Wideo Wednesday

 

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie — retitled The New Saturday Superstar Movie for its second season — is a series of one-hour animated made-for-television films (some of which also contained live action sequences), broadcast on the ABC television network on Saturday mornings from September 9, 1972 to November 17, 1973.

Intended as a version of the ABC Movie of the Week for kids, this series was produced by several production companies — including Hanna-Barbera, Filmation and Rankin/Bass — and mostly contained features based on popular cartoon characters and TV shows of the time, such as Yogi Bear, The Brady Bunch and Lost in Space. Some of the films served as pilots for new TV series. – Wikipedia.

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie - Show Open - YouTube

 

And a complete list of those shows can be found on Wikipedia. This program straddled my Third and Fourth Grade years at school, and thus fall into that formative time that has been occupying my mind lately. Two of the ‘movies’ in particular impressed me; both were by Rankin/Bass.

Mad Mad Mad Monsters 1972 💀 Halloween Classic 👻 Rankin Bass HD - YouTube

The first I want to cover is The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (the title recalls Rankin/Bass’s earlier show The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians 1970, itself probably modeled on It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963, and is not to be confused with their earlier stop-motion film, Mad Monster Party 1967).  In the show, Baron von Frankenstein has created a bride for his monster creation, Junior, and wants to invite all the other monsters to the wedding. Things are complicated by a jealous Igor, who covets the ‘Monstress’, a nervous hotel clerk and his celebrity-happy bellhop, and finally when the Bride is captured by Modzoola (a King Kong-like espy). I found this pristine print on Youtube: the only trouble is that it lacks the sound!

The Red Baron (1972) - YouTube

The second ‘movie’ I really enjoyed was The Red Baron. For some reason (anniversary?) World War One flying aces were big at the time, from Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines to Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines to Snoopy and the Red Baron. In this version, the two Ruritanian countries of Weinerberg and Pretzelstein (populated by anthropomorphic dogs) are at war, despite the loving star-crossed offspring of their leaders. The stuffy, bumbling, but chivalric Baron von Richthofen answers his country’s call, and after building his own plane and coloring it red (the only paint he has left), takes to the skies with his faithful (and much more intelligent) cat Putzi. Originally mocked, he is later hailed as a hero for his secret weapon of a gaseous smokescreen (actually his reheated lunch, an old family recipe). Things are complicated when Weinerberg sics Mata Hari (a Pitbull) on the Baron, but then she develops a romantic passion for the old duffer. Can he (with the covert help of Putzi) straighten everything out?

I find the design of these shows very reminiscent of Rankin/Bass’s Frosty the Snowman (1969). This is because of the continuing collaboration with Topcraft Co. Ltd., a Japanese animation studio later famous for producing Hayao Miyazaki films.