A major wedding day approaches for couple Mary Contrary
(Annette Funicello) and Tom Piper (Tommy Sands), with their community of nursery
rhyme characters overwhelmed with happiness, toasting the couple with
celebratory lemonade and demonstrations of ability. Who doesn’t approve is the
antagonist, Barnaby, played by Ray Bolger, who wants to take Mary for himself,
wanting to claim a vaguely defined legacy. Hiring thugs Gonzorgo (Henry Calvin)
and Roderigo (Gene Sheldon) to stalk and kill Tom by throwing him into the sea
and steel her beloved polychromatic sheep, Barnaby sets his evil plan in
motion, hoping Mary will have no choice but to marry him and live unhappily
ever after. Trying to double their fortunes, Gonzorgo and Roderigo secretly sell
Tom to a group of Gypsies, returning to Barnaby without proof he’s dead.
Trouble in the realm grows once Mary and the group find the Toymaker (Ed Wynn)
and his assistant Grumio (Tommy Kirk), who are desperate to come up with a
solution that will help them make enough toys to meet the Christmas demand,
finding the apprentice’s amazing manufacturing inventions causing more harm
than good.
Orndorf noted, “"Babes in Toyland" exists in
a wonderful era that predates political correctness, displaying a range of
behaviors and plot turns that would never fly with today's parental
supervision. Perhaps the most interesting narrative curveball is Barnaby's plan
to murder Tom to clear a path to Mary, hiring two bumbling killers to do the
dirty deed.” No kidding, Tom is aid to be dead early in the movie, with a song
devoted to the plan, helping to soften the supposed scare of the act with a
musical number that turns the murder plan into slapstick comedy. Later in the
film, Mary, believing herself to be abandoned by her man and her sheep, worries
about her supposed future with intimidating mortgage numbers. Orndorf mentioned,
“It's a surreal dance number of colored multiplicity that Funicello pulls off
satisfactorily, yet the message is ridiculous, positioning Mary as a moron who
can't fend for herself, stymied by the simplest financial woes. It's enough to
make Malibu Stacy proud. Of course, I'm not criticizing the film's dated
interests; in fact, I found them enlivening the "Babes in Toyland" viewing
experience, enjoying the unsavory activity of the screenplay and the often
elaborate means to bring it all to cinematic life.”
Introduced by Mother Goose (Mary McCarthy) and her
comedic goose friend Sylvester (Jack Donohue) starts as an elaborate stage
show, with curtains rising to reveal a magical land of nursery rhyme characters
working their traditional parts (Jack jumping over the candlestick), while the
restricted areas filled in extraordinary sets, brought to life through the
magic of Technicolor. Orndorf credited, “It's a gorgeous film, pure eye-candy
in the best Disney sense, and while it lacks breathing room, "Babes in
Toyland" has plenty of energy and a great number of tricks up its sleeve.
Director Jack Donohue and his creative team do a splendid job with special
effects (scale work is excellent) and visual trickery, gifting the picture a
cartoon mood to appease younger viewers, keeping antics successfully boisterous
and, at times, genuinely mysterious.”
Orndorf credited, “Casting goes a long way to making
"Babes in Toyland" palatable, with an impressively committed
performance from Bolger, who makes for a convincingly nasty, pussyfooting
villain, though there's just enough charm to make one forget that he would like
to see the hero suffer brain damage and drown. Accepting Laurel & Hardy
assignments, Sheldon and Calvin are equally amusing, working through more
physical antics with bouncy charm and solid timing. Sands (who has the hair of
ten men) is a slightly bland hero, yet his commitment to the part is
commendable, zipping around the frame like a kid in a candy store. Of course,
if handed an opportunity to swordfight with Bolger, anyone would be excited to
participate in the picture. Funicello is lit like a princess and treated with respect.
She has her thespian limitations (she was 18 years old when the movie was
shot), but Funicello is here for marquee value and her ease with virginal
appeal, finding her place in the effort without disrupting the flow.” For added
fun, Ann Jillian makes her feature film debut playing Bo Peep.
Orndorf said, “"Babes in Toyland" is wildly
overlong, though the ending does introduce an army of stop-motion animated toy
soldiers marching into battle against Barnaby, and there's fun in Grumio's
toy-crafting inventions, which lends the picture a semi-sci-fi appeal.” However,
Donohue doesn’t know when to stop, with the last 15 minutes consisted of battle
scenes and usual chaos that gets boring just before it becomes irritating.
Orndorf criticized, “"Babes in Toyland" is a matinee diversion meant
for kids, but it's also excessive, ignoring opportunities to simply further the
plot and move along. However, it has numerous highlights along the way,
maintaining reminders that beneath the superfluous monkey business and tuneless
songs, there's a feisty Disney fantasy that's aching to please, laying the
foundation for countless big screen delights to come.”
This is a mixed bag of a film, but if you want to
check it out, I don’t think there will be any harm in doing so. See it on
Disney+ and judge for yourself if you like this or not.
Tomorrow I will be looking at a short that I first
heard from the Nostalgia Critic and fits right for the holiday time in “Disney
Month 2024.”
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