Willy McBean and his Magic Machine
Willy McBean and his Magic Machine | |
---|---|
Directed by | Arthur Rankin, Jr. |
Produced by | Jules Bass Arthur Rankin, Jr. |
Written by | Anthony Peters Arthur Rankin, Jr. |
Starring | Larry D. Mann Billie Mae Richards Paul Soles Alfie Scopp Paul Kligman Bernard Cowan |
Music by | Gene Forrell |
Studio | Dentsu Motion Pictures Rankin/Bass Productions |
Release dates | 23 June 1965 (USA) |
Running time | 94 minutes (USA) |
Country | ![]() |
Language | English |
Willy McBean and his Magic Machine (1965) is a Rankin/Bass full-length stop-motion puppet animation film released in theaters. It was also the first stop-motion animated feature film in USA
Professor Rasputin Von Rotten builds a time machine to travel into the past to all the important accomplishments made in history to take credit for them himself. Pablo, his talking pet monkey, takes the plans for the doctor's scheme and runs away. Boy genius Willy McBean finds Pablo and travels into the past to reverse Von Rotten's damage. On the way, he sees dinosaurs, the wild west, cavemen, knights, pirates, Indians, and cowboys.
Plot[edit]
Willy McBean is sick of trying to learn history for school. Meanwhile an evil scientist (Rasputin Von Rotten) is building a magical time machine so he can go back in time and be the most famous person in history. A monkey (Pablo) climbs through McBeans window, he explains that he escaped from Von Rotten and he tells McBean what he is planning to do. Pablo stole the plans to the time machine. McBean builds his own machine to go back in time to stop Von Rotten. The machine isn't working properly they end up in the battle with general George Armstrong Custer, they escape moments before Custer is killed. They arrived in the Wild West where they meet Buffalo Bill Cody. Von Rotten plans to become the fastest gun in the west. Von Rotten asks Bill for a show down, but both guns are sabotaged before anyone can be shot. Von Rotten has fails so he moves onto his next target, Christopher Columbus. Once there, Von Rotten, disguised as a Chinese trader, convinces Columbus's crew of pirates that they should mutiny. Once more McBean and Pablo stop the evil professor by showing the crew that land is not far off. After that, Von Rotten goes back to England in the days of King Arthur, but Pablo and Willy get Arthur to pull the sword. They later go to Ancient Egypt to stop Von Rotten from building the Great Pyramid, but the duo reach Ancient Rome on the way. Then they go back to prehistoric times to get the caveman to invent fire and the wheel before Von Rotten. As they go back to the present, Von Rotten shows the students history through his magic machine (in the form of a movie projector) during history class.
Cast and crew[edit]
- Directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr.
- Written by :Antony Peters and Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Voice cast[edit]
- Larry D. Mann ... Professor Von Rotten
- Billie Mae Richards ... Willie McBean
- Paul Soles ... Pablo
- Alfie Scopp ... Buffalo Bill Cody
- Paul Kligman... Christopher Columbus
- Bernard Cowan... Khufu, Ned the Neanderthal
- Glenda Jackson ... Khufu's wife