corporalsheepherder Reviews

The Electric Piper (2003 TV Movie)

The Biggest and Rarest Thing From Nickelodeon I'll Treasure!

[9/10 · 30 September 2019]

I was only three years old when "The Electric Piper" aired on Nickelodeon. So unfortunately I couldn't see it. However, twelve years later in 2015 I learn about this on a YouTuber's series on what is known to the internet as lost media. blameitonjorge was the name of the YouTuber I heard this from. At the time only a few clips were shown online of the film. Yes. The movie was considered lost after only airing once on Nick. After that it was never released to VHS or DVD. Making it impossible to find. Only clips released from the Director (Raymie Muzquiz) and the Writer (Bill Burnett) were all that was available to the public. Surprisingly in early 2016 blameitonjorge made an Updated Lost Media Countdown video. The third on the list was "Electric Piper". In early 2016 it was revealed by Raymie to a Reddit user named Max that he had a full VHS rip copy of his own. However he said he could not distribute it. This was a big bummer for the internet that was looking for it. But even Raymie said he hoped if it would ever see the light of day again, it would have to be on the internet. And if you're a person who believes in miracles, well, on August 9, 2016 the movie was found and uploaded to the internet and very quickly YouTube on it's original master archived VHS format. I didn't fully take a look at it until November 2016. And when I did I fell in love with it. It's probably in my opinion one of the best things Nickelodeon has made. A classic fairy tale with a modern Sixties Woodstock twist to it. Thank you Nickelodeon and Frederator Studios for "The Electric Piper". The characters are good and so is the story. The animation while simple is pretty. This was done in the late '90s and was done on traditional cells at Nickelodeon. Proof that you don't need to make a nice and cool cartoon with digital Wacom tablets for 2D animation or CGI 3D when most studios at the time were moving into that. Disney was not the only big studio that could make an animated musical story. Nick did one that was singing, but with the style of Woodstock in 1969. Maybe one day it will be a major Cult like Nickelodeon's "Cry Baby Lane". Happy Rebirthday!