Movies of the 80s: 'I Go Pogo'

Hey, party people! Have you ever stumbled upon I Go Pogo? We're diving back to a wacky 1980 gem where Pogo Possum and his critter squad turn the political scene on its furry head. It's based on Walt Kelly's comic strip, which was sharper than a porcupine's backside at a balloon party, blending political jabbery with swampy shenanigans in the Okeyfenokey Swamp.

So, gather 'round for the lowdown: Pogo, the cool-as-a-cucumber possum, suddenly finds himself running for President. Totally unplanned. His buddies just kinda, sorta, chuck his hat into the presidential ring. What follows is a rib-tickling riff on political campaigns that feels eerily like your favorite election-year nightmares, but with more scales, fur, and feathers.

Production and Reception

What sets this flick apart? Clay animation, folks. It's all gloriously gooey and gives each frame a charmingly chunky vibe, a far cry from your slick Saturday morning cartoons. But let me level with you—while Pogo killed it in the comics, the movie was more of an underground hit. Seems like the whole satire shindig flew right over the kiddos' heads, and not everyone was jazzed about clay back in the day.

And the voice cast? Oh, it's studded with stars like

Jonathan Winters as Porky Pine

Vincent Price as Deacon Mushrat

Stan Freberg as Albert the Alligator

Legendary Newspaper Columnist Jimmy Breslin as P.T Bridgeport

Ruth Buzzi as Miz Beaver

And, In a notable move, the legendary voice of the very adult animated character, Felix the Cat, voice actor Skip Hinnant, gives voice to Pogo the Possum.

This wasn't the first time that Pogo the Possum became a reluctant candidate for President. Pogo had his hat tossed in the ring by his comic strip creator, Walt Kelly. Kelly began Pogo for President campaigns in his comic strip in both 1952 and again in 1956 as a way of satirizing the Presidential runs of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The phrase, I Go Pogo was specifically a riff on Eisenhower's tried and true campaign slogan, 'I Like Ike.

Producer Kerry Stowell and director Marc Paul Chinoy had planned to have the movie in theaters just time to hae Pogo join the heated race for the White House between sitting President Jimmy Carter and his Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan but the release was cancelled at the last moment when the distributor 21st Century Distribution lost faith in the movie and made the dramatic choice to sell the movie to an unlikely, and ultimately unsuccessful, home video rental service.

Weird fact: I Go Pogo was never released in theaters. Instead, the animated feature was sold to FotoMat, the drive-thru retail camera film developers who were moving aggressively into the home video rental market and acquired I Go Pogo as one of the first movies to be part of their burgeoning film rental service. Fotomat would abandon video rentals just 2 years later and sold Pogo to HBO.

One more weird fact, you've likely never seen I Go Pogo as it was originally intended. When HBO acquired the movie from Fotomat in 1982 they edited the movie and added a voiceover by actor Len Maxwell, thus forever altering the groundbreaking movie. To this day, the original film, without the narration has never been seen on the home video market.

Although I Go Pogo didn't exactly crack the mainstream, it's a cult classic, with a loving nod to those who dig quirky political satire and avant-garde animation. I Go Pogo was pioneering stop-motion clay magic for a full-on political satire way before creepy classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas hit the scene.

I Go Pogo remains an 80s anachronism, a savvy claymation political satire that has almost completely disappeared from the public consciousness. Thankfully, it will live forever on the Movies of the 80s YouTube channel which can find and subscribe to at YouTube.com/Moviesofthe80s. We're keeping the 80s movies nostalgia alive with two uploads per day of 80s goodness.