Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s time to talk about another Christmas film I saw on Disney+ lately. I’ve seen the 1961 film ‘Babes in Toyland’. This happens to be a musical film directed by Jack Donohue and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It stars Ray Bolger, Tommy Sands, Annette Funicello and Ed Wynn, who are very good. 😀

‘Babes in Toyland’ is based on the 1903 operetta of the same name by Victor Herbert. There have been many versions of ‘Babes in Toyland’ over the years. There was the 1934 film called ‘Babes in Toyland’, starring Laurel & Hardy, and there are the three TV adaptations prior to the 1961 film. 🙂

It was intriguing and refreshing to check out Disney‘s 1961 film version of ‘Babes of Toyland’ on Disney+. Mind you, the plot, and in some cases the music, bear little resemblance to the 1903 operetta. Disney had many of the lyrics of the songs rewritten and their tempos drastically changed.

I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise, since Disney like to do their own interpretations of works by established authors – ‘Mary Poppins’ comes to mind, as established in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’. From watching the film itself, it’s certainly colourful and vibrant. It truly feels like a Christmas pantomime.

‘Babes in Toyland’ seems to take place in a stage play, and is about Tom Piper, who’s about to marry Mary Contrary. On the eve of their wedding, an evil miser called Barnaby, who wants to marry Mary, hires two henchmen to drown Tom and steal Mary’s sheep. Little Bo Peep is looking after the sheep. 😀

Barnaby is determined to have Mary for himself, but thankfully, Tom survives, since the two henchmen, Gonzorgo and Roderigo, sold him to a band of gypsies instead of drowning him. Tom and Mary also help Little Bo Peep and some children to find the sheep, and they soon end up in Toyland.

This film might be considered rather zany and colourful as the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series is. 😀 I found this a pleasant film to check out, especially in the climax where Tom and Barnaby end up reduced to size and they fight each other with swords. Thankfully, Barnaby gets his comeuppance. 🙂

Ray Bolger stars as Barnaby, the film’s villain. You probably know him best for playing the Scarecrow in ‘The Wizard of Oz’. It was interesting to see him being a villain in this film compared to seeing him as a hero in ‘The Wizard of Oz’. It’s funny that Barnaby kept pursuing Mary for her hand in marriage.

Tommy Sands stars as Tom Piper and Annette Funicello stars as Mary. Apparently, ‘Babes in Toyland’ was Annette Funicello’s favourite filmmaking experience. Ed Wynn stars as the Toymaker – No, not the ‘Doctor Who’ one – both classic and new TV series. And it’s not the ‘Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over’ one.

Ed Wynn has been in ‘Mary Poppins’ with Julie Andrews, playing the laughing Uncle Albert. 😀 He also voiced the Mad Hatter in the 1951 Disney film ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It was fun to see him as the Toymaker in ‘Babes in Toyland’, thoguh he’s often putting down the efforts of Tommy Kirk as Grumio. 😀

Henry Calvin stars as Gonzorgo and Gene Sheldon as Roderigo. They’re almost like Laurel and Hardy in the film, especially with Gonzorgo being the fat one and Roderigo being the thin one. Although, Roderigo is more like Harpo Marx, especially when he’s mute and being the silliest of the comedic duo.

There’s Mary McCarty as Mother Goose with her talking goose Sylvester, who’s apparently voiced by director Jack Donohue. The talking goose is clearly a puppet when Mary McCarty as Mother Goose uses him in the film, but it’s very well done. Quite often, you do forget that he’s a puppet in the film.

The film also features Kevin Corcoran as Boy Blue, Ann Jillian as Bo Peep, Brian Corcoran as Willie Winkie, Jerry Glenn as Simple Simon, John Perri as Jack-Be-Nimble, David Pinson as Bobby Shaftoe, James Martin as Jack and Ilana Dowding as Jill. Everyone seemed to really enjoy being in this film. 😀

There are plenty of songs in the film like ‘Mother Goes Village and Lemonade’, ‘We Won’t Be Happy Till We Get It’, ‘Just a Whisper Away’, ‘Forest of No Return’, ‘Toyland’, the ‘Workshop Song’, etc. I did wonder if the entire film was going to be filled with songs and be like ‘Les Misérables’ the musical. 😀

‘Babes in Toyland’ has been an enjoyable musical film to check out at Christmas time. It’s unusual as a Christmas film. Most of the Christmas stuff is in the toymaking and at the film’s end when Tom and Mary are flying off in their sleigh once they are married and it’s snowing. There are also talking trees in the 1961 film.

The talking trees did put me in mind of the ones from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ as well as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy featuring the Ents, including Treebeard. It was funny when the talking trees refused to let Tom, Mary and the children to leave the Forest of No Return, and they did it in song. 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂