The original star of what would become “anime” in America was a monkey. The year was 1961, the film was called Saiyu-ki, and this is how it came to America as Alakazam the Great.
Tezuka’s 1950s manga serialization of Goku the Monkey King
Four hundred years ago, Chinese author Wu Ch’êng-ên wrote the penultimate, hundred-chapter Chinese folk tale Hsi Yu Ki (Record of a Journey to the West). The central figure is a trickster known as Monkey.
The book: Monkey is the king of his kind, but he seeks immortality, which he attains from a mystic sage. Bearing a magic cudgel, Monkey goes on an Earthly rampage, which the Hosts of Heaven stop by giving Monkey a job as the tender of a sacred peach garden. The magic peaches contain godlike powers, and Monkey eats them all.
Monkey declares war on Heaven, challenging the Great Buddha himself to a duel. Monkey loses, earning imprisonment. Freedom comes after Buddha sends the holy priest Tripitaka on a quest to retrieve Buddha’s True Scriptures from India; Monkey is part of a team of reprobates hoping for pardons by protecting Tripitaka on his danger-filled journey to the West. Pigsy, a carouser, and Sandy, who shattered a holy dish, are the other hopefuls. Many fantastic adventures ensue.
Toei Animations came about in 1956. Its third project was an adaptation of “Journey to the West,” written by the future anime great Osamu Tezuka. He was to write the screenplay, assisted by Hideyuki Takahashi and Goro Kontaibo. Tekuza also co-directed with Daisaku Shirakawa and Taiji Yabushita. Tekuza had never directed or written a script and needed help. The film, also known as The Enchanted Monkey, premiered in 1960 to widespread acclaim. Enter American International Pictures with an offer to bring the picture to America. AIP specialized in importing foreign cheapies.
Toei gave AIP good material. The first third of the film is faithful to the original text. Tezuka made some original tweaks, such as providing Monkey with a girlfriend, DeDe, who serves as his conscience. Tezuka compresses some adventures into a battle between our heroes and a bull demon (called King Gruesome in the US version). They triumph, and Monkey returns a hero, marrying DeDe. Thus ends the Japanese version.
(Note: Upon Monkey’s return, DeDe is bedridden and gravely ill, watched over by three concerned monkey doctors. When Monkey appears, she instantly revives. This scene is a direct homage to the 1941 Fleischer two-reel feature, “Raggedy Ann and Andy,” right down to the three doctors. Tezuka was an avid fan of the Fleischer cartoons).
Jonathan Winters and Arnold Stang pose for a publicity image from ALAKAZAM THE GREAT
AIP marketed its dismal imports to teen audiences, so teen idols Frankie Avalon and Dodie Stevens were cast as Alakazam and DeDe. Jonathan Winters voiced Pigsy, and Arnold Stang played Sandy (now called Lulipopo). Sterling Holloway narrated the film. Lee Baxter provided four musical numbers. Since the film told a religious and spiritual story from the Buddhist faith that US kids would not understand, much of the dialogue was altered or cut.
Kresel and Rusoff manhandled Tezuka’s film, changing Heaven to “Majutsoland,” home of magicians. Buddha was now “King Amo,” his sister Kuan-yi became “Queen Amas,” and the priest Tripitika” was now their royal son “Prince Amo.” The journey was mistranslated into a pilgrimage to prepare Prince Amo for the throne. Patriarch Subboti, the sage who first taught Monkey magic, is now called “Merlin the Magician,” which is probably the only master magician Rusoff and Kresel thought US kids would recognize. Heaven’s enforcer, Erh-lang, who tried to stop Monkey’s rampage, was changed to “Hercules” (see above explanation).
More mangling of the original film: When Monkey confronts the Great Buddha, it is now a fight between Monkey and King Amo. There is no hint that the contest was to determine who would rule as God. The extent of Monkey’s blasphemy is now lost on the audience. Sandy, a river-dwelling spirit that consumes human flesh, was depicted as a stereotypical African cannibal because that was easiest for Rusoff and Kresel to adapt.
Wretched dubbing and dialogue run rampant. Alakazam’s challenge to King Amo includes, “You get me, buddy?” Faced with the heavenly enforcer, the monkey taunts: “I’ll call you Jerk-ules!” Merlin retired because “the wizard field is too crowded,” and King Gruesome’s wife whines seductively for a mink coat. Otaku could not have been pleased.
Les Baxter’s four songs are possibly the worst of his storied career, and the editing by Salvatore Billiteri is choppy and obvious. Considering what the film went through in AIP’s hands, it was a thankless job at the start. The film premiered on July 14, 1961.
Much of the animation is solid, expressive, and quite good. Multiplane sequences and reflections in water and on polished floors are present. There is seamless morphing, without the use of CGI, in the battle between Monkey and Hercules, and some highly naturalistic backgrounds are rendered in a watercolor style. A digital restoration would greatly benefit this film.
Saiyu-ki, in its original form, was a good film that suffered from bad luck; it was adapted for American audiences by a distributor of exploitation films during a time when anime’s authenticity counted for little if anything at all.
Here is a seven minute Japanese language theatrical featurette with some behind the scenes footage of Saiyu-ki, with animators, voice actors and artists:
Here is the complete, Cinemascope (wide screen), Japanese version of Saiyu-ki (with English sub-titles):
• This article is a condensation of an piece I originally wrote for TOON Magazine in issue #22, Summer 2000.
Martin Goodman is a veteran writer specializing in stories about animation. He has written for AWN and Animation Scoop – and lives in Anderson, Indiana.
While Frankie Avalon and Dodie Stevens provided the singing voices of Alakazam and Dee Dee, the characters’ speaking voices were dubbed by Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr, who would later collaborate on many other anime voiceovers, notably “Speed Racer”. “Dee Dee”, incidentally, was also the name of the character played by Annette Funicello opposite Frankie Avalon in all of those AIP beach party movies.
Also, the prince’s name in the English dub is “Amat”, not “Amo” like his father. Thus the king, the queen, and the prince are “Amo, Amas, Amat”, which, as every beginning Latin student knows, is the conjugation of the verb “amare”, or “I love, you love, he/she/it loves.” Latin was widely believed to have magical powers when it was the language of the Roman Catholic Mass; in fact, the expression “hocus pocus” is a corruption of “hoc est corpus meum” (This is my body), uttered by the priest at the moment during the eucharist when the miracle of transubstantiation occurs.
I suppose it was inevitable that “Saiyuki” would fail in the United States, given the prevailing American attitudes toward Japan in the postwar era: that its people were inscrutable, and its products cheap and shoddy. Of course a schlock outfit like AIP wouldn’t show the least bit of respect to the source material. But if they hadn’t handled the film’s distribution, would anyone else have?
I remember reading about Alakazam the Great in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and How They Got That Way) by Harry Medved (brother of Micheal) and Randy Dreyfuss (not the brother of Richard). There is, of course, no speculation about whether the original Japanese release could possibly be good, only predictable scorn heaped upon AIP’s infantile butchering of the film. While the book itself, which attempts to trash quite a few films generally considered classics, appears to be very unpopular within the film writing community, I suspect even Medved and Dreyfuss’s harshest critics would mostly agree with their dismissal of Alakazam the Great.
Despite the presence of two of my favorite voice actors of the period (Holloway and Stang), along with Winters who can be great when allowed to be, I’ve never had any interest in seeking out AIP’s version, but I definitely look forward to checking out the original once I can make a bit of time this week. Thanks for the link!
Michael Medved did collaborate with Harry on the “50 Worst Films” book, but opted not to be credited. Both were credited on the “Golden Turkey Awards” books that followed.
The first anime feature I remember seeing was “Little Norse Prince,” I don’t know how faithful it was to its source.
Wow! How did I miss this classic anime? I wonder if it was ever released on physical media. I would love to see the English translation of this whole thing, although I realize that the original Japanese version is the way the artist truly wanted it to come out. Like so many of my generation, my first exposure to Japanese animation was “Astro boy“, and I learned to love it! My interest did not come immediately, possibly because it was so different than American animation that I knew at that time, which included classic theatrical animation. However, I slowly sank into it. I liked the look of animation done by Osamu Tezuka. He was brilliant! His ideas, if so, much of that actually seeped into the American translation, were truly amigos to American animation of the golden age!
However, I slowly sank into it. I liked the look of animation done by Osamu Tezuka. He was brilliant! His ideas, if so, much of that actually seeped into the American translation, were truly homages to American animation of the golden age! I never connected to two until I read articles about his work years later. I just hope he could’ve excused us for the disappointing translations, but I’d like to see both the Japanese version and the English language translation. Certainly would make a great double Blu-ray disc set, no?.
The trailer shows a more elaborate movie than I remember from seeing the movie decades ago. I like the theme song. But what’s MagicScope (as opposed to any other wide screen process)?
AIP was in the habit of doing the same kind of butchering when they brought over eastern bloc science fiction and fantasy films. I guess you could say they had more of an excuse then because they couldn’t show communists as heroes. I suppose they thought a more faithful adaptation would’ve seemed sacrilegious to American audiences. Seems likely people would’ve appreciated it more than what they released. The various dragon ball series drew from the same novel and got to be pretty popular.
I remember I actually got kind of bored trying to read the novel. It seemed like it was basically Monkey starting one fight after another and then winning all the fights.
“Alakazam the Great” used to show up on television when I was very young–around 3, 4, or 5 years old. I was too young to understand it, too young to understand much of anything, but I remember vividly that I was fascinated by it, by its story of the monkey on a quest. I really adored the monkey hero and the girl monkey. My mother tried to explain the story to me but looking back I’m not sure she understood it very well either. However, the image of Alakazam the Great is impressed on my memory and every time I see the character I get a euphoric feeling of nostalgia.
It may not have made a hit, but let’s not write it off completely, as it clearly had its charms for at least one small child.
I have owned the LaserDisc of “Alakazam the Great!” since the days when LaserDiscs were a thing. I first knew of it from seeing the trailer on a movie trailers compilation VHS tape back in the ’90s. Just the line readings on “And me, Sterling Holloway . . .?” and “I will eat you for my lunch! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” were enough for me to seek out the full movie. I was always a collector of “so bad, it’s good” movies, like many of those listed in “The Fifty Worst Films of All Time,” but this one is really so bad, it’s bad.
Thanks for the great writeup. I haven’t seen this yet, but when I do, I think I’ll first watch the English dubbed version, and then the Japanese with English subtitle version. Should be fun to see how nonsensical the story winds up being. And the linked video looks nice enough to appreciate the animation.
I’m guessing AIP also did the anime series Marine Boy, which I enjoy quite a bit, in large part because you can tell they have no idea what the story is, don’t really care what the story is, and are just having a good time ad libbing enough syllables to go with the mouth movements. They also seem to be mocking the source material some, as they don’t understand it, it was the 60s, and it seems a bit funny/weird to sheltered Westerners.
Marine Boy was Seven Arts Television.
The original film was hardly meant as a reverent literary adaptation. There are sight gags and anachronisms right there in the animation, before AIP shoveled one-liners onto the soundtrack. It makes “Magic Boy” look a bit stodgy by comparison. And, in passing, we might note that this comic irreverence eventually became the standard template for American animated features, even such pretentious epics as “Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Road to El Dorado”.
Also, about “King Amo”. The name change doesn’t fool anybody who’s ever seen a Buddha, and it feels odd to have him in a broad comedy sequence, even if he’s presented fairly respectfully. I’m guessing somebody at AIP was nervous about a real-world religious element and ordered a fig leaf.
Bad as the dub may have been (and I haven’t seen it) Wendy Pini names it as a formative influence.