Willie McBean
& his Magic Machine
(1965, U.S./Japan) color/animated 90 minutes
Voices: Larry Mann (Professor Von Rotten), Billie Richards (Willie), Paul Soles, Alfie Scopp
Plot Outline (IMDb): Frustrated genius Rasputin Von Rotten has decided to make his mark upon history once and for all by building a time machine to travel back to all the important achievements in history and take credit for them himself. The plan looks foolproof until his talking pet monkey Pablo runs off with the blueprints for the doctor's scheme. Pablo is discovered by boy genius Willy McBean, who decides to go back in time himself and undo the doctor's damage, if for no other reason than to keep from having to study history all over again.
***
This, the first "Animagic" puppet feature from the makers of the legendary holiday TV specials, is by no means a good flick, but interesting for students of dimensional animation.
Our hero Willie travels through time and ends up in boring periods of pre-history where he gets long-winded, malformed history lessons from pivotal crafters of civilization.
The characters and the sets here look a lot like those in Rankin/Bass' strange and beautiful TV puppet series THE NEW ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO, crafted only a few years earlier.
As a whole, the film just doesn't hold up. History lessons are boring in essence, and the segments seem episodic. Perhaps this was slated to be a TV series at first? Still, a dimensional animation feature can do no wrong from our point of view, and we'll take this over any "Harry Potter" bomb any day.
Video/DVD availability: VHS (out of print)
Links of related interest:
the official Maury laws website
Magna Pictures
Screenplay: Arthur Rankin Jr.
Produced by Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass
Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr.
the official Rankin Bass website