Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Iseerphia
All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.
ghosthardware
I only just now ran across this film on IMDb because for years, I couldn't remember its title. I first saw it when I was around the age of 10 in the mid eighties. I picked it up at the video rental store thinking it was a kids animated movie. I didn't get the dark humor and adult themes but the melancholy certainly came through loud and clear. I would feel depressed after watching it. And yet I loved it at the same time. I was (and am) a weird kid :) The film obviously suffered from a mismatched marketing campaign. Had it received the "independant animated feature" -type of advertising and presented as a mature satire, maybe reactions would have been a little different. But it's difficult to say, since the Broadway musical it was based on didn't fare very well either. I have yet to go back and watch it as an adult but will definitely do that next chance I get. For a long time, I was very confused by this film. It's definitely a mixed bag. There are some dark themes and yet the animation style is rather juvenile and visually similar to that of Hanna-Barbera.I think most people would feel confused by this film. It seems as though it's trying to be several different things and none of these themes seem to blend together too well. IMO, it seems much less random when one considers its background. According to Wikipedia, the characters of Mehitabel and Archy originate from a series of newspaper columns written by Don Marquis in the 1910's and 1920's for the New York Evening Sun. They served as fictional social commentary.Later, a musical was written and recorded in the 1950's and sold as part of a Columbia Masterworks series. A few years after the album release, the material was used as the basis for a short-running Broadway musical titled Shinbone Alley, one of whose collaborators on the project was Mel Brooks (which explains some of the randomness for me). The musical was then adapted into an animated film in 1971.I remember at the time realizing there was more to this film than I could fully understand. The weight of the material was palpable for me but went over my head as a 10 year old. But one thing that was very clear to me was that this wasn't an animated feature aimed at children. Looking back, I appreciate what this film was attempting to do. I had never watched an animated film that was so serious in subject matter. It was a little shocking to me at the time but gave me a very early view of what animation could be. I recommend this film based mostly on its uniqueness. It is certainly a flawed film and somewhat odd but that seems to add to its quirky allure.
bml84
I remember seeing this back in the Early-Mid 80's during a Holiday weekday on STV. Obviously the station realised too late that this was not your typical Kiddy Fodder as it was never shown again (a minor miracle for anyone who knows STV). I'm not surprised.It was Soooo depressing. Suicide-Unrequited Love-Sleaze-Despair. Fun viewing for all the Family. Has to be said though that it did stick in my mind, though maybe not for the right reasons.An odd curiosity that was very out of place for its time. Can't believe it was made in the 70's.Probably traumatised more kids than Bambis' Mother.
inframan
It's a shame this film has been buried from the start. It has some really superb music, written by George Kleinsinger, a couple of fantastic performances by Carol Channing & Eddie Bracken, - & best of all, it's based on the great Don Marquis series from (I believe) the old New York World - Archy & Mehitabel. The compilation book was illustrated by the peerless George Herriman (Krazy Kat - & Mehitabel really was Krazy Kat!) & some of the scenes in this film are Herriman-inspired, another reason to treasure it.Pity the poor wimps who are traumatized by any animation that isn't filled with fluffy bunnies.
brucebox
As a child, I saw some TV filler on the making of this film and waited for it to come to town. Months later it surfaced at a local theater as a one weekend only kiddie feature. Naturally I went, and endured hours of blue & bleak imagery, a depressing story, and the voice of Carol Channing. I remember kids in the theater crying because it depressed them so. The whole experience was a childhood trauma I tried to forget. For god's sake, the cartoon opens with a guy's suicide!Years later I'd described this forgotten film to friends, but not even hardcore toon heads knew about it. However, I did learn that the songs came from an early 60's Broadway flop of the same name which featured Eartha Kitt in the Carol Channing role, and that was based on an earlier series of "humorous" stories from the 1930's.I managed to track down a copy of this film and give it another look from an adult's perspective. Man, no wonder we kids of the 70's are so messed up! This film really is possessed of a dark dreary depressing vision. I can't see how it resembles Yellow Submarine. Yes, it has a trippy pallet, but it's one bad trip. If anything, it's thick black lines and cross-hatched shading resemble TV's "School House Rock", and even more so those terrible "Time For Timer" bits that ABC subjected us to.I'll cut the film some slack, because I know it was not aimed at kids, and thus suffered the same fate that `Watership Down' and `Twice Upon A Time' would later know. Namely, that all feature animation gets marked as kiddie fare regardless of content. Not only do the creators suffer, but the kids suffer more. Speaking as a former kid, I must tell you to spare your kids and yourselves this animated curiosity.
