NEED HELP TO ID VINTAGE FEATURE FROM CHILDHOOD

[hagbard]

I have an unanswered question from over 30 years ago and I've yet to have found an answer, let alone even a response to any of my queries. It concerns the identity of a piece of Japanese animation I saw on TV in Southern California when I was very young, around 1972.

It appeared to have been a feature, as opposed to a series (I was an avid watcher of Astroboy, Gigantor, Kimba, Speed Racer et al).. The story was fantasy-based or mythological and seemed to be set in an underworld or underground kingdom of some kind. I recall guards or warriors flying about on these elegant, pastel-colored manta-type creatures. I also recall the 2 obligatory, dopey comic-relief characters who seemed to be obnoxious little demons, one tall, one short and who were debating, at one point, on which method they should use in cooking and eating someone they'd captured. I distinctly remember one of them saying "barbecued" several times. These little demons also bore weapons that seemed to be lances tipped with heads shaped like upside-down Omegas or stringless lyres. The visual style of the flick I recall as classic, late 40s to early 60s with soft, vintage technicolor-ish hues and possibly employed some rotoscopy. The feel I remember was almost Max Fleischer-ish, though definitely Japanese. I also remember the dubbed voices as being familiar to me from Speed Racer or Gigantor (I know there were only a few people doing most of the dubbing for that stuff; Jack Angel, maybe, was one of them? That name pops into my head).

These images, the little voice saying "barbecued! barbecued!, have been driving me nuts for over 30 years now. Please, if these images ring any bells or if you could point me in a direction in which I might hope to find an answer, I'd be eternally grateful.

[Duuz]

And the lead characters were a boy with brown hair and a girl with long white hair and pale blue skin right?

This is a very old title indeed that was translated as "<b>Jack and the Witch</b>". Finding it however is near impossible. It is on DVD in Japan, but don't expect an english version of it anytime soon. Back when we watched it on TV, it was dubbed by MGM and their licenseing rights to it may have expired a long time ago, or they simply have no license to release it on DVD.

http://www.coldfusionvideo.com/j/jacknwitch.html