Heidi's Song

Heidi's Song
November 19, 1982
Hanna-Barbera
Children's, Comedy, Drama, Musical
VHS
C+

This came out almost a decade after H-B's version of Charlotte's Web, but, although it has some things in common, including some voice talents, it's nowhere near that level of quality.  In fact, I'd say it's closer as an animated adaptation of a children's classic to Pinocchio in Outer Space.  The songs are weak, sometimes poorly sung (Heidi's songs are all off-key), and sometimes with laughable lyrics, most notably in "That's What Friends Are For," which offers the dubious message that jumping in the water to save a drowning friend when you can't swim is admirable.  (It doesn't work symbolically either.)  There's also a lot of pointless, unfunny slapstick.

On the plus side, I like the look of the film for the most part, the scenery especially, both the mountain and the town.  The animals, other than the deliberately ugly rats and dogs, are cute.  Lorne Greene as Grandfather and Sammy Davis, Jr. as Head Ratte [sic] are a bit over the top but add to the fun.  There are also two '60sish psychedelic sequences, one with Sammy of course, and the other with Heidi dreaming of mountain spirits.  (It's worth noting that Robert Taylor was also writer-director for The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat.)  The movie isn't overly faithful to the book but it's not way off either.

Pamelyn Ferdin, by then 23, sounds much the same as Klara as she did as Fern in CWeb.  Joan Gerber, who does the voice for Fraulein Rottenmeier, was a Hanna-Barbera mainstay, and she provided voices for both Mrs. Zuckerman and Mrs. Fussy in CWeb.  Berlin-born Fritz Feld, who does a very Von-Stroheim characterization of Sebastian, has credits going back to 1917, and in fact was Jardinet in At the Circus, as well as Mr. Jackman in Freaky Friday.   Frank Welker, who voices both Hootie the Owl and Schnoodle the Dog, was the narrator in Zorro: The Gay Blade.  (He's still very busy as a voice actor.)

Sue Allen was a chorus girl in Singin' in the Rain, while Loulie Jean Norman was a singer in The Band Wagon.  Other chorus members-- John Richard Bolks, Ida Sue McCune, Gene Merlino, Paul Sandberg, and Robert Tebow-- sang in CWeb.

Heidi is trippin', Man!

Everything's better with kittens!

Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web
March 1, 1973
Hanna-Barbera
Children's, Fantasy, Musical
VHS
B

Some of what I feel about this movie is mentioned in my review of the E.B. White book-- http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/06/charlottes-web.html-- but I want to add some things.  It is a very 1970s-televisiony movie, but I don't consider that a bad thing.  The Hanna-Barbera animation is "limited" but there are some lovely images, and I like how they captured Charlotte's personality in a few simple facial details.  The voice cast includes performers from The Partridge Family (Danny Bonaduce, Dave Madden) and Bewitched (Agnes Moorehead, the incomparable Paul Lynde as Templeton), as well as you'll-know-them-when-you-hear-them voices (Herb Vigran, Pamelyn Ferdin).  Debbie Reynolds is perfect as Charlotte-- warm, smart, loyal, but also with an edge.  (You can believe she'd suck blood out of flies, or inflict minor revenge on Templeton.)  The script by Earl Hamner, Jr. is both more slapsticky and more sentimental than White's book, but the focus stays mostly on the cycle of life and the importance of friendship.  There are perhaps too many songs by the Sherman brothers, and some of them sound like previous music of theirs, but there are some stand-outs, slow almost mournful tunes like "Deep in the Dark" and "Mother Earth and Father Time," as well as jaunty songs like "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" and the smorgasbord tune.  What chokes me up is not Charlotte's death, which is subtly led up to, but Wilbur's fear that her children will all abandon him, and that line from the book, "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer."  And it's not often that you find a film adaptation equal to the book.

Of the singers, Jackie Ward sang Linda Evans's songs in Beach Blanket Bingo; and Dick Bolks, Paul DeKorte, Susie McCune, Gene Merlino, Paul Sandberg, and Bob Tebow would all be part of the chorus in Heidi's Song.

The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band

The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
March 21, 1968
Disney
Musical, Comedy, Drama, Romance
VHS
B-

Now that we're getting into the movies that are younger than I am (though it'll be awhile till we reach any I actually saw on first release), I feel like I should attempt to explain what the deal is with these long, sometimes full-sentence-or-question, and sometimes crazy titles.  (And I don't even own The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.)  I have a couple overlapping theories.  One is that these titles catch the eye and the attention, even if they take up a lot of room on the marquee.  (From here on out, I'm abbreviating this movie as The...Family Band.)  Another theory is, well, it was the '60s (the trend might have started with Dr. Strangelove's full title in '63), and everything was getting more and more colorful and larger than life.  That some of these movies-- this one and John GoldfarbPCH spring to mind-- actually have title songs only adds to the craziness.

Although the family band plays that title song and others-- including a recurring salute to Grover Cleveland!-- the family isn't fully fleshed out.  (There are four younger girls, and I couldn't really distinguish them, except by hair color.)  Mostly, we see Grandpa Walter Brennan, who rails against "Ree-publicans," and his lovely eldest granddaughter, played by 21-year-old Lesley Ann Warren.  There are a couple other notable family members though, Buddy Ebsen (only 14 years younger than Brennan but playing his son), returning to his dancing roots, and an always smiling 16-year-old Kurt Russell, who would soon sort of replace Tommy Kirk as the campus-hijinx lead in Disney movies like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.  (I find them mostly boring, although Computer does have a catchy title tune.  I'm more of a Barefoot Executive kinda gal.)

This film, based on a book by Laura Bower, is set in 1888, when Cleveland was defeated by Harrison.  (And, although no one mentions it, Cleveland in turn would later defeat Harrison.)  The stuff about the electoral college looks even more ironic after the 2000 election, but even in '68 it would take only a few months for the election-day "riot" in this film to seem bizarrely mild, compared to the ugliness surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  Yes, it's Disney, but even so, the message that we can put aside our political and other differences must've been a hard one to swallow.

The Republicans are mostly represented by Ebsen, Richard Deacon, and 26-year-old John Davidson.  Davidson's character is courting Lesley AW.  He also urges everyone to move to Dakota, where most of the film is set.  He combines his interests when he sings about the Territory, with a line about "virgin fields" waiting to be "ploughed," sung right at Warren.  Their romance is mostly sweet, although I don't like it when he forces a kiss on her near the end and then makes her join him on a wheelbarrow ride, although she stops being mad when he gives her a wedding ring, so we're supposed to just find it funny and charming.  The two of them try to make each other jealous, he with "Giggly Girl," played by none other than Kurt Russell's future wife, 22-year-old Goldie [Jeanne] Hawn, whose Laugh-In premiered a couple months before this film was released.

Ben Frommer would be in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, as would Larry J. Blake, who was in Sunset Blvd.  Delivery boy Hank Jones was in Girl Happy and would be in The Barefoot Executive.  Dakota townsman Peter Renaday would be the roller derby ticket-taker in The Shaggy D.A.  Nine-year-old Pamelyn Ferdin (Laura Bower) would provide the voice of Fern in Charlotte's Web, while nine-year-old Bobby Riha (Mayo Bower) would voice Chinook in Santa and the Three Bears.  Vest Dancer Guy (The Swinger, et al.) shows up, in a period-appropriate vest (far right, below).