| Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Eric Porter |
| Written by | Sheldon Moldoff |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | British Empire Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 82 minutes[1] |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$650,000[2] |
Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon (also known as Marco Polo Junior or The Red Red Dragon in the United States[3]) is a 1972 Australian animated musical adventure film directed by Eric Porter, written by Sheldon Moldoff, and was the country's first animated feature film.[4][5]
The two sequence directors were Porter's animation director Cam Ford (who had previously worked on the Beatles' Yellow Submarine) and Peter Gardiner. The film was later re-edited and combined with new sequences to become Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu in 2001.[6]
Young Marco, a descendant of Marco Polo, and his companion Sandy the Seagull set off on a journey to the mythical kingdom of Xanadu, to help Princess Shining Moon defeat the evil magician the Red Dragon.
| Character | 1972 Version | Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu Version |
|---|---|---|
| Marco Polo Junior | Bobby Rydell | Nicholas Gonzales |
| Joe Pizzulo (singing) | ||
| The Delicate Dinosaur | Arnold Stang | John Matthew |
| Princess Shining Moon/Princess Ming Yu | Corie Sims | Elea Bartling Terry Wood (singing) |
| Red Dragon/Foo-Ling | Kevin Golsby | Tony Pope |
| The Guru/Babu | Larry Best | |
| Minion A/Wong Wei | Lionel G. Wilson | Paul Ainsley |
| Minion B/Lo Fat | Arthur Anderson | Michael Kostroff |
The film was conceived by Sheldon Moldoff, who made the film as a co-production with Eric Porter in Australia. $60,000 of the budget was provided by the Australian Film Development Corporation. Preliminary story board work was done in the U.S., but most of the film was done in Australia.[2]
Over 70 artists were involved in the film. Sequence directors were Cam Ford and Peter Gardner, and animators were Paul McAdam, Yvonne Pearsall, Dick Dunne, Gairdon Cooke, Richard Jones, Gerry Grabner, Stan Walker, Cynthia Leech, Peter Luschwitz, Kevin Roper and children's illustrator Kilmeny Niland.[7] Background work was by Graham Liney and Yvonne Perrin, sister of Disney's Sleeping Beauty background stylist Eyvind Earle. Production took place from mid 1970 until May 1972.[2]
Only one voice, that of the Red Dragon, was provided by an Australian; actor and comedian Kevin Golsby.[8]
Shortly before the film's release in December 1972, an Australian/American cartoon special about the original Marco Polo screened on Australian television, prompting the film's distributors to make the title longer to avoid confusion. However, commercial results were poor, largely due to insufficient promotion by the U.S. distributors, although it did reasonably well in Australia and Europe. The low returns from the film persuaded Porter to undertake sub-contracted TV series work from America's Hanna-Barbera (The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Super Friends, plus several one-off animated TV specials), but a subsequent financial recession in 1975 finally saw Porter shutting down his animation studio.[2]
Three books were published using art work from the film.
The film's title was changed to The Magic Medallion for its 1976 release on television.
The movie had its widest American exposure over the HBO and Showtime premium cable networks in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and later the film got an extremely hard-to-find VHS from Family Home Entertainment. The movie was later included on BCI Eclipse's Advantage Collection DVD set.
In 2015, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia released a restored print of the movie on DVD to celebrate the centenary of Australian animation.[9]
Many years later, the story was re-edited and extended by scriptwriter (and original co-producer) Sheldon Moldoff, in collaboration with Ron Merk and, with additional footage, certain name changes like the Red Dragon to Foo-Ling, and added subplots, was released as Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu (2002) by Tooniversal Company.[6] Lightyear Video and Warner Home Video handled the VHS/DVD release.[10] The resulting version is generally considered to be vastly inferior to the original. Lionsgate Films has made this version of the movie available for video-on-demand.
