Pufnstuf (1970)

 

PUFNSTUF (1970)

By Ralph Santini - *½

                “Pufnstuf”, based on a commercial children’s television show “HR Pufnstuf” which I never saw and thankfully I have not grown up with, is not just a mediocre film but also a very innocuous one. Never in my life have I experienced with such triviality and boredom, especially with a film that was never part of my childhood memories. The premise of this film, similar to that of the kids show, is a young Englishman, Jimmy (Jack Wild, wasted in this saga after his success of his flamboyant performance as the Artful Dodger in the Oscar® Winning “Oliver”) whom after his expulsion from a school band discovers that he has a talking flute, that’s right a talking flute. This flute is one of the most annoying characters I have seen in such audiovisual experience. A crude special effect with no memorability whatsoever.

The conflict rests with a not-quite-evil witch named Witchiepoo (Billie Hayes, graceless in the horribly-named role) wants that same little flute so she can present it at a convention led by the selfish boss witch (veteran comic legend Martha Raye, who doesn’t seem like having a good time in this stinker). So the witch chases Jimmy and his flute until HR Pufnstuf, the dragon mayor of Living Island, races on the way to the rescue. They go on making many miserable adventures throughout the entire feature film with a bunch of unmemorable songs by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. Who on earth are those guys?

I can’t tell much of the story any longer because, well, this is just a childish exercise in seeing many people dressed in theme-parked costumes with very ugly images. Producers Sid and Marty Krofft should have known better than to bring this hippy-style kids show to the big screen. It doesn’t scream cinema at all containing an incredible waste of talent.