The Enchanted Square

As far as the Raggedy Ann cartoons go, The Enchanted Square has to be somewhere towards the top. As a child it was enchanting and had a lot of emotional staying power, and it still holds up today as very magical and touching.

Where The Enchanted Square really appeals is in the animation, the music and the way the story is told. The drawing in the animation is very smooth and elegant, and with no signs of roughness or jerky movements. The backgrounds are imaginative in look, are incredibly detailed with every one looking like hours went into making just that one. The colours and shades are well and truly lavish, with the darker colours giving off real atmosphere and the livelier colours being really sumptuous.

Famous Studios regular composer Winston Sharples provides the music score here. Not only does it compliment the whimsy and poignancy of the story and visuals brilliantly, but it's just a wonderful score on its own as well. Rhythmically it has so much character, and once again Sharples shows the remarkable knack of not just matching what's going on screen but actually adding even more to it. The orchestration is lush-sounding and very rich in texture and tone colour, the lusher moments not being too syrupy at all. Sharples' scores often are one of the pleasures of the cartoons they feature in, and often were the best thing about the Popeye and in particular Herman and Katnip cartoons, so the music in The Enchanted Square doesn't disappoint in any way.

The story is just beautifully done and told here. The Enchanted Square could easily have had a story caked in over-sentimentality and corniness, but neither is the case here. Sure the story is sentimental, but never overly so. The emotion here is actually incredibly touching and often tear-jerking, and the whole story is told in a deeply heart-warming way. There is also just the right amount of whimsical charm without being coy or cloying and enchanting surrealism without being too weird or tonally unsettling. The characters are sweet and engaging, with Raggedy Ann being a quite endearing title character, while everything here is written with genuine warmth and charm.

In summary, touching and enchanting. 10/10 Bethany Cox

A little blind girl is given an abandoned doll (who just happens to be Raggedy Ann) by a kind-hearted policeman. Through Raggedy Ann the girl's imagination comes splendidly alive in this wonderful forgotten Famous Studios cartoon that is filled with vibrant scenes, touching characters, a good score and grand direction. This cartoon is highly recommended for animation buffs of all ages and especially families looking for good entertainment. The policeman may have been played by radio and cartoon actor/announcer Jackson Beck (Bluto of the Popeye series). Available in the Public Domain in very good quality. Find it if you can, it's a gem!

Here is another great cartoon from my childhood, because I remember having this cartoon on a VHS tape as a kid a long time ago. But alas, it's been lost over the years, and I couldn't find it ever since. Of course, thank God for YouTube. On YouTube, I found a really exquisite high-quality version of this cartoon, and I was impressed that a cartoon from Paramount's Famous Studio could be, well, exquisite, even from them; sorry to repeat "exquisite."

The story is about Raggedy Ann, who was mysteriously thrown in the trash and found by a kind police officer. The officer gives the rag doll to a blind girl named Billie. Raggedy Ann teaches the child about seeing the world through the power of imagination. That is all I have to say about this cartoon, folks. You know, in 1944, Famous Studios did a Raggedy Ann cartoon called "Suddenly, It's Spring," where Ann went up to the heavens to make the sun shine to make the sick little girl who owns her well. Of course, I love this cartoon even more.

As I always point out in my reviews, I don't have a favorite scene because I love this cartoon from beginning to end. And also, I like to point out a message the cartoon has that, to me, is never too cliche.

This is a true masterpiece of storytelling, one that has lasted me over 45 years when I saw it as a child. I hope to see it again as I have not seen it since then but have fond memories of its heartwarming power. In many ways I believe it has influenced my life's work in deep and meaningful ways. I'm a video producer who has devoted the past 25 years to creating videos the encourage people and uplift them. I wish we could have a network devoted to these treasures for new generations to be touched by. If anyone knows of other classic cartoons like this one I would like to know so that we could start a classic cartoon club and have home screenings to ensure that new generations get to see the artistry and storytelling from the past.

After Max Fleischer and his brother were ousted from their own studio, Paramount reorganized the studio, titled it the Famous Studio (later called Paramount Cartoon Studio) and lasted another 25 years making more Popeye and Superman cartoons, as well as cartoons featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey, Herman & Katnip, etc. In all honesty, even as a huge admirer of animation, I've never really been the biggest fan of their work, as much of their series were more formulaic than Tom & Jerry and they seemed to appeal more to children than both children and adults (well, some at least). That being said, I think one of if not the best cartoon they ever made was this Raggedy Ann cartoon called The Enchanted Square, mainly for how emotional and heart warming it is.

The short centers around a little blind girl in New York named Billie, who on Halloween is given a Raggedy Ann doll from the police officer Flanagan. Despite being blind, Billie is told by Raggedy Ann that she can see with her imagination (or in this case, her heart). And so, Billie imagines a beautiful voyage where she and Ann travel through a carnivalesque land based on the real world but much more imaginative and colorful. What makes this such a sweet tale is how emotional it is, as we see how even those without the ability to see can think outside the box and imagine a world far beyond our own. What could have been saccharine ends up feeling genuinely sweet and heartfelt, and the ending does a perfect job summing up how there may be more to the physically impaired than one might think.

Adding in to that, despite there only being one song, You Can See With your Heart gives the proper optimistic tone to help recreate reality into fantasy, and it's hard not to tear up when listening to it. In addition, the animation is very colorful, vibrant and harmonious, with the lusciously beautiful landscapes and environments Billie recreates, showing how the young can think up of anything. In all honesty, I think the only real gripe I have with the whole short is that I wish it was a little longer so we could maybe see more of a conflict, but then again, that's not really the main point. The short knows exactly what it wants to say, and it does its job beautifully and poetically.

Whoever said cartoons shouldn't make people cry? Overall, The Enchanted Square is not only one of Famous Studios' crowning achievements in animation, but I'd even go as far as to say that it's one of the greatest animated shorts of the Golden Age of American Animation. If you're a fan of animation or you have a kid of your own, check out this short any given time; it might even inspire you or them. In fact, I think the internet short Out of Sight might have taken some inspiration from this, who knows? Anywho, to wrap this up, I'm going to quote officer Flanagan. "There are some who see with the eyes in their head, and there are some who see with the eyes in their heart, and that's the Lord's own truth."