The Special Magic of Herself the Elf

OopsiePanty

Posted on December 1st, 2009 ~ 12:21 am

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Does anyone else here remember this cartoon series from the 1980s? It also had a line of doll toys, a few playsets, some tape+book (and record+book sets), a child's growth chart, dishes, etc all sold with its collection of characters on it. The Wikipedia page on this subject is so grossly incomplete that I plan to later this year re-write it because it only include information about 4 of the 9 main characters for example. Well anyways the Pilot was the only episode sold in the States and the series aired in Canada but to my knowledge was never sold. Something about a dispute between the three companies which all co-owned the rights to it *sigh* I have however acquired an origional copy of the Pilot, something I have dreamed of owning my whole life. I do not have words to express my feelings of joy at owning this piece of my childhood. I was lucky enough to obtain a complete (as far as I can tell) film of the Pilot. Given that the film is over half of its life span (if it has been properly stored that whole time and mostly unviewed) it seems to look great. I have only unspun the first few hundred feet to examine it, but I have a friend who knows someone who owns a theatre who is gonna let me play it once on the big screen for myself Well, without delay, here are a few pics:

That pic of the inside of the can is pretty interesting to me. It's pretty true that this series really tried to make the viewers better people...without pushing it too hard on them. It's also from 1983 and it is a cartoon concerned with the destruction of the environment, I guess no-one got the message. I have been dying to show this one to the kids and cannot wait to be able to show it to them.

Oh and note that the two pics of the cels are MUCH less in focus than the film itself which looks perfectly in focus.

Does anyone else have memories of this show or is a fan themselves?

A young girl's greatest fear isn't monsters, or magical threats from beyond time and space.
No, a young girl's greatest fear overshadows all of those things.

Her greatest fear is to be alone.

(Still your little Guardian Shadow, now just with wings!)

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Dru

Posted December 2nd, 2009 ~ 9:16 am

OMG! Thats so cool. That will be fun to watch it on the big screen. I hope its in good condition and everything. This was around before I was born so I can't say I remember it or know of it. I tried looking it up on youtube and looked at the wikipedia and apparently a lot of other people are like me and have not heard of it either Which is definitely a shame going by what you have said about it.

However I did something similar to you (well sorta) I recently discovered that they have Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears on DVD. I love that show so much and has so many childhood memories attached to watching it.

Oh BTW I love your comforter!

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Sissy sarah

Posted December 2nd, 2009 ~ 2:51 pm

Well in Sweden i can say NO haven't seen it But it looks like a keeper dear
and im HAPPY fore you darling

ENJOY my darling

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OopsiePanty

Posted December 2nd, 2009 ~ 7:42 pm

Well with film like this there are several things you can go on. Firstly the smell of it. If it smells like Vinegar, the film is on its way out. If it smells like...ummm a roll of 35mm film freshly removed from the can (it's some kind of plastic smell I can't quite describe with some other chemical oder on it which I think is the preservitive.) This one smells like film.

Nextly the color can be examined. Those deep greens will turn into yellows and reds over time. So the color quality is EXCELLENT.

Then you have to consider the splices, creases and possibly other damage like burn holes or damage to the magnetic audio strip and if it has been stored in darkness or not...oh and a few other factors.

Splices - 1 hard. If I remember the 2nd or 3rd splice of the movie has a hard splice where the film probably broke and they had to cut out 1-3 frames...but even movies you see in the theatres can be missing 1-3 frames between each reel and most people hardly notice. While I have not been able to examine every frame of the movie...I will get my chance when I hand clean it.

Creases - some present, but they are extreemly thin and a defect like this is acceptable for a film of its age. You could frame by frame fix this with info from the pixles surrounding the crease on the left and the right and a professional studio would do just that to fix up old film before transferring to DVD for modern sales.

Burn Holes - One small on the first lead strip (it has 1 pre, and like 3-4 strips before it gets to the movie) One of the strips is handwritten with the title of the movie on it and a little bit of other info about it, the kind of thing which scrolls bottom to top and is virtually unreadable while playing, but you can easly read the wonderful penmenship if look at the film while it is not moving. From what I can tell the movie itself is burn hole free.

This film was stored in darkness, and probably stored whenever it was not being used in a more or less ideal place. Further it is a replacement reel, so it wasn't used nearly as much as a reel would have which was ordered when the movie first came out.

So the film is not perfect, but it is probably as perfect a copy as I will ever be able to obtain.

And as you point out, there is a lack of information about this cartoon on the internet. Hopefully once I have watched this oh a hundred times I will be able to write a MUCH better wikipedia article on it than the one which currently exists. There's more info on the shot from inside the canister than there is on wiki *sigh*

I did watch the Gummie Bears when I was younger, but their jumping or bouncing always disturbed me, that's at least what I remember most about it. I actually know more in my mind about Herself the Elf than I do the Gummie Bears...but I know I did watch it after school with a whole other mess of cartoons.

And thanks for the compliment on that HK comforter. I have a matching pillowcase which it just outside the shot and well sheets I never use for it.

Well in Sweden i can say NO haven't seen it But it looks like a keeper dear
and im HAPPY fore you darling

I don't honestly know if this series left North America. I have to assume it didn't, since the series itself didn't even leave Canada. They didn't even sell the series in Canada even though they aired it, so I do have my hopes out there that someday I will find someone willing to sell or let me borrow some broadcast tapes from the series. Nelvina probably still has the origional film prints and backups of the whole series...So at least they exist out there somewhere.

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wittle_bwittany

Posted December 5th, 2009 ~ 3:51 pm

its just wonderful that you've managed to obtain a peice of your childhood. i know i would give anything to get a copy of the complete sailor moon series. that show pracitcally defined my childhood.

and i cant say that i've heard of the herself the elf. i wasnt born for nearly a decade. though i would love a chance to see it if you can find a video somewhere online.

and i agree with dru, i love your comporter!

i am brittany her royal puffiness!!!

im officially in love with the color pink.

*hugs and kisses for all*

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OopsiePanty

Posted December 5th, 2009 ~ 4:17 pm

You soooo shoulda hit me up for them like 5 years ago when I was giving away my VHS collection to people *doh* I had it all fansubbed too. The only tape I kept was the end of The (I think) 2nd season. "All the Sailors Die in the Tragic Final Battle" was the translation of the tape and it is a 2 parter. And well, who could part with those priceless episodes.

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