It's Yesterday Once More V

Well, Gentle Readers, we once again open the animation mine and pull out a gold nugget of a show from my youth that I was crazy about. Sometimes, I can't believe that I write things like that last sentence. Anyway, the programme (Canadian spelling for the American readers) in question is the second animated series by Rankin/Bass, Tales of the Wizard of Oz.

Produced in 1961, Tales of the Wizard of Oz used traditional, cell-style animation rather that the stop motion "Animagic" process that the company became known for in their specials like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and their first series, The New Adventures Of Pinocchio (see the blog archive). The stories were based on the characters created by L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but were given "additional" names (e.g. the Cowardly Lion was called "Dandy" Lion etc.) and the stories themselves were largely original. This rendition of these characters were used in the 1964 special Return to Oz from Rankin/Bass. As with The New Adventures of Pinocchio, the episodes were 5 minutes in length and had a catchy little theme song that, again, sadly, I can still sing.

Therefore I give you, from 1961, Rankin/Bass', Tales of the Wizard of Oz.

Enjoy!