Alakazam the Great

I was stunned to see this listing; I have been trying to find this movie for years. It may be lame, a terrible dubbed version of a chopped up hack job, but I still have dreams based on this film 30 years later. It would show up on the afternoon movie program and I would always greet it like an old friend; I would love to see it again.

Over the years, I have seen many reviews that have mercilessly slagged ALAKAZAM THE GREAT as a bad movie, and it even made it into the highly questionable book THE 50 WORST FILMS OF ALL TIME. The question I have is: did all of you who hate this movie see the same film that I did when I was a youngster? I have shown many children this film over the years and not one of them failed to enjoy it.

ALAKAZAM THE GREAT is loosely based on the Wu Cheng-En classic JOURNEY TO THE WEST, a landmark of Chinese epic literature, and tells the story of an arrogant monkey king who learns the secrets of magic and becomes a cosmic pain in the ass. After a brief rampage through the heavens, he is imprisoned by the gods and eventually sent on a pilgrimage to atone for his sins and learn humility. The monkey must escort a young prince (who is the son of the gods) through a series of insanely lethal adventures in a land teeming with demons and monsters of every description, picking up a couple of unusual traveling companions along the way (an anthropomorphic pig-man and a burrowing cannibal). Much magic and cartoon ass-whuppin' ensues, and despite the (mercifully brief) musical numbers, this film has raw imagination to spare. Fast-paced and fun, this is not the dud that some would lead you to believe. Give it a chance!

I really did not want to vote on the movie, since I have not seen it since I was a kid. But, this movie was such a great movie to me as a kid, that almost 40 years later, I am trying to find it. If this was such a bad movie (according to the critic), there needs to be more of them made. The movie had classic good versus evil situations, was able to teach morals in a very entertaining manner, and was light and dark all at the same time. I can go so far as to say that it was the loyalty, friendship, and mercy exhibited by the lead character and his friends that indelibly burned this cartoon in my psyche all of these years. I too find that I had no idea that all of these famous stars were in the movie, but now that I know, when I finally get the movie again, I will have another reason to love it.

I loved this movie in the 1960's when it used to play regularly on a television channel in Buffalo, New York. What a shock when I saw it recently! The dubbed American version is disjointed and pretty silly, but that's not the big surprise. It is clear from watching it now that the Japanese film underlying it is a retelling of part of the epic Chinese classic, The Journey to the West, written by Wu Cheng-En in the 16th century. In The Journey to the West -- the standard English translation is by Arthur Waley -- the monk Tripitaka is travelling to India seeking rare Buddhist scriptures, which were later housed in the Big Goose Pagoda still standing today in Xi'an, a city best-known to Westerners for its terracotta warriors. The monk has many adventures along the way, accompanied by his friends Sun Wu-Kong / Monkey (here called Alakazam) and Chu Pa-Kie / Pigsy. Throughout the Far East, these characters are known to everyone and are fixtures of popular culture. Hot-tempered, impetuous Monkey / Alakazam is the particular favourite of little boys of all ages. Watch this movie and try to guess what is actually going on in the Japanese film.

Although it's not the spectacle of the greatness of Japanese Anime, the Western release of Saiyu-ki was a testament to the early days of the art.

Alas, like so many classics of animation, such as Toei's "Gulliver's Travels Beyond The Moon (Gariba no uchu ryoko)" or Nelvana's "Rock & Rule", this film will never be seen again except on rare, pirated copies, for it has been cast into the pit of Moritorium Hell, where major video chains unceremoniously trash the remaining copies into a dumpster without the opportunity to purchase them to try to salvage history. This disgusting form of book burning for profits by the major studios that now run the major video rental chains, leading to the demise of the Mom & Pop stores of the past will be remembered as corporate greed at it's worst.

I hope there is a special Hell for these arrogant suits.