The Amazing 3 (partially lost English dub of anime series; 1965)
A still from the show showing the main protagonists Bokko/Bonni, Ronnie/Nokko, Zero/Pukko, and Kenny/Shinichi Hoshi.
Status: Partially Lost
The Amazing 3 (Wonder 3 or W3 in Japan) is a 1965 children's sci-fi manga series created by legendary manga writer Osamu Tezuka. It focuses on a trio of aliens disguised as a duck, horse, and a rabbit who befriend a human. The trio go on various adventures on Earth and learns more about humanity and life on earth. During their stay on Earth, the alien trio have to find ways to convince The Galactic Federation to give humans more time to development instead of blowing it up. An anime adaptation of the manga started airing on Japanese and American television in 1965. All 52 episodes were dubbed.
It aired from 1967 through 1970 on KCOP-TV (Channel 13) in Los Angeles, California[1] and on WPIX-TV (Channel 11) in New York, New York. It would also air on the Nine Network in Australia from 1969-1970. [2] The last time the English dub of the anime was ever aired and seen on American television was during the 1970s on KCOP-TV as reruns. A few episodes of the English dub were uploaded to YouTube sometime in 2013 or 2014 but were later removed, most likely due to copyright infringement.
Cast
| Character | Original Name | Seiyū | Dub Actor |
| Bonni | Bokko | Fuyumi Shiraishi | Bobbie Byers |
| Ronnie | Nokko | Yasuo Kojima | Neil Patrick |
| Zero | Pukko | Shinsuke Chikaishi | Paul Brown |
| Kenny Carter | Shinichi Hoshi | Kazuko Sawada | Kurt Nagel |
| Randy Carter | Koichi Hoshi | Yoshio Kaneuchi | Kurt Nagel |
| Narrator | Jerry Berke |
Episode List
As of June 2020, around 30 of the 52 episodes are known to be found.
| # | Title | Availability |
| 1 | "Three Beings from Outer Space" | Lost |
| 2 | "Evacuation in 24 Hours" | Lost |
| 3 | "The Mystery of Shangri-La" | Lost |
| 4 | "The Camphor Tree Story" | Found |
| 5 | "Floating Fortress" | Found |
| 6 | "Zoo On A Skyscrapper" | Found |
| 7 | Lost | |
| 8 | "Circus Mystery" | Found |
| 9 | "Sun Don't Set" | Found |
| 10 | "Mummy Factory" | Found |
| 11 | "Dule In North Valley" | Found |
| 12 | "Mole Plan" | Found |
| 13 | "Black Extract" | Lost |
| 14 | "Fort of the Wild Dogs" | Lost |
| 15 | "Sacrifices Will Not Be Tolerated" | Lost |
| 16 | "My Name is X" | Lost |
| 17 | "Black Extract" | Found |
| 18 | "Explode the Barn" | Found |
| 19 | "The Phoenix Story" | Found |
| 20 | "The Mad Target" | Lost |
| 21 | "Adventure in the Volcano" | Lost |
| 22 | "The Dangerous Stage" | Lost |
| 23 | "Duel in the Storm" | Lost |
| 24 | "The Mysterious Inventor" | Lost |
| 25 | "The Deadly Auto Race" | Lost |
| 26 | "The Transocean Tunnel" | Lost |
| 27 | "Invitation of the Diamonds" | Lost |
| 28 | "Valley of the Thunderbolt" | Lost |
| 29 | "A Day Blotted Out" | Lost |
| 30 | "The Penguin Campaign" | Lost |
| 31 | "Something Very Strange" | Lost |
| 32 | "The Kiddie Battle" | Found |
| 33 | "Four Witches" | Found |
| 34 | "The Snow Fairy" | Found |
| 35 | "The One-Eyed Gray Wolf" | Found |
| 36 | "The Pledge in the Jungle" | Found |
| 37 | "The Mystery of the Amazon" | Found |
| 38 | "The Horrifying Skiing Competition" | Found |
| 39 | "The Hero in the Desert" | Found |
| 40 | "The Secret of the Grand Piano" | Found |
| 41 | "Jump out, Pukko!" | Found |
| 42 | "The Wonder 3 Go West" | Found |
| 43 | "Mice from the Universe" | Found |
| 44 | "The Moving Buddha" | Found |
| 45 | "The Satellite Swag" | Found |
| 46 | "The Alligator Incident" | Lost |
| 47 | "The Mexican Bandits" | Found |
| 48 | "Adventures on a Balloon" | Lost |
| 49 | "The Smog Missile" | Found |
| 50 | "Beat Them with the Strange Machine" | Found |
| 51 | "The Underground Whale" | Found |
| 52 | "Goodbye, Wonder 3" | Found |
Rumors
For a long time, it was rumored that the English dub was destroyed or lost, with the only known evidence of its existence being a Youtube video that was uploaded on January 13th, 2013, titled "Captain Bunny's Greetings", published by user "unclesporkums". The video contained a two-second audio clip of the character Bokko (Called Bunny aka "Captain Bunny" in the English dub) giving a greeting to the viewer ("Hi, this is Captain Bunny." she says briefly). The audio itself was found on an unknown old website that might no longer exist, according to the uploader. Sometime in late May or early June 2020, "unclesporkums" revealed in a Youtube comment that he took down the video, as he had discovered that the original website where he had found the clip still exists. However, he could not remember the address of the website (possibly a website dedicated to Tezuka's works).[3] The video description did mention that it might be an unknown impersonator of Corrine Orr (Rumored to been the English voice of Bokko) but is difficult to tell due to the poor audio quality. The video was later deleted at an unknown time.
Corrine Orr later cleared up the rumors of her being the English voice of Bokko. As seen on the English website dedicated to Japanese animation "Absolute Anime" [4]. The actors hired to do the dubbing were thought to be lost to history until Andy Shepherd uncovered who they were. They were college students and local actors from Miami's little theater who were hired as the voices of Bokko/Bonnie (Bobbie Byers), Ronnie (Neil Patrick) , Zero (Paul Brown), Kenny (Kurt Nagel) and the opening narrator (Jerry Burke).
Availability
12 episodes on original film negatives were found in the KCOP vault and were sold on eBay for $24,000 back in 2008. [5] It is unknown at this time who purchased the auction.
In March of 2015, YouTube user Peter Vasiliou uploaded 2 and 1/2 episodes of the English Dub online, although in rather poor quality. The videos have been provided below. He has stated that he plans to upload more episodes when he has the time, although as of June of 2020, nothing has been uploaded regarding the dub since.
In early 2019, a Youtube channel called "Rare TezukaVids" uploaded 19 episodes of the English Dub in cleaner quality. The episodes were uploaded between March 31st, 2019, and March 5th, 2020. A link to the channel has been provided below.
On June 14th, 2020, Lost Media Wiki user Insulting Iguana discovered more episodes of the English dub and uploaded them onto Youtube. Episodes 32 through 41, and Episode 45 were uncovered, leaving us currently with over half of the series that has been discovered.
Gallery
See Also
External Links
- Youtube Channel "Rare TezukaVids" which contains more footage of the English Dub from various episodes. Retrieved 24 Dec '19
- Insulting Iguana's YouTube Channel, which contains more episodes of the English Dub. Retrieved 14 Jun '20
References
- ↑ An archived Newspaper article from 1968 containing scheduling information on The Amazing Three. Retrieved 14 Jun '20
- ↑ Information on The Amazing Three from the website Absolute Anime. Retrieved 14 Jun '20
- ↑ A comment from unclesporkums as to why he took down the Captain Bunny video. Retrieved 14 June '20.
- ↑ https://absoluteanime.com/amazing_3/
- ↑ Article from Cartoon Brew about The Amazing Three film negatives. Retrieved 14 June '20.