean.
I mention Soviet animation in my first post in this thread most fine. The link to the Soviet cartoon "Black and White" is still active.
I always liked THE SNOW QUEEN (1957), originally made by Russian animators. In 1960, it was released in the U.S. in truncated form, with voices by Sandra Dee and Tommy Kirk, as well as a cutesy song, accompanying re-edited shots, and a saccharine prologue with Art Linklater and some overdressed little kids. Both the original Russian version and the re-edited U.S. release are available on both YouTube and DVD.
Just found this on YouTube. Love the rounder art style and fluid animation. I will watch this for sure.
I believe the earliest non-Disney animated feature I ever saw was the now very obscure French cartoon made in 1950 by Jean Image, JEANNOT L'INTREPIDE.
It had won the Grand Prix award for children's films at the Venice Film Festival in 1951, and was picked up by Lippert Pictures and cut to approximately 60 minutes for its release in 1953, now retitling it JOHNNY THE GIANT KILLER.
I remember very little about the film now, except that it was in pretty Technicolor, and looked quite different production-value-wise from the Disney product of the time.
What I do remember is that I saw it as a first-run double-feature with the latest MGM 1953 Esther Williams underwater epic, DANGEROUS WHEN WET, which had the well-known animated/live-action underwater dream sequence with Tom and Jerry. Esther and the MGM Cartoon Department's work was much better, though the whole thing made for a fairly good family oriented double-bill.
But even at 13, I appreciated that Tom and Jerry and Esther were putting on a better show than Johnny/Jeannot!
Sea Prince and the Fire Child is now available on Blu Ray. According to Blu Ray.com it doesn't have subtitles which would make one think it's just the English dub. However Amazon infers it has the original Japanese audio, with English subtitles.
An American Tail-Fievel Goes West has come out of Blu Ray. But the video quality appears to be nothing short of abysmal according to the reviews. What a shame Amblin/Universal treats their animated products with so little care.
Love this short! I was hoping it was a demo for a full length animated film. Sadly nothing came of it and I frankly know nothing about the animation team that created it, or why.
Fantasia- Uncensored and Censored scenes side by side.
To my recollection I've never seen the uncensored version. My first time seeing the film was in the 70's, and I'm pretty sure they just blew up the frame and cut parts out to hide the "offending" character. In this version it appears the character was sometimes digitally removed. Though others times cropped out. Odd they kept the zebra centaurette's though.
Prince of Egypt finally making it's way to BluRay on Oct 16th. Have no idea of the quality though. I have the digital version from iTunes but haven't watched it yet.
"The Snowman In July" was one I remember from when I was very young. A local TV station would show it at Christmas. This version was in English with narration and I guess the producers thought kids were too dumb to figure out what was going on in the story. At least they used the original music track.
Far superior is the original (1944) "Der Schneemann", written by Mollendorff and animated by Hans Fischerkoesen (not acknowledged in the English version). The history of Fischerkoesen is very interesting. He was forced to produce Disney- like cartoons for the Nazis, but successfully weaved anti-Nazi messages into his productions. The dog in this cartoon is, I believe a spoof of Stalin, from looking at the mustache. Given the rather poor and degraded quality of the video, I dearly love this one, especially the music, about which I'd love to know more. The end always brings a tear to my eye, with the snowman briefly enjoying Summer, swimming in the grasses, playing jokes on the farm animals and finally melting away singing a song.
Cool video Jackfu. I love some of the camera moves. Nice music as well. I agree the narration is really annoying. Weird how they switch from male to female narration then back. Was that Doris Day? Kinda get the feeling Disney got the idea for Olaf's visual gags from this short. The opening shot with the snowflakes reminds me of the open for An American Tail.
Cool video Jackfu. I love some of the camera moves. Nice music as well. I agree the narration is really annoying. Weird how they switch from male to female narration then back. Was that Doris Day? Kinda get the feeling Disney got the idea for Olaf's visual gags from this short. The opening shot with the snowflakes reminds me of the open for An American Tail.
Thanks, glad you liked it. Yeah, the Rotoscoping gave the snowflakes a near-3D effect, I thought.
