Alright -
I only saw this thing once, but the memories of it have stayed with me for about 35 years, and I have no idea and absolutely no clue what it was. I have found no reference anywhere to what it may have been. Google searches have left me frustrated (well, not that frustrated). If the CHFB can't help me... well, I guess it'll just have to stay a mystery.
So here's what I remember: I do not know if this film was made in the 1970s, but that was when I saw it. To narrow it down, I saw this before my family moved to Texas in 1977. I was born in 1970, so that would put it's airing probably sometime between 1974-1976. I lived in New Jersey at the time, so it's a good bet this was shown on WPIX in New York, probably on a Saturday afternoon. Looking back on it, the style reminds me of the aesthetic of Eastern-European or Soviet animation that I've also seen in films such as The Snow Queen, including a good portion of dialogue being spoken off-screen.
It involved space travel. There were a small group of characters, one resembled the captain of a nautical vessel, another was a talking teddy bear. Yeah, so obviously this seemed aimed at kids... but not so fast. This thing seemed designed to MESS KIDS UP! This would never get released today, the angry letters of parents complaining about their children's nightmares would bury anyone who attempted it. What I am referring to? I have three main memories of the film -
1. The travelers are staring outside a space portal, and I seem to remember them watching constellations coming to life. My memory of this scene is more hazy than others. OK, not so bad.
2. The travelers have either arrived on another spaceship or on some planet. They are in a setting which seems to be some type of factory. Lots of conveyor belts are going by, situated on which are these weird sculptures (?) that look like... bears sitting down... or something (?). We start off hearing the 'rock-a-bye-baby' nursery rhyme. Suddenly, the music turns menacing. The expressions of these things becomes more threatening, and more frightening. The nursery rhyme continues... but in a grotesque, Marilyn-Manson type of scary cadence. Things get worse... until suddenly... there's some type of crash, or something. This scene made quite an unpleasant impact on my 4 - 6 year-old self.
3. The travelers hace arrived on some planet. They, along with the planet's residents, are attacked by what looks like large floating jellyfish. Very nasty. All seems lost until giant yellow rays fire out of the eyeballs of a huge statue of an eagle (or some other bird-of-prey), which evaporate the jellyfish. Looking back it, this part was kinda cool.
So there you go. That's all I know about it. Somebody please show or tell me something to convince me it wasn't a feverish infantile daydream of my youth...
I only saw this thing once, but the memories of it have stayed with me for about 35 years, and I have no idea and absolutely no clue what it was. I have found no reference anywhere to what it may have been. Google searches have left me frustrated (well, not that frustrated). If the CHFB can't help me... well, I guess it'll just have to stay a mystery.
So here's what I remember: I do not know if this film was made in the 1970s, but that was when I saw it. To narrow it down, I saw this before my family moved to Texas in 1977. I was born in 1970, so that would put it's airing probably sometime between 1974-1976. I lived in New Jersey at the time, so it's a good bet this was shown on WPIX in New York, probably on a Saturday afternoon. Looking back on it, the style reminds me of the aesthetic of Eastern-European or Soviet animation that I've also seen in films such as The Snow Queen, including a good portion of dialogue being spoken off-screen.
It involved space travel. There were a small group of characters, one resembled the captain of a nautical vessel, another was a talking teddy bear. Yeah, so obviously this seemed aimed at kids... but not so fast. This thing seemed designed to MESS KIDS UP! This would never get released today, the angry letters of parents complaining about their children's nightmares would bury anyone who attempted it. What I am referring to? I have three main memories of the film -
1. The travelers are staring outside a space portal, and I seem to remember them watching constellations coming to life. My memory of this scene is more hazy than others. OK, not so bad.
2. The travelers have either arrived on another spaceship or on some planet. They are in a setting which seems to be some type of factory. Lots of conveyor belts are going by, situated on which are these weird sculptures (?) that look like... bears sitting down... or something (?). We start off hearing the 'rock-a-bye-baby' nursery rhyme. Suddenly, the music turns menacing. The expressions of these things becomes more threatening, and more frightening. The nursery rhyme continues... but in a grotesque, Marilyn-Manson type of scary cadence. Things get worse... until suddenly... there's some type of crash, or something. This scene made quite an unpleasant impact on my 4 - 6 year-old self.
3. The travelers hace arrived on some planet. They, along with the planet's residents, are attacked by what looks like large floating jellyfish. Very nasty. All seems lost until giant yellow rays fire out of the eyeballs of a huge statue of an eagle (or some other bird-of-prey), which evaporate the jellyfish. Looking back it, this part was kinda cool.
So there you go. That's all I know about it. Somebody please show or tell me something to convince me it wasn't a feverish infantile daydream of my youth...
