There are only three stories in this category and six-seven in the remaining ones so I don’t have to split this post into two parts.
The Musicians of Bremen
This is a retelling of the classical story in modern times. A countryside has turned into an amusement park so a donkey goes searching for a better life elsewhere. The donkey plays bass:
The founder of The Bremen Four
In his journeys, donkey meets another members of the band: a dog, a rooster and a cat.
Not quite medieval scenery, eh?
And later they find a house full of wanted criminals.
Guess how I know they’re wanted robbers?
But as expected, the animals are clever enough to deal with the criminals and then they can pursue their dream and get the happy ending they deserve!
Hmm, jazz or disco? Watch yourself to find that out.
This cartoon features a lot of music and singing too as one would expect from such title.
And there’s another thing worth noting: this Dingo Pictures presentation is narrated by a human:
The NarratorThis is only one of two Dingo Pictures works I know that used live acting (the other one is The Sword of Camelot but I’ll talk about it probably in the last or penultimate post of the series).
Puss In Boots
The classical tale by Charles Perrault. And to acknowledge that the main hero is played by cat named Charlie in the main Dingo Pictures cast.
There’s a scene where his “owner” orders a pair of boots to be made for his cat too.
You should know the story well: it’s about a miller’s son who has inherited only a cat and how that cat provided him with the standard “happily ever after” set (a princess, own castle and such).
This adaptation is quite faithful to the original, it even has quite French atmosphere:
Royal palace
Le RoiAnd the king speaks with a French accent and slips French words time from time. And if you say his accent is false—there was even a French guy working on this cartoon.
The only difference is that ogre’s castle is not so menacing here:
It makes me think of Bavaria for some reason.
And the ogre was replaced with an evil wizard (on the other hand, in the original ogre knew some magic too):
But otherwise it’s the same story with the same happy ending.
I bet you didn’t expect this bit though.
Also it’s worth noting that there was a 3D version of the same story made later by French and it looks surrealistic, ugly and baffling. Even the voice of William Shattner in the English dub does not save it. So I’d recommend watching German version instead.
Aladin
This is the longest cartoon from Dingo Pictures (or Media Concept as it was known back then), no other cartoon of theirs has a runtime of one hour. It was quite ambitious for its time (1993), full of music and such.
Dancing animals…
…scenes of judging the disputes of the commons…
… CGI …
…and even visual effects!
Again, the story is quite faithful to the original (which is not a part of the original Arabian 1001 Nights by the way) with some details altered for better enjoyment of course, unlike the butchered Disney version (honestly, Robin Williams is the only good thing in that version plus some songs and princess design).
It starts with a sorcerer searching for an appropriate boy to retrieve the magic lamp:
The speciist parrot cries that they all look the same though.
Then, with money and lies, he gets to know Aladdin and his mother and sends the boy to retrieve the lamp. Obviously he fails to achieve his goal and leaves Aladdin to rot in the cave.
Luckily for the protagonist, he had a ring with a lesser genie that could bring him out of the cave (exactly like in the original):
Genie of the ring
And later Aladdin discovers that the lamp that old sorcerer wanted hosts an even more powerful genie:
After that it’s the usual love story: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy finally gets a chance to marry the girl. But unfortunately the sorcerer hears about it and steals the lamp, the castle and the princess (well, at least Mario can envy Aladdin). But our hero has a ring and its genie gives a flying carpet which can bring him to the castle:
The carpet ride is actually accompanied not just by a special theme but by a special song praising the advantages of flying with carpet (including the words “100% ecological” even though nobody back then cared about carbon footprint). And I’d rather fly on a flying carpet too then go to the Frankfurt airport at inconvenient time, pass security control, fly in a plane in economy class near small children… Ahem, back to the story.
So the hero gets to the castle, convinces princess to put sleeping powder into the wine, she drugs the sorcerer and the lamp is retrieved.
Have a nice defeatOverall, it was an interesting cartoon with unexpectedly good music (the main theme sounds like Eastern version of that song by Boney M that would fit better in Anastasia but it still sets the proper atmosphere and it’s nice and hard to forget; oh, and the carpet ride sequence, the carpet ride sequence! you need to see it to believe it) and faithful telling of the story. Approved!
Your reaction when somebody talks bad about Dingo Pictures