MARCO POLO JR, the first animated feature to come out of Australia, is an entertaining, if somewhat dated artifact from the kiddie matinées of the early 70's. The animation, while not up to Disney standards, does have a few visually inspiring moments, and there are a couple of memorable pop songs worthy of a re-release.

The basic plot: a young, impressionable hero Marco Polo Jr. (voiced by Bobby Rydell),14th heir to the original Polo, must bring his half of an ancient medallion to be rejoined in the mythical kingdom of Xanadu. This must be done in order to overcome the nasty, if overly comic ruler Red Dragon, saving the fair maiden Princess Shining Moon from a forced marriage. Journeying with his pet seagull and a wise Indian guru, he does battle with a band of bumbling sailors, two even more bumbling spies, a hypochondriac dragon, and finally, the Red Dragon himself.

As with Hanna Barbera's CHARLOTTE'S WEB, this movie seems more suitable as a Saturday Morning movie of the week. Unfortunately, the movie has too much going against it to make this a verifiable classic. Bobby Rydell's voice is way too bland for an even blander adolescent protagonist. Princess Moon is a prefeminist wuss and the characterization of the spy duo verges on being racist. Some comic energy comes out of the Red Dragon, who looks and sounds almost like an oriental version of Dishonest John from BEANY & CECIL, but for the most part, every character is either standard adventure archetype or one-dimensional stereotypes. Moreover, the animation is spotty, suffering from too many uneven drawings and flat textures.

All the same, there is an energy to this feature that makes it watchable. In spite of the animation's overall flatness, there are a few visually inspiring moments, such as Polo Jr. caught in the raging sea or his musical dance number with Princess Moon. And there is an excellent score to the movie, as Rydell belts out a few numbers doing his Las Vegas best. And I do feel a certain nostalgia in watching this film, as its 70's ambiance transfers me back to earlier, happier Saturday matinée afternoons, watching the likes of THE GHOST & MR. CHICKEN and RACE FOR YOUR LIFE, CHARLIE BROWN. If a film can do that, it's worth the extra viewing.

Visually interesting and quite funny in all the required scenes, this lovely animated film was created and released in Australia by the Sydney based Eric Porter Studios. His office made TV commercials and seemed to be a successful local animation studio of the 60s specialising also in film credits etc. This was their big cinema release for the 70s... and this epic cartoon had one of the first really wide print releases in the school holidays on about 25 screens in Sydney alone....an unusual event for the time. If you have seen the MGM fantasy style used in INVITATION TO THE DANCE (1956) with the Sinbad sequence, you can get a fairly accurate vision of the lush picture book style of Porter. Some fantasy scenes with the Princess of the piece in MARCO POLO are extremely well created and reflect a few lessons learned from Disney's FANTASIA. Sadly this strong entry into Australia's homegrown animated feature film history is not available on video or DVD. Several years ago I attempted to source the negative from Porter's widow who was thrilled to see renewed interest but alas the elements required to strike new prints were in disarray. The Film Archive in Canberra had the boxes and will eventually get around to a restoration via a deal they have with Kodak to restore 50 films held on site. The future looks good for this lovely animated film, one of the very few..if almost only feature length cartoons ever crated solely by Australians. It has a Gilbert and Sullivan feel about it..in fact there was an animated MIKADO years ago to which this also might owe a nod. It is also quite funny in a PUFNSTUF kind of way. If all those references mashed together sound hideous, let me assure you the end result is not. It's all quite zany and lovely. (Just like Australia)..ha ha. US singer Bobby Rydell is the voice of Marco no doubt detoured from a local nightclub tour to spend a few days in the booth warbling and reacting according to the script. It all worked well.