Expert: Popcorn Guy - 12/17/2008

Question
    I have four (!) films I would like to see again, or at least know what they are.  
    The first should be easy; it was a Zorro movie.  I saw in sometime around 1972.  I remember that, when the Alcade and Zorro were fighting in a cathedral, they swung on a tapestry through a stained glass window. It had a peppy theme song that went "Here's to being free!  Here's to you and me! La la la la la la la Zorro's back!"
    The second was some time in the late 80's; two military police are investigating a murder durign the Vietnam War.  They question a colonel about the crime; he forces them to ride with him in a helicopter as he throws Vietnamese prisoners out the door in a (successful) attempt to intimidate them.   Then, he jumps out himself.  I guess he was guilty.
    The third I saw in the common room in my college dorm until someone changed the channel.  It showed a group of peasants fighitng an army of barbarians with sharpened sticks and home made shields.  Their leader was apparantly a military man because he was instructing them on how to fight as an army.  I remember that he was showing them how to form a "shield wall" because they were no match for the barbarians one on one; they would throw their dead in front of the shield wall to make a makeshift barrier against the next charge.  It looked like it was done of videotape, so it might have been a made for TV movie or a BBC special.  I'm guessing that it was Brian Boru leadign the Irish against the Vikings.
    The last I saw as a kid on the "Cap'n Gus Show" in San Antonio, Texas.  Cap'n Guss was a very low budget local show, so he found some cheap foreign made cartoons that were surprisingly beautiful.  One was a either a serial or a movie which the show had cut up into five minute episodes.  It was about two eskimo children (or possibly Finnish raindeer riders), a boy and a girl, on a quest to stop an evil winter witch.  The Sun gives the boy two magic arrows.  The witch sends a huge shadow monster after them as they flee on their sled; the boy fires one of the arrows and two giant warriors with swords of flame appear and chop the shadow into little bits that float away on the breeze.  What struck me the most about this cartoon was the scenery and shots of the setting sun on the Tundra and the ice pack.

Answer
Al....

Can only offer one answer to you.. the Zorro film...  I think the one you are referring to is The Mark of Zorro, a TV movie featuring Frank Langella as Zorro and Ricardo Montalban as the bad guy...

No idea on the Vietnam film, or the barbarian one....

The last one, though, sounds remarkably familiar some how... am going thru all my sources on foreign animation... will let you know if I find something there....


PCG