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1970 Rankin/Bass animated television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Reluctant Dragon & Mr. Toad Show is a 1970 American animated television series that aired on ABC's Saturday morning schedule. The show features two characters created by British children's writer Kenneth Grahame: the Reluctant Dragon from the 1898 short story of the same name, and Mr. Toad from the 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows. The show was created by Rankin/Bass Productions in New York City, who produced 17 episodes.[1] The show was a flop and canceled midway through its first season, airing from September 12 until December 26, 1970. ABC aired reruns of the show on Sunday mornings during the 1971–72 season.[2] Copies of all 17 episodes were deposited at the Library of Congress,[3] but only 10 episodes from other sources have been made publicly available as of 2024.
| The Reluctant Dragon & Mr. Toad Show | |
|---|---|
| |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Based on | Characters by Kenneth Grahame |
| Written by | Romeo Muller William J. Keenan |
| Directed by | Arthur Rankin Jr. Jules Bass |
| Voices of | Paul Soles Donna Miller Claude Rae Carl Banas |
| Composers | Maury Laws Jules Bass |
| Country of origin | United States (Production) Canada (voice actors) Japan (animation) |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 17 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Arthur Rankin Jr. Jules Bass |
| Cinematography | Steve Nakagawa |
| Editor | Irwin Goldress |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Rankin/Bass Productions Animation: Mushi Production |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 12 – December 26, 1970 |
The half-hour comedy program included three shorts on each episode: the Reluctant Dragon took the first and third slots, with a Mr. Toad cartoon in the middle.[4] Written by Romeo Muller and William J. Keenan, the series uses a team of Canadian voice actors with Bernard Cowan as the recording supervisor. Tobias, the Reluctant Dragon, was voiced by Paul Soles, Mr. Toad was voiced by Claude Rae; other voices were done by Carl Banas and Donna Miller.[5] The series' character designs were done by Paul Coker, Jr., and the animation supervision by Steve Nakagawa at Mushi Production in Tokyo.
Tobias is a gentle, dreamy dragon and Merlin the wizard placed a curse on him so that whenever he sees a daisy, he breathes fire. [6] He is a kind-hearted soul who doesn't want to hurt the populace of Willowmarch Village, and is ashamed whenever he erupts in flame. He's regularly troubled by Daisy, a little blonde girl who wants to give him a bouquet of daisies, which make him breathe fire. Tobias is aided by a knight, Sir Malcolm St. George, who tries to protect both the village and the dragon.[4] Willowmarch is ruled by King Herman, who hosts a variety show.[7]
Mr. Toad is a carefree gadabout playboy who likes driving fast cars and wearing expensive clothes. He's the wealthy owner of Toad Hall, and an object of ridicule among his friends — the timid Mole, intellectual Badger and outgoing Water Rat. Unlike Tobias, who lives in medieval Willowmarch, Mr. Toad lives in 19th century Scotland, but in the episode "Toad's Time Machine", Mr. Toad and friends travel back in time to medieval Willowmarch, and end up meeting Tobias, Daisy, and King Herman.[4]
In 1986, Rankin/Bass produced a more faithful TV-movie adaptation of The Wind in the Willows.[5]
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