Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done

A must see for all Gilbert and Sullivan freaks (it's on YouTube.) It recalls Yellow Submarine and other unconventional cartoons, but is quite in a league of its own. The animation and character designs are simultaneously hideous and gorgeous--I wish more animation looked like Dick Deadeye. The effort put into the backgrounds is especially admirable.

The plot almost doesn't matter. It's just an excuse to throw a bunch of G&S characters and songs together. You wouldn't think 70s-ified versions of these songs would sound good, but it's actually musical genius. We hear energetic funk, folk, reggae, you name it. For example, the John Wellington Wells song sounds like if Elton John wrote Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo. Some viewers might take issue with how much the writers altered Gilbert's original lyrics, but I think it keeps the film from being predictable.

I take some issue with the underrepresentation of Ruddigore and Princess Ida. The film tries to include a reference to each operetta, and does a good job considering, but the character of Rose Maybud is nothing like her original version. These are small nitpicks considering how much I love the film as a whole, though. I never thought adding so many boob jokes to Gilbert and Sullivan would work! The jokes take you by surprise with how good they are.

I enjoy Dick Deadeye much more than any Disney movie. If it hasn't had a DVD release, it needs one to reach a larger audience.