Wee Sing is the Best (Part 1 of 2)

Apologies for no post last week. To be fair, this tackle of Wee Sing was always meant to be a two-parter, so I figured it would be just as fair to lump both together into one mega post so that I could take extra care to write out everything to my liking. But as I think you’ll come to see, that extra time was not well spent. But anyhoo…

As time has gone on, I still return to certain movies from this era of my life, and that’s simply because many of them hold up as genuinely entertaining. The Disney Renaissance movies, for instance. Others are just kind of stuck in my head like a bad song, clinging to my memory like benign tumors. And they whisper to me: TIME FOR THE SHOW TO START, TIME FOR THE SHOOOOW!

I’ll never be free of its gripping siren song.

So yeah, there was this VHS series known as Wee Sing, originally a company that produced sing-along tapes, the kind we all listened to on Sony personal cassette players full of songs like “the farmer and the dell” and “she’ll be coming ‘round the mountain.” But then in 1989, they produced this special called Wee Sing Together, which tied various sing-along songs into a super loose plot about a magical birthday party. The rest is history.

As I explained in the last blog post, we moved to from Walla Walla Washington to a little place called Anaheim California in 2002, and I was about 4. As such, the amazing VHS tape that we constantly rented from the local Blockbusters was left behind, and the new local one didn’t carry it. This movie was Wee Sing Train, one of the few spiritual successors to Wee Sing Together that involved a talking train driven by an anthropomorphic elephant. I know, we were stoked as well. Thus, my dad made it his mission to purchase the Wee Sing series on VHS so that we’d never again need to spend hundreds of dollars constantly renting the same tape over and over again.

I know this is probably super boring background info, but to a 4-year-old, like what else am I going to form memories of? Playing outside? With friends? Ha. Not when 3-2-1 Penguins is on. I have priorities.

The problem with this resolve, however, is that he could not find a copy of Wee Sing Train, nor of King Cole’s Party, Wee Sing in the Marvelous Musical Mansion, Wee Sing Under the Sea, or Wee Singdom. As such, I have no memories of these movies and will not be reviewing them (except for Wee Singdom, you’ll see why). And I’m fine with that because the plots for these ones were pretty weak, or straight up bad. But for a few glorious years, up until the VHS extinction of ’06, we owned 4 titles: Grandpa’s Magical Toys, Wee Sing in Sillyville, The Best Christmas Ever, and Wee Sing in the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

These were the big four. They took the formula that Wee Sing Together created and perfected it, constructing plotlines and integrating the songs into said plots in a way that felt appropriate and organic within the story, as opposed to a scene I remember from Wee Sing Together, where I’m pretty sure a marching band just shows up out of the blue and they’re like “let’s sing a song about marching and instruments!” No sir, these four movies went above and beyond to construct original characters and adventure stories that were essentially musicals. Wee Sing was the Mamma Mia of kiddy songs. But that’s just my adult appreciation of them. I could employ my film class knowledge to rant about the genuine emotional beats that the stories provided and have stuck with me for years. But what’s truly important here for 4-year-old Dan is that these movies were bingeworthy and engaging.

I think what initially captivated me was that every movie, or at least the four episodes I knew to exist, had a similar framing device, being that the fantasy worlds that the kids would stumble into were first presented to us viewers as worlds of make-believe, specifically as toys or a board game or coloring book. This was then followed by them being magically transported into the world where everything then becomes real and life-size. The opening scene of Wee Sing Train does the best at establishing this, showing all of the set pieces that the magical train will later take the kids to over the course of the movie, but as little doll houses or cardboard constructions and the characters they go on to meet as plastic figures or drawings. I was definitely the type of kid to really pour time and creativity into playing with my toys, so this aspect of the movies really rang true for me.

Grandpa’s Magical Toys

This title is one that is kind of an exception to the rule I laid out above, that all the songs are justified within the plot. Truthfully, this movie does have characters named Muffin Man and “Farmer in the Dell” that just kind of show up and sing about themselves. But that just adds to its unabashed eclectic charm, because it goes for the most absurdly hilarious array of sing-along song "celebrities", for lack of a better term. Bingo the dog? Nah. The itsty bitsy spider? Fuck you!  We got the long-legged sailor, that Dutch girl from the jump rope chants. You know that ditty about the Merry-Go-Round? Well, all those animals you ride are sentient, and they can RAP!

But the main protagonist, besides the kids who act as surrogates for the audience, is Punchinello the marionette Clown. I think this dude, and how chill of a guy he clearly is, was why I never developed a fear of clowns like so many other kids. And there’s not much about this entry to deep-dive into and review heavily, as there’s not too much of a plot to speak of, but I really want to point Punchinello out as an example of the kinds of awesomely creative original characters that Wee Sing would come up with. In the movie, we learn that Punchinello has for years been unsuccessfully trying to communicate with Peter, the titular Grandpa’s grandson who once frequented his grandpa’s toy room, failing only because Peter wasn’t young enough at heart to hear him, until he brings his friends over years later to show them his nostalgic stomping grounds, thus inspiring his heart to believe. Which, though it doesn’t really lead anywhere deep or exiting narratively, is a pretty neat backstory that I’ve always adored them for including. Plus, I bring Punchinello up because he shows up again in a future entry.

Wee Sing in Sillyville

Sillyville is always an interesting entry to talk about because it heavily features social commentary on racism. Yeah, it really goes from zero to a million in the Wee Sing franchise. This is the after school special, so to speak. The plot is that two kids are magically transported into a coloring book world called Sillyville, where they learn that the different colors all got into a big argument and aren’t on speaking terms with each other anymore. As such, a character called Sillywhim, who essentially embodies the unity of all colors through her rainbow-colored outfit, is left without color, like an uncolored coloring book picture. Thus, the kids are made invisible (as they are wearing colorful outfits that would offend those who want their colors to be segregated from the rest) and shown around town to the different colors, represented by whimsical fictional races like the blue Twirlypops or the yellow Spurtlegurgles, which happen to be my favorite.

I do really like this plot device, as Sillywhim is kind of the mutual friend and mother-figure to all of the colors so her going around to different set pieces to check in on how they’re feeling emotionally makes perfect sense, and each colors' differing personalities allows for different genres of sing-along songs. For instance, the green Jingleheimers are frog-like little dudes, so they sing a few different songs about water and frogs when Sillywhim goes to meet them.

Furthermore, and this is the part that really demonstrates Wee Sing’s great writing, these songs hint at insecurities that set them apart from the other colors. The blue Twirlypops, for instance, have a weakness for repetitive or potentially endless songs like “Michael Finnegan” and “an Austrian went Yodeling,” and are uncomfortable with the idea of ending a song when it’s so much easier just to loop back around to the beginning again, never moving on, demonstrating their inability to move past the unfriendly comment that sparked the feud. Similarly, the red Bitty Booties only sing songs about how much they love their newborn baby and care for its wellbeing, and then go on to say that they don’t want to interact with the other colors with the excuse that they wish to keep the baby out of the conflict. It truly is brilliant writing.

The one thing that does make me uncomfortable about the whole “colors are races” analogy, is that the red Bitty Booties are portrayed very specifically. You see, every different group does very well to mix it up with actual skin color to avoid blatant implications of racism. The blue Twirlypop trio, for instance, is a white guy, a black guy, and an Asian guy. They make it very deliberate to avoid making the parallel obvious for dumb kids like me who didn’t know that racism is a thing. But the red Bitty Booties are different. They’re all white, and they’re all drawling American southerners on a porch in rocking chairs. Furthermore, it’s literally a family, as in a father/mother with like six kids, as opposed to ambiguous relationships between the other groups of people (I think the green kids are meant to be twin brothers but that’s the only exception). I don’t know why this irks me, like it’s not a negative portrayal of white American southerners by any means, just the fact that it’s such an oddly specific racial stereotype (and it IS a stereotype with the many children and rocking chairs on porches, accurate though it may be) and that it’s being contrasted with whimsical fictional races, like the yellow Spurtlegurgles who are defined by having massive pockets full of props and horn-shaped cones on their head. It’s just such a weird artistic decision to include a very real racial demographic, but maybe that’s the point, to get under our skin just ever so slightly to make us realize that the story being told is very socially relevant, not just in make-believe land, but right next door. Nah, fuck it, LET’S SING.

The plot is resolved when Sillywhim stubs her toe and hurts her ankle, and the colors all come together, and each provides a bit of their colored clothing, be it hair ribbon or scarf, to form an ankle wrap, which magically restores her colorful outfit. It’s not even that they learn some grand lesson that working together is more important than petty arguments. Instead, they just kind of see each other for the first time in a few days and are like “hey I forgot that red and green look neat together.” Like they didn’t even abandon the analogy when it was time to bring out the real-world lesson, they were just like “and remember kids, orange and blue are complimentary. Mix 'em all together, you get brown! See ya next week!”

The ending is genuinely charming, though. Also, I want to point out that the white bearded guy in the blue suit is the same actor as Punchinello the Clown. And that makes me happy.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

This is a wacky drug trip of an entry. It probably does the best at standing alone from the Wee Sing franchise as its own thing because it’s so ambitious in scope from beginning to end that an entire TV show could be derived from the characters and settings we encounter. Not to mention, unlike Grandpa’s Magical Toys, none are characters derived from sing-along songs. They are all fully fleshed-out characters who play off of each other in intricate ways. Like, there’s a pinata lion named Kaiso who’s always down to have fun, a parrot named Profster whose old and stuffy and spouts proverbs, and a bubbly horse named Felicity who always interprets Profster’s ramblings to the gang and kind of mediates the conversations being had. Like, I don’t know if it’s fair to say that these three actors have great chemistry since the performances are all kind of hammy to appeal to toddlers, but the written banter is amazing and they all pull off their performances so well, especially Profster. He steals the show so fucking hard.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The premise of this movie is that this girl and her two stuffed teddies (portrayed, even outside of the make-believe segments, as life-size people in bear costumes) have made a blanket fort out of the backyard jungle gym.

Like, it’s distracting that there’s no Calvin and Hobbes-esque stuffed toy mode for these ambiguously gendered teddy bears from the adult’s point of view. Like, the mom comes out at one point and is like “Hanging out with your stuffed animals, I see.” And it’s like, you almost get the sense that the mom is subtly saying “I don’t know who these women are that are playing with you and they pretend to be inanimate when I come outside and it worries me.”

So they magically transport to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, at this point it’s standard fare, although in this instance it’s a place the girl goes regularly and hangs out with animals in a land made out of food to have some lunch. I think that’s my favorite segment, like they drop the pretense of trying to provide plot points that necessitate singing, just to provide this great sequence of them like picking dinner rolls off of trees like fruits, dipping cups in a river of fruit punch, followed by them just sitting around and chatting and joking. Like, IS THIS ART? Hello? Hello, McFly? Am I in fucking heaven right now? HELLO? (found at 2:30 in the vid)

But that’s not even the crux of the movie. I mean, to me it is. So much so. But the actual plot is that the meecy mice, you know from the Little Bunny Foo Foo song, are worried about Little Bunny Foo Foo because, as per the song, he’s been turned into a goon after getting three warnings from the Good Fairy to not bop the meecy mice on the head during play-time.

So the girl goes off to find him to set thing straight, leading to my single favorite performance of the entire franchise.

Like, I’m sorry that I’m not even reviewing this movie so much as just showing it to you, but you have to understand. This is art. I’m not being satirical. I am not being hyperbolic. No, Woody, for the first time I AM thinking clearly. You were right all along. I'm not a Space Ranger, I'm just a toy, a stupid little insignificant toy. Wait what? Oh yeah, CONFLICT RESOLUTION, THAT’S WHAT!

Actually speaking of Snoodle Doodle (that’s the collective name of the life-sized stuffed sentient teddies that I get the uncomfortable sense are both siblings and married), they also steal the show whenever they're on screen. Like, while the plot is going on, they just kind of fuck around on their own way over on some unrelated set piece and it’s just so amazing. Their thing is, they love snacking so whenever the girl takes them to this land of candy, they just go off by themselves and engorge themselves on all the food that the world is made out of. They just have this jokey Statler and Waldorf kind of banter with each other, except instead of miserly old men they’re JAMMIN' ON AN ICE CREAM LAKE!

Yadda yadda, Foo Foo apologizes to the meecy mice, they sing Jimmy Crack Corn, the end. But more importantly, THERE'S AN ICE CREAM LAKE. THE PADDLES ARE WOOD SPOONS. I'm so utterly charmed.

My point is, you get the sense that every actor, every writer, every costume and set designer had such an amazing time making this movie that it just shines through. The passion is contagious, like a well-produced community play. And that is why I love Wee Sing, and why it has shone through in my life to this day. That’s why I watch it when I just move and feel uncertain about the future. That’s is why I watch it when it’s raining, when I need to remind myself to laugh and smile. I watched it when I was sad because the girl I asked to prom turned me down. I listen to the songs when I’m frustrated at work. I quote the movie literally whenever I possibly can. Because I love Wee Sing, not just as a series but as a philosophy. What do the three movies teach us? Hope opens up doors, being friendly to others makes for a better world, and taking responsibility for your mistakes and asking for forgiveness is the morally righteous thing to do. Also, have some fucking fun while you’re at it. It's Wee Sing, baby. It's soul food for your ears. HALLELUJAH BREAKDOWN!

Like they just ran out of toy ideas and went for "Crayon." And I love them for it.

P.S. I mentioned earlier that I’d talk about Punchinello and how he shows back up in the Wee Sing franchise. In fact, I’m not sure you’re aware, but the Wee Sing franchise is more of a cinematic universe, and Punchinello is not the only returning character. Sillywhim, Bunny Foo Foo, and Snoodle Doodle all appear in an epic Avengers-style crossover finale called Wee Singdom. I meant to address it in today’s post, but I’m out of time so I will make an additional post later this week to tackle the epic crossover extravaganza. Stay tuned!