Set during election time in the Okefenokee Swamp, Pogo Possum (Skip Hinnant) is content to fish with Porky Pine (Jonathan Winters), but is routinely hounded by Albert the Alligator (Stan Fredberg), Howland Owl (Bob McFadden), and Churchy LaFemme (Arnold Stang) to run for President despite Pogo repeatedly voicing his desire not to do so. Meanwhile Deacon Mushrat (Vincent Price) and Molester Mole (Jonathan Winters) hatch various schemes to get the results that meet their own ends.
I Go Pogo (aka Pogo for President) is an adaptation of Walt Kelly's newspaper comic strip Pogo which is known for its satirical take on politics using funny animal characters. Marc Paul Chinoy, an animator on Sesame Street and TV commercials, was introduced to the strip by various other crewmembers on Sesame Street who were fans of the comic and Chinoy himself soon became a fan of the strip. Chinoy developed a animation technique called "flexiform" involving manipulation of plasticine figures and introduced the technique to Kerry H. Stowell of Stowmar Enterprises partnering with her on various educational and industrial films. The two decided to do a more ambitious project for Flexiform and decided a Pogo film adaptation was the route to take. With the approval of Walt Kelly's widow Selby Kelly who also served as a consultant on the film, the movie was produced independently on a $2 million budget over the course of a year starting in 1979 with the intention of releasing it in the months leading up to the 1980 United States Presidential Election. This ultimately didn't come about as the distributor reneged on their promised promotions and theatrical engagements and instead released the movie for rental via Fotomat's video rental service. In the time since its release I Go Pogo has been largely forgotten which is a shame because despite not being perfect it's one of the earliest examples of an American feature length stop-motion film.
As the movie was primarily built around adapting Kelly's strips, I Go Pogo doesn't have much of a story to analyze and is really just a series of set ups used for commentary on the political process or the occasional pun. Skip Hinnant is very good as Pogo and is endearing as someone who wants nothing to do with the craziness that's thrust upon him and the cast is filled with all manner of noted comic actors and even features a guest appearance by Jimmy Breslin as P. T. Bridgeport who gets the most memorable line in the movie saying the one word of profanity (assuming you're not watching the HBO or Disney cut). Most of the gags are pretty on point and Vincent Price is quite fun playing Deacon Mushrat, and while most of the humor is pretty timeless when it comes to politics Pogo's final line does kind of have a level of naivety in light of recent developments of people who made it to the seat. The sets and characters are beautifully crafted and you can feel the care that went into making this movie on a purely visual level. The music and certain other technical elements are more hit and miss as the background music playing comedic high register versions of "hail to the chief" can become a little grating at points and the various wipes used (including a star wipe) make the film feel more like it was made for TV than a theater.
I Go Pogo is a strange curiosity. The fact that this was independently produced shows a clear love and dedication to the characters and art form that has to be admired, but even if this had been widely distributed I'm not sure it would've resonated that much with audiences. If nothing else it's a solid showcase for painstakingly crafted stop motion work.
