ANI-MOVIES, Twice Upon A Time

An early 80s movie that in its own way ahead of its time, as well as slightly behind them, Twice Upon A Time was a cutout animated feature-length film that took the best of what Terry Gilliam did for Monty Python, and what might eventually influenced future projects like South Park. This modern day fairy tale done in the spirit of Little Nemo In Slumberland was produced by George Lucas right of the heels of finishing up the original Star Wars trilogy. It didn't get much exposure in theaters during its initial release, but gained much attention from its later screenings on HBO, making it a cult classic similar to other 80s animated films.

In the "real life" land of Din, it's inhabitants known as Rushers live out their daily lives rushing around, but they sleep thanks to an ordinary wall clock called the Cosmic Clock, and their dreams are distributed by the small wizard Greensleeves and his figment creatures. The sleazy Synonamess Botch wants to replace the Rushers' dreams with nightmares that are carried out by his vile vultures. Botch kidnaps Greensleeves, with hopes of getting a magic spring in the Cosmic Clock to stop time. Meanwhile in the dream-making realm of Frivoli, the silent Mumford and Ralph the All-Purpose Animal(a shape-changing doglike creature)are demoted to taking out the trash where they encounter Greensleeves' niece Flora who finds a letter from him about his abduction. Botch heads out in his long ride to intercept the amateur heroes before they can even begin their rescue. Botch convinces Flora to star in some of the nightmares he films, while conning Ralph and Mumford to obtain the magic spring. The dippy duo manage to find the spring, but one of Botch's vultures takes it back to him, however Ralph and Mumford's fairy godmother(or "FGM")appears to let them know how they were both duped. FGM gets superhero Rod Rescueman to help them bust into Botch's HQ, free Flora and Greensleeves, plus stop Botch's plan to unleash a chain of nightmare bombs upon the sleeping Rushers.

The original theatrical release of Twice Upon A Time was not exactly successful for the soon defunct Ladd Company, but its publicity as a "George Lucas" movie helped keep it afloat until fans fell for it on cable TV. There are in fact several cuts of the movie, some which included extra scenes, but most of the re-edits deal with the improvised dialogue as there is a bounty of adult humor used by the cast's initial material. The cast featured veterans like Paul Frees, and Lorenzo Music pre-Garfield, who helped bring a sense of maturity to what would seem to most viewers as a standard fairy tale movie. The fresh change in a somewhat scrutinized form of animation makes for an eye-popping experience.