User Reviews

The other night I was tuned into the network known as THIS.

I was looking at what was coming up later and saw that this animated feature was going to be on. I decided to give it a look,since I'd never heard of it.

Well,it started and the first thing I found interesting was that singers Frankie Avalon ("Venus") & Dodie Stevens ("Tan Shoes & Pink Shoelaces" and Jonathan Winters,were going to be featured in voice roles. Another good reason to stay tuned.

Well,the story started about said Monkey "Alakazam",who when we meet him,seems to be afraid of,well "everything". His only way of ridding himself of this fear,is to take a challenge of diving head first from a great height into water. He finds some kind of city under the water but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the plot later.

Shortly after this,since he was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to win at this feat,the rest of the monkeys now want him as their king. He becomes that but isn't mature enough to handle it.

He turns into a self centered,mean little tyrant. Even treating his best friend,possible girlfriend DeeDee in a very unfriendly way. He feels he's "all powerful". I felt DeeDee wasn't much of a character but more of a "weak female" throwback of the era.

He leaves behind the throne to meet Merlin the Magician to learn magic,by threatening to run off with Merlin's book of secrets. Merlin relents and naturally,Alakazam abuses his powers.

At this point and after,it kind of becomes scenarios in films,that I've seen before. With Merlin I was reminded of Fantasia & Mickey Mosue as Socerer's Apprentice. He & DeeDee could be Simba & Nala.

There's a volcanic explosion that spreads a stream of lava & which starts a forest fire (ala Bambi) with similar animals scurrying away.)

Ala,a pig (voice of Jonathan Winters),a prince (who's more in the way than anything) & a villain turned good,for reasons I can't figure,make a journey of many miles. Bothered most of the time by an "Imp" wit ha little horn on his head. (A wanna be demon,who hangs out in "the underworld". (Lord Of The Rings sojourn anyone?)

Ah...2 of them have magic powers and can fly on clouds,why don't they use those powers? In fact,it really makes no sense that they don't utilize them in more amazing ways. Safe to assume that's why we watch in the first place.

The songs are not at all memorable,although the song about our lead character is somewhat catchy,music-wise. The lyrics are forgettable,as they are with other songs.

I will say some things here were quite imaginative and even ahead of their time for a 1961 movie. Otherwise,I expected a bit more out of it. More magic,more to do for Jonathan Winters or even Frankie & Dodie.

Again,similar things that happened in other animated films being present here,made it kind of a been there/done that experience for me. 1977's "The Magic Pony" was dubbed from Russian (and made in the 1940s) an"understandable" for American audieences just like this was. I can say however that that film came out quite a lot better than this did.

5 Stars out of 10. Five stars,for some good imagination and animation.... 5 off for a lack of suspense & excitement and of course MAGIC. (END)

This film is one of the inclusions in Harry Medved's "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" and seeing all the very positive reviews is odd in light of this. However, I noticed that MANY of the positive reviews are from people who saw it in their childhood and such after the fact reviews are of somewhat limited value. It is base on recollections almost 50 years old AND it's true that children are often not the best at discerning classics. Heck, when I was a kid, I thought cartoons like "Deputy Dog" and "Huckleberry Hound" were classics--little did I know. My advice is to see the film again and then ask yourself if kids today as well as their parents would enjoy this film? Another important thing to keep in mind is that this film is highly bastardized. When American-International bought this film from Japan, they literally cut the film apart and changed it so much that it's hard to adequately rate the film. Many times in the 60s, this studio bought films and cut and pasted them into "new films" by adding some American actors in short snippets. In this case, Frankie Avalon and several other "hip" voice actors were used, names were changed, story lines were changed and songs were added. My review is ONLY for the Americanized version.

Alakazam is a monkey and after passing a test, he becomes king of the animals. However, after a while, this new king shows himself to be a total jerk--arrogant and thoroughly unpleasant. In fact, he's so arrogant that he thinks he's smarter than humans (in some case, this could easily be true) and goes to Merlin the Magician to learn all he can. Naturally, he uses all this knowledge to make himself even more annoying and fat-headed. And so, of course, the rest of the film is about Alakazam learning humility through many trials and misfortunes brought about by his haughty manner. Fortunately for him, his good friend and sweetie, DeeDee, is on hand to assist him.

This all occurs in a portion of the film that is a magical land and it's a strange amalgam--with Merlin, Hercules, the McSnarl Brothers, various gods from Buddhism and Buddha himself! Apparently, it's very loosely based on a Chinese tale from the 12th century, "Journey to the West", though the story and structure are quite unlike live action versions of the tale that I have seen (such as "Pan Si Dong", though the characters are the same--the monkey king, pig and Xuánzàng). Merlin and Greek gods, naturally, were NOT part of the original Chinese tale! It's a shame, as the original story is a lot better than this confusing film.

As far as the technical aspects of the film go, it's pretty typical of animation from about 1960--and that's NOT a good thing. This was a new era for cartoons and simpler backgrounds, lower frame-rates and simpler drawings were the norm. For 1960 this looks pretty good. Compared to today or the golden age for cartoons (1940s-50s), however, it's pretty shabby. This is NOT to be confused with a Miyazaki film or Walt Disney!! Voice acting was decent--especially with Frankie Avalon doing a better than expected job. Oddly, however, Jonathan Winters has a great knack for voices, but his character sounded way too much like his Grandma Frickert--and that's pretty weird.

The story itself is probably very confusing for most kids and has too many splashy musical numbers. Perhaps Japanese kids were already familiar with the original story and the original version of the film might have stuck closer to it, though I think they, too, would have quickly tired of the musical interludes (like the one that occurs at about 70 minutes into the film). However, for a non-Chinese or Japanese audience, this film will probably be a bit strange. If the audience is people with some knowledge or appreciation for Asian culture, then the film would most likely be appreciated much more--especially if you can find it in its original form. Boy, would I love to see this in its original form with subtitles--it might have been a lot better and couldn't have been much worse!