Dick Deadeye

Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done
Directed by	Bill Melendez
Written by	Robin Miller (story) Leo Rost (story) Gene Thompson (additional material) Victor Spinetti (additional material)
Starring	Victor Spinetti
Music by	Arthur Sullivan
Edited by	Roger Donley Steven Cuitlahuac Melendez Babette Monteil
Production company	Bill Melendez Productions
Release date	1975
Running time	81 min.
Country	UK
Language	English

Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done is a 1975 British animated film musical, based on the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The comically convoluted plot, by Robin Miller and Leo Rost, with additional material by Gene Thompson and Victor Spinetti, is a pastiche of many of the operas in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon, particularly Trial by Jury, The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe and The Mikado, in which the principal character, Able Seaman Dick Deadeye, is sent by Queen Victoria on a quest to recover the "Ultimate Secret" from the Sorcerer, who has stolen it. The music is borrowed from many Savoy operas, with new or modified lyrics by Robin Miller and orchestrations updated in a contemporary (1975) popular style by the soundtrack conductor, Jimmy Horowytz.

Animation and direction were by Bill Melendez, who produced the Charlie Brown television cartoons, based on character drawings by veteran cartoonist Ronald Searle. The film's release was accompanied by the original release of a deluxe-jacketed LP soundtrack recording and a colourful storybook by Jeremy Hornsby, with colourful Searle-inspired art.

Queen Victoria sends Dick Deadeye (Victor Spinetti), a sailor, to recover the "Ultimate Secret" from two thieves, the Sorcerer (Peter Reeves) and his reptilian henchman, the Shameleon. They are trying to sell it to the Pirate King (George Cooper, sung Ian Samwell). At a military parade ("Entrance of the Peers"), Dick sees the Sorcerer speaking with the Pirate King. There, Nanki (John Newton, sung Casey Kelly) sees his evil twin brother Poo (same), who is picking pockets. Dick goes for backup to headquarters, the Hexagon ("Here's a how-dee-do"), finding the Captain (Peter Reeves) and the Major-General (Francis Ghent, sung John Baldry; "I am the very model of a modern major general").