Starring Russ Tambyn, Alan Young, Terry-Thomas, and Peter Sellars
Directed by George Pal
Music and Lyrics by various
Our second musical fairy tale of the week takes us into middle Europe for this retelling of a Grimm's story. George Pal, best known for his "Puppetoons" shorts featuring stop-motion puppets performing fairy tales, wanted to do this movie since the mid-40's. He went through several studios and leads before finally settling on acrobat Tambyn. MGM hoped to build him into a major star after he received excellent notices as the youngest of the brothers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. How does this funny and sweet fantasy look today? Let's begin in the Enchanted Forest, as woodcutter Johnathan (Bernard Miles) is about to cut down a very old tree, and find out...
The Story: The Forest Queen (June Thornburn) implores him to spare the oldest tree in the woods. After he finally relents, she offers him three wishes. He and his wife Anne (Jessie Matthews) initially squander the wishes on a sausage before Anne despairs that they'll never have a child of their own. Why, she'd love any child, even one no bigger than her thumb! The queen does grant them their wish when a tiny boy (Tambyn) turns up on their doorstep. Anne names him Tom and brings him among the toys they intended for a child of their own.
Tom convinces his father to let their friend Woody (Alan Young) take him to the carnival. He flies away on a balloon and lands in the hands of thieves Ivan (Terry-Thomas) and Antony (Sellars) who want to steal gold from a nearby castle. Tom's able to squeeze through the bars and get it for them. They give him a gold coin, which he accidentally drops in his mother's bread batter. Unfortunately, local soldiers taste the bread, bite into the coin, are convinced his parents stole the gold. It's up to Tom and Woody to capture the thieves themselves, before they can get away with the loot.
The Song and Dance: Adorable fairy tale is a bit simpler and easier to take than Pal's later Cinerama fantasy epic The Wonderful World of the Brother's Grimm. Energetic Tambyn is having a lot more fun here, especially in his numbers with the Puppetoon toys and the dancing wooden shoes. British musical stars Matthews and Miles are sweet and believable as an old married couple longing for a child, and Sellars and Terry-Thomas are hilarious as the bumbling burglars who think they have the perfect ally in Tom. Delightful Technicolor production really brings the fantasy world to life, especially in town during the carnival and in Tom's room with all those stop-motion puppet toys.
Favorite Number: Anne gets a touching ballad as she sings to Johnathan about her longing for a child, "After All These Years." "Tom Thumb's Tune" lets Tambyn show off his amazing acrobatic abilities as he leaps and swings around giant toys, brushes, and pens in his bedroom. He even dances with an animated drawing version of himself at one point. Stop-motion "Talented Shoes" dance by themselves at the carnival, to the delight of the crowd...and then Tom dances along in his own smaller pair.
What I Don't Like: First of all, while Tambyn's acrobatic feats are amazing, the songs themselves really aren't that memorable. Alan Young as Tom's amiable human friend doesn't come off as much more than bland and a bit silly; his pursuit of the Forest Queen is filler and the reason for a dull ballad. Several of the toys, especially the roly-poly Chinese Con-Fu-Shon and the black caricature doll, are designed as weird stereotypes that may be more offensive than cute nowadays; some of the other toys are more creepy than they are funny.
The Big Finale: Fairy tale fans, or families with kids who love fairy tales, will want to look around for this very fun tale of the little boy with the big adventures.
Home Media: On DVD and streaming, the former currently from the Warner Archives.
No comments:
Post a Comment