Raggedy Ann & Andy (1977) TV spot

I found this original TV spot for Richard Williams’ Raggedy Ann & Andy (1977) in my collection, and thought it was a hoot. Note the “rolling eyes” reaction of the adult at the 32-second mark. With all the great respect Williams showed for – and credited to – his master animators, it saddened me back then that this film was simply marketed by distributor 20th Century-Fox as a typical kiddy film; pure Saturday matinee fodder. Obviously is was a children’s film – but it was also a rare challenge to Disney’s cartoon dominance (The Rescuers was released two months later) in a what was debatably the worst decade ever for animated features (Bakshi’s work excepted).

To commemorate Friday’s release of Fox’s Horton Hears A Who!, I thought this comparison in how an animated film was sold back then, versus today’s massive marketing campaigns, was worth noting.