Pufnstuf the Movie
After the "H.R. Pufnstuf" series wrapped, a feature film followed which was both something of a prequel to the series and a new story. This time around, they actually showed Jimmy leaving the real world and arriving on Living Island. Witchiepoo's plan is to steal Freddy Flute to impress her fellow witches and snag the award for Witch of the Year... but Mayor Pufnstuf and company are determined to foil her plans.
The million dollar production was funded by Universal and Kellogg's cereal, a sponsor of the show who offered numerous cereal premium tie-ins (which are now highly sought after). From the few accounts that I've seen about the film (there's not much documentation of it), the movie was rushed into production very quickly, and the set was extremely tense compared to the show. The bulk of the cast returned but, for reasons that I'm unclear on, Allan Melvin (best known as Sam the butcher on "The Brady Bunch") replaced Lennie Weinrib as the voice of Mayor Pufnstuf.
Sid enlisted his neighbor, Cass Elliot, to take a supporting role as Witchiepoo's frienemy Witch Hazel -- a part which wound up being the renowned singer's only big-screen role. Elliot stole every scene and sang the beloved anthem "Different" (which bears an uncanny resemblance to her hit "Make Your Own Kind of Music").
In addition to Mama Cass, Hollywood legend Martha Raye and regular Krofft live show player Billy Barty co-starred in the PUFNSTUF movie. An outspoken supporter of the troops (which was uncool during the Vietnam war), Raye was ostracized by Hollywood, so the Krofft brothers gave her a way back in. When the Kroffts moved on to their next project, "The Bugaloos," they brought Raye and Barty with them -- though Marty vehemently protested the casting of Raye, figuring that the diva would cause them more headaches. The name for this new series came directly from the PUFNSTUF movie -- in one scene, Witchipoo disguises herself as a dancer named Betsy Bugaloo. Also notable, Boss Witch (Raye) had a sidekick who was a Nazi rat named Heinrich... a sidekick whom she retained on "The Bugaloos," though he went through a minor costume change and was renamed Funky Rat.
Unfortunately, PUFNSTUF the movie was poorly distributed, virtually ignored and quickly forgotten. Aside from the soundtrack album (and the obligatory movie posters and lobby cards), there was no tie-in merchandise for the film. For nearly a quarter of a century, the movie stayed locked up in the vaults, but then in late '95 Nick at Nite renewed interest in Pufnstuf by running a marathon of Krofft shows dubbed "Pufapalooza." Pufnstuf found his way back into the mainstream consciousness and a year or two later the film debuted on The Disney Channel. It was finally released on VHS (??!!) in 2000 with absolutely no fanfare. By that point, everything was transitioning to DVD, so it's little wonder that it wasn't a big seller (I didn't even learn of the release until long after it was out of print). In 2009, anticipating the success of the big-screen "Land of the Lost," Universal finally dug up the masters, gave them new transfer and duped the movie onto DVDs, which were abundantly available at Walmart stores. Only took 40 years for the movie to get a major release, which was doubtlessly more successful because the complete series was out of print and selling for ridiculous prices at that time (the show has since been re-released).LINKS: