George Pal anthology ‘The Puppetoon Movie: Volume 3’ available now
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Image via Puppetoon
The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 Blu-Ray Limited Edition is a third landmark collection of 28 more spectacular George Pal Academy Award®-winning stop-motion and cel animated shorts, totaling some 5 hours of content. Each cartoon has been restored from its original Technicolor negatives. Fans will enjoy the return of Punchy & Judy, Jim Dandy, Rusty, Dr. Seuss, Jan and JaneNe, Mr. Strauss, Jasper and the Screwball Army; plus the first Puppetoon key animation work from legendary animator Ray Harryhausen.
Long before Pal ignited audiences’ imaginations with feature film classics like The Time Machine (1960) and The War of the Worlds (1953), he made PUPPETOONS! These brilliantly conceived short subjects astounded the world. Now animated marvels, not seen in decades, are back. All are restored in high definition and are more beautiful than ever.
Moviegoers were stunned in 1987 when producer-director Arnold Leibovit reintroduced Pal’s Technicolor Puppetoons to a new generation with his loving tribute The Puppetoon Movie, hosted by Gumby and Pokey. Puppetoons not seen in years was both an animation event and a much-deserved tribute honoring the legacy of their creator, sci-fi & fantasy pioneer George Pal. The feature compiled a number of Puppetoons Pal created in the 1930s and 1940s.
When The Puppetoon Movie was restored in high definition for Blu-ray in 2013, it was met with enthusiasm. Excitement grew when a second volume of restored Puppetoons came to Blu-ray in 2020 with The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2, which received wide acclaim. Many were thrilled to learn that yet a third volume was in the works. Now, after nearly 4 years of meticulous restoration, The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 has at last arrived.
Included are six restored Successive Exposure Negative (SEN) Puppetoons: Western Daze (1940, the first for Paramount Pictures), Bravo Mr. Strauss (1943, where The Screwball Army returns), The Truck That Flew (1943, introducing the memorable melody Moonlight Holiday), Together in the Weather (1946, stars Punchy & Judy, who were designed by Walt Disney animator Fred Moore), Hotlip Jasper (1945, featuring trumpet virtuoso Raphael Mendez) and Jasper’s Derby (1946, scored to the classic Gypsy Airs).
Seven Paramount SEN preservation prints return from Volume 1 this time in even higher resolution with vastly improved restorations. Included are four of the seven Academy Award®- nominated Puppetoons for Best Animated Short Subject: Dr. Seuss’s The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943), Dr. Seuss’s And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street (1944), Rhythm in the Ranks (1941) and Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945); plus Date with Duke (1947, Duke Ellington), Rhapsody in Wood (1947, Woody Herman) and The Sky Princess (1941). Also added are cel animated discoveries from Europe: The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe (1940), The Queen Was In The Parlour (1939), The Good Bear and the Bad Bear (1940) and A Fairy Tale About A Melancholic King (1934).
The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 contains one milestone Puppetoon after another, thanks to the cooperation of Paramount Pictures, The Library of Congress, The British Film Institute, UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Eye Filmmuseum, The Philips Company, GlaxoSmithKline, J Walter Thompson, ASIFA Hollywood, The National Film Archive Czech Republic, Bio Vakantieoord and others. So, journey back to a time of magic and wonder and experience once again George Pal’s one-of- a-kind Puppetoons!
The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 is available now via puppetoon.net