Puff the Magic Dragon, on CBS
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Caution: potential spoilers.

This first aired in 1978, when I was three years old. (It's based on the 1963 song of the same name, by Peter, Paul and Mary.) It was followed by two other specials, in 1979 and 1982. I also had some storybooks when I was a kid, which were based on each of the specials. I feel like I must have seen at least one of the specials when I was quite young, but I can't imagine remembering something, even vaguely, that I saw when I was only 3. So maybe I saw a rerun sometime, or maybe I never saw the original at all, just one of the sequels. Or maybe my early childhood memory is better than I thought. Or maybe I'm just remembering the books. Or maybe... I dunno. Whatever the case, I didn't remember any details of the stories, but the idea of the specials has always been sort of nostalgic to me. So I was really glad that they were eventually released as a triple feature DVD, and I'm finally watching them in 2016.

So... there's this little boy named Jackie Draper, who stopped speaking some time ago. His parents have had doctors check him out, and they believe he'll never talk again, though they can't figure out why. Later, a magic dragon named Puff passes by Jackie's bedroom window, and invites himself in. He draws a picture of Jackie, which he names Jackie Paper, and he takes the real Jackie's "living thing" out of Jackie Draper and puts it into Jackie Paper, who comes to life. And Jackie Paper doesn't seem to have any trouble talking. Anyway, Puff takes him on a journey to his home of Hannalee, after turning Jackie's bed into a sailboat. Along the way, Jackie learns to face his fears and be brave. And when they reach Hannalee, there's a problem Puff hadn't foreseen, which he's powerless to do anything about. So Jackie ends up helping him, before finally returning home and having his "living thing" returned to his real body.

Well, the whole thing is very surreal, so I can't imagine it helped dispel the popular theory that the original song was actually about drugs. Also, there are some new songs in the special that were just... not good. And nothing about the story was really familiar to me, so watching the DVD did nothing to help me figure out whether I'd ever seen it before, or not. Plus, I feel like the solution to Jackie's problem was much too simplistic, and in real life he probably would have been diagnosed with autism. I can't help but think the special makes it seem like such things aren't real, and can be easily overcome if you just try. And that's a bad notion to take away from the story. I mean, lessons about facing fears and all that, that can be useful for just about anyone, but it's just not that easy for some of us.

Still, there were some good bits, I guess. I can appreciate weirdness in a story, sometimes even if it's not very well written. And some of the humor was sort of okay. (Plus I kept thinking Jackie sounded like he should be a character in a Peanuts special.) Anyway, I'm glad I've seen it now, so I can finally stop wanting to see it. That's the most important thing.

tek's rating: ½

Puff the Magic Dragon in the Land of the Living Lies, on CBS
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This aired in 1979. There's a young girl named Sandy, who has a really good imagination. But recently she's turned her imagination to telling lies rather than fanciful tales. I mean, mostly her lies are pretty obviously untrue, and still rather fanciful, with the mundane exception of blaming her dog for breaking a lamp. But still, the reason for her lying in general had changed for the worse. One of her lies was about a dragon eating her homework. (And right there, you can already see she's a bit more imaginative than kids who just say their dog ate their homework.) Anyway, Puff later shows up, and at first Sandy thought she'd just imagined him, or something. But she soon accepts that he's real, and wants him to go away. Instead, she lies about an impending earthquake, which immediately happens for real, and swallows both of them up. After falling for awhile, they end up in the Land of the Living Lies. You could say that every day there is like Opposite Day, although I'm afraid that logic doesn't apply consistently. (I suppose it would be virtually impossible to have anything resembling an intelligible conversation if everything anyone said was the opposite of what they meant.) Anyway, there are some interesting residents of this Land. (The boy who cried wolf and Pinocchio seemed obvious choices, but I never would have expected Baron Munchausen to be there... but that's just because he's not such a familiar character, to me, I guess.) Eventually, Sandy is forced to stand trial for crimes she didn't commit, the nature of which I won't spoil. But it's all part of the surrealism of the Land she was in, as are the jurors, the judge, the prosecutor, et al.

I don't want to spoil the details of what happens at the trial, and afterwards. But eventually Sandy learns her lesson. And there's a decent sort of psychological reason for her having started lying in the first place. I had guessed it pretty much from the beginning of the special, so it didn't come as a surprise to me, but it was definitely a cathartic revelation for Sandy. Anyway, I'm not sure if I ever saw the special before, though the storybook that was based on it is definitely familiar from my childhood. (I didn't remember any elements of the plot, but some of the visuals in the special felt familiar.) And... I dunno what else to say, except that I liked it more than the first special.

tek's rating: meh and a half

Puff and the Incredible Mr. Nobody, on CBS
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This came out in 1982, but I'm pretty sure I never saw it until 2017. A boy named Terry has an imaginary friend named Nobody, who looks like a duck wearing a pot on his head. Terry has a very good imagination, and he's artistic in numerous ways, but he believes he couldn't do any of the things he does without Nobody's help. Eventually his parents, who only want to help, try to get him to realize Nobody isn't real... and Nobody disappears. So Terry runs away to find him, and gets some help from Puff. Of course, ultimately Puff is trying to make Terry realize his talents come from himself. So the whole story rather reminded me of "Dumbo." And I do like the moral of the story. But at the same time, I found the special painfully boring. (If it weren't for my liking the moral, I would have rated the special sub-meh.)