AWESOMELY RADICAL ANIMATION OF 'PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE'

Year of Arrival: 1965 Pinocchio in Outer Space Scores: ****

Take away a dingy song during the first half-hour dealing with our main character at home, who's a puppet again after a naughty montage of ditching school, bullying a dog and getting bad grades, and you have relatively frightening scenes that are, or seem, surprisingly aimed at adult audiences: including a shadow appearing over our famously phony boy's head, and chasing him around a field with a fitfully suspenseful, formidable score...

Turns out to be a spaceship manned by a friendly turtle-creature (voiced by Arnold Stang in the expository Jiminy Cricket mantle) who takes Pinicchio up to outer space to seek a flying, planet-destroying whale. They land on Mars and are attacked by mysteriously derived giant sand crabs that resemble cartoon versions of something Ray Harryhausen would devise. Followed by the best scenes where the duo investigate the Red Planet's desolate domed city, holding many secrets and more aggressive foes. And then, back in outer space: the discovery of, capture from, battle with, and eventual taming of Orbit the Whale is quite intense. All making for a bizarre cartoon experience definitely worth the watch. Again and again and again some more.

Landing Bay in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Giant Crab in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Wonderfully Cool Waterfall in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Skinny necked Dinosaur Creature in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Baby Whale farm in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Flying throughout the barren Martian landscape in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Earlier on down to earth with troublesome foxes in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Cool Matte Looking animation in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Teaching kids to not vote for Goldwater in PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE

Astro the Rocket-killing Whale from PINOCCHIO IN OUTER SPACE