Name: Don Quixote of La Mancha
Genre: Animation
Released: 1987-01-01
Duration: 55 min
Rating: 5.7
Cast: Robert Helpmann, Chris Haywood, Phillip Hinton

Ties with The Odyssey as Burbank Film Australia's worst

Now it is not as if I criticise everything to do with Burbank Films Australia. Most of their resume have been solid and some of them like Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan and Hunchback of Notre Dame have been great. So it is not as if I'm biased. Burbank Films Australia have also been responsible for some disappointments, The Odyssey for some time has been my number 1 contender for their worst and I didn't think much of Prisoner of Zenda, The Three Musketeers or Through the Looking Glass either. Don Quixote is for me down there with The Odyssey as the worst Burbank have done, not even the talented Robert Helpmann could save it and considering his calibre you'd think he would. Now I try not to be one to dismiss something based on fidelity to their source, but those who do say that Burbank's Don Quixote is a disrespect to Cervantes' story are right. Having read this complicated but thrilling and sometimes moving story, Don Quixote(1987) is not just unfaithful in detail with omissions of characters(Quixana), additional characters, clichéd plot additions and changes in events and who encounters them(Sancho instead of Quixote thrown by the windmill), but also in spirit, you know you're in trouble when the story doesn't know what direction in terms of tone it wants to go. But that was only part of the problem, and probably the least of the many ones to come. The story itself here feels far too rushed and the adventurous elements just fail to rouse in any way. I also think Don Quixote is one of those stories that can't be told in just 55 or so minutes, the story is too complicated for that. On its own terms, Don Quixote(1987) also fails. The animation is very cheap-looking, I have no problem with the sketchy style, it is an adopted characteristic of Burbank, but there is a difference between it between elegant(Hunchback of Notre Dame) or rough(here). The colours are also flat and the characters look stiff in facial expressions and movements. The music didn't strike me as memorable either, this element has been more inspired in other Burbank animations, while the script is lacking in any wit or intelligence and the characters are nowhere near as interesting, if anything especially the brothers they are rather annoying. The voice acting can do nothing to make the script or characters remotely any more than they turn out to be, either over-compensating or coming across as bored. Overall, just didn't work for me. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Animation is a form of visual storytelling that involves creating visual art and motion through the use of various techniques and technologies. In animation, images are manipulated to create the illusion of movement, bringing characters, objects, and environments to life. Animation can encompass a wide range of styles, themes, and intended audiences, making it a diverse and versatile form of storytelling.

Daveigh Chase, Rumi Hiiragi, and Mari Natsuki in Spirited Away (2001)

Don Quixote is a middle-aged gentleman from the region of La Mancha in central Spain. Obsessed with the chivalrous ideals touted in books he has read, he decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked.

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Sophia Loren, Peter O'Toole, and James Coco in Man of La Mancha (1972)

Feodor Chaliapin Sr. in Don Quixote (1933)

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Don Quixote in the Tales of La Mancha (1980)

Don Quixote of La Mancha

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