| The Raccoons and the Lost Star | |
|---|---|
Title screen |
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| Written by | Kevin Gillis Juliet Law Packer |
| Directed by | Kevin Gillis |
| Starring | Rich Little John Schneider Dottie West |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Kevin Gillis |
| Running time | 49 minutes |
| Distributor | CBC |
The Raccoons and the Lost Star was a precursor TV Special[1]
to the animated series The Raccoons and debuted in 1983. It came after the first two Raccoons seasonal specials, which were The Christmas Raccoons in 1980 and The Raccoons on Ice in 1981. There are some thematic elements that don't exist in the first specials, such as the Raccoons' world being separate from that of the humans. In the United States, where The Raccoons specials were in the top 10 in Nielsen ratings, The Raccoons and the Lost Star was the number one children's show in syndication at the time.[2]
Contents |
One night in the Evergreen Forest, Schaeffer the sheepdog is playing with his human owners, Tommy and Julie, when their father, Dan the Forest Ranger tells them that there is a surprise that takes the humans inside their cabin. As Schaeffer takes a brief nap, he is awoken by a glowing red plane that lands in front of the cabin. Schaeffer goes to investigate, but the pilot gets a call from his commanding officer to return to his base. Panicking, Schaeffer climbs into the passenger seat of the plane and is flown away from Earth and to a strange jungle planet. Upon his arrival to a giant base filled with rockets and missiles, he's chased by the forces of the Imperial Commander Cyril Sneer, but manages to lose them. While exploring the jungle, Schaeffer runs into Sophia Tutu, a friend of his from the planet Earth, although Sophia doesn't seem to know Schaeffer. Sophia takes Schaeffer to meet Broo, her pet sheepdog puppy. Meanwhile, we find out that Cyril Sneer plans to conquer Earth with the help of a magic star (which Broo wears around his neck). The star has enough power to fire up his war machines and missiles to raid the planet. He sends out his army to hunt down every animal in the jungle, in case if they know the whereabouts of the star.
Meanwhile, Sophia, Broo, and Schaeffer are captured by the Raccoons (Bert, Ralph, and Melissa). The trio are the only animals left in the jungle, and plan to put an end to Cyril Sneer's evil ways. They free Sophia, Broo, and Schaeffer after they find out that they are on their side. Sophia then meets up with her boyfriend Cedric Sneer and finds out that Cyril is Cedric's father. The Raccoons and Schaeffer plan to free all the jungle animals from Cyril's clutches and successfully do so. However, Cyril eventually sends his army to round up the animals again, which gets the Raccoons to do the same thing all over again. While watching security tapes, Cyril notices that Broo has the star and plans to stop the Raccoons once and for all. That night, Cyril discovers a "jungle rendezvous" Cedric is having with Sophia and he follows him to a place where he can get the star. After foiling their meeting, Cyril captures the Raccoons, Sophia, and Schaeffer while seizing the star en route to destroying earth. Cyril plans to leave for Earth the next morning while leaving our heroes on the island, set for destruction shortly after Cyril's departure. However, Broo has managed to escape from Cyril's clutches and helps his friends escapes from maximum security. The Raccoons and the other animals escape from Cyril's clutches while destroying his fortress in the process.
After everyone and everything is safe, Schaeffer feels a longing to go back to Earth, so Bert flys him back via airplane. It turns out that all of this was a dream and none of the events had happened. Schaeffer awakes from his sleep and sees that Dan, Tommy, and Julie reveal their surprise to him, which turns out to be Broo. Schaeffer realizes that maybe his adventure wasn't a dream after all.
The Lost Star was inspired by the 1977 film Star Wars . The special was originally meant to be a full-length feature, but was made into an hour-long special, due to a lack of funding.[3]
Variety praised the third special, The Raccoons and the Lost Star, calling it a rollicking good adventure filled with space-age animation, high-tech gadgetry, lilting tunes, a lovable sheepdog, and the delightful Raccoons team.[4]
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![[2]](http://www.gilsinan.com/raccoons/images/promo_back.jpg){kind=link}