New Video // 1988 // 72 Minutes // Not Rated
Reviewed by Judge Paul Corupe (Retired) // April 13th, 2006
Straight outta Raggedyland
Shaggy, patchwork Raggedy Ann began life as a turn-of-the-Century character by newspaper cartoonist Johnny Gruelle, who originally brought his creation to life as a mop-haired doll that would accompany a children's book of her adventures. The scarecrow-like stuffed toy and her printed page counterpart proved to be wildly popular with both kids and adults on their release, and since then, Raggedy Ann has become an enduringly squishy icon for cranky preschoolers all over the world. Though her design may seem decidedly old-fashioned since the introduction of fashion-forward dolls like Barbie, Raggedy Ann continues to be a hot property. She was teamed up with her platonic rag doll boyfriend Andy for The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy, a 1988 cartoon series on CBS. That cutesy series makes its debut on DVD with a pair of releases from New Video, starting with The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Mabbit Adventure and Other Exciting Tales.
So what's a Mabbit, and why would it entail an adventure? Why it's a magic-casting race of bunny rabbits, of course! The Mabbits are just some of the creatures that Raggedy Ann and Andy meet when they awaken after their owner, a young girl named Marcella, falls asleep or leaves the room. Together with a trunkful of other toys, including Grouchy Bear, Sunny Bunny, Raggedy Dog, Raggedy Cat, and the delightful Camel with the Wrinkled Knees (no, seriously), the dolls help keep Raggedyland safe from dangerous foes, especially the evil wizard Cracklin. Each DVD volume presents three original episodes of the show, and this one includes:
* "The Mabbit Adventure"
Raggedy Ann must stop Cracklin from
stealing the Mabbit's book of spells. The elder Mabbit wizard is immobilized by
Cracklin's "Freezola" curse, but with the help of a magic pen, Raggedy
Ann restores order. Sunny Bunny also meets his pen pal, Lorlei. An average story
at best with a nonsensical conclusion, "The Mabbit Adventure" is not
one of the better episodes, and it's slightly strange they would have named the
DVD after it. 6/10
* "The Perriwonk Adventure"
A search for Marcella's missing
locket sends the toys into a mystical land ruled by the Perriwonks,
half-alligator, half-anteater creatures who constantly argue amongst themselves.
Through some brilliant investigative work, Raggedy Ann discovers that the
Perrikwonk's did take the locket, and are planning to sacrifice it to the local
dragon, Cinge. They toys go to confront this monster, but of course, Cinge turns
out to be a whimpering softie. This is a solid episode that gives lots of screen
time to Raggedy Ann and Andy's fellow toys and highlights their teamwork skills.
8/10
* "The Pirate Adventure"
The toys discover a treasure map
leading to Leprechaun Micky's pot of gold, but when they attempt to find it,
they run afoul of a crew of ruthless pirates who kidnap Raggedy Andy. Here we
have another fine show highlighted by Grouchy Bear's misanthropic antics and the
Raggedys skirting around the word "bum" when trying to describe
exactly where the map's ink rubbed off on when Raggedy Andy sat on it.
8/10
The plots in The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Mabbit Adventure and Other Exciting Tales may be appropriately simplistic for their young audience, but you can see some of the writers trying to have a little fun with the dialogue, especially with the brilliant character of Grouchy Bear, a panda in an ultra-conservative striped tie who spends most of his time complaining. Though he doesn't appear in every adventure, adults will probably be surprised at how humorously cynical Grouchy Bear can be as he complains and gripes his way through Raggedyland like Dr. Smith on Lost in Space. The rest of the hero characters are also well-developed-if slightly more "traditionally" charming-and they're easy to sympathize with. It's only the villains they meet on their adventures that end up being incredibly forgettable, annoying wood sprites and blandly evil wizards who haven't thought their plan of conquering Raggedyland through very well.
With simple character drawings and even simpler backgrounds, the animation is distinctly average, but it does feature some pretty good voice work that helps overcome the limited animation techniques and give the show a little personality. The only real problem with the quality of the show is the terrible synthesizer soundtrack, an annoying twinkling that the show's producers felt had to run in the background of pretty much every scene.
Like its simultaneously-released counterpart, The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Pixling Adventure and Other Exciting Tales, the quality of the transfer on this New Video release is not very good, especially considering the fact that this show is not even twenty years old. Source and digital artifacts frequently mar the picture, and everything seems a little softer than it should probably be. The Dolby 2.0 stereo track is pretty standard for a cartoon of this vintage, a little flat, but perfectly adequate for the material at hand. The sole extra is pretty pathetic: "The History of Raggedy Ann & Andy" is a screen with three or four sentences of text detailing the origins of the iconic dolls.
The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Mabit Adventure and Other Exciting Tales, is perfectly appropriate for kids, but I'm not sure what the hook is for a modern audience. I can't imagine that anyone would feel nostalgic enough about the show to want to buy it and share it with their children, and Raggedy Ann is not exactly in the public eye at the moment. It's doubtful any young viewer would pick this over anything else currently available. Still, you could do worse.
Review content copyright © 2006 Paul Corupe; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2013 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice
Judgment: 76
Perp Profile
Studio: New Video
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (English)
Subtitles:
* None
Running Time: 72 Minutes
Release Year: 1988
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distinguishing Marks
* History of Raggedy Ann and Andy
Accomplices
* IMDb
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0206469/combined