Brooklyn’s Animation Block Party will be presenting a 40th year anniversary screening of Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure with a brand new 35mm restored print via Steve Stanchfeld, who will participate in a post-screening Q&A moderated by Jerry Beck. This event is scheduled for 4:30pm on Saturday July 29th at BAMcinématek in Brooklyn.

Twenty years before Toy Story, and a decade before Roger Rabbit, Williams corralled some of the greatest animators alive – including Grim Natwick, Emery Hawkins, Art Babbit, Irv Spence, Corny Cole, Tissa David, Michael Sporn, Eric Goldberg, Hal Ambro, and Williams himself – to name but a few – to create this toys-come-to-life/vaudeville-musical/adventure. Long out of release, over looked and under-appreciated, not on DVD or blu-ray, a rare film print will be screened on the big screen at BAM. In addition to Beck & Stanchfield, the post screening panel will include members of the film’s production team, animators and perhaps a voice actor or two (panelists will be announced in advance closer to the screening date).

Based on the classic children’s books by Johnny Gruelle, Williams animated feature was a bright oasis in animation’s dark decade – long before the mediums renaissance in the 1990s. Joe Raposo’s musical score alone is considered a classic. Arnold Stang, George S. Irving, Joe Silver, Allen Swift, Alan Sues and Paul Dooley are among the veteran voice cast. Didi Conn and Mark Baker were respectively Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy.

Filmmakers: The standard deadline to submit films to Animation Block Party 2017 is this Friday, May 19th, but (shhhh!) they are open for entries until June 5th. Cleck HERE for more details.