Your Clairy Godmother

Welcome back, my beautiful fairies! We went over the history of the Care Bears in the first part of this review, but now we move onto overlooking the entire movie. The Care Bears Movie, as stated, is a Canadian animated musical adventure released by Nelvana in 1985, directed by Arna Selznick and produced by all three of Nelvana’s original founders ( Michael Hirsh , Patrick Loubert , Clive A. Smith ). Despite the laughable premise of being based on a collection of greeting cards and teddy bears, the film had the last laugh. It went on to be the highest-grossing Canadian film in 1985, winning over $34 million worldwide and also winning a Golden Reel Award. The film's success, which saved Nelvana from closing, helped revive films aimed at children in the Canadian and American markets in a time where even Disney was losing its luster. The movie was written by Toronto-based children’s writer Peter Sauder . While he’s written a great deal of Canadian children’s media, including some S...

Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure (Part 4) We're back in the playroom for the final time, my beautiful fairies! It's time to reach the end of our journey with Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure.  We've got no time to waste on this long and ludicrous round of playtime, so let's wrap this rag dolly!   We see that Raggedy Ann, her brother Andy, and The Camel With The Wrinkled Knees have escaped King Koo Koo and his court and flee into the sea. Thankfully, they use their telescope and find Babette and the pirates in the horizon! It seems the Mademoiselle Babette is doing pretty well for herself, as she has literally taken over the ship as the captain. Singing and dancing in a new outfit, Babette promises to take her former kidnappers back with her to Paris, where she promises them the high life. The shots of the pirate ship itself are incredibly detailed with intricately-drawn wooden carvings and shading on every piece of glass, and the song Babette sings to ...

Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure (Part 3) Welcome back my beautiful fairies, it's about time we return to the toybox with Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure. The slow pace at the beginning was saved only by its songs and charming characters, but now that the plot is really moving, the madness can begin! Let's not waste any time in getting to it. After the song "Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers", the sentimental sweetness keeps coming, as we’re introduced to The Camel with the Wrinkled Knees, voiced by Fred Stuthman- who wasn’t an actor at all. Composer Joe Raposo simply noticed Stuthman from the studio's demo room due to his similarity to The Camel and asked him to read the script and sing a song. And because of that, The Camel found his voice. The Camel’s main animator was famous Disney animator Art Babbitt, who said he divided the design of the character into three personalities: a "pretty dumb" back end, a "little bit smarter"...

Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure (Part 2) Welcome back my beautiful fairies to my Fairytale Theater! I'm you're host, Your Clairy Godmother. And we're continuing our deep dive into the toy chest of madness that is Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure. We've gushed about the trippy yet terrific visuals and the bizarre and somewhat tragic history of Raggedy Ann herself, but playtime is over now. Let's begin our review and analysis of the movie itself. The movie begins in live-action rather than animation, presumably to make the spectacular art seem all the more grabbing when it arrives. A school bus drops off a little girl cheekily named Marcella, played by Richard Williams’s seven-year-old daughter Claire Williams (animation genius and excellent taste in names, I see!) But if you’re wondering why these live-action segments are here, it’s because this film was originally envisioned as a live-action direct-to-video movie at one point, before ...

You make me so happy. It's been so long since I've had a visitor at our theater! I'll prepare the cupcakes- wait, are cupcakes classy enough? Nevermind, I'll serve them tea! No, that’s too stereotypical! Oh, I'll just give them whatever we have! It just makes me so happy you’ve stumbled upon this theater, as not many humans do. Imagine that, a fairy godmother who barely interacts with humans. But perhaps you’d like to join me for a little cup of happiness? Trust me, you deserve it. I know humans live in a world ripe with cruelty, where innocence is as fragile as it is rare. While you may have your methods of surviving such harshness, I choose to defend myself from that bitterness through my passionate performances and media reviews. And I hope what I love can be loved by others as well. Yeah, my methods for spreading joy are a bit strange, but sometimes the strangest things can offer the most joy. And there’s one movie that grants me a very unique kind of happiness....