Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

(1985)

It’s a 19 minute video. For a while you couldn’t find it anywhere on the internet nor streaming services. It’s on YouTube right now but it may not be there for long once someone realizes it. We watched it in school at least once a year up until middle school.

It is entertaining and poignant. When I decided I needed to own it so I could show it to my children, it was 40 bucks on dvd on Amazon. That might be a little over 2 dollars a minute but it’s worth every penny.

It’s a story of three cloud-bound kingdoms who for the moment remain happily isolated from one another. There’s a red kingdom, a blue kingdom, and a yellow kingdom. None are representative of any particular race or culture. The important thing to note is that each kingdom is different and currently content to be apart.

Naturally, as you may guess, the lines between these three kingdom are soon to be blurred by a curious and inventive young fellow.

Without a single word being spoken this brief story conveys such ideas as celebrating our differences, our similarities, and the beauty of living together in harmony. It was as much an important message in the 80s as it is now.

It’s also hilarious. The whole film is presented like a huge pop-up book. At one point a character doesn’t quite relocate himself properly as the page turns. There’s a couple seconds just before the page closes on the man where you can see him freak the heck out. Brilliant! Love it.

Word on the street is this features a young Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie though not prominently.

Sure, there are currently a myriad of ways to see this, but I encourage you to own a physical copy and share it with everyone you can. It’s that important.