LEO THE LION: KING OF THE JUNGLE THE FIRST ADVENTURE


Palm Beach Entertainment, $6.98, 25m


This sell-through tape, the first


in a series featuring Tezuka Osamu’s follow-up to his KIMBA THE WHITE LION (the inspiration behind Disney s THE LION KING), will be a disappointment toamme fans. While the tape is recorded in the SP mode (a pleasant rarity for tapes in this price range), and the video transfer is acceptable (apparently taken from a slightly worn 16mm print), it’s difficult to recommend it. First, the tape fea­ tures no production credits, ei­ ther for the original production or for the English dubbing. Consid­ ering that Tezuka’s name alone would attract anime fans in this country, why aren’t there produc­ tion credits? Second, the dub­ bing job is awful, with one male actor and one female actress doing all the voices, and the ter­ rible music appears to be new as well. Third and last, the cartoon itself is not very good. While at times the animation is clever and adventurous, most of it has the worst characteristics of low-bud­ get television animation. The story is sluggishly paced and pre­ dictable. This is a tape that would appeal to hard-core anime completists, if it had been pro­ duced properly. As is, it may ap­ peal only to very young children. —GMD


THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS VIDEO COLLECTION, VOLUME THREE: ORIGINS OF AMERICAN ANIMATION


1900-21, ISBN 1-56098-479-1, $34.95, 84m


This collection of 21 com­


plete films (and two fragments) is a serious examination of the


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beginnings of animation in this country. Beginning with J. Stuart Blackton’s “The Enchanted Drawing” ( 1900) and ending with Tony Sarg s “Almanac: The First Circus” (1921). This col­ lection affords the serious ani­ mation fan the opportunity of seeing some early productions one has read about for years. Here are examples of Earl


Hurd’s “Bobby Bumps” series, the Hearst/International adapta­ tions of King Features comic strips, noted live action director Gregory LaCava’s animation work, and stop-motion work by Willis O’Brien. There are also completely obscure films, such as Howard Moss’ “Mary and Gretel,” part of a stop-motion series from 1917. The tape also comes with an informative book­ let about the collection. Viewers in search of laughs


will be disappointed by this col­ lection; the humor and anima­ tion in many of these films is crude and predictable. Some of the selections border on being too esoteric, and the early work of people such as Paul Terry and Max Fleischer deserved to be in­ cluded. If you watch this tape hoping to learn about how ani­ mation developed in this coun­ try, you will enjoy it. The print quality is uniformly good, and the transfers are excellent, though a windowboxed presentation would have been preferable. Call the Library of Congress Gift Shop for details: (202) 707-5000. —GMD


PUSS IN BOOTS


1961/66, Sinister Cinema #F024, HF, $19.00 ppd., 85m 4s I’ve wanted to see this K.


Gordon Murray presentation— a dubbed, abbreviated version of Roberto Rodriguez’ Mexican fairy taleEl Gato con Botas— ever since CASTLE OF FRANKEN­STEIN declared that some of its


makeups were scary enough to give children nightmares. (Well, maybe Michael Medved’s chil­ dren.) The kingdom of King Seri­ ous (Humberto Dupeyron) is being bullied by the ogre Fred­ erick (Amando Gutierrez), who wishes to obtain Princess Jane’s hand in marriage for his son. (Jntil that wedding takes place, Frederick casts a spell over the countryside, rendering its food inedible. One night, Randy the Shepherd (Rafael Muñoz) cannot find his way home—he is misdi­ rected by the souls of mischie­ vous children imprisoned by the ogre in the trees of the woods— and instead discovers the can­ died cave of Mother Time, who shows him the way home and presents him with the parting gift of a small hat, a cape and a pair of boots. During the night, Randy’s father is crushed to death by a fallen tree while looking for his son, and the boy returns home only to be kicked out (along with his pet cat) by his loutish older brothers. The cat assumes semi­ human form after donning the cape and boots, and learning of Randy’s wish to someday marry Princess Jane, it conceives of a plan to rescue the village from the ogre’s tyranny and make his dream come true. They are


joined in their efforts by a talk­ ing Rooster Boy. This zany, slapstick fantasy is


very much in the same vein as Rodriguez’ uCaperucita" Quar­ tet—LITTLE RED RIDINGHOOD, LITTLE RED RIDINGHOOD AND HER FRIENDS, LITTLE RED RIDINGHOOD AND THE MON­ STERS and THE QUEEN’S SWORDSMEN (1959-62)—with Puss in Boots standing in for El Zorillo (or “Stinky the Skunk,” as this beloved character was re­ named in the US versions). In­ deed, both roles were played by the midget actor Santamon, whose particular talent was being

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