Twurtling Norm

He was a disc jockey who admitted he accepted payola. He was a promotions man for an amusement park that was reorganising after bankruptcy. Then he set his sights on something completely different—making an animated feature film with no experience in cartoons.

And he succeeded.

His name was Norm Prescott.

You know him best as the co-owner of Filmation. But before he bought a 40% stake in the struggling animation company from Lou Scheimer, he came up with the idea for a feature film with a completely goofy concept: he would take Pinocchio and put him in a modern-day setting in outer space.

It took Prescott some time to get the puppet-boy back from the cosmos and onto theatre screens.

In 1960, Daily Variety had been covering testimony at the U.S. government’s payola hearings; Prescott had quit his job at WBZ Boston in July 1959 and testified it was in disgust for accepting $10,000 from various record pluggers. After a short-lived job as a promotional guy for Embassy Pictures, he took a job at a theme park but decided to get into animation production on the side. The trade paper reported on August 10th that he was getting into the cartoon business. A longer version of the story appeared a week later in Variety out of New York.

Norm Prescott's European Animation Film Project
Boston, Aug. 16.
Norm Prescott, former disk jock on WNEW, N.Y., and WBZ, Boston, and former veep with Joe Levine's Embassy Pictures Corp., on "Hercules" and "Hercules Unchained," is now veep in charge of exploitation of Pleasure Island, the $4,900,000 family amusement park in Wakefield, Mass. He's also going into animated film production.
Prescott, who has set up Norman Prescott Productions, flys to Brussels Sept. 9 to supervise start of production on his first full length color Cinemascope animated film, which will also be a tv pilot. As yet untitled, the film deals with a new cartoon character adventure series.
The film is being made in Zurich, and Prescott will spend three weeks in Europe with his animation director and is bringing his own music, dialoge and sound effects track, story board and pre-directed exposure sheets with him.
He plans to launch the production immediately and get the cells into work. He hopes to make several European deals for the "film with several meetings set up, and will have the film ready by Jan. 1, 1961, for Easter release in the U.S.

Variety later reported on jaunts to Denmark and Switzerland where the animation was supposedly going to be done. Boxoffice magazine gave an update in its May 21, 1962 edition. Prescott’s promotional concepts may be more hilariously outrageous than anything dreamed up for his Filmation cartoons.

First Full-Length Animated Feature by Norman Prescott Almost Ready

BOSTON—Norman Prescott, for 13 years Boston’s leading radio and TV personality, and now executive vice-president of Pleasure Island, 79-acre family fun park at Wakefield, Mass., has announced the near completion of his first full-length animated feature film “Pinocchio’s Adventure in Outer Space.” Two years in the making, the production is now being completed in Europe.
Prescott started in the film business with Joseph E. Levine’s Embassy Pictures as vice-president in charge of the television and music departments. While with Embassy, he became interested in the animation phase of the business and, after a year and a half, left to set up his own production company producing animated features.
With Fred Ladd, writer-director of television’s “Greatest Fights of the Century” series, he formed Prescott-Ladd Productions. The producers spent six months at the Hayden Planetarium gathering latest government space data plus authentic pictures and drawings to be used as backgrounds in the film for authenticity. Martin Cadin, writer of more than 100 books on space, and foremost authority on the subject, currently science reporter from Cape Canaveral for WNEW, New York, was hired to act as technical adviser.
FILM HAS THREE SONGS
The picture has three songs entitled: “Goody Good Morning,” “Doin’ the Impossible,” and “The Little Toy Shop.” The cast includes the voices of Arnold Stang; Jess Cain, morning radio personality WHDH, Boston; Minerva Pious, radio’s famous “Mrs. Nussbaum” on the Fred Allen Show, and other New York radio voice personalities.
The new film, under the name of Prescott-Ladd Productions, will be the first Boston-based film production in the animated field with offices in New York. The new company is of special interest to Bostonians, not only because Prescott is a local man, but also because many other Boston figures are involved in it.
Prescott says he chose “Pinocchio” as the hero of his story because as a child he recalled that the wooden character would not be involved in future adventures of a continuing kid since the author had written only one story. Knowing that millions of other children must feel the same way spurred Prescott to create the idea of projecting the wooden puppet into the year 1962. Ladd wrote an original screenplay immediately based on the space theme.
Commenting on the picture, for which a Boston press reception and screening is now being arranged, Prescott said: “With so many films being made on sex, violence, perversion themes and not enough wholesome attention being given the youth of the world, this film could not be an ordinary science-fiction picture, but, rather, is based on entertaining science fact and educational material.”
PLANS BOSTON PREMIERE
Prescott plans to premiere the animated film in Boston with a daytime word premiere for children from all over the world with the help of UNICEF.
According to plans now being worked out, children will be flown in from many European countries to the U.S. to attend. Plans are also being made for Lassie and Dennis the Menace, Jay North, to head special premiere parades in Boston with Bozo, the Clown, Rex Trailer and other Boston television personalities participating. Also special science contests are planned for airing over television with the winning boys and girls going to Washington to meet the President, and visiting Cape Canaveral.
Already in production is a second animated feature, as yet untitled, Prescott revealed, for which Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen have completed two songs and are currently finishing up two eight additional songs in Hollywood.

The second feature was a version of “The Wizard of Oz,” which had a gestation period of more than a decade.

Since we have heretofore spared you a summary of Ladd’s odd plot, suffice it to say it begins with Pinocchio’s punishment by being turned into wood again. To be returned to human state, he must go into outer space where he meets up with a space turtle (or twurtle as the movie calls him) named Nurtle played by Arnold Stang. They take on a space whale named Astro (not to be confused with a space dog named Astro owned by the Jetsons). “Based on entertaining science fact and educational material.” Yeah, right, Norm.

Daily Variety reported on October 25, 1962 that sound editing was being done on “Pinocchio.” The national version of the paper published on the 31st went into a bit more detail.

Offbeat Scoring in N.Y. For Denmark-Animated 'Outer Space' Feature
Boston, Oct. 30.
Boston-based producer Norman Prescott returned here from Europe, where he put the finishing editing touches on his animated film feature, "Pinocchio's Adventure in Outer Space." Film is a 75 min., animated wide screen, Eastman color production.
Scoring of the picture and sound effects will be completed at Titra Sound Studios, New York. Scoring will take an estimated three months because of the intricate electronic sounds to be created. Arrangements and original sound track will be done entirely with tympani and electronic music creating an unusual sound effect for the outer space sequences.
Walter Scharf, who just completed the Jerry Lewis picture, "It's Only Money," will do scoring. Picture was made in Denmark. It will be ready for summer release, 1963.
Prescott said he had completed a deal in Europe with Editions Du-Lombard, Belgium, for publishing, printing and distribution of hard cover, soft cover and comic books, based on the film, for distribution throughout the world in 18 languages.
Prescott said he has not shown film to any distribs yet, and will await its final completion before doing, so.

Sound editing was still being done as of July 1963, according to an edition of Variety that came out that month. Then there was silence. Prescott was continuing to work on Oz, he had worked out a deal for a Marx Brothers TV series that never got made (Mike Maltese was hired to write it) and had bought into a new company called Filmation that was doing some work on Oz. Finally Variety reported on August 4, 1965 that Universal had agreed to distribute the feature at Christmas time.

Why the delay in Pinocchio’s release? I’ve not been able to find an explanation. It could be distributors just weren’t interested or they couldn’t reach terms with Prescott and Ladd. Universal would appear to be an odd choice. It was still releasing shorts from Walter Lantz (I shudder at the idea of a Beary Family feature). And Pinocchio has nothing to do with Christmas.

Reviews were mixed. Parents’ Magazine gave the movie its medal for December and rated it “very good” for children 8 to 12. Howard Thompson of the New York Times noted “some pretty, imaginative colored backgrounds, moving along with an easy sense of fun for the space-minded young...a trim, winning little package aimed at the small fry.” Variety’s “Robe” wasn’t terribly impressed, stating “The occasional sci-fi sections (and a very good pre-title sequence) are considerably better than the original character depiction” and called the screenplay “simple, direct, and unimaginative.”

What about a sequel? “Robe” continued: “Possibilities of follow-ups are indicated by final comment that ‘you haven’t seen the last of Pinocchio.’ Depending, obviously, on percentage of turnover at the ticket wicket. It is doubtful that Disney has any reason to worry.”

There was no sequel or prequel. Prescott was suddenly busied with an offer received by Filmation to make a Saturday morning animated Superman series. It aired starting in the fall of 1966 and was a huge hit. Filmation followed it with an even bigger success—the first of a bunch of cartoon series starring Archie.

Nurtle the Twurtle and Astro the Whale are still waiting for their comeback.

As for Walt Disney, Variety’s edition of November 24, 1965 had this huge faux pas:

Houston Dome Screen: 185 Feet By 65 Feet
Houston, Nov. 23.
World’s largest motion picture screen will be installed at the Domed Stadium here during the Christmas holidays for the world premiere showing of Walt Disney’s “Pinnochio in Outer Space.” There is a possibility that Disney might be here for the premiere activities.

Somehow, we think Uncle Walt took a pass on this one.