Winter 1977

It’s a Sanrio picture that feels partly like an anime art film and partly like a Warner Bros. cartoon. The film features some very creative imagery, a groovy 70’s jazz score, and very little spoken dialogue. It’s a story about a dog named Joe that falls in love with a rose and protects it from a mean spirited crow. There’s some energetic Fritz Freeling style action. There’s also some unexpectedly grim tragedy, not including the anticipated outcome, which does occur as expected.

Life in Brailsford Junction, Wisconsin, is simple and quiet for Sterling North, who spends most of his free time caring for animals. With his mother in the hospital and his brother fighting on the Western Front, the boy lives only with his father and his dog Hauser.

One weekend, cutting away from his usual chores, Sterling, his friend Oscar, and Hauser head off on a fishing trip. On their way to the river, his dog catches a scent at the base of a tree. Unearthing a raccoon’s nest, the two boys find an orphaned kit. A passing hunter has killed the kit’s mother to make a fur hat, leaving Sterling to adopt and care for the orphaned raccoon.

Torn by his fracturing family, a brother in the trenches, along with the ailing health of his mother, Sterling’s bonds with life and the world around him are kept together and strengthened by life with his new friend, the “ring-tailed wonder” and scoundrel, whom he names Rascal.

A mysterious gem called the “Skull Stone” is said to be able to reveal the location of the largest vein of gold in the world. This legend has entranced many people who wanted to get their hands on fame, power and wealth, including the trio of villains in this show: the “Dorombo Gang.” However, their hunt for the Skull Stone is not as easy as they imagined, mainly due to the faulty information they receive from their leader, and most of all, by a justical duo of pursuers called the “Yatterman”!