Voices of Paul O'Keefe, Jack Gilfrord, Margaret Hamilton, and Hayley Mills
Directed by Jules Bass
Music by Maury Laws; Lyrics by Jules Bass
Videocraft - what would later be known as Rankin-Bass - just had their first major success with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer two years before. It and their other TV projects proved to be so wildly popular, they had the confidence to put out feature-length films made for children's matinees. This one was their second; for many Americans, it was their first time seeing the sometimes charming, sometimes tragic stories of Hans Christian Andersen depicted on the big screen. How does this unique live action-animated hybrid look now? Let's start with young Chris (O'Keefe) as his shoemaker father (Gilford) admonishes him to pay more attention to his lessons and find out...
The Story: Chris is bored with his father's constantly telling him to study and not daydream so much. He doesn't understand why Papa Andersen won't sell his wife's ring and use the money to make life easier for them. After having heard the Sandman (Cyril Ritchard) talk about the Garden of Paradise and the Tree of Knowledge, he runs away to find them. On the way, he dreams of many different characters, mermaids and emperors and tiny girls no bigger than your thumb, who lead him on fantastic adventures, but he abandons all of them to find that Garden. Meanwhile, his father has figured out what he's doing and has gone to find him, too.
The Animation: Chris daydreams himself into some really nifty stop-motion animation for the time. It looks more like Rudolph, with longer eyes and slightly smaller heads than a decade later. The water effects on "The Little Mermaid" are a bit awkward, just the screen getting wavy, but there are some truly unique designs for the Sea Witch and her creatures. There's also that truly frightening frog in the "Thumbelina" sequence - no wonder the characters are terrified of it! The damn thing is huge and ugly to the point of being nightmare fuel.
The Song and Dance: Nifty animation and a nice cast liven up these tales. My favorite segment is "Thumbelina." Patty Duke makes a more spirited title character than is often seen in versions of her story, and we get villain specialists Boris Karloff as the nasty Rat and Sessue Hayakawa as the supercilious mole. While "Mermaid" doesn't retain the dark ending, it's otherwise a fairly decent adaptation, with Mills making a lovely princess of the sea and Bankhead obviously enjoying her role as the ocean-bound enchantress. There's also what the Garden of Paradise turns out to be in the end, and how Chris ends up losing his place there...
Favorite Number: The lovely title ballad plays over the opening and closing credits, the former performed by Robert Goulet. The Little Mermaid sings a heartbreaking song of longing, knowing that "Wishes and Teardrops" won't bring Chris back to her. The vain Emperor (Ed Wynn) crows about how he's "Simply Wonderful," and his usual clothes simply aren't. Chris calls out to the townspeople, asking if they have any "Luck to Sell" when he's caught and accused of stealing animals. The mole asks Thumbelina "Isn't It Cozy?" when they're down in his hole, but with bats singing along and the muddy, damp walls around them, it's really anything but.
What I Don't Like: First of all, let's discuss the Mole. He's designed to be something of an Asian stereotype, with his prominent buck teeth and squinty eyes. Even voiced by an actual Japanese actor who ended up playing several similar roles late in his career, he may still offend some people today.
As cool as the stories themselves are, they're thrown together with no real rhyme or reason. O'Keefe comes off as alternately dull and a spoiled brat who treats everyone around him badly. No wonder he falls to temptation in the Garden of Paradise so easily. Gilford's search for him is supposed to be dramatic, but then they have gags like the sped-up sequence on the water that come off as pure slapstick. And "The Little Mermaid" in particular is changed from its original - she doesn't lose her voice or become foam on the waves or even lose her tail. The frog in "Thumbelina" originally wanted to marry her, not eat her.
The Big Finale: Not a bad way to pass an hour and a half if you're a Rankin-Bass fan or are a fairy tale fan or have kids who would enjoy the stories and songs.
Home Media: Rereleased on DVD and Blu-Ray last year from Kino Lorber.
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