(9/10)
This is one of my favorite underrated, animated films of all-time. I love Mark Twain, Will Vinton, and the whole melancholy story.
PLOT:Mark Twain (James Whitmore) was born the same day Halley's Comet passed earth. Now, 75 years later, the comet has come around again and Twain plans to go out with it. For the occasion, he has built an airship containing all of his works and belongings. Before he leaves, young and mischevious kids, Tom Sawyer (Chris Ritchie), Huck Finn (Gary Krug), and Becky Thatcher (Michele Mariana), stow away in the belly of the ship with fame and adventure in their eyes. On the journey there, however, they learn way more about Mark Twain and run through his works as if they were living them. It's a great plot executed brilliantly.
VOICES:The voice acting was pretty good. James Whitmore did a brilliant job of voicing the philosophical Mark Twain and showed honor to the real Twain's legacy. The child actors weren't actually that bad either, though a couple of them got on my nerves. The shiners aside from Whitmore would be Gary Krug as Huck Finn, Michele Mariana as Becky Thatcher, John Morrison as Adam, Carol Edelman as Eve, Tim Conner as the Three-Headed Alien, Billy Victor as God, Dal McKennon as Jim Smiley, and Wilbur Vincent as the Mysterious Stranger. Even the minor characters had good voice acting!
SCORE:The score was curious and cool 80s score with a good organ song and cheesy ending song accompanying it. I'd say it was pretty cool overall.
ANIMATION:The animation in this film is wonderful and astounding. I've always loved Will Vinton's claymation, and it's at its finest in this film. Every little thing is done with expert detail to make it look imaginative and visionistic. Vinton truly uses his animation for art here.
OTHER CONTENT:This film really got me into Mark Twain and his life; it includes works such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn", "The Famous Jumping Frog of Caleveras County", "The Mysterious Stranger", "The Diary of Adam and Eve", and more. This film truly captures both sides of Twain's imagination from light love to dark hate. This is not a film just for kids, for it deals with such topics as religion, love, the human race, and the line between good and evil, all animated in fun ways. This film has a whole lot of substance for for an animation. The only problem the film has it that it starts to lag off into cheesiness near the end of the film. I would go as far as to call it a cheesy 80s film, but the end tries to be that way. Thankfully, this film has to much dire emotion to be considered a film of cheese.
OVERALL,an awesome animated film with a brilliant plot, good voice acting with Whitmore leading, cool score, astounding and detailed Vinton animation, honor to Mark Twain's legacy, lots of philosophical substance, and overwhelming dire emotion, but it lags off into cheese near the end.
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