Mágica Aventura

One for the Forgotten Childhood file. This one's a find. A movie I remember seeing on cable so many times as a kid. A movie I'd try to look up every now and again in recent years, searching for the fragments I remembered about it...

It featured a little boy and girl. And an older man with a white moustache who led them through adventures. I recalled a part of it featured the kids chasing a red kite. I thought it drew upon the stories of Hans Christian Anderson. I remember watching it in our old apartment in Starrett City—Brooklyn in the early 80s. (God, things were simpler then.) I remember the characters talked a little fast—a clear indication, in hindsight, that it was dubbed from another language.

How did I finally track this thing down tonight?

Good old Wikipedia has a fairly thorough list of every animated film, broken down by decade. Since I was watching this on cable in the early 80s, I looked through all the 70s titles.

In addition to finding some bonus forgotten movies from childhood, I found what I was looking for. To be honest, I skipped over the title a few times because it was so generic and there was no separate Wikipedia page set up for it.

1973's MAGIC ADVENTURE (or Mágica aventura)
Directed by Cruz Delgado

Produced in Spain. Featuring two children sent on a journey through the stories of Hans Christian Anderson.



I'm only familiar with the version that was dubbed in English. I think part of the appeal was its episodic structure: easier for the short-attention-spans of kids.

Unfortunately, the dubbed version I remember fondly doesn't seem to be widely available. And YOUTUBE doesn't seem to be much more of a help here. But it's another mystery solved. Another fragment of memory restored.