Jackson 5ive: Michael in WonderlandABC
September 30, 1972
Cartoon
VHS
B+
This aired between reruns of H.R. Pufnstuf and new episodes of The Osmonds cartoon, a couple hours before The Brady Kids. It sounds like a line-up I would've watched, although again, four was a little young for my viewing anything outside of Sesame Street and the like. I might've caught up with this show later in the decade, but I certainly remember watching it (and The Osmonds) as a small child, when it didn't seem particularly remarkable that a pop group would have their own cartoon. This episode is actually from season two and taped off of cable, around 1990, when it was already an ironic period piece.
I don't know if other episodes could match the sheer giddiness of this one, combining as it does lovely J5 songs ("ABC" in the credits, with "Got to Be There" and "Maria" as the musical sequences), typically corny Saturday morning humor, a classic of children's literature, and Yellow Submarine rip-off animation, and, yes, that's a compliment. I don't know if it's that this wasn't made by the usual suspects (Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, etc.) but it doesn't look or sound like the other cartoons I'm examining from the time. There's a touch of Krofft of course but that feels different in animation than in live action. And then how do you explain things like that it's the future owner of Neverland Ranch who's the brother who goes to the magical world, or that he has a pet snake named Rosie? Rosie has eyes of two different colors and seems a lot more useful an animal sidekick than Moptop et al.
If you can watch this episode without being charmed, then you must have no appreciation of early '70s kitsch. Or maybe you wish that the Jacksons had actually provided their own speaking voices. (The songs are definitely theirs.)
