RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE (1977)
Article 2252 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-17-2007
Posting Date: 10-12-2007
Directed by Richard Williams
Featuring the voices of Didi Conn, Mark Baker, Mason Adams

When a young girl’s new doll from France is kidnapped by a pirate, Raggedy Ann and Andy leave the playroom and go out into the wide world to rescue her.

With just one look at that title, I sat down to prepare myself for what I was sure going to prove an hour and a half of insufferable cuteness. Having now watched, I can at least strike the word “insufferable”. Yes, it’s got major problems; it’s certainly no TOY STORY, it is cuter than I have a taste for (for example, it features a pirate singing a song about friendship to his parrot), and there are far too many songs. But the songs, mediocre as they are, are still consistently stronger than those in PUFNSTUF , and at least one of them (the poignant song of the camel) was strong enough that I actually found myself caught up in the fate of the singer. The animation is also nicely done; in particular, it retains that kind of floppy rag-doll feel that is appropriate for the title characters. Another plus is that it didn’t actively annoy me; only a pair of identical dolls got on my nerves, and they only pop up sporadically. All in all, I found it passable kiddie entertainment, though it may get a little too weird towards the end for the very young.