The Magic Flute (1975 film) stage Bergman had hoped to direct a production at the Malmö City Theater. The origin of his filmed version was in the 1960s, when Magnus Enhörning, head of the Swedish Radio, asked him for possible projects and he replied "I want to do "The Magic Flute" for television". Enhörning readily agreed and supported the project without hesitation. The German-language libretto of "The Magic Flute" was the work of Mozart's collaborator Emanuel Schikaneder, who was also theatre manager and sang Papageno at the first performances in 1791. For the plot, see "The Magic Flute", and for details of the libretto see
The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (theatrical). The English dubbing for the movie was not provided by the Hanna-Barbera cast members, but by non-union talent who were contributing at the time to American versions of imported anime. John Rust, the director of this dub, appeared as one of the voices. The North American release of "Flute", courtesy of Ross' First Performance and Atlantic, grossed US$11 million out of a maximum 432 venues, the highest on record for a non-Disney production until "The Care Bears Movie" in 1985, and was among Atlantic's all-time top five movies at the box office. Thanks to its success, Atlantic released several