Movies

Released during Disney’s late ’70s doldrums, when material like The Black Hole and Robin Hood was failing to connect with audiences, 1977’s The Rescuers actually didn’t do badly at the box office. The tale of two heroic mice who rescue a plucky orphan girl from a wicked villainess had everything going for it: star power (with voices from Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor), a terrific source novel written by Margery Sharp, and beautiful animation.

Yet over the years, The Rescuers has faded from attention. It’s ready for another look. The old-school animation is stunning; every bit as lovely as that from acclaimed indie art films like The Triplets of Belleville. The story, an adventure yarn about the ultimate underdogs rescuing a hapless human, is exciting without being nightmarish. Characters are vividly drawn, and unique: Miss Bianca, for example (Eva Gabor), one of the titular Rescuers, is high-class and elegant, yet doughty and courageous enough to volunteer to take on the dangerous task of rescuing orphan Penny from Madam Medusa. Medusa is intent on using the girl to find a mysterious diamond for her. Can you stand a spoiler? She doesn’t end up with the diamond.

The Rescuers is available on DVD and will be released on Blu-ray in March.

Princess Tutu is sorta like Miyazaki-lite. The Japanime series follows the adventures of Duck, a former duck who was transformed into a young girl (stay with me, here), who takes ballet at a private school. She soon learns that she’s also a character in a story written by a man named Drosselmeyer, and she and her schoolmates are assigned particular fates. But she finds that she can resist fate, and have adventures Drosselmeyer never dreamed off, finishing his story in her own way.

And um, Duck is also Princess Tutu in an alternate dimension, and in the regular dimension her teacher is a talking cat. And the reason why Duck transforms into Tutu is to return the shattered shards of her schoolmate Mytho’s heart. What? It could happen!

Anyhoo, the whole thing is weird and psychedelic in the way Japanese cartoons are to Americans, and wrapped in enough romance and magic to woo young watchers. All the romance may be a little too drippy and advanced for some parents (this is one for school-age kids), but if you’re okay with the lovin’, at least there’s no violence: Princess Tutu uses ballet instead of violence to achieve her goals.

Netflix is streaming 26 half-hour eps of Princess Tutu; it’s also available on DVD.

One of a string of Pippi movies produced in Sweden in the late ’60s and early ’70s, this movie is just as much fun as you may remember from TV airings in the ’80s.

In Pippi’s most far-out international adventure, she gets a message in a bottle from her sea captain father, begging to be rescued. Pippi decides immediately to ride her balloon-powered flying bed and pedal-powered airplane to the South Pacific, taking with her neighbors Tommy and Annika.

It could have been the setting for some vintage racism—period books and movies can be awfully creepy when discussing the “savages” on island nations. But thankfully, both pirates and “natives” are safely goofy and cartoonish. Meanwhile, Tommy, Annika and Pippi get to fly through the air, build a cabin Robin Cruesoe-style, steal a pirate galleon, and ultimately triumph over adversity.

Kids will accept most any Pippi adventure, but this one’s a lot more fun for parents to watch: Many of the other Pippi movies are cobbled together with vignettes from the Pippi Longstocking television series in Europe. This outing was scripted, leading to a more cohesive, zesty, and fun story to watch, and a children’s movie with vintage charm.

Pippi in the South Seas is available on DVD and VHS.

Set during the post-Parent Trap period in which Hayley Mills was Disney’s ultimate darling, Summer Magic is sweet fare for tweens and romantic little girls. The 1963 film stars Mills as Nancy Carey, a teen girl whose impoverished Boston family is about to be forced to move to a depressing city apartment.

Resourceful Nancy, posing as her widowed mother (Dorothy McGuire), writes to Osh Popham (Burl Ives), the caretaker of a millionaire’s country home whom the family met while on vacation. Nancy elicits Popham’s sympathy, and convinces him to rent the country home to the family for a pittance. Now Nancy and her whole family are tasked with turning the run-down country house into a real home, all the while avoiding the millionaire who’s not supposed to know the family’s there.

In between mild mysteries and grade-school-compliant romantic hijinks between Nancy and the local young male talent, there are songs and dances and countrified goings-on that will probably remind you of The Sound of Music. It’s all a sweet confection that’s fun to watch with an intragenerational group, as Grandma will enjoy seeing Haley again, while kids enjoy the music and old-timeyness of it all.

Summer Magic is available on DVD.

Despite the decades that have passed since the making of Rankin-Bass Christmas classics like Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, no one has made anything better. And The Happy Elf, a 2005 effort from the Rankin-Bass team, doesn’t surpass the originals either.

Nonetheless, The Happy Elf is a nice, gentle way to while away 45 minutes, particularly if your child(ren) are itching for a taste of Christmas. The plot concerns a maniacally cheerful elf named Eubie, who’s convinced he can make the residents of Bluesville more cheerful if they’d just borrow a little of his Christmas cheer. Whatever. The voices, featuring faves like The Daily Show’s Lewis Black, Harry Connick, Jr., and Carol Kane, won’t get on your nerves, and there’s nothing scary or alarming to worry about. It’s gentle, non-threatening, funny enough, and you can get dinner on the table while the kids are watching. What else do you need?

The Happy Elf is available on DVD and Netflix Streaming.

Neither kids nor parents in the States are very familiar with Princess Lillifee, but with the Lilliee movie on Netflix Streaming, that might change. Princess Lillifee was originally a stuffed doll created by Monika Finsterbusch, a German designer who turned her hand to toy-making in 1999. Her best-known doll, Lillifee, turned out to be so popular that there came to be a series of books about her. And then, in 2009, this full-length animated feature film.

Lillifee lives in Pinkovia, a happy land of pink skies and talking animals, with her pet pig Pupsi always at her side. But then a group of unhappy fairies invade her land, and began spreading strife and dischord wherever they go. It takes all of Lillibee’s patience and love (plus a whole lot of courage), to show those fairies that it’s way more fun to be happy.

Lillifee was originally in German; on Netflix it’s dubbed into English, but you will notice that Lillifee and most of her friends have accents. No matter. The animation and plotline will put you in mind of Angelina Ballerina, but Lillifee is blessedly free of that show’s whining mice. Instead, this is a gentle, easygoing little princess fable with a good message and no violence, good for kids aged 3-10.

Princess Lilliee is available on DVD and on Netflix Streaming.

If you have a kid who’s a fan of tweeny mermaid movie Aquamarine, or just a mermaid lover in general, could be a session of H2o is in your future. Also known by its Australian name H2o: Just Add Water, H2o is a show about three teenage girls who have ordinary teenage problems. Oh yeah, and they’ve all been transformed into mermaids by an enchanted pool on a mysterious island. Now, ten seconds after water hits their skin, they transform, lending new problems when swimming, bathing, or in the rain.

It all sounds pretty silly, and it is, but effervescently so, and the trio of girls are charming, in addition to being kind and loyal to each other. Their big secret adds a little spice to the Saved by the Bell-style teen romantic goings on, with a villainess who’s determined to expose the mermaids to the world, and who must be thwarted over and over. But overall the action is pretty sweet and gentle, with romance limited to first-kisses and crushes, and menace limited to Scooby Doo levels.

H20 was originally planned with a two-season arc, but it proved so popular in syndication that three seasons eventually emerged, and the show’s theme song was a hit in Australia.

All three seasons, 78 episodes, of H20 are on Netflix Streaming.

Most everyone’s seen Roald Dahl’s most famous adaptations, Willy Wonka (or Charlie) and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach. If you’re a Dahl fan you may have made it as far as Matilda or The Witches. But I’m about as big a Dahl fan as they come, and I didn’t even know there was a film made of Dahl’s The BFG.

The 1989 animated special is admittedly pretty obscure; airing mainly in the late ’80s and early ’90s on UK television. It follows the same plotline as Dahl’s book: a young girl named Sophie is carried away by the world’s only nice giant, a.k.a. the BFG, Big Friendly Giant. His reason for living is to capture dreams and blow them into the rooms of sleeping children, in sharp contrast to the world’s other giants, who are cannibalistic meanies.

There are magic drinks that cause farts, there are sparkling dreams, there is a timely intervention by the British Queen and the RAF, and there are scary child-eating giants, so watch out if you have a sensitive one. Otherwise, this is a quirky, funny, dizzy ride.

The BFG is available on VHS and DVD.

If you’ve ever fantasized about talking to cats or, um, marrying one, The Cat Returns (2002) will cast a mystical spell on you. Hailing from the same Studio Ghibli from whence came Ponyo and My Neighbor Tortoro, The Cat Returns is the story of Haru, a shy high school girl who one day saves a gray cat from being hit by a car. But it’s no ordinary cat she’s saved. He’s Lune, Prince of the Cats, and now she must accompany him to the Cat Kingdom and become his bride. Now it’s up to Haru’s friends at the mysterious Cat Bureau to help her save herself.

The plot of The Cat Returns is a little twisty and strange. You may find yourself saying “Wait, who now?” when something happens onscreen. But there are talking cats! Cats in shoes and waistcoats! And nice, gentle old-fashioned animation, and a story with no life-and-death themes. Haru’s main problem is that in the Cat Kingdom she finds herself turning into a cat. Somehow, I’m guessing that’s not a theme that’ll terrify three year olds.

The Cat Returns is available on DVD and VHS.

Hey, did you know Disney made a sequel to the 1975 hit Escape to Witch Mountain? You didn’t? Probably because it was terrible, right? Wrong!

Alexander Key, the author of the book the first movie was based on, wrote a sequel, and that book is the basis for this 1978 movie, lending the plot interesting twists and turns not found in more brainless kids’ movies. Disney managed to hold on to its magnetic young stars, Kim Richards (now a gangly 13) and Ike Eisenmann (in full Tiger Beat teen steam mode at 15), dumped cheesy Eddie Albert, and got two cool new villains: Christopher Lee and Bette Davis!

When we catch up with Tony and Tia, they’ve been practicing their extrasensory powers at Witch Mountain with such intensity that it’s decided they need a vacation in Los Angeles. Their spaceship drops them off (okaaaay, but just go with it), and they’re accidentally separated. Tony is captured by the evil Mr. Gannon (Lee) and Letha (Davis), who want to use his powers for nefarious purposes, while Tia finds a photogenic grade-school gang of boys who are happy to help her look for her brother.

Sure sounds awful when I type that all up. But it’s still great fun, painfully “cute” moments from the 11-year-old gang-bangers notwithstanding. Lee and Davis gleefully chew the scenery, Eisenmann and Richards are as charming as in the first film, and the special effects are still “how’d they do that?” old-fashioned and fun.

Return from Witch Mountain is available on VHS and DVD.