Jack and the Witch
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese animated
fantasy
adventure
feature film
, the 10th cinema feature produced by Tōei Animation
(then Tōei Dōga), released in Japan in 1967. It was developed by Jirō Sekimasa, Seiichi Moro and Takeshi Ariga, written by Shin'ichi Sekizawa
and Susumu Takaku and directed by Taiji Yabushita and has an essentially original story, though one which alludes in structure and character names to the Jack tales
and Beowulf
, both of English folklore
. A working title
for the film was . The animation director
is Akira Daikuhara.
It is one of a number of Tōei Dōga features licensed by the television division of American International Pictures
and localised by Titan Productions
, Jacks English-dubbed
version being directed by Peter Solmo and made available for syndication starting in 1969. Corinne Orr
, of Speed Racer
fame, is the voice of Allegra in the English-language version. It is well remembered by those who saw it on U.S. television in the '70s and early '80s (in particular, KTLA
developed a tradition of airing it around Halloween
each year) because of its surreal sequences. Some sources say it is a version of "Jack and the Beanstalk
", perhaps confusing it with the 1974 anime film of that title
, which also features both a protagonist named Jack and a witch, but no real similarities to that story are evident.
of paintings imitative of stained glass
, then cuts to Jack, a boy who lives with his animal friends Barnaby Bear, Dinah Dog, Squeeker Mouse and Phineas Fox and drives a car resembling a Ford Model T
, even inside the house. One day while out driving Jack sees a girl named Allegra in a flying machine and challenges her to race. After he loses Allegra offers him a ride and he accepts, along with Squeeker Mouse who sneaks aboard. Allegra is actually a witch, and takes Jack to the castle of the evil queen Auriana, who changes children into harpies to be her slaves. Squeeker is sucked into a machine that changes him into a harpy
but Jack escapes. When Allegra and another harpy named Harvey Harpy pursue Jack he leads them away from the castle. Harvey Harpy ends up lassoing Jack's animal friends and they get tangled together in the rope. Barnaby Bear starts laughing at the predicament, and soon all are laughing. They take Harvey Harpy back to the house, where they sing and dance together. Spying on them through a window Allegra seems to soften a little as she watches the fun. However, when Jack returns to the house she tries to capture him with a magic rope that has a claw on the end, but the animals drive her away by pelting her with dishes. In some fan copies of the English version about 8 minutes is cut out here, including scenes where Allegra returns to the castle, and a battle between Allegra and Jack where she pulls his house off the ground and drops it into a lake. Allegra is injured when she crash lands her flying machine, and Jack takes her back to his house to let her recover. When she comes to she sees Jack, and smiles for a moment, but then flees back to the castle, knocking Jack over as she goes. Jack and friends go back to the castle to rescue Squeeker Mouse, and they encounter Allegra again. She promises to help them since they were so kind to her when she was injured, but instead she leads them into a trap that drops them into a land where the plants try to eat everybody. At the end giant mushrooms drop Jack and friends into a pit with the machine that changes children into harpies. The wind starts to suck Jack into the machine, while the Harpies chant 'Into the Machine!'. Barnaby Bear remembers that a giant windmill powers the machine, so he runs off and stops it. With the windmill immobilized other harpies jump into the pit to take Jack prisoner, but Barnaby Bear finally lets go of the windmill and the harpies are sucked into the machine, which overloads and explodes, with Jack and friends escaping. Queen Auriana punishes Allegra for her failure to capture Jack by exiling her to the ice caves beneath the castle. Harvey Harpy is sad to see Allegra punished, even opposing the queen for her harshness, so when he runs into Jack he explains what happened to Allegra, and leads him to the ice caves to rescue her. Meanwhile, Barnaby Bear, Phineas Fox and Dinah Dog are captured by the queen, who imprisons them in magic bottles and leaves them to watch what happens to Jack in a crystal ball. When Jack rescues Allegra from the ice caves, the queen transports them back to the pit, where she battles them with a golden chain she uses as a whip. When Squeeker Mouse tries to cover up the crystal ball with his cape so no one can see what is happening to Jack he knocks the crystal ball to the ground and it cracks. This breaks the spell imprisoning the animals, and they realize that the crystal is the source of the queen's power. Barnaby Bear throws the crystal ball out the window, and when it shatters the queen loses her powers and is transformed into a large goblin-like creature. Jack and friends pursue the queen, who has a large air-ship ready for her escape. She sets a time bomb to explode after she leaves, but Harvey Harpy ties the bomb to her air-ship as it takes off. As the queen tries to remove the bomb she crashes into the castle and explodes. This destroys the castle and breaks the spell cast by the evil queen, and one by one all the harpies turn back into children, including Allegra and Harvey, who celebrate with Jack.
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
fantasy
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
adventure
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
, the 10th cinema feature produced by Tōei Animation
Toei Animation
Toei Animation Co., Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio owned by Toei Co., Ltd. The studio was founded in 1948 as Japan Animated Films . In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was reincorporated under its current name...
(then Tōei Dōga), released in Japan in 1967. It was developed by Jirō Sekimasa, Seiichi Moro and Takeshi Ariga, written by Shin'ichi Sekizawa
Shinichi Sekizawa
was a Japanese screenwriter. His very first screenplay was for the Shintoho Studios film Fearful Attack of the Flying Saucers, which is now considered to be lost. He went on to script several films by Ishirō Honda, including several classic Godzilla films...
and Susumu Takaku and directed by Taiji Yabushita and has an essentially original story, though one which alludes in structure and character names to the Jack tales
Jack tales
A collection of English folk tales centering around a character usually named "Jack," Jack tales are also popular in Appalachian folklore.The Jack in these tales is usually a weak character, sometimes a foolish one, but generally a kindly one...
and Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
, both of English folklore
English folklore
English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed...
. A working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
for the film was . The animation director
Animation director
An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated film or animated segment for a live-action film...
is Akira Daikuhara.
It is one of a number of Tōei Dōga features licensed by the television division of American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
and localised by Titan Productions
Titra Studios
Titra Studios is an American dubbing studio. The studio was responsible for dubbing numerous foreign films, including Mothra vs. Godzilla 1964 as well as the Speed Racer cartoon series and the original Ultraman tv series....
, Jacks English-dubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
version being directed by Peter Solmo and made available for syndication starting in 1969. Corinne Orr
Corinne Orr
Corinne Orr is a Canadian-born actress and voice artist, who now lives in New York City, where she has resided for more than four decades....
, of Speed Racer
Speed Racer
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
fame, is the voice of Allegra in the English-language version. It is well remembered by those who saw it on U.S. television in the '70s and early '80s (in particular, KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
developed a tradition of airing it around Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
each year) because of its surreal sequences. Some sources say it is a version of "Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...
", perhaps confusing it with the 1974 anime film of that title
Jack and the Beanstalk (1974 film)
is a 1974 traditional animation musical feature film produced and animated by the Japanese studio Group TAC, based on the English fairy tale of the same name. The feature is the studio's first and the feature directing début of Gisaburō Sugii and has a screenplay by Shūji Hirami and a soundtrack of...
, which also features both a protagonist named Jack and a witch, but no real similarities to that story are evident.
Plot
The film opens with a retelling of Beowulf, narrated over pansPanning (camera)
In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device...
of paintings imitative of stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
, then cuts to Jack, a boy who lives with his animal friends Barnaby Bear, Dinah Dog, Squeeker Mouse and Phineas Fox and drives a car resembling a Ford Model T
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...
, even inside the house. One day while out driving Jack sees a girl named Allegra in a flying machine and challenges her to race. After he loses Allegra offers him a ride and he accepts, along with Squeeker Mouse who sneaks aboard. Allegra is actually a witch, and takes Jack to the castle of the evil queen Auriana, who changes children into harpies to be her slaves. Squeeker is sucked into a machine that changes him into a harpy
Harpy
In Greek mythology, a harpy was one of the winged spirits best known for constantly stealing all food from Phineas...
but Jack escapes. When Allegra and another harpy named Harvey Harpy pursue Jack he leads them away from the castle. Harvey Harpy ends up lassoing Jack's animal friends and they get tangled together in the rope. Barnaby Bear starts laughing at the predicament, and soon all are laughing. They take Harvey Harpy back to the house, where they sing and dance together. Spying on them through a window Allegra seems to soften a little as she watches the fun. However, when Jack returns to the house she tries to capture him with a magic rope that has a claw on the end, but the animals drive her away by pelting her with dishes. In some fan copies of the English version about 8 minutes is cut out here, including scenes where Allegra returns to the castle, and a battle between Allegra and Jack where she pulls his house off the ground and drops it into a lake. Allegra is injured when she crash lands her flying machine, and Jack takes her back to his house to let her recover. When she comes to she sees Jack, and smiles for a moment, but then flees back to the castle, knocking Jack over as she goes. Jack and friends go back to the castle to rescue Squeeker Mouse, and they encounter Allegra again. She promises to help them since they were so kind to her when she was injured, but instead she leads them into a trap that drops them into a land where the plants try to eat everybody. At the end giant mushrooms drop Jack and friends into a pit with the machine that changes children into harpies. The wind starts to suck Jack into the machine, while the Harpies chant 'Into the Machine!'. Barnaby Bear remembers that a giant windmill powers the machine, so he runs off and stops it. With the windmill immobilized other harpies jump into the pit to take Jack prisoner, but Barnaby Bear finally lets go of the windmill and the harpies are sucked into the machine, which overloads and explodes, with Jack and friends escaping. Queen Auriana punishes Allegra for her failure to capture Jack by exiling her to the ice caves beneath the castle. Harvey Harpy is sad to see Allegra punished, even opposing the queen for her harshness, so when he runs into Jack he explains what happened to Allegra, and leads him to the ice caves to rescue her. Meanwhile, Barnaby Bear, Phineas Fox and Dinah Dog are captured by the queen, who imprisons them in magic bottles and leaves them to watch what happens to Jack in a crystal ball. When Jack rescues Allegra from the ice caves, the queen transports them back to the pit, where she battles them with a golden chain she uses as a whip. When Squeeker Mouse tries to cover up the crystal ball with his cape so no one can see what is happening to Jack he knocks the crystal ball to the ground and it cracks. This breaks the spell imprisoning the animals, and they realize that the crystal is the source of the queen's power. Barnaby Bear throws the crystal ball out the window, and when it shatters the queen loses her powers and is transformed into a large goblin-like creature. Jack and friends pursue the queen, who has a large air-ship ready for her escape. She sets a time bomb to explode after she leaves, but Harvey Harpy ties the bomb to her air-ship as it takes off. As the queen tries to remove the bomb she crashes into the castle and explodes. This destroys the castle and breaks the spell cast by the evil queen, and one by one all the harpies turn back into children, including Allegra and Harvey, who celebrate with Jack.
Voice cast
- , Allegra (English)
- , Harvey Harpy (English)
- , Squeaker Mouse (English)
- , Barnaby Bear (English)
- , Phineas Fox (English)
- , Dinah Dog (English)
- , Auriana (English)
- , harpies (English)
-
- Additional voices