I'm still not sure whether I'm going to watch all the kids' movies that came out in 1977 for this project, but I thought watching this was a reasonably low investment to make, whether I do or not. I was right; this movie does not require much investment, and it's charming enough. I don't know why this one hasn't lasted the same way the holiday specials have, since it's no better or worse.
In the current age of computer animation, it was nice to see watercolor backgrounds painted by hand and lines & shapes wracked with imperfection. It was this funny middle ground, though, between the cheap, poor 80s animation of my youth (He-Man, Transformers) and animation given oodles of resources, yet plainly made by human hands (Disney). Obviously this movie was not of Disney quality, but it also wasn't tossed off for toy sales.
Anyway, there was a Nixon reference, an Easy Rider reference, strong suspicion of women's lib in the subtext, a waterbed (!), a handful of short songs blending Harry Nilsson with Free to Be, and absolutely no adult supervision at all. Logic was hard to come by. But it was sweet. I'd let little kids watch it before I'd let them watch Bratz.
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