Il nano e la strega
| Il nano e la strega | |
|---|---|
 US theatrical release poster. | |
| Zizi Panpan (France, Switzerland) King Dick (UK, US) | |
| Directed by | Gibba |
| Written by | Giorgio Terzi Giovanni Magheri Claudio Monti Oreste Lionello Enrico Bomba |
| Produced by | Jenny Gérard Michel Gast Claudio Monti |
| Starring | Roger Carel Paule Emanuele Georges Aminel Gabriel Cattand Rosetta Calavetta Germana Dominici Vittorio Stagni Carlo Romano Arturo Dominici Ferdinando Gazzolo |
| Cinematography | Claudio De Angeli |
| Edited by | Massimo Antonelli |
| Music by | Coriolano Gori |
Production companies | Monti Film (Roma, Italy) S.N.D. (Paris, France) |
| Distributed by | Europa filmsa locarno. (France, Switzerland) Alpha D.C. (Italy). Eagle Films LTD in 1979 (UK) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 79 minutes (Italian version) 67 minutes (English Version) |
| Countries | Italy France |
| Languages | French Italian English |
Il nano e la strega (Translation: The dwarf and the witch, French title: Zizi PanPan, English title: King Dick) is a 1975 Italian-French adult animated film directed by Gibba (although credited to Gioacchino Libratti) and was a co-production between Monti Film (Rome) and S.N.D. (Paris).[1]
Plot
A tyrannical King - Charles the Impotent - has taken over the Kingdom. During Charles's terrible reign; Master Limpcock is having a difficult sex life with his wife, Erotica. Erotica suggests a potion to Limpcock to cure his erectile dysfunction. She is soon left alone, and invites a young servant man to have sex with her. The two are being watched through the keyhole by Little Dick (the "King Dick" of the title), a young servant dwarf, who has been instructed by Limpcock to send a message to Nymphomania, a sexually-inadequate witch, who concocts a spell that will hopefully make herself beautiful again.
Nymphomania's Crystal Ball comes to terms of helping her to regain her beauty, only if she receives sixty-nine orgasms during sexual intercourse. She decides to test this out on Little Dick when he arrives, and is accompanied by Aphrodisiac, a wisecracking talking red frog (initially used as one of Nymphomania's ingredients), who helps her to keep track of the number of orgasms she receives each time she has sex. Once Little Dick is knocked out; Nymphomania transforms into a beautiful woman, but returns to her original form, as she has not received enough orgasms to fully break the spell.
She goes to see Master Limpcock, and makes a deal that she can help cure his impotence, but only on one condition: that she keeps Little Dick all for herself. Limpcock agrees, and the well-endowed dwarf - attempting to escape from Nymphomania's clutches, and also from the equally desperate Erotica - successfully escapes, but runs into trouble with some coachmen. He soon finds a job as a stablehand at the town's circus, cleaning an elephant, who frequently flatulates and defecates on people. Little Dick soon starts to miss Nymphomania, as he would rather be with her than be at the circus.
Meanwhile, after a few failed attempts; Aphrodisiac manages to get the Crystal Ball to signal again by consuming some fireflies, and he helps Nymphomania and Little Dick to reunite, whilst also curing the King's impotence. She also casts acrobatic spells on Little Dick, which causes him to grow erections that reach extreme lengths. This amazes the circus crowd, and an obese female circus participant - Miss Lulu Lashers, a tightrope walker - runs after the little dwarf, so she can have sex with him. To prevent this from happening; Nymphomania races to rescue Little Dick, followed by Aphrodisiac with the Crystal Ball.
She reunites with Little Dick, and successfully has more sexual intercourse with him. Like last time; she turns into a beautiful woman for a short period of time, unbeknownst by Little Dick, due to being unconscious from the exhaustion of having rough sex with her. The crowd - appalled by Nymphomania's ugliness - boo away the witch, before Lulu the obese tightrope-walker soon causes the whole circus to collapse. Nymphomania then tries to catch Little Dick - who had just started to escape from the circus - for more sex. They arrive at a cemetery, and Little Dick falls into a large tomb.
He then has a nightmare about him being led to a grand hall where an orgy session has been held, with Limpcock and Erotica being among the people attending. He later arrives at an olympics stadium where a race has been held. He unintentionally races, finishes first, and is rewarded. The prize-giver is later revealed to be Nymphomania, who leads the dwarf to the dungeon to have more intercourse. He starts having nasty thoughts about being surrounded by multiple Nymphomanias, and then encounters a snake charmer, who extends Little Dick's penis, which gets run over by a gladiator cart.
Little Dick then wakes up, and - once again - finds himself having more sexual intercourse with Nymphomania before escaping from her again. He then finds himself in a forest where he encounters the legendary Robin Hood and his Merry Men, who rescue him from a wild boar, which they eat during a camping evening. During that evening; Robin Hood tells him about Charles the Impotent, who instructed Fartface - a villainous witch - to murder Robin Hood's brother-in-law King Richard (Big Dick) and his son Friday the 13th to end the Royal Line, so that Charles can become King of England.
Robin Hood decides to start a revolution against the tyrannical King, he hasn't a bell to sound the alarm, so he insists that Little Dick steals one from the church, The Holy Passion. Little Dick disguises as a little girl to confess sins, and is led to a school of nuns. Aphrodisiac hears all of this, and informs Nymphomania, who soon spots the dwarf, and sneaks into the church cellar, through a dungeon, and into a workshop where two Blacksmiths invented a special chastity belt, which they decide to test on Nymphomania when she immediately arrives. Nymphomania spots Little Dick being treated by the Mother Superior (head of the nuns), who - now aware of the dwarf's disguise - stiffens Little Dick's penis using a formula, Nymphomania successfully breaks off the chastity belt when she and Little Dick continue to have sex.
Nymphomania, Aphrodisiac and Little Dick escape, and they ring the bells of the church, much to the delight of Robin Hood and the Merry Men, who celebrate with a feast, and decide to hold the Revolution till the following day. Little Dick escapes Nymphomania; he joins the celebration, gets drunk, and has more intercourse with her once she catches up.
The day of the revolution against Charles arrives, and Robin Hood becomes startled when he hears that Charles has declared a law against fornication. The famous outlaw forms a mob. Meanwhile, after escaping (this time, unintentionally) yet again from Nymphomania; he crashes into Master Limpcock's castle. Limpcock - much obliged to see Little Dick - congratulates the young dwarf for helping to cure his impotence, and reveals the note he had to send to Nymphomania earlier own. He explains that now Little Dick has reaches twenty years old; he is now an eligible heir to the thrown, and that Nymphomania is the daughter of FartFace, who was cursed by an evil wizard.
Robin Hood and the Merry Men defeat Charles, and discover that Little Dick is part of the Royal Line through the birthmark on his left buttock, which was exposed when he and Nymphomania were having sex in a nearby stable.
Nymphomania eventually reaches her sixty-ninth orgasm, she transforms into her beautiful form again - this time - without changing back, and Little Dick becomes a handsome prince. The two lovers get married, but on their wedding night; they learn that Prince Dick has now been given the same erectile dysfunction predicament as Master Limpcock. Nymphomania's Crystal Ball rectifies this, but explains that they must sacrifice their beauty, and return to their original forms. They agree, and - being much more accepting of each-other's appearances - have a much more positive sex life. They live happily ever after and have many well-endowed children.
Production
The project emerged in the early 1970s, directly inspired by the international success of Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat, the first animated feature to receive an X rating in the United States. Hoping to capitalize on this trend, Italian producer Claudio Monti financed a feature-length adult cartoon that could compete in the new market for erotic animation. The film’s production began in 1973 under severe financial constraints. Monti secured a French co-producer and pushed the team to present a segment at Cannes, but the animation was completed hastily and underfunded. Gibba later recalled that the crew worked “in extreme economy and without real compensation,” and that Monti went so far as to pawn his wife’s jewelry to keep the production alive Narratively, the film combined elements from an earlier unproduced project by Gibba (Eroicomicon, 1971) with bawdy parody. The plot follows Pipolo, a dwarf who is secretly a prince under enchantment, and Merlina, a witch who is likewise a cursed princess. The curse can only be broken if they copulate one hundred times, leading to a series of erotic misadventures across varied settings (the circus, Ancient Rome, a convent, and a forest). Much of the humor relied on crude gags and sexual innuendo, drawing from Italy’s popular pornographic comics of the era Before its release, the film faced significant censorship hurdles. In December 1974, Italy’s censorship board denied approval, labeling it “contrary to public decency.” After an appeal, distributors were required to cut over forty meters of footage, including explicit sexual sequences, before it was granted release with an adults-only rating in February 1975. Even after censorship approval, the film was temporarily seized in March by prosecutors in Latina, delaying distribution for several weeks Internationally, the film was released under different titles: Zizi Pan Pan in France, King Dick in the United States, and Zizi der Größte in Germany. Promotional materials imitated those of Fritz the Cat, marketing it as “the first Italian porn cartoon” and highlighting its irreverence. However, both critical and commercial reception were poor. Critics derided the film as crude and technically subpar, and Gibba himself later disowned it, calling it an “unclassifiable product, badly drawn in haste and for little pay” The film’s failure had lasting effects. Planned follow-up projects in the erotic animation genre, such as Faust Temptation, were abandoned, and Il nano e la strega became a cautionary example of Italy’s missed opportunity to establish a sustainable tradition of adult animated features. Gibba, who had accepted the project reluctantly, returned to commercial work and occasional animation commissions, distancing himself from the Adult Animation experiment.
Voice cast
| Character | Original | English |
|---|---|---|
| Merlina (witch) | Rosetta Calavetta | Unknown |
| Merlina (woman) | Germana Dominici | |
| Pipolo | Vittorio Stagni | |
| Magozio | Carlo Romano | |
| The Notary | Arturo Dominici | |
| Notary's Wife | Vittoria Febbi | |
| Master of the Circus | Gianfranco Bellini | |
| Exhibitionist Chubby | Lydia Simoneschi | |
| Mother Superior | Maria Saccenti | |
| Brother of the Chastity Belt | Bruno Persa | |
| King's Advisor | ||
| Old Lady Fainting | Franca Dominici | |
| Narrator | Nando Gazzolo |
French dub: Roger Carel Georges Aminel Gabriel Cattand Paule Emanuele
Versions
Although the film was made in Italian first, the film was released in France first on March 6, 1975. Then Italy on July 31, 1975 (The French/English language version had an alternate ending and music, features a typical fairy tale happy ending, whilst the Italian version is far more mean-spirited and perverse) The film was released in three forms in English. One version of the film, featuring a direct dub of the French version, was initially refused a UK theatrical release in 1977 before being passed in 1979 [BBFC] In 1981, the film received its initial video release by Intervision Video, a pioneer of pre-certification VHS distribution in the U.K., using the 1979 BBFC-cut print. The same print was later used for the 1986 AVR Home Entertainments Ltd, In 1988 when Intervision Video relaunched re-release It Reused the 1986 AVR Sleeve but with Their Logo on it but Some People say it Didn’t got a release or What?. In 1989 kinky Klassics Re-release it Has a Retail Release But the distributor Just Bootled the original 1981 Intervision video released and it still has the 1979 KING DICK X CERTIFICATE CARD. In 2002 the independent DVD distributor 23rd Century released the film on DVD using a VHS rip of the 1986 AVR Home Entertainment release. And The Sleeve Illustration was Poorly Done Illustration artwork. As the film was released internationally on home video, it became well known within the independent video community during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1984, the Spanish video distributor MG Video Presenta released the film as El Enano y la Bruja, using footage from the 1983 German theatrical version while retaining the Zizi der Größte title, accompanied by a Spanish narrator announcing the title El Enano y la Bruja. In 1986/87, Sphere Home Video Presenta re-released the film using the same print as the 1984 MG Video release. In 2026, the film was released on DVD under the same Spanish title, although the source print is Unknown Maybe a VHS Rip of the MG or Sphere releases. In 1986, the German video distributor Akzent Video released the film on VHS under the alternative German title Quastelwix mit dem Superpinel as Teil 1 (Part 1). The same distributor also released Teil 2 (Part 2) in 1986. In 1987, the distributor L.O.V.E. VIDEO released the film under another German alternative title, Wer ist der Mann, der immer kann? Zacharias Eichelzupf – Der Zwerg mit der riesigen Lustwurzel! / Zizi ist der Größte / Quastelwichs, using the same print. In 1984, the American Trans-World Entertainment (TWE) released the film as King Dick, using the rejected 1977 print, which ran under 67 minutes. In 1992, Another US video distributor VCII Home Entertainment re-released it under the French title Zizi Pan Pan. However, the back cover explicitly stated: "ZI-ZI PAN PAN PREVIOUSLY RELEASED IN AMERICA AS 'KING DICK'", while still using the same rejected 1977 print. In 1988, the Canadian and French video distributor AGS Vidéo released the film under the King Dick title, using the 1979 U.K. cut print in the American NTSC 60-minute version. In 1984, the Australian VHS distributor Video Classics released King Dick using the rejected 1977 U.K. print. In 1990, VPD (Video Programs Distributors) re-released the film using the 1979 U.K. cut, which ran approximately 66 minutes And Reuseing the 1986 AVR Home Entertainment Sleeve but with a Australian Classification certificates. The same print was later used for the 1991 CBL Video VHS release and the 2003 CBL DVD release. In 1997, the Italian video distributor Malizie Video released the film under its original Italian title, Il Nano e la Strega, using the 1975 print. In 1987, the American company Arrow Productions took the rejected 1977 U.K. print of King Dick, removed several scenes, and repackaged it as the low-budget video Sheena in Wonderland. In 1986, Hollywood Home Video's Dirty Little Adult Cartoons Volume 2 included King Dick, but retitled it Zizi Dick. This version used footage from the German Zizi der Größte release, featured Dutch subtitles, and included an English in-house dub. Hollywood video want to Australia to Release the In-House dub of King Dick (Zizi Dick) In June 21rd 2001
Receptions
The film was not received well when it came out in cinemas. It was a Box-office bomb lor_ (former editor of Motion Picture department of Variety Newspaper) called the film "Very Amazing film, and it Funny and Outrageous, animated film. and Should Be Watch buy all People from Around the World” although, it did gain a Very Big Cult following in the UK after being released on VHS. In 1981-1986
References
https://www.pre-cert.co.uk/martin/avr_king_dick.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60rvArTkzeg&t=935s https://www.encyclocine.com/index.html?menu=0&film=40691 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0222225/review/rw8805209/?ref_=tturv_3 https://www.bbfc.co.uk/search?q=King%20Dick