The Electric Piper

The Electric Piper is unique in that it is a Nickelodeon animated film not based on any pre-existing property or franchise. It really wouldn't be that notable if this film weren't technically "lost" for the past ten or so years.

Produced for airing in 2000 and premiering only once on Nick in February 2003, The Electric Piper was a film with a cast of celebrity voices and a soundtrack of original music. This is probably why it was trapped in copyright limbo three years after it was made and over a decade after it was released.

The movie is a modern-ish retelling of the fairy tale of the Pied Piper. I use the term "modern-ish" because it's very clearly set in the 1960s. That's actually one of the coolest things about the film, the style and aesthetic of the film is heavily influenced by 60s subculture. By making the film an intentional period piece, the movie keeps it's setting from feeling stale or dull. It really adds an interesting layer to the film.

The film is a beat-for-beat retelling of the Pied Piper with a few extra bits thrown in there. The story follows a pair of siblings, Mick and Janis, who live in the town of Hamilton. Their father is the mayor, and he's stubborn and old-fashioned. This description applies to virtually all the parents in the town. Eventually, the kids start noticing that the city is infested with rats. Sly, a smooth-talking musician with magical powers and a sweet guitar, offers to rid the town of the rats in return for the mayor's Harley motorcycle.

The film is a musical, with groups of characters singing songs about the current situation and big dance numbers and trippy visuals. Just about everything you'd expect. Wayne Brady is the voice of Sly, and even though he's as far as a human being can possibly be from Jimi Hendrix, he sings quite well. If your ears could squint, you'd swear he really WAS Hendrix.

Amazingly, Rodney Dangerfield, Rob Schnider, and George Segal are all in this movie. They all give good performances but it's not like their characters are very deep or complex. Nobody really gets much of a character arc outside of the siblings, the father and Sly. The plot is very bare bones, doing only what it absolutely needs to and not much else.

The biggest problem with the film is its animation. It's very similar to a Butch Hartman cartoon (not surprising, since it's the same studio) which would be fine for a television show, but for a feature-length film, even one made for television, is simply not acceptable. If Scooby Doo can have decent animation in its movies, you should be able to pull it off too.

But overall, this isn't a bad film at all. It's entertaining enough to watch to the end and it does everything it needs to do quite well. The music is good, the plot is structured well and moves coherently, and the voice acting is especially good.

If you're interested in lost films or just animated movies in general, this is worth checking out. You can't buy it on DVD but it's up on an archive somewhere. Give it a look if you have the time.

Great musical and retelling the pied piper only with electric guitars. very colorful animation that is nice to look at and awesome writing and likable characters.the only thing i don't like about the movie is that it is a bit cheesy sometimes but that is it!it has really good climax,a really good story,really good characters,and really good animation. It is really good that this film has been found and after watching it i think that nickelodeon should get this released onto DVD/Blu ray because at the moment it has only been leaked online. My conclusion is that this is a really good and memorable film that deserves a higher rating

I was only three years old when "The Electric Piper" aired on Nickelodeon. So unfortunately I couldn't see it. However, twelve years later in 2015 I learn about this on a YouTuber's series on what is known to the internet as lost media. blameitonjorge was the name of the YouTuber I heard this from. At the time only a few clips were shown online of the film. Yes. The movie was considered lost after only airing once on Nick. After that it was never released to VHS or DVD. Making it impossible to find. Only clips released from the Director (Raymie Muzquiz) and the Writer (Bill Burnett) were all that was available to the public. Surprisingly in early 2016 blameitonjorge made an Updated Lost Media Countdown video. The third on the list was "Electric Piper". In early 2016 it was revealed by Raymie to a Reddit user named Max that he had a full VHS rip copy of his own. However he said he could not distribute it. This was a big bummer for the internet that was looking for it. But even Raymie said he hoped if it would ever see the light of day again, it would have to be on the internet. And if you're a person who believes in miracles, well, on August 9, 2016 the movie was found and uploaded to the internet and very quickly YouTube on it's original master archived VHS format. I didn't fully take a look at it until November 2016. And when I did I fell in love with it. It's probably in my opinion one of the best things Nickelodeon has made. A classic fairy tale with a modern Sixties Woodstock twist to it. Thank you Nickelodeon and Frederator Studios for "The Electric Piper". The characters are good and so is the story. The animation while simple is pretty. This was done in the late '90s and was done on traditional cells at Nickelodeon. Proof that you don't need to make a nice and cool cartoon with digital Wacom tablets for 2D animation or CGI 3D when most studios at the time were moving into that. Disney was not the only big studio that could make an animated musical story. Nick did one that was singing, but with the style of Woodstock in 1969. Maybe one day it will be a major Cult like Nickelodeon's "Cry Baby Lane". Happy Rebirthday!