Jack and the Witch
(aka SHONEN JACK TO MAHOTSUKAI)
Voices: Meiko Nakamura, Hiroshi Otake, Yoko Mizugaki
English-Language Version:
Plot outline: Young Jack and his animal friends stumble onto a weird, dystopian fantasia where a witch casts evil spells and monsters come out of the colorful woodwork.
***
A favorite of the many Toei cartoon features from Japan, because of its kooky, strange and scary nature, not exactly right for young kids, almost more of a "head" film. There's some great psychedelic/hallucinatory scenes, the stuff of
a child's nightmares, including a bizarre scene involving gentle raindrops that turn into flesh-eating monsters! Complete with blood and torture, this one's way ahead of its time, truly the dark horse of '60s Japanese animation, a full twenty years before boring, derivative "anime-chic".
Video/DVD availability: (unavailable)
(1967, Japan) color animated 80 minutes
Toei Doga
Screenplay: Shinichi Sekizawa, Shinsaku Takahisa
Music: Seiichiro Uno
Directed by Gisaburo Sugii
(1969) American International Television
