Here we go, folks. From now through the end of the year it's going to be 100% Christmas movies here at the blog. We've taken a couple week's off; two week's that have sped by in a mad orgy of shopping, decorating and sickness (I'm convinced this head cold will be with me until May). But, we're back and ready to dive into some seasonal shizzle. We lead off with a Disney picture from 1961. It's by far the most family friendly of the stuff we'll be looking at. Things are going to get darker, weirder and sleazier after this one.
I don't think I was aware of "Babes In Toyland" until I spent an evening reading up on Tommy Kirk's filmography (what? do you do something better with your Saturday night's?) Kirk was a mainstay of live action Disney movie's and therefore was a staple of my youth. I've always been more interested in the live action Disney movie's than in their classic animated work's. Of course I watched picture's like "Snow White", "Pinocchio", "Dumbo" and "Bambi" as a kid, and always went to see them in the theatre when they were re-released, but they weren't something I revisited often. The live action stuff, though, I watched frequently; usually Sunday afternoon's when we went to my grandparent's house. I would watch flick's like "Follow Me Boys", "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", "The Absent Minded Professor" and "The Shaggy Dog" over and over. The great Disney animated work's always felt a bit overwhelming, I couldn't crawl inside them comfortably. They were piece's of art in a museum not to be touched. The live action movie's seemed more fun and welcoming; portal's I could climb through into mid 20th century American pop culture. And more than anyone else, Tommy Kirk represents that world. Annette Funicello had the Frankie Avalon beach movie's and Skippy ad's, Kurt Russell became Kurt Russell, but Tommy Kirk never had that iconic second act to his career, and so he remains in my mind purely as an entity of the Disney-verse. I was surprised upon reading his filmography that I had never seen "Babes In Toyland", because from the description it seemed like it was meant to be a jewel in the Disney crown. After viewing the picture, though, it's clear why it isn't as well regarded as Uncle Walt hoped it would be. I'm including it as part of our Christmas movie series, because I thought it was going to be more holiday oriented than it is. But, the plot partially involves making toy's for Santa and the last scene is a dreamy winter wonderland, so I say it counts.
We are welcomed to Mother Goose Land by Mother Goose (Mary McCarty) and her talking goose, Sylvester. The curtain's pull back on a candy colored wonderland that happens to look a lot like something you would find at Disneyland. An upbeat musical number introduces us to the village and character's such as Jack-be-Nimble (John Perri), whose ass catches on fire when the imagineered, ever growing candle he jumps gets too tall and Simple Simon (Jerry Glen), whose pie routine is ruined by a twerp kid who throws a banana peel on the ground. It all builds to a rousing lemonade toast to the impending nuptials of our two clean cut lead's, Mary and Tom. Funicello radiates her trademark wholesome sweetness and Tommy Sands has got a hell of a head of hair.
From his house high above the village, Barnaby (Ray Bolger), spies on the merriment. Mustachioed, wearing a cape and top hat, Barnaby is an arch villain in the Snidely Whiplash tradition. Lit with green and purple, his lair looks like another great theme park attraction. He knows that Mary will come into a great deal of money once she marries and so he wants to wed Mary in order to gain her fortune. He hires Gonzorgo (Henry Calvin) and Roderigo (Gene Sheldon) to bump off Tom. They're essentially Laurel and Hardy knock off's, though Roderigo has a bit of Harpo Marx and perhaps a sprinkle of Huntz Hall thrown into the mix, as well. Laurel and Hardy had great success in the 1934 version of "Babes In Toyland" so the connection to the team is not without precedent.
Director Jack Donahue handles the unreal, high stylization of the movie well. When Gonzorgo and Roderigo bonk Tom on the head in order to abduct him, star's fly from his cranium and he is smashed halfway into the ground and when Barnaby entices them with money they are literally mesmerized by dollar signs and the glow of the piggy bank. You can tell there was an effort being made with this production to try and craft a live action version of an animated film. The strange result is a picture that feels more like an adaptation of a Rank/Bass "animagic" effort than a Disney animated feature.
Wanting to make a buck, Gonzorgo and Roderigo sell Tom to the Gypsies instead of killing him. Later, they rip off Mary's herd of colored sheep with which she makes her money. It's all part of Barnaby's plan to back her into a financial corner so she has to marry him.
It should be said that if I encountered this film as a kid, I would have hated it. Musical's were not my thing. When I was six or seven, my father took me to his company's Christmas party for children. The event was held at a local movie theatre and they were showing the 1967 Rex Harrison musical version of "Doctor Doolittle", a movie whose two and a half hours felt like an attention span death march. I couldn't hack it. Overcome by sheer boredom I asked my pop if we could leave early (I did get a sweet toy at the party, so it wasn't a total loss). "Babes In Toyland" is long-perhaps not "Doolittle" long, but long enough- and the wall to wall singing that fills a majority of it's running time would test the patience of a youngster from any era. As a 35 year old , though, I actually quite like musical's and there are some good number's here. Bolger's "Castle In Spain" performance is fun and features a nice bit of dancing with a sentient fountain. Annette's "I Can't Do The Sum" is the highlight of the movie, for me. It's a catchy, lysergic sequence featuring multi-colored Annette's singing together.
Barnaby almost succeeds in his plan to marry Mary (where you going to?), but a wrench is thrown into the work's when the very same gypsies Tommy was sold to arrive in town. After performing a musical number in old lady gypsy drag, Tommy reveals himself to Mary and foils Barnaby.
Next up, Mary and Tom head off to the "Forest of No Return" in search of the kid's who went there to rescue Mary's stolen sheep. The forest is another awesome set, cartoonishly spooky and ominous- again in a Disneyland kind of way. They are soon accosted by a group of talking tree's who are positively Krofft-esque. It seriously seems like Sid and Marty decided to base their entire aesthetic on this forest of man-in-a-rubber-suit tree's. After being captured, Tom, Mary and the kid's are all forced to go see the tree's master, The Toymaker (Ed Wynn).
The Toymaker is the mad ruler of the crumbling empire of Toyland. He works in his seemingly abandoned city with his assistant Grumio (the ever awesome Tommy Kirk), creating insane toy's such as a doll that comes pre-broken. Grumio has invented a machine to help them that can instantly make any toy. The Toymaker, because he's crazy, instantly overloads the machine with request's. The machine literally cries for help before it's eyeball's explode. Then the Toymaker orders Grumio to go kill himself, telling him "invent something to destroy yourself".
Christmas is approaching and the Toymaker worries he will not have Santa's toy's ready for him. To help him with this problem, Tommy and Mary happily offer up the children as assembly line sweatshop labor. Instead of killing himself, Grumio invents a shrink ray. The Toymaker praises him as a genius before Tommy inquires how exactly this is ray is going to help make toy's. His labile effect continues and the Toymaker again becomes a violently abusive monster to Grumio. Barnaby gains possession of the ray and uses it to raise hell at the workshop. It's up to now micro sized Tommy to lead a stop motion army of wooden soldier's against him in a Crayola colored slapstick melee.
There's one thing that bothers me. Spoilers follow. Despite the fact that Barnaby is defeated at the end, the film never addresses the outcome of the Toymaker storyline. Did he ever make enough toy's for Santa? Or, does this film simply omit the tragedy of a Christmas where all the children of the world woke up disappointed? Did this failure send the Toymaker into a spiral of despair that ended with the murder-suicide of Grumio and himself? I don't know.
Between the casting of Ray Bolger and the haunted forest sequence, it's clear that Disney wanted to evoke memories of "The Wizard of Oz"; it seems as if he wanted this to be the live action film that reached the height's of his animated masterwork's. What he got instead is an odd picture that doesn't even rank among the best of the studio's live action output. The movie often feels like one long Disneyland attraction, and how much that idea appeals to you will go a long way in predicting your enjoyment level.
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