This had a profound effect on me as a child and I became environmentally conscious because of it and now I have set watching it as a homework for my students in the hope they will learn from it too.
My dad -- Lee Vines -- was the narrator for this wonderful ABC Afterschool Special. Gosh, I haven't seen it since, well...since 1972! Thanks for posting!
Last night I watched a documentary on RU-vid that had long billed curlews featured in it. This made me remember The Last of the Curlews, which I oddly had not thought about since it aired back in the 1970s. . . I had anticipated watching the new afternoon special about a curlew (The Last of the Curlews), based on the television ads for it. But when it aired, my dad had scheduled a barbershop appointment for me that afternoon. So, we both arrived at the shop, which was my barber's converted garage in our little northwest Florida town of about 2,500 residents. My dad, my barber, and I were the only ones there. And, thank God, he had the tv on and it was the show that I had longed for, but it had already started when we got there. The only problem was that I could only watch it, since the two of them were continuously talking, so I couldn't focus nor hear a darn thing. It's funny the things that a person can vividly remember that they haven't thought about in decades. Thanks for posting this classic After School Special.
I remember the burning hatred I felt for the farmer when I watched this so many years ago. After watching it again I still feel the same. In reality one breeding pair would not have been enough to revive the species. I did not know this as a kid. I searched for this a few years ago and only found one or two short clips. Thanks for posting!
No problem! Yeah, WB made the movie weirdly hard to find. Like, they had it available to purchase, but if you didn't know the name of the DVD set it was on you couldn't find it.
That's INSANE. The farmer was protecting his crop to feed his family. HELLO? The curlews were eating his crop seeds, the farmer's LIVELIHOOD. HELLO? 🤪😆 You really should get out more from your mommy's basement, Queenie.
I never thought I would see this again as only people of a certain age even know what I am talking about! I watched this at an early age with my younger sister and it left such an impression on us both and yes we both cried buckets........I remember vividly the final narrative......once there were thousands,then there were two,now there is one,soon there will be none.........so sad and haunting and yes I cried again after watching it today nearly 50 years on. Thank you so much for uploading this animation,I just wish I could get it on DVD,I certainly think it was ahead of its time.........
It is available on a DVD called Hanna Barbera Specials Collection! It was hard to find this initially because searching "Last of the Curlews DVD" doesn't pull it up anywhere. You have to know the name of the DVD to find it, so annoying, lol.
Only three minutes in and this hit me just as it did back in 1972. To this day, it's likely a major reason why I'm a hunter of gunmen rather than of wildlife. Sincere thanks for posting it.
I'm glad you like it! The movie was a little hard to track down and it's so obscure, I wanted people to be able to see it. Almost everyone I've talked to who knows about the movie are people who watched it when it first aired.
I remember watching this when it originally aired! Nearly 50 years ago! & I’ve found it again. It may be a little sappy at times , but infinitely better than the hideous trash that passes for children’s programming today…. Thank you for posting.
@@derekdexheimer3070 There’s a DVD set of Hanna Barbera TV specials. It was actually kind of hard to find this because the DVD set doesn’t come up when you search for this movie. You have to know that this movie is on the set. I only found out because of a random Facebook comment.
This animated short is simply enthralling and profound. And now I'm remembering all of the animated shorts/movies from my childhood, of which there are many----- this one, The Selfish Giant, The Little Mermaid, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Halloween is Grinch Night, Frosty the Snowman, The Last Unicorn, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, RikkiTikkiTavi, A Cricket on Time Square, all of the other Dr. Seuss ones, any of the Winnie the Pooh ones, Rumpelstiltskin, Rip Van Winkle, The Emperor's New Clothes, King Midas, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, the School House Rock series, and so many more that I cannot remember. Those surely and purely were the golden years when we got to watch all of these little gems. And I didn't even mention all of the fantastic stop frame animated jewels of those days. Great times.
I was ten years old when I first saw this when it was an after school special on television. It really got to me back then. It still gets to me now. So hauntingly sad.
Most of the comments I get on this video are from people like you, who saw it only as kids and still remember it after so long. It makes me think about what works I'm still going to remember from my childhood when I'm older.
This was the very first ABC After School Special. I remember watching it as a child when it premiered, having no idea how tragic and heartbreaking its ending would be. The animation, the music and the message at the end were absolutely devastating. Sadly, scientists fear that the Eskimo Curlew has become extinct since this was made.
The last confirmed sighting was in 1963, before this special was made. Apparently there were some reliable reports in the 80s as well, but it hasn't been seen since then. It's almost certainly extinct, but it's still listed as critically endangered because scientists have to do a REALLY intensive search before a species can be officially declared extinct. Side note, it seems like the only people I meet online who have even heard of this special are the ones who saw it when it aired!
@@StarlightPrism I think it only ever aired once because it was so depressing. I can’t confirm, but I imagine ABC might have had a few phone calls from concerned parents after this aired. I know I was traumatized for weeks. I’ve never forgot it.
@@PatrickRomSim I've seen photos of some kind of print ad where HB thanks the Academy for the Emmy nomination, which makes me think it got re-aired at least once. However, I can't confirm that. This movie was weirdly hard to track down, though. The only video clip I could find online was a three minute clip on the Warner Archive Collection Facebook page. The full movie wasn't online anywhere and searching for "Last of the Curlews DVD" or "Blu-ray" didn't bring up anything on Google. The only reason I found it was because someone in the comment section of that FB post knew that you could buy it as part of a print-on-demand DVD specials collection on the Turner Classic Media website. It's not like this movie is the most depressing thing ever so I don't think Hanna Barbera was deliberately trying to hide it, most stuff just gets forgotten over time, and without people asking for it, companies aren't incentivized to put it out.
@@StarlightPrism - Luckily, I was able to buy it on Amazon a couple of years ago as part of a collection. All I can tell you is that I remember ABC really hyped their After School Specials in the weeks before this first one aired, and my sister and I were really excited to sit down and watch it. We were expecting a typical HB happy story of a cute animated bird, so when that tragic ending happened, after seeing everything the curlew had gone through to find a mate, we were utterly devastated and traumatized. We both just sat there sobbing until our grandmother came in the room to ask what was wrong. Next day at school, all the kids who had watched it were equally as traumatized.
@@PatrickRomSim Aw! Thanks for sharing what it was like to see it back then. I hardly find anyone to talk about this movie to begin with and hearing about it from people who saw it as kids is really cool.
I saw this on the original airdate Wednesday, 4 Oct. 1972 on the ABC Afterschool Special. I remember how there were only 2 Eskimo Curlews left. 🕊🐦🕊🐦Actually the last sighting was 1963 and it's considered extinct.🐦
It was 50 years ago today 10/4/72 that it debuted on The ABC Afterschool Special. It left a lump in the throat of this then 12 year old kid that I've never forgotten.
Thanks for posting this . I remember the sadness I felt afterwards. I been looking for this for years . Being 12 at the time I remember the animation being better than it was ( the mind remembers things more vivid I suppose ) Again Thanks for taking the time to find this.
I read about this film in the Fall 2023 Bird Conservation magazine. It was heart-breaking just reading about this film. Watching the ending just about sent me over the edge. For more info, check out American Bird Conservancy.
This is the first time I've even seen this. I don't remember seeing this as a kid. Rob the Wonderful sent me here, but I didn't want to see the review until I watched this first. Damn man, this hit hard.
My sister and I cried at the end of the film when it was on TV, we were around 9 years old. Sadly this film did not prevent the species from disappearing, one has not been spotted or recorded in many years and they are feared to be extinct.
I cried at this aged 15 or something, even. My sister was in the same room and could not believe what I was doing! My reaction today would also be more nuanced, but still the film features a great wrong being done by human beings, and there is no way round that...
This is pretty dark. Hanna Barbera usually does a few comic relief characters in drama films with happy endings. But this time, the animals aren't cartoony enough, they aren't anthropomorphic, and there's no comedy. Just a tragic ending. This must be one of Hanna Barbera's darkest pictures I've ever seen. And yet I can't help wanting to watch it! ❤
Saw this as the first-ever After School Special -- never forgot it. One interesting point: since this piece was made, we've learned that migratory birds can actually see magnetic currents in the Earth's electrical field, and that's what they use for navigation. That's why they seldom get lost, and if they do, like the flock blown to sea by the storm in this show, they can instantly return to their course.
15:00 This part seems so very cruel. When the curlews show compassion for their fallen mate, the hunters take advantage of their compassion and kill them -- the hunters actually call them stupid as if their compassion is a stupid weakness that DESERVES punishment. Does no one else see how this mindset mirrors the political mindset of George Orwell's 1984? This even happens on a political level. I think of the words from 1984. But what impressed me then, and has impressed me ever since, is that atrocities are believed in or disbelieved in solely on grounds of political predilection. Everyone believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side, without ever bothering to examine the evidence. -- George Orwell
How does something as obscure and mostly forgotten as this tv special end up on You Tube? Like, how was it found in the first place, and how was it posted? What's the process? thanks
@@StarlightPrism The song is called Once on Golden Wings. Years ago someone in the IMDb reviews for this show posted the lyrics: Once, on golden wings, You and I went wandering, With no one there to say Golden wings can melt away Like a (something) in a stream, We are living in a dream, That lasts for just a day, And just as quickly melts away This is a song of how it used to be. . . .This is the way the world was for you and me/ How free we glided on the air/ Only pure and lovely there! . . . . Ahhhh, you're gone away/ You were mine, a little while./ The sounds on golden wings,/ I remember and I smile."
I can't believe this was by Hanna barbera !! I had always disliked them for creating (what I see) as some of the most tacky and rubbish animation ever to be made. This shows they had some creativity !!
The backgrounds are truly impressive, and say what you will about the characters, they're better drawn than Fred Flintstone. Better soundtrack as well.
Hanna Barbera were the most overhated animation company ever. Yeah, their animation wasn't as good as say, Disney or Warner Bros, but they had a much lower budget and time than those studios. Their animation was good for TV animation of the time, and they were the ones who did the most to prove animation could work and be profitable on TV, persuading TV execs to give higher budgets to future generations. If you should be hating any animation studio, it should be filmation. They flat out couldn't animate and could barely draw.
Remember when even Cartoon Network would make fun of their animation/characters? Pointing out the similarities between characters/plots, characters running pass the same background twice, it also gave us the first Adult Swim shows (Space Ghost C2C, Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2021). They knew they weren't Disney and could never be, but they did put out a huge catalog of work.
