Paul McCartney has released the restored version of his 1984 kids’ movie Rupert and the Frog Song, with a new introduction by director Geoff Dunbar, to mark the character's centenary.

The 13-minute animated film and its associated single were an unexpected success during the original release, prompting the creative pair to revisit it for the 4K era. The short features McCartney’s own voice along with British TV stalwarts June Whitfield and Windsor Davies.

You can watch it below.

“Paul asked me to look at this Rupert project,” Dunbar explains at the start of the clip. “I know that other people had experimented with it, and I remember Paul saying to me, ‘Hey, would you mind just writing me a one-pager on this?’ And I wrote on it how much I loved it, and I said, ‘Look, I think the thing is, it shouldn’t be changed in any way. You’ve got to keep it in the late ‘40s, early ‘50s.’ And that’s Rupert’s time for me; it’s what I remember. And that’s what clinched it – Paul was very happy with that description, and we started working on it. I hope you enjoy the film. I certainly enjoyed making it."

Rupert Bear was created by Mary Tourtel and made its debut in the Daily Express newspaper on Nov. 8, 1920.

“As a kid I would always get the Rupert Annual at Christmas,” McCartney explained previously. “I remember getting the idea for a film project when looking through one of them. There was a standout image in color, and when I saw it, I could imagine a concert of frogs with them all doing different parts, a choir and an orchestra, and I could almost hear the music. ... I remember telling John Lennon about it, and he encouraged me to have a go, which was great. … But you need more than that to make a film.”

 

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