Babes in Toyland (1934) (aka March of the Wooden Soldiers)
Retro Review #9: Laurel and Hardy rescue Mother Goose and friends in more ways than one.
Babes in Toyland (1934) (aka March of the Wooden Soldiers) — Laurel and Hardy rescue Mother Goose and friends in more ways than one.
+ Feature film, bw, 1h 18m
Project #1: 2024 Christmas Tour
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B+>
Family Suitability
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | Approved
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎1️⃣ Fair/Slightly Favorable
+ Based on operetta Babes in Toyland (1903) ‼️ 🔜⭐ by Victor Herbert, Glen MacDonough
+ Based on literature (children’s book) Babes in Toyland (1904) ‼️ 🔜⭐ by Glen MacDonough, Anna Alice Chapin
Babes in Toyland (1934) (aka March of the Wooden Soldiers)
Grade: B+> (5.0) / HOF: 0
EQ 👍B+ | 📖B- 👥A- 📽️B+ 🎼B
DW 😎9.8 | 🌚9 🌝12
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
Base a film on an operetta that’s a mash-up comprised mostly of nursery rhyme characters, then take out most, not all, of the musical numbers, add in the great comedic duo Laurel and Hardy, as Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee, and you produce this offbeat, but not bad, film. It pulls a solid 9.8 Dark Whimsy score, mainly because it nearly maxes out on the Whimsy Scale.
Santa makes a brief cameo, and as expected there are lots of toys, but this is more of a Wizard of Oz knock-off than a Christmas movie, even though the best version of The Wizard of Oz was still yet to come.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Wizard of Oz (1939) — A Technicolor triumph of over-the-rainbow greatness that is often under-appreciated today.
But the thing about Babes in Toyland: If you’ve always wanted to see Little Bo Peep get hit on by a creepy old landlord, who’s also trying to foreclose on the Old Woman’s Shoe, this is the film for you!
It’s kinda hard to blame landlord Barnaby. After all, according to the modern usage of the word, Little Bo seems to be one of the very few “babes” in Toyland. (And apparently Little Red Riding Hood and Miss Muffet just don't do it for him.) Never fear! Stannie and Ollie devise a cunning plan to rescue Bo from Barnaby’s clutches and unite her with her true love Tom-Tom.
Seriously, the Laurel and Hardy scenes are of A+ grade, and well worth watching. But they are too few, the plot is thin and eventually disappears, and you’ll be glad when the movie is over.
Someday, I’ll probably watch and review the colorized version, but that’s not part of our current tour. If done well, colorizing would most likely help this film quite a bit.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (2) 2025-12-04, sd7, 1.37, 1D
+ first viewed 2024-12-02, sd7, 1.37, 1D
+ 👨👩👧👦🎈🎄🍌🎶🦄🧚🥰💘🥸🤪🐾🐑
Family Suitability Detail
+ ✅3️⃣ OK for older kids. (Grades 4+) | Approved
+ 😡+3 😵💫+4 🤬+4 🤭+3 🫣+4
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ❎1️⃣ Fair/Slightly Favorable
+ ✝️ +1 ➕(❤️💒💜)
+ ✡️ +1 ➕🌗😠
+ 🗽 +0 ➕🏛️ ➖💲
Watch on YouTube:
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