I picked up a copy of the original Nelvanamation VHS Cassette which contained A Cosmic Christmas. Other than the first broadcast, for most, this was the only way you could see these classic specials.
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Four magical fantasies from today’s top animation studio.
What if you received a Christmas visit by three wise men – from outer space? How about a rock and roll devil who offers you fame and fortune – at the price of your soul? Or a pair of runaway robots in an interstellar love story… or a kingdom of loony extraterrestrials who are eating their own planet?
The themes are universal. The appeal is to young and old alike. The technique is superb. The studio is Nelvana, an award-winning Canadian outfit quickly rising to international fame as the greatest thing since Disney. And this Warner Home Video program presents four of Nelvana’s marvelous animated fantasies on a single videocassette.
A Cosmic Christmas, Nelvana’s first big hit, is a lively and original fable about the meaning of the holiday season. It has all the superb characteristics of every Nelvana production: strong story line, fine musical score, painstaking illustration, and characterizations that leap off the screen with life.
The Devil and Daniel Mouse is a rock and roll parable about fame and its price, a marvelous modern retelling of the classic American legend “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” It’s also a showcase or the inspired talents of Nelvana, the award-winning Canadian studio that has set its sights on equalling – or even surpassing – the classics of he Disney era.
Nelvana’s next creation, Romie-O and Julie-8 (Runaway Robots!), brings Shakespeare into the space age. Two robots from rival manufacturing companies meet, fall in love, and try to run away – only to wind up in the hands of the horrible Junk Monster, another lovable Nelvana villain.
Finally comes Please Don’t Eat the Planet, subtitled An Intergalactic Thanksgiving, an ecology-wise tale that pits a family of hard-working, simple-minded space pioneers against a swarm of zanies on the planet Laffalot. Sid Caesar stars as the voice of King Goochi, whose subjects are – literally – eating themselves out of house and home.
This is real animation, light years ahead of the mass-produced article shown on Saturday morning TV. Each Nelvana film is a fully realized, meticulously crafted masterpiece requiring months of work and tens of thousands of individual drawings.
The result is more than impressive. It’s magic. And nothing like it has been done in years.
With songs and Music by John Sebastian and Sylvia Tyson. Featuring the voice of Sid Caesar as King Goochi.
Download a recreated pdf version of the Nelvanamation logo here.
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