The Puppetoon Movie

Released Jun 12, 1987

1h 20m

Documentary

Animation

List

80%

Tomatometer

5 Reviews

79%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Gumby, Pokey and Arnie the Dinosaur host 10 of Oscar-winner George Pal's animated shorts from the '30s and '40s.

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Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

A basic assemblage of many of Pal's best creations, which should hopefully encourage audiences to seek out all of his projects in their complete and unedited forms.

Rated: 6/10

Sep 7, 2020

Full Review

Rachel Wagner

Rachel's Reviews (YouTube)

I really enjoyed checking this out.

Rated: 5.5/10

Feb 11, 2019

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Aug 11, 2005

Full Review

Jeffrey Westhoff

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

Rated: 3/5

Jul 26, 2002

Full Review

Dan Jardine

Apollo Guide

Rated: 77/100

Feb 13, 2001

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s r

It's amazing fetes of art, but in terms of entertainment it is not up on the level of classic.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

George Pal, for those who don't know, is not only the man who directed the original version of The Time Machine and was the producer of the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds, but he was also an animator of many great stop-motion films that he affectionately called Puppetoons throughout the 1940's. Released in 1987 and directed by Arnold Leibovit, The Puppetoon Movie is an entertaining stop-motion extravaganza. It collected many of George Pal's famous shorts together for the first time with some new wraparound segments featuring many familiar faces from the stop-motion world. It was all put together as a tribute to a man who had entertained audiences the world over in a variety of different ways. By today's standards, many of George Pal's animated efforts yield some very non-PC imagery, but none of that matters. Films like this are enormously important. You can't help but admire the craftsmanship that went into the making of these shorts; and in many ways, they're likely to inspire and entertain more than offend.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Audience Member

Amazing and beautiful. A forgotten classic.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

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Audience Member

This is a beautiful film, and hopefully will someday find a following. It's too trippy to be lost forever.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

The film is a collection of George Pal short films sewn together in 1987 and book ended by Gumby and friends and the film feels like a vain attempt by Georeg Pal fans to save his work from obscurity in an ever changing world. Not that, that is a bad thing because his stop animation is ground breaking and his story telling is superb and he definetely has his own style, but some modern viewers might be puzzled by the 1930ish stereotypes employed in the film. Pal was Danish so his perspective is that of a European on Americana culture, and everyone is caracterized (even sections of suggested sexuality. 70 years beforeTeam America, puppets having sex.) 2 things I noticed was he was apparently a big fan of Harlem style Jazz (which was huge in Europe) and he did a remarkable portait of the story of John Henry and dumped the usual cartoonish sterotypes he usually employed and made a serious attempt at a heroic telling of Henry's doomed contest against mechanized Inky poo.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is such an amazing little film. It is a wonderful grouping of some very old claymation cartoons by George Pal. It's a really rare look at some of the cartoons enjoyed by previous generations and provides a neat perspective on how the world and its peoples were viewed years ago. Very entertaining, even for us old folks.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Arnold Leibovit

Director

Paul Frees

Arnie the Dinosaur, Pillsbury Doughboy

Victor Jory

Narrator, 'Tubby the Tuba'

Arnold Leibovit

Screenwriter

Arnold Leibovit

Producer

Buddy Baker

Original Music

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Synopsis

Gumby, Pokey and Arnie the Dinosaur host 10 of Oscar-winner George Pal's animated shorts from the '30s and '40s.

Director: Arnold Leibovit
Screenwriter: Arnold Leibovit
Distributor: Image Entertainment Inc.
Production Co: Arnold Leibovit Entertainment
Genre: Documentary, Animation
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 12, 1987, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 26, 2021
Runtime: 1h 20m
Sound Mix: Mono

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