The Red Baron

The Red Baron is a 1972 animated one-hour TV-movie (with a live-action segment near the end) that was aired on December 9 as an episode of the anthology series The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. This is one of the four entries that Rankin/Bass Productions was involved with, and one of the three that Topcraft collaborated with Rankin/Bass. It has also aired internationally on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. Plot This animated movie features The Red Baron who is cast as a heroic blubbery old Corgi in a world set featuring anthropomorphic animals, mostly heroic dogs. Prince Heinrich of Weinerburg (a Doberman) has fallen in love with Princess Sophie of Pretzelstein (a Pomeranian) and have run off together. But after listening to an emergency announcement on the radio that the Princess was reported to have been kidnapped as announced by the King and demanding that "all able-bodied men" to report at once to help rescue her, Baron von Richthofen otherwise known as The Red Baron comes out of retirement and decides to join the Flying Corps to take on the journey to rescue her. With the assistants of his inarticulate cat Putzi and wheezing dachshund assistant Fritz, he builds his own triplane and takes the job to fight, despite scorn from Captain Von Zipper and the other soldiers originally. The Red Baron later gets supported by them after proving worthy of an officer.