Characters our grandparents were familiar with go on a frightening adventure to save a fellow doll after they’re kidnapped and I’m not sure it’s worth all the trips to the psychiatrist to get over this whole thing.

Judging a Book by its Cover

– I barely know Raggedy Ann and Andy and if there are any other characters from their universe in this movie I don’t recognize them.

– I can’t wait to see how two dolls run into a purple pirate, a candy monster and a tiny mouse guy.  I might be lying too.

– I also can’t wait to see how musical this movie apparently gets.  I might also be lying about that too.

It’s an acid trip come to life and just as enjoyable!

Directed by Richard Williams

Starring the voice talents of Didi Conn, Mark Baker and Fred Stuthman

Young Marcella has come home from school to celebrate her seventh birthday and tosses poor Raggedy Ann into the playroom which is like another Island of Misfit Toys if it weren’t for regular dolls like Raggedy Ann and her stubborn brother Andy. There’s the four-armed old man who has anything for any occasion in his head, a pin cushion lady/nightmare and the wooden twin dolls that frighten me to no end.

Enjoy your nightmares!

Marcella has received a French porcelain doll named Babette who hates where she has landed, surrounded by freaks, but thankfully her home is only temporary after a pirate that lives in a snow globe tricks himself out from his icy surroundings and kidnaps Babette.  Ann feels she must save the ungrateful Babette — mostly so Marcella won’t be sad — so she and Andy are off on an adventure outside the house.

Won’t someone please think of the children!

Ann and Andy run into a camel named Camel who has lost his caravan which he was following in the sky but then they disappeared.  Obviously on the influence of cocaine, Camel still joins the dolls on their adventure and gets them into trouble when he goes off looking for sky camels again.  They fall into a taffy pit that’s actually part of a creature known as the Greedy, which cannot stop eating himself since he’s made of all the candy.

What I think I look like after eating a tub of ice cream.

Barely surviving getting eaten, the trio thinks it might be time to go back home but find themselves in Loony Land where everyone is insane, especially a knight who finds them and practices his pranks on them.  He takes them to King Koo Koo (oh, those letters) who is a tiny man until he starts laughing causing him to grow larger.  He’d rather they stay and get pranked forever since they amuse him but they once again escape a fate worse than death as they eventually find their way to the captain’s ship to finally rescue Babette.

I curled up into a fetal position during the Loony Land scenes.

This movie looks like a creative nightmare as the plot and character development are barely touched on as the movie shoves musical scenes and new characters down our throats.  I can praise the animation for being nice and fluid but some characters are nightmarish visions that I’m sure provided some fuel for my dreams when I watched it as a child.  The music comes fast and often as every character introduction is followed by a freaking song and there’s usually a song that links those scenes in between so whoever came up with the name of the film was right about this being a “musical adventure.”  It’s just a terrible musical adventure.

TL;DR

Story: 5 –  Dolls Raggedy Ann and Andy are on a rescue mission for their owner’s kidnapped birthday doll and see some serious shit when they leave the house.

Blood: 0 – Some nightmares don’t need blood.

Nudity: 0 – This ain’t no hentai.

Overall: 3 – Very hard to watch with the multitude of mostly awful musical scenes as well as the nightmare fuel that is the cast of characters that aren’t Raggedy Ann and Andy.

Trivia

-Original director Abe Levitow passed away while the film was in production and was taken over by Richard Williams.  Williams clashed with production executives constantly over the numerous musical scenes and lack of story but was told not to make any changes.  The film wound up going over time and budget.

-Raggedy Ann voice actress Didi Conn had laryngitis when doing the singing scenes and didn’t like how they turned out.

-Raggedy Ann and Andy don’t blink.