BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Bradley Baum I have just seen a wonderful film for the first time! It is the first wonderful film in ages having seen a load of dreadful ones including two by the usually wonderful Disney Corporation Maleficent and, yes, Frozen which was, admittedly, better than Maleficent but neither of those are as good as this seriously underrated classic! Now I have no doubt the Laurel and Hardy version will be better than this one as it is very rare that a remake is better than the original but as I've not seen that one yet I can only go by this one for what it is. This a fun enjoyable musical with some wonderful songs wonderful over-the-top hammy acting a wonderful storyline wonderful bright colours and wonderful dancing! Oh, and I am a middle-aged man thus proving this is not just a film for children! This is a film that can be watched and enjoyed by one and all!

bkoganbing It was sixty years since Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough's magical musical for kids premiered on Broadway when this version came out and now it's nearly 50 years since the film was in theaters. It doesn't rank up with the one that Laurel&Hardy did in the Thirties. For one thing the Victor Herbert score was cut, but not added to. Secondly Stan and Ollie were the center of things even though they are supporting characters. That in itself made their March Of The Wooden Soldiers memorable.Still this version that Disney did featured several of his stable of young stars like Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands as the young lovers of Toyland who want to wed. But evil Barnaby reprised in this version by Ray Bolger is going to put a stop to that. He's got designs on Annette's virtue and more important on the inheritance he knows she will get upon her wedding day. Bolger is having a great old time hamming it up as Barnaby.Stan and Ollie are saluted by Disney with Gene Sheldon and Henry Calvin, fresh from the Zorro series. They're funny, but are clearly relegated to supporting players as Bolger's inept stooges. As Stan Laurel was still alive when Babes In Toyland was in the theaters, I've often wondered what he thought of Sheldon and Calvin.Tommy Kirk who was barely out of his teens got a real treat to work with one of the great funny men of all time. Babes In Toyland is a great example for those of us to see the zany humor in the character of Ed Wynn as the Toymaker with Kirk as his assistant. The two of them work very well together.Even Tommy Sands gets into the humor of things when he dons an outrageous gypsy drag persona to foil one of Bolger's schemes. A scheme that goes awry when Calvin and Sheldon don't precisely obey orders. You just can't get good help, even in Toyland.I even think Victor Herbert would have approved of the way his numbers were done though he probably would not like the Disney interpolations that were made. He was a stickler for such things in his life.Viewing March Of The Wooden Soldiers back to back with Babes In Toyland doesn't make this version look inferior by any means.

irishtek It's a 1960s Disney Musical, I should not have to say more than this about the movie.It's great for kids, unfortunately.I remember seeing it, and liking it as a kid - and got it for my 3 yr old daughter.My wife hates me for it. Not that the movie is that horrible - but my daughter is in love with Tommy Sands and wants to watch this movie every night.My wife even took my daughter to the library and checked out kids movies - she was excited until she got home, and just said she wanted to watch Tom and Mary (The names of the main actors in the movie) If you have little kids - they'll love it. You might even enjoy it some yourself - until it's overplayed.

Amanda So, this movie isn't the best movie ever made. Frankly, it does not come close to even being considered the best movie ever made. Heck, it's a bit of a stretch to call it a good movie, but I say, it was one of my favorites when I was a child. My mother had a tape of it from when it played on Wonderful World of Disney, and my sisters and I would stop everything and be completely engrossed in it. The songs were fabulous, it had bright colors, and you really did want everything to work out in the end, which, it being a Disney movie, was inevitable. So, we would watch it over and over again if we could, and we would never tire of it -- the same way we would watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People, The Three Lives of Thomasina, The Happiest Millionaire, Summer Magic, The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band, and other Disney favorites. How any child can survive without the magical world Walt Disney created is beyond me, and I hope that every child has the chance to see this beloved, family favorite.