He first worked as a newspaper cartoonist for several papers, illustrating stories as well as drawing cartoons. John Barton ("Johnny") Gruelle (1880-1938), the son of a painter, grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. Gruelle produced a series of 40 books, as well as using Raggedy Ann in cartoons, but the dolls themselves remain the most popular collectibles. Raggedy Ann's image, with her black shoe-button eyes, red yarn hair, her white pinafore, and scalloped pantaloons over red-and-white striped legs remained surprisingly intact over the years, and was featured on a vast array of children's toys, clothing, furnishings, and other objects. Raggedy Andy, the little rag-brother of Raggedy Ann, was introduced in 1920 with The Raggedy Andy Stories. She was first a real rag doll for a real little girl, then was mass-produced to accompany the nearly 1,000 stories written by Gruelle before his death in 1938. The musical has Raggedy Ann save Marcella's life by sacrificing her candy heart to Marcella in an act of love.Raggedy Ann, the central character in a series of children's books about dolls that come alive when their people are away, made her official debut in 1918 with the Raggedy Ann Stories by author and illustrator Johnny Gruelle.The Power of Love: What Raggedy Ann uses in the holiday special to dissolve a seemingly unbreakable substance called "Goopstik".Tomboy and Girly Girl: Raggedy Ann and the French Dolly, at least compared to each other.Team Mom: Raggedy Ann is this for all of the toys in Marcella's playroom, to the point she refuses to tell the playroom of where she went until one of the penny dolls has her hand glued back on.Talking Animal: Fido, Marcella's dog, is able to talk with the toys, but only to the toys.Sweet Sheep: In the 1944 cartoon "Suddenly, It's Spring", one of the sentient toys that are seeing crying over Nancy (Raggedy Ann's owner in the short) on the verge of death is an unnamed lamb stuffed animal.The stories are the adventures of a living rag doll, who is gentle yet adventurous. Living Toy: The whole point of the books.Raggedy Ann, though it's a downplayed case, since more emphasis is put on her sweet nature, but is quite adventurous and isn't afraid to take action when needed.Expy: In the Chuck Jones holiday special, Ann and Andy end up saving Christmas from the Wile E.(White in the book, brown in the Fleischer cartoon, blue in the movie and TV series.) He also changed colors depending what story he's in. There, he was described as absent-minded and strange, but sure of himself. He had a different personality in the book. The Eeyore: The camel with the wrinkled knees, especially in the movie. The show was a big hit in Russia, but bombed on Broadway, closing down after only five performances. Even the song I'm Just A Rag Dolly, one of the two songs reprised from the movie, had been given new lyrics and had gone from being a friendly welcoming song to a song about feeling lost and hopeless. Darker and Edgier: The 1984 stage musical Rag Dolly (with Ivy Austin as Raggedy Ann) was initially going to be based on the animated movie, but ended up as a much darker take on the story, featuring Marcella as a dying girl with a mother who abandoned her and a father who's an alcoholic, and the fear of death is a prominent theme.While her portrayal was mostly positive with some subtler racist elements, her blatant blackface design makes the character ten times more uncomfortable, and modern editions of the books make no attempts to keep in. Blackface-Style Caricature: one of the toys is a mammy doll, Beloved Belindy.The same goes for the black maid Dinah, who was rather racist in portrayal, and most modern reprints of the story she appears give a warning to parents to read the story first to see if it's appropriate for their child to read. Bowdlerise: While her portrayal was positive, you'll never see the mammy doll, Beloved Belindy, in modern printings.Ann and Andy break the fourth wall and call upon the audience to use The Power of Love to fix everything. Audience Participation: In the Christmas special, the Big Bad Wolf and all of Santa's toys became trapped in an unbreakable substance.Although, in a case of Older Than They Think, at least some of the weird and trippy elements are taken from the books! It was made at the end of the 1970s and is seriously weird and trippy. Adaptation Distillation: The big-screen movie, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure.
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