We Get High on the ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon’ Animated TV Special From 1978
The passing of Peter, Paul and Mary’s Peter Yarrow reminded me not only of the folk group’s biggest hit, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” it also reminded me of an animated Puff, the Magic Dragon kids TV special that aired in the 1970s.
Remind I have very little memory of what actually happened in the show, but I do recall it making me feel really depressed about my fading youth … and I was probably 5 or 6 when I first saw it.
Later in life, I just assumed the song and the TV show were thinly veiled allegories about discovering the wonderful world of marijuana and psychedelics. Having watched the show for the first time in 40-plus years, there is little to suggest my assumption was wrong.
Check the full TV special out on the YouTube:
Jackie Draper is a young boy whose crack team of mental health experts determine he “will not nor cannot speak, communicate, not indeed relate in any way to the world around him.” The course of treatment is, “Alas! The case is hopeless! See that he is kept warm and comfortable and safe from all danger.” Sounds good to me! Fetch my blanket!
Jackie is visited in his room by Puff, a magical dragon voiced by the great Burgess Meredith, who carries with him a briefcase full of all sorts of mystical paraphernalia from classical tall tales. Puff creates an effigy of Jackie out of construction paper and names it “Jackie Paper.” [Editor’s note: Ha!] Puff says he’s going to suck Jackie Draper’s very living essence out his body and put it into Jackie Paper.
Jackie Paper, unlike his human meat husk, is a fun kid who gets to sing songs and sail off to the land of Honalee with Puff. They soften a kaiju-size pirate’s hard heart, eat enormous pies and put a fallen star back into orbit.
But it’s the Isle of Living Sneezes and its inhabitants who suffer from chronic sinus congestion that prove to be Jackie Paper’s Waterloo. For reasons that make little sense, Puff demands that Jackie take the boat and sail back to the real world. Puff is actually kind of a dick to Jackie, and he deserves to spend his remaining days sad and alone inside his cave.
But Jackie returns with the giant pirate, who has been reformed as a fantasy-world-class chef. The chef brings chicken soup, which cures the Sneezes and restores the magic to Honalee and makes everyone break out in joyous song!
Jackie and Puff are suddenly teleported back to Jackie’s room, where Puff explains that “time is far stronger than magic” and that Jackie must gird his loins and face the horrors of growing up without childish fancy stuff like dragons.
Jackie’s soul gets put back into his body (the show kind of glosses over this part), and as Puff leaves, Jackie calls out to him.
Jackie’s parents are thrilled that he’s talking once again. I’m sure he has months of pent-up sassback to throw at them.
We’ve learned two important lessons. One: Time is a cruel, relentless thief that will ultimately take everything you hold dear. And two: Getting high with Burgess Meredith can help you forget all about lesson one.
Join us next time when we get disillusioned by watching the 1979 sequel Puff in the Land of Living Lies:
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