Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon

Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon (also known as Marco Polo Junior or The Red Red Dragon in the United States) is a 1972 Australian animated musical adventure film directed by Eric Porter, written by Sheldon Moldoff, and was the country's first animated feature film.
The two sequence directors were Porter's animation director Cam Ford (who had previously worked on the Beatles' Yellow Submarine) and Peter Gardiner. The film was later re-edited and combined with new sequences to become Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu in 2001.
==Plot==
Young Marco, a descendant of Marco Polo, and his companion Sandy the Seagull set off on a journey to the mythical kingdom of Xanadu, to help Princess Shining Moon defeat the evil magician the Red Dragon.
==Voice Cast==
Character 	1972 	Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu
Marco Polo Junior 	Bobby Rydell 	Nicholas Gonzales
Marco Polo Junior 	Bobby Rydell 	Joe Pizzulo (singing)
The Delicate Dinosaur 	Arnold Stang 	John Matthew
Marco Polo the Explorer 	N/A 	John Matthew
Princess Shining Moon/Princess Ming Yu	Corie Sims 	Elea Bartling
Princess Shining Moon/Princess Ming Yu	Corie Sims 	Terry Wood (singing)
The Red Dragon/Foo-Ling 	Kevin Golsby 	Tony Pope
The Guru/Babu 	Larry Best 	Tony Pope
Sandy/Reginald the Seagull 	Unknown 	Tony Pope
Minion A/Wong Wei 	Lionel G. Wilson	Paul Ainsley
Minoin B/Lo Fat 	Arthur Anderson 	Michael Kostroff
Kubla Khan 	N/A 	Michael Kostroff
The Condor/Malgor the Vulture 	Unknown 	John C. Hyke
Voice of the Flame 	Unknown 	Robert Kramer
Grandpa 	Unknown 	Robert Kramer
Pangu 	Unknown 	Alan Altshuld
===Additional Voices===
*1972: Gordon Hammet, Merril E. Joels, Sam Gray
*Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu: Elea Bartling (Maiden on Pirate Ship), John Matthew (Sailor #2), John C. Hyke (Sailing Ship Captain, Palace Guard #3, Worker), Robert Kramer (Helmsman, Sailor #3, Palace Guard #1, Laughing Man #1, Vendor, Horseman), Alan Altshuld (Mr. Giovanni, Marriage Priest), Tim Bryon Owen (Space Station Captain, First Mate, Kubla Khan's Servant)
==Production==
The film was conceived by Sheldon Moldoff, who made the film as a co-production with Eric Porter in Australia. $60,000 of the budget was provided by the Australian Film Development Corporation. Preliminary story board work was done in the U.S., but most of the film was done in Australia.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p268
Over 70 artists were involved in the film. Sequence directors were Cam Ford and Peter Gardner, and animators were Paul McAdam, Yvonne Pearsall, Dick Dunne, Gairdon Cooke, Richard Jones, Gerry Grabner, Stan Walker, Cynthia Leech, Peter Luschwitz, Kevin Roper and children's illustrator Kilmeny Niland.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130847/combined Background work was by Graham Liney and Yvonne Perrin, sister of Disney's Sleeping Beauty background stylist Eyvind Earle. Production took place from mid 1970 until May 1972.
Only one voice, that of the Red Dragon, was provided by an Australian; actor and comedian Kevin Golsby.
==Release ==
Shortly before the film's release in December 1972, an Australian/American cartoon special about the original Marco Polo screened on Australian television, prompting the film's distributors to make the title longer to avoid confusion. However, commercial results were poor, largely due to insufficient promotion by the U.S. distributors, although it did reasonably well in Australia and Europe. The low returns from the film persuaded Porter to undertake sub-contracted TV series work from America's Hanna-Barbera (The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Super Friends, plus several one-off animated TV specials), but a subsequent financial recession in 1975 finally saw Porter shutting down his animation studio.
Three books were published using art work from the film.
The film's title was changed to The Magic Medallion for its 1976 release on television.
The movie had its widest American exposure over the HBO and Showtime premium cable networks in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and later the film got an extremely hard-to-find VHS from Family Home Entertainment. The movie was later included on BCI Eclipse's Advantage Collection DVD set.
In 2015, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia released a restored print of the movie on DVD to celebrate the centenary of Australian animation.
==Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu==
Many years later, the story was re-edited and extended by scriptwriter (and original co-producer) Sheldon Moldoff, in collaboration with Ron Merk and, with additional footage, certain name changes like the Red Dragon to Foo-Ling, and added subplots, was released as Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu (2002) by Tooniversal Company. Lightyear Video and Warner Home Video handled the VHS/DVD release.https://www.amazon.com/Marco-Polo-Return-Paul-Ainsley/dp/B00018D5HG The resulting version is generally considered to be vastly inferior to the original. Lionsgate Films has made this version of the movie available for video-on-demand.
==References==
==External links==
*
*Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon at Oz Movies
Category:1972 films
Category:1972 animated films
Category:Australian films
Category:English-language films
Category:Australian animated films
Category:1970s Australian animated films