The Adventure of Santa Boy

Through a happy set of circumstances, I was able to get my hands on a copy of the elusive Japanese anime series, Shonen Santa no Daibouken, or, literally translated (according to Google), The Adventure of Santa Boy. This is a twenty-four episode adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, and I found it to be utterly charming. I'd love to see a subtitled version so that I can figure out exactly what's going on, but thanks to knowing the book I got the general idea. It opens with Claus as a boy in Burzee, but we do get some flashbacks throughout the series of him as a baby and how he was adopted by Necile. But this being a series, portions of the story were greatly expanded. Most of the animals appear to be immortal, as they're still there in the end when Santa looks more like how we expect to see him today. Blinkie the cat shows up much earlier, and he and Claus can talk to each other. However, none of the other mortals can understand what Blinkie is saying. Glossie and Flossie the reindeer also are there from the start, and they make for an amusing double act. Several other animals who weren't in the book also appear throughout the series. One of the biggest deviations, however, is the character of Mari, who appears to be a yellow ryl. She is pretty much the co-lead character, especially once Claus leaves Burzee and strikes out on his own. (Claus, by the way, is still a boy throughout the series, until the very end. He is never shown making or delivering toys as a young man, as he was in the book.) Mari is a great character, with lots of enthusiasm and a bit of a temper and probably a crush on Claus. She helps Claus on many of his adventures, and colors the toys. The battle with the Awgwas has been expanded, crossing over several episodes, and it appears to feature several different levels of bad guys, all of whom are very Japanese.

I hope someone can figure out a way that this can get wider distribution, with English subtitles or dubbing. I doubt it would ever become a hit, but I could see a small but devoted following popping up around this show.

And now the show is over...

It's been a year, but I've finally finished watching the old cartoon series The Wonderful Wizard of Oz this afternoon. This was a series that was originally made in Japan, but the English version was put together by Cinar, and for some reason decided to totally disguise its roots as an anime. It was originally shown on premium cable channels in the '80s, so I never got a chance to watch it then, and for some reason, it's never been released complete on DVD in English (although it is available in other languages). I've seen some of the compilation movies, named after the books the storyline is based on (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, and The Emerald City of Oz), but I still wanted to see the whole show. When Jaroo started streaming it online, I figured that was my chance — until I found they were about thirty episodes in, and they only kept episodes up for a few weeks at a time! Ah, but I am a patient Oz fan, and figured it would eventually start over again — which it did last year at about this time. So I started watching, and enjoyed myself. There are fifty-two episodes in the series, and they put up a new one each week, so it took a year to watch the whole show. Episode 52 went up today, and now I guess I have to find something else to watch every week.

Despite the differences, and some of the limited animation, I liked the designs for the characters, and I really grew to enjoy most of their voices. The show started off as a pretty straightforward adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but about two-thirds of the way through the animators started taking a few liberties. You know something is up when Mombi and Tip show up right after the Wicked Witch of the West is melted! Yes, they set up the events of the later books (they also had an encounter with the nomes on the way to Glinda's). The China Country was different, and the Hammerheads got a major reinterpretation. Then, after Dorothy got home, she ends up in Oz again, accompanying Tip in the events of The Land of Oz! Those of us who know the book know this is wrong, of course, but it actually worked all right, and she felt like part of the story. Surprisingly, Ozma was left behind at Princess Lulu's in Ev for the events of Ozma of Oz, and Billina had only a small part. Then the show almost went its own way with The Emerald City of Oz, but enough of the original story was there as to at least be recognizable.

So, yes, now I can say I've seen it, and I'm not unhappy about that. And with the series ended, that means that they're very likely going to start at the beginning again next week. So, if you want to do the same thing, go to www.jaroo.com/shows/about/the-wonderful-wizard-of-oz, bookmark the page, and be sure to watch for a new episode every Wednesday.

Saturday Morning Oz Cartoon

Here's another cartoon opening that I never thought I'd see: The Japanese anime series Galaxy Adventures of Oz — in Arabic! Let's take a look, then I have a little more information:

This was a twenty-six part sci-fi retelling/reimagining of The Wizard of Oz. The whole thing has never been made available in English, so far as I can tell, but there was an abbreviated compilation released on DVD a couple years ago as The Wonderful Galaxy of Oz. Why do people think the English-speaking world only wants short versions of all these anime series? They did the same with the Wizard of Oz series from the '80s. There have been full releases of this series in other languages, and the complete series was shown on HBO in the United States, but for some reason we only have the cut down Margot Kidder-narrated compilations available to buy. And while I'm dreaming, let's also get The Adventures of Young Santa Claus, an anime adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, released on DVD, too.