The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967) User Reviews

Old Favorite

[superstar49 · 5/10 · 27 May 2000]

I haven't seen this animated film since I was a child in the early seventies. It used to come out on television and I would watch it every time the few times it did air. The songs were catchy which kept my interest going for the almost 90 minute film.

Watching it as an adult so many years later is a bit of challenge since it it's a movie aimed at children. Kids, of course, will enjoy this and I would definitely recommend it.

Not even for kids!

[Wizard-8 · 5 April 2011]

This animated movie has been all but forgotten today, despite it being made by Rankin/Bass, the people who gave us animated TV specials like "Frosty The Snowman". Watching it, it's easy to see why it's forgotten, and difficult to understand why it was unearthed for a DVD release! Though this movie was made for theaters, the animation is strictly at the level of Saturday morning TV cartoons of the time - which as you know wasn't that spectacular. The songs are terrible, though the song the three men in the tub does come close - but not close enough - to working. The screenplay doesn't show any feeling of a progressing story, with plenty of padding despite the running time only being 81 minutes long. And while there was one director, some jarring cuts in some scenes make it feel like several units were animating different stuff, and when put together don't have a cohesive feel. I know this movie was made for kids, but I am confident they will be bored and want to watch something else just from watching the first ten minutes. If you want to watch a GOOD Rankin/Bass animated movie, look for a copy of "The Last Unicorn".

Don't Tell Me It's For Kids.

[boblipton · 2/10 · 12 May 2017]

This movie may be remembered fondly by people who saw it as children and have never seen it since. Looking at it as an adult, it's all that's wrong with animation from the 1960s: cobbled-together script, ugly character design, looped quarter-animation, songs that teach children Something Important and garish, almost psychedelic colors to garner the approval of children, with nothing at all for an adult who hopes for something magical, or at least funny. It makes one wish for the relative dignity of THE PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP, let alone the adventurous fun of JOHNNY QUEST.

You may, if you wish, assert that this was the best that the animation could afford at this time, but it requires more than putting one in the frame of mind of its intended audience of small children to make it work. Whatever it requires, I don't have it in me, nor do I have any regrets for that lack, just for ninety wasted minutes.

I wish that it was possible to rate it lower.

[tickettostars · 1/10 · 23 May 2020]

I'm actually rating this while seeing it on TCM. I'd thought that this would be fun; after all, it IS Rankin-Bass. I grew up watching their Christmas specials in the Eighties, and I'm a huge fan of The Last Unicorn. So it was natural that I'd expect good things of this.

Honestly, the only thing good about this is what an excellent job the animators did of making Mother Goose actually resemble Margaret Rutherford; but this is a severe waste of her talent, and it's a shame that this, of all features, was her last film.

I don't want to fault the animation TOO much. One must consider that this was in the early days of Japanese animation (as Rankin-Bass worked with a Japanese animation company), and that the animation is therefore going to be primitive. The flaws are in the voice acting (apart from Ms. Rutherford). For example, the villain's voice actor seems to be doing his best imitation of Christopher Lee--and his best imitation is HORRIBLE.

I'm sad to say it, but watching this is a wasted effort. I currently have it on Mute, because I can't handle it, and I plan to change the channel.

The lame world of mother goose

[jacobjohntaylor1 · 1/10 · 6 June 2018]

This movie has an awful story line. Stupid dialogue. It awful acting. It was very sappy. It is one of the most sappy movies I have seen. Do not see this movie. It is a waste of time. It is an awful movie do not see it.

Good animated feature for small children

[mailhdot · 7/10 · 11 May 2017]

This was made in 1967 and therefore seems dated to adults, but small children should love it. It even teaches boys that girls are just as ready for "rough" adventures as boys are. Good ultimately triumphs over evil in the traditional Mother Goose fantasy world that Frenchman Charles Perrault originally created.

Do not look for the racial and ethnic diversity that we see added to later revisions of such traditional European fantasy tales. Mother Goose lived in an all-Caucasian world, but we don't see much racial diversity in any of the ancient Old World cultural traditions in Asia or Africa either.

Looked and searched for this and many others Rankin & Bass

[sadie_m_lady · 10/10 · 30 November 2020]

Please please please release these for purchase so wonderful every child will love them so simple the best stories ever

Hilarious And Under-Appreciated Rankin/Bass Retro Classic

[johnstonjames · 8/10 · 21 November 2011]

wow this was better than i remembered it. i remembered it as being kind of underwhelming. i guess i didn't truly appreciate hand drawn animation and limited, free style in particular. although i did like 'Peanuts' and a lot of the junk on Saturday mornings back in the 70's. i guess i just thought this was cheap and for babies. i remember seeing it a lot though because local KTTV-11 used to show it every other weekend when i was a kid. i also think i kind of got sick of seeing it all the time.

the same thing happened with Filmation's "specially challenged" 'Journey Back To OZ'. i always remembered that being a pretty lame movie, but when i "made a journey" (haw!haw!), back to the cartoon, i discovered that it was not only competently made, but also a really good work of hand drawn animation and some of the best full length work outside of the Disney factory. that's actually pretty impressive considering Filmation usually lived up to their reputation as sub-par, Saturday morning junk.

yeah i enjoyed mama goose's wacked out trip. so sue me. and i don't give two hooters if a kid likes it or not. i think that's a dumb way to rate kid's entertainment. if that were the scale families would never watch anything of quality and would only sit around watching pukeola like Dora the Explorer. often kid's are the worst judge of what's good for them a lot of the time. it's not a lot to ask that a kid stretch their horizons once in a while. jeez.

i thought the animation here was very cute and clever and not only made good use of a bargain basement budget, but it made good use of the Rankin/Bass and Paul Coker Jr. style that so many baby boomers came to know and love through so many retro television shows like 'Frosty the Snowman'. i also thought the songs were the usual smashing good time that Rankin/Bass always provide and all the gags were hilarious.

curious note here for children. i found it interesting that the young lovers, the Prince and Princess, were total idiots and not technically the hero and heroine. i kept wondering why i didn't like them as a kid. the irritatingly stupid and clumsy prince in particular. and i didn't like them especially now. it was because it's really the little kids who are the hero and heroine, not the stupid prince and princess. i thought that was pretty cool. because young kids know that lovers are stupid and mushy and no self respecting kid wants to see that ick really. as a single adult male, who never married, and doesn't want to, i get a little tired of all the mushy stuff in children's entertainment sometimes. especially in the Disney toons.

whether or not you think this is for babies i don't care. i liked it. i liked it a lot. and i defend it on a artistic and on a cultural and intellectual level. so there. nyaaah.

i know that baby boomers every where, have seen trying times. so i hope one of you little gremlins can read this and take heart. it's not so bad. there's a lot of waste to sort through. we've created a real mess. take the bad with the good. some of the bad, like this cartoon, turned out to actually be, really very good. and when i reflect back on my past experience, i realize i always "got off" on watching it as a kid even though i scorned it. that's why i watched it again after all these years. we don't always know ourselves as well as we think we do. that's what i learned over time.

get off your snobby high horses and don't be a silly goose and give this wacky world a try. who knows? some of you just might have the knack for lightening up a little and having a sense of humour about all of your ups and downs in life.