These are some ruminations about the Peter, Paul & Mary song “Puff the Magic Dragon,” which I’ve been listening to for the last couple of days (it’s on one of my compilation CDs).
When you were a kid, did you think Jackie Paper was a little creep for abandoning Puff the way he did, too?
I just realized today (today!) that Puff, in the song, is actually a toy that the boy owns. “Painted wings and giant strings make way for other toys…”
(Possible spoiler for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe…scroll down if you’ve already seen or read it…)
Was there ever any more of a downer than the halfway point of most of the Puff animated specials? The only thing more abjectly depressing in animation that I can think of was the sacrifice scene from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Had me crying and heartsick for days, even after Aslan was resurrected.
Yeah, the whole shaving bit with Aslan was just WRONG. And then the cute little mice coming to gnaw away the ropes after the deed was done. That was so sad. I think I will re-read that series when I’m done re-reading Tolkien. Thanks!
Oh, and about Puff. Those animated specials never really hit it off with me. The first one was ok, but after that it was just crummy.
I miss the Pippi Longstocking movies. Now those were great. Reading this thread just made me think of them. Aw man, those were the days…
“Puff the Magic Dragon” was my favorite book, song, and movie when I was a little girl. Yes, the “movie” was only 30 minutes. When I was three, that was a movie.
Every time Jackie abandoned Puff, I thought he was a horrible little kid. I would sob and cry for what seemed like forever. My parents could barely stand to watch the thing with me because I became so despondant from watching it. Then when Jackie came back, I would cry even harder because I was so happy. I’m surprised my parents didn’t put me into therapy because I would get so overly emotional over a cartoon.
(Not that you asked, but I was easily upset by lots of stuff like that. I used to cry over Humpty Dumpty, too. The mere thought of being so broken that you couldn’t be put back together…terrifying! And when my dad took me to see “The Fox and the Hound” when I was six, he had to carry me out when the movie ended because I was so distraught over the damn thing.)
Oh, my! I was 10 when The Fox and the Hound came out. And I cried like a six-year-old when they had to go their separate ways. I probably still would. I’m really bad with crying at sappy sad moments in movies.
The song “Puff” still makes me want to cry. I’ve managed to overcome the urge and not actually do so (in public anyway).
Not much to say about Puff, but I am reading the Chronicles of Narnia to my kids right now.
My original copy is in my attic so I went out and bought a new set for the kids.
They are all out of order!
1: The Magician’s nephew, 2: The Lion the witch and the wardrobe, 3: the horse and his boy, 4: Prince Caspian, 5: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6: The Silver Chair, 7: The Last Battle.
Should be…1: The Lion The Witch and The wardrobe, 2: Prince Caspian, 3: Voyage of the Dawn Treader 4: The Silver Chair, 5: The Horse and His Boy, 6: The Magician’s Nephew, 7: The Last Battle.
Rearranging them they way they did makes the youth of today look stupid.
Let’s see, let’s put the book that explains it all first, so there is no suspense at all, and then we’ll just fit the rest of them in somewhere along the way. Children today are to slow to figure it out on their own so we will fix that for them.
Sorry for the hijack, that just really pissed me off, and I ranted around the house about it for a few days. I am reading them to my kids in the way they were put out originally.
A couple of years ago, when my niece was 7, I took her to some movie–can’t remember which one–but towards the end there was a sad bit, didn’t know if one of the characters was dead, etc. I could hear some of the kids gettting a little upset, so I checked with Mandy to see if she was okay, if she thought the character was really dead. “Oh,” said she, in her great wisdom, “it will be okay, he’s not dead, it’s Disney.”
Poor kid, at 7, she’d already discovered the plot of every film she’ll ever see, until she discovers foreign films, at least. I introduced her to the original Grimm Fairy tales–she likes them a lot better than the Disney ones. Return the subject of OP
I must be too old for the Puff movies, but I somehow got the impression the Jackie Paper died, and that’s why he left Puff. Can’t remember how I reconciled his coming back with his death. Then, of course, as a teen, I was told it was a drug song, and Jackie was an addict who saw Puff when he was high. Then he got clean, thus leaving Puff, but, like Robert Downy Jr., Jackie couldn’t stay straight, so it was back to Puff for him. I think this interpretation was supposed to teach us that once we started using drugs, we could never stop.
I still just like the song. Sometimes a song is just a song.