Rankin/Bass' Marco

With the discovery of the MARCO Animagic figures over the weekend, I dug out this rare press photo from my archives of Desi Arnaz, Jr. and fiancee Liza Minnelli. Arthur Rankin always told me about them dating on the set, but the press release said on July 15, 1972, they posed on the Kublai Khan palace set after announcing their engagement. I did some research and I think Liza divorced her first husband in 1974. The early 1970s were interesting times to say the least.

Animagic from Rankin/Bass' MARCO being restored!

 This past weekend brought some ANIMAGIC MAGIC!  A few of the Animagic tree eleves from Rankin/Bass' feature film MARCO (1973) reappeared out of the trees of Japan.   Masaki Iizuka and I were recently talking about how much we love the Animagic scene in MARCO called "Peace Berries."  Masaki said, "I think it was the best Animagic we ever did!"

 As you can see from the photographs, they need some serious love and care...the kind that SCREEN-NOVELTIES can give them :)  Actually, these are now the property of SCREEN-NOVELTIES and they will do just that.   Seamus, Robin and Mark did a wonderful job with the restoral of Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and in some ways, they were in worse shape.

 C. 2001 MISER BROS PRESS/RICK GOLDSCHMIDT ARCHIVES

This Tree Elf is from the Romeo Muller estate and features the missing leaf hat that appears to be missing from the boy elf.   Gene Muller took some good reference photos for me back in 2001, that I am digging out for the restoral of these two.

It's sheer ANIMAGIC!  www.screen-novelties.com

RANKIN/BASS' MARCO

Animagic Tree Elf from RANKIN/BASS' MARCO

RANKIN/BASS' MARCO

RANKIN/BASS' MARCO

RANKIN/BASS' MARCO

c. 1973 RANKIN/BASS PRODUCTIONS/RICK GOLDSCHMIDT ARCHIVES

tree elf in ANIMAGIC as he appears today :)

RANKIN/BASS' MARCO (1973)

www.moviesunlimited.com has the RANKIN/BASS feature film MARCO on sale now for $8.99! I believe the DVD is out-of-print, so grab your copy soon! The film is fun to watch for several reasons. One is the wonderful ANIMAGIC sequence for the song "Peace Berries"! Famed RANKIN/BASS screenplay writer ROMEO MULLER appears in the film and also wrote the screenplay and the song lyrics for this one! I also enjoy the Maury Laws music and Arthur Rankin's direction!

RANKIN/BASS' MARCO

Arthur Rankin and Zero Mostel from THE ENCHANTED WORLD OF RANKIN/BASS: A PORTFOLIO (MISER BROS PRESS)

ANIMAGIC

A tree elf from RANKIN/BASS' MARCO. If you don't have MARCO with Desi Arnaz, Jr. on DVD, I would recommend it. It has a really cool ANIMAGIC section in it called "Peace Berries."