YMMV / Puff the Magic Dragon

• Death of the Author: Stoners won't relinquish their reading of Puff as a metaphor for weed, in spite of the author's insistence that no such metaphor was intended (and that they would never put drug references into a song for children).
• Heartwarming Moments: After the giant pirate, Very Long John Black and Bluebeard Kidd, decides to follow his heart and become a baker.
  Very Long John: I'm a new man! No, no, no, no, no. I'm an old man with a new heart!
• Tear Jerker: Jackie Paper leaving Puff forever is one of the most famous and heart-wrenching ones in all of 20th century music.
  His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain
  Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane
  Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave
  So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave.
• Values Resonance: The animated special was the first made to so accurately discuss social anxiety and depression, two conditions that have received much more attention in the 21st century, giving the special a lot more bite. Heck, the mere fact of an animated special that actually treats mental illness (of any kind) as a condition that can and should be treated, rather than just labeling the person "crazy" and shipping them off to an asylum, is still pretty rare today (and for the late 70s, was almost revolutionary).

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