Hanna-Barbera Specials Collection: Into the Archive

 

Hanna -Barbera Specials Collection is a DVD containing ‘Five Classic TV Specials’, several of which premiered on The Saturday Superstar Movie show. They debuted from 1972 through 1974, thus striking right in the meat of my early childhood years and affecting me to a lesser or greater degree.

The Adventures of Robin Hoodnik (a play on the Yiddish term nudnik meaning a bore or nuisance; 1972) is a retelling of the Robin Hood legend that used anthropomorphic animals for the merry band of outlaws and came out one year before Disney’s Robin Hood, which they must have known about. It was developed as a pilot for a possible series. Although I enjoyed it at the time and indeed drew a monkish pig as a character for several years afterwards, on a rewatch it seems painfully clumsy both in terms of humor and animation.

Oliver and the Artful Dodger (1972) was based on Charles Dickens characters still familiar to the public from the 1968 film musical Oliver! In this animated sequel Oliver is again orphaned but helped once more by the Artful Dodger who is now free of Fagin and his life of crime. We (and I think I can speak for my brothers here) were never as interested in ‘real-life’ animated shows, that is, ones that didn’t have an element of fantasy about them. I don’t recall actually watching it through, but I knew it was around and we possibly sampled it before looking to see what else was on.

Now The Last of the Curlews (1972) we definitely watched, and we were engaged and traumatized by it to the very end. It tells the story of the last male Eskimo curlew as it engages in a difficult, forlorn quest for a mate, how for a brief moment happiness and the continuance of his species seem possible as he locates the last female, and how the casual, pointless shooting of a passing farmer ends those hopes. It turned us all into environmentalists to a greater or lesser degree and established that farmer as one of the greatest villains of our childhood. “Once, there were many thousands of Eskimo curlews. Then there were two. Now there is one. Soon, there will be none.” Based on the 1954 story by Fred Bodsworth, Canadian newspaper reporter and naturalist.

The Three Musketeers (1973) and Cyrano (1974) were more of that classical adaptation biz and (yecch) romantic to boot, which I was in many ways too young to appreciate. The Three Musketeers (based on Dumas’ novel) was an adaptation of Hanna-Barbera’s 1968 animated segment from the Banana Splits show and was possibly revived because of the 1973 extravaganza movie adaptation starring Michael York. Cyrano, another musketeer-related period piece, adapted from the 1950 movie of the play, brought back Jose Ferrer to voice the titular long-nosed poet, lover, and warrior. I came to appreciate these tales later in their more mature instantiations.

I find it hard to imagine any Child of Today, or indeed anyone born much past 1970, enjoying these films. I think you must have some sort of nostalgic attachment to even tolerate them. Well, fortunately or unfortunately, I do.