Jack and the Witch (1967) User Reviews (4)

Nobody ever believed me that this title existed...

[mutt12-1 · 10/10 · 20 February 2007]

I remember seeing this cartoon back when I was eight years old back in '85. For some reason, I remembered it being claymation, but I guess I'm just going senile. Anyways, for years I remembered this rather head-trippy, dark, and slightly sadistic, but rather magical cartoon, but most of my friends thought I was crazy. The most memorable thing was the scary ampitheatre full of monsters chanting "Into the machine! Into the machine!" and turning poor little Squeaker into a bat demon thing.

Anyways, for years, since the advent of the internet, I scoured the web for any trace of this wonderful animated adventure, but sadly came up short. I was starting to think I might of imagined it all... until recently, when I met a friend who saw the same thing and actually remembered the title. So now I googled the title and all the memories came back to me.

It's a pity I can't find an English region-1 DVD or VHS of it. I'd of loved to see it again. ;_;

A Childhood fantasy

[Sargonarhes · 9/10 · 5 March 2005]

The English title is known as Jack and the Witch.

I remember seeing this many years ago as a child, so my recollection of it is not up to date. What I do remember was a very captivating story. The basic story is a young Witch lures a boy into a trap so that an older witch may turn him into a harpy, to add to her number of children and animals turned into harpies. Jack escapes this and a few other close calls and ends up rescuing the young witch who was sent to the ice caves for her failures. Together they go to defeat the Witch.

The animation is very dated, considering it was made in 1967 this is understandable. Back then Japanese animation wasn't quite the fare we know it as today but I imagine this was quality work at the time. It was enough to keep me watching it to the end. It is available on DVD only in Japan. And a while ago there was talk of an English release in the USA but it fell through. So finding it today is next to impossible, although you might be able to dig up a bootleg if you know where to look.

A classic that seems to have disappeared

[diamondmike64 · 10/10 · 19 October 2005]

Yes it has always been one of my favorites, the adventures of Jack, Barnaby Bear, Sqeaker Mouse, Phineas Fox and Dinah Dog. I grabbed the Japanese version, and from a few sources put together the English Audio track into a new DVD. Kids are mesmerized same as I was. I still love it even as an adult. Defiantly one of the great classics, all the computer animation is pretty cool but nothing beats old stuff like this! Funny how this one seems to have disappeared, but come to think of it so have others I remember as a child! "Into the machine" a boy living in a cool house in the forest with his animal friends going on great adventures certainly made an impact on me from a young age and seems to always have been in the back of my mind. I remember always looking for it around holiday time a few time and then it was gone. Even with all the high tech tunes of today kids still love this little show!!

A Great Fantasy

[Sargebri · 29 July 2006]

This is a great little fantasy that I first saw in the mid-1970's. I first saw this on a local station out here and I was captivated by the story. Some of the elements of the film somewhat reminded me of "Scooby Doo", but this film pretty much stands on its own. It is too bad that this film isn't shown on television anymore or that it has never been released on DVD in this country. To me this would not only be popular among people of all ages, but it would be a great way to introduce children to anime due to the fact that it is more of a family story and it isn't as serious as many of the latter day films of the genre. This is definitely a lost classic.