Rarest animated films you've seen / own

T

The_Switch

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A lot of animated films come and go through over the years, and many of them don't get seen by many people and slowly disappear into obscurity. Occasionally these films will resurface on dusty VHS tapes or local cable reruns, only to disappear back into the void from which they came. I'm curious to know what are the rarest animated films you've seen or even own.

For my part, three generally obscure films come to mind:

Hugo the Hippo- This Hungarian film (aka Hug?, a v?zil?) is about a young hippopotamus called Hugo who is kidnapped, along with his entire herd, to the land of Zanzibar to rid the harbor waters of sharks. Adventure, kid-friendly cruelty, and acid-tripping sequences ensue. My favorite part of this film is undoubtedly the character of Aban-Khan, voiced by a snarling Paul Lynde. The songs are ridiculously cheesy and are sung by Marie and Jimmy Osmond (!!). Because of some violent scenes and political incorrectness, the odds of this film being released on DVD in the States (it's available on DVD in Hungary) is nonexistent.

Dreaming of Paradise - This Danish film is also known as Subway to Paradise outside of America and Strit og Stumme in its original language. It's a bizarre tale about how humanity was driven underground after destroying the planet with pollution, and now must survive in a hostile environment beside lakes of lava, all while anthropomorphic rats try to steal their dreams (don't ask). The melodies in this film are pretty neat, but the story is...er, well...strange, to say the least. Even in Denmark this film has yet to be released.

Marco Polo Junior versus the Red Dragon - This is perhaps the most tragic film on my list. It holds the distinction of being Australia's first animated feature, and yet it has yet to be released properly in its native country. It did recently resurface on DVD, but in the form of Return to Xanadu, a bastardized remake that reuses animation from the film with newly (poorly) animated scenes, new (horrible) voices, and additional subplots. The story is pretty standard - Marco Polo Jr. must return a medallion piece to a kidnapped princess in Xanadu - but it's an enjoyable film that has been treated like dirt.
 
Thanks to the nebulous world of eBay, I own bootleg copies of Grendel, Grendel, Grendel and Willy McBean and His Magic Machine. The former is an Australian adaptation of John Gardner's famous post-modern novel, which tells the story of Beowulf from the monster's point of view. It's very different in tone and dialogue from the source material, and it uses a brightly-hued cut-out animation style that reminds me more of South Park than anything else. It's also a musical, with not only the king's minstrel singing, but also Grendel himself, the red dragon, and some random shellfish belting out strangely-worded songs. I think the film has cult status in both the Down Under and in North America, where it was briefly released on VHS in the early 80s. To my knowledge, it has never been released on DVD. The latter is a little-known George Pal "puppetoon" feature from the 60s, and it's also more than a little on the bizarre side. The machine of the title is a time machine, which a nefarious scientist hopes to use to alter historical events to make himself look like a great hero. Out to thwart his evil plan are a young boy named Willy McBean and a Mexican stereotype named Pablo, who follow the scientist back through time. Oh, and there are songs. Lots of them. The animation quality is mixed, and while the script has some clever moments, the whole picture looks extremely dated and very corny. To my knowledge, it has never been released on any kind of home video in any country, so I'm inclined to think that the rights owners were perhaps somewhat embarassed about it.
 
There was this animated musical from Australia called Abracadabra. About a boy from space named Abra who goes to Earth to retrieve a magic pipe that were stolen by two comical villains. It's got pretty good humor and lots of fun songs. It aired on Nickelodeon's Special Delivery during the 80's and I was thankful to get a DVD copy of it in the mail.
 
I know Mcbean has been released on Video sometime ago.. I also thought Pablo was a monkey and was made by Rankin-bass but I haven't seen the movie in years..

as for Hugo yeah, it is extremely bizzare but I think it should have a chance for DVD if it finds the right distrubtor.. I also never understood the ending to that movie.. I mean, kids grow up .. they'll probably forget about Hugo sooner or later.. not to mention what if the Sharks come back huh? .. oh, well,..
 
I own a copy of Richard William's 1958 short film, The Little Island, which is tongue-in-cheek to say the least. Pretty philosophical with simple yet effective cut-out animation.

I own a copy of Le Roi et L'Oiseau, which is a full-length feature film by Paul Grimault. It took over 30 years to make and was finished in 1980. An earlier unfinished (and inferior) cut of the film was released in the US back in the late-1950's as The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird. The superior final cut from 1980 is well-known in France but hardly seen in the US.

I've also seen the three "adult" anime feature films that Osamu Tezuka made in the late 1960's and early 1970's. These are Cleopatra, One Thousand and One Nights, and Belladonna. The first two are comedies and the last is a straight drama with some beautiful artwork. They have their moments but are too bizarre to be called classics. They all have interesting special effects that have hardly been used in anime since, such as miniature models being used as backgrounds and integrating cut outs into the animation. Very avante-gard at times. Definitely NOT for children.
 
I saw an anime movie that's pretty hard to find nowadays: The Sea Prince and the Fire Child. Basically, it's The Little Mermaid meets Romeo and Juliet. There's an underwater kingdom, and a prince name Sirius who meets with a princess made of fire. They can't be together, since she'll die if she touches water.

It's not really a feature film, but Don Bluth's Banjo the Woodpile Cat is another rare one I've recently seen. Either this or Secret of Nimh was his first independent project before he left Disney. I'm not so sure if it's so much rare or forgotten. For all I know, it could be both. I still thought it was charming, right down to Bluth pairing cute characters with grim, near-death experiences. However, the latter is a bit toned down. The music felt like a throwback to cartoons from the 40's, and I was willing to forgive how inconsitent the character models were.
 
^ yeah,worst acid trip video ever , if I saw one.. but hey, it was the 70's..

didn't those Sharks jump pretty high though?looked like it to me..

between the Zanzibarians being eaten .. and Hugo's family slaughtered .. this movie was pretty intense.. though I think that's partly the sultan's fault :p
 
Quite frankly, I wasn't aware there were rare movies out there. I like seeing ones you rarely see on TV though: eh, can't name any offhand. I like seeing classic stuff though like Tom and Jerry, etc.
 
Really? That would be sweet. I saw a grainy, low-quality version of The Sea Prince and the Fire Child a few months back, but I'd really love to see a proper version, especially in the original Japanese. I'll have to keep my eye out for this DVD. :D
 
Well, I'm back from my holiday hiatus.

Anyway, I recently saw a movie called "The Water Babies" on The "This TV" network. I would also say The Man From Button Willow, but they've shown that one so many times, it almost doesn't seem rare anymore...:D

I got a DVD of a movie called "The Adventures of the American Rabbit". It was produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (1980's TMNT) and animated by Toei. It's a about a rabbit who becomes a superhero, and is decorated in red, white and blue. It looked interesting, so I got it at Big Lots for $5 (I think).
 
Rover Dangerfield, paws down (no pun intended)

This animated movie featured Rodney Dangerfield as a rover dog who's owned by a showgirl in Las Vegas, he likes it there but the showgirl has to leave and leaves him on the care of his sadistic boyfriend who throws rover into the Hoover dam, luckily he's rescued by a farmer, however that means he's thrown into a place he knows nothing about: a rural farm

A charming fun movie, I don't know how rare is it but I do know it's not on DVD :sad:, I wished they released it in the memory of the great Rodney Dangerfield :crying:
 
I once came across a title, Robot Carnival, that had beautiful and lush animation. The movie is an anthology of anime director hopefuls from the late 80's. (And the director of Akira). Some of the films were so fluid, like Starlight Angel.
That's pretty much the only rare animated film I've seen, and some live action/cartoon WB movie sequence from the 40's on TCM.
 
yeah,I wish that movie would come out too.. I'd also like to see Lucas's Twice upon a time and Phantom Tollbooth on DVD too.. among others..

was Man from Button Willow released on official DvD? I'm not sure if the ones on Ebay are bootlegs.. but I think Rebel the horse is awesome.. better than Spirit anyway.. ;)
 
Speaking of Twice Upon a Time, I've seen the notorious "dirty" version of that film, which, as I understand, was never intended to be released. It's about a hundred times funnier than the G-rated version, however, so I show it to everyone who will sit through it.
 
I own a very rare Mexican animated film from 1986 called Katy La Oruga (Katy the Caterpillar), which is something of a nostalgic gem for me. It's a childrens film about a cateripllar who ventures out into the world to discover her true self since she feels like she wants to me something "more" than a mere caterpillar. It ends with her becoming a butterfly (surprise, surprise...:p). Watching it as an adult, i consider the delightfully "so 80's" synth-music soundtrack to be it's most enjoyable aspect.
 
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