Oddball Kids' Movies

[filkertom]

Only a few miles away from me, on Huron Street in Ypsi, is a reasonably new Kroger. I wanted to see if it was as nice as the one on Maple Road, where I have been shopping for a number of years. (The one on Carpenter, technically closest to my new address, and the one up on North Campus are big and clean and have maybe 60% of the stuff at the Maple Road one. The ones at Georgetown and on South Industrial... the less said, the better.)

Not bad. The produce section is huge, and very well organized. The butcher shop and deli seem decent. No Chippery or Boston Market. Very good pharmacy and magazine sections, much larger than any other Kroger in town. One cheapie DVD rack.

And on that rack was a movie I've been meaning to get for years: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

Live-action musical adventure, starring Tommy ("Timmy and Lassie") Rettig as Bart, a kid who dreams of a tyrannical piano teacher, Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried in fine form), determined to prove his "Happy Fingers" method is the ultimate way to learn piano. Bizarre, goofy flick -- one of those that you have to show people to prove it exists.

Did I mention that the story, screenplay, and lyrics are by Dr. Seuss?

What are some of your favorite non-standard kids' films? Things like The Phantom Tollbooth would count here -- most of us in fandom know about it, but it's not a "recognized classic" like Mary Poppins or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or The Wizard of Oz. Oh, and, just to make it more interesting, try to keep away from fully-animated films. As an example, Mary Poppins is only partially animated.

ETA: Oh, let fly on the animateds. Heck, my freakin' example, The Phantom Tollbooth, is about 90% animated.

ETA2: As long as I'm thinking of it, the animated Snow Queen -- the one shown in the U.S. with the live-action intro by Art Linkletter.

Comments

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

How "recognized classic" is Bedknobs and Broomsticks?

I also remember a film called Waterbabies, but I don't remember much of it other than being entranced by it, so I guess it wasn't my favorite.

And in case you never get around to asking about fully-animated ones, The Last Unicorn, beeyotch! =P

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I certainly think Disney would like Bedknobs and Broomsticks to be recognized as a classic. ;) And we'll get to the animateds soon enough.

ETA: Silly frickin' me. Just remembered that The Phantom Tollbooth is about 90% animated. Okay, animateds are fair game. :)

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Legend. Oh hush, it had unicorns in it!

And the Trifecta of 1980s Fantasy should stand here...The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and The Neverending Story. Three 'kids' movies that didn't assume kids were stupid.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I own all of those but The Neverending Story, which I should get at some point. Dunno that Legend counts as a kids' movie, if for no other reason that Mia Sara's dance....

[archanglrobriel.livejournal.com]

"The Brave Little Toaster is one of my favorites. I mean, it's a story about a toaster, for cryin' out loud. "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" was one that I loved when I was really small. Remember that one? Don Knotts as a neurotic fish? Oh and then there's "Gay Purree" with art by Andy Warhol and a cat voiced by Judy Garland...really you can't go wrong with that one.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I have got to get Limpet and Gay Purr-ee. Love 'em both. For some reason, the song "Bubbles" (sung by Robert Goulet and Red Buttons) earworms me now and then.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

Your mentioning The Wizard Of Oz made me think immediately of 1985's Return To Oz with Fairuza Balk as Dorothy (although I wasn't a child when it came out). Beautifully done, and far truer to the Baum books in look and feel than the classic Judy Garland film (much as I love it). I always found the whole wardrobe full of heads thing so deliciously horrifying in the books, and they did a fine job of it in the movie, too.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

We used to have The Worst Movie Critic In History™ at the Ann Arbor News. His name was Christopher Potter, and he was one of the biggest idiots, most pretentious jackasses, and most wrong critics EVAR. Not so bad on theater (although still pretentious), but at movies, feh. He actually wrote at one point that David Lynch's Dune just might be the best movie ever made, because of the clarity of the vision of the director.

Over a period of twenty-odd years, Potter and I agreed on precisely one movie: Return To Oz. When I read that he also thought it was a dark, complex, very well made film, much deeper and more interesting than the usual Disney fare, I spent a moment reflexively considering if I really felt that way about it -- if Potter liked it, what shit was I overlooking?

"kids" movies

[j-e-richards.livejournal.com]

I'm very fond of the Angelica Huston (either "Rats" or "Mice") where she is the head witch turning nasty little children into mice. As is always in these tales (tails) she is foiled by the little dears, but it's a great film.

Re: "kids" movies

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I think you're thinking of The Witches, based on the Roald Dahl book.

[briansiano.livejournal.com]

_Watership Down_.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Another one I have to get, and another one at the edges of "kids' movie". Scary little flick.

What am I saying? As a kid, I loved scary flicks.

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

• The Worst Witch series, which I think was done by BBC (I know it's British, but I'm apalled at the "English" dubbing, putting American accents over the already-English-speaking actors).
• Stuart Little
• The original live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Even though it's not technically a "kids' movie," I feel that no childhood can be complete without at least one viewing of The Adventures Of Robin Hood (Erroll Flynn, not Disney)
• Flash Gordon is up there, too.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I'll second The Incredible Mr. Limpett and Gay Pur-ee. I'll put my vote in for the Last Unicorn as well. It's one of my favorites.

I'll put in votes for two old Danny Kaye movies as well. Those being The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Inspector General. Both wonderful movies and very heartfelt. The kind of movies that you don't see much any more.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

And I'll raise you Hans Christian Anderson, although that's closer to "classic" status.

[misterseth.livejournal.com]

Here's an obscure one: Jack and the Witch. An early 60s anime often shown on the SFM holiday network. It's about this young boy Jack and his animal friends who encounter a group of goblin children ruled by a beautiful/evil witch. Here's a YouTube clip:

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

This actually reminds me of a couple of old haloween specials I haven't seen in years.

One was an old 70's cartoon about a witch who helps a couple kids and their babysitter go trick or treating by turning them into monsters. It was pretty cool as I recall.

The other was about Dracula and the other monsters trying to save haloween by becoming scary again and the witch wanting equal power with Dracula.

For the life of me I can't remember the titles but I miss seeing them.

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

There was this movie called The Apple Dumpling Gang that I saw several times as a kid.

And of course, there's the live action space stuff from the 80's: The Explorers and Flight of the Navigator. I also loved D.A.R.R.Y.L.

I guess Goonies is a bit too classic now.

And more for teens than kids, but I was a kid when I saw it, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun with Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker. I watched that to death!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I loved The Apple Dumpling Gang. The kids were just okay, but, dude! Bill Bixby doing comedy, with Don Knotts and Tim Conway. And Harry Morgan, and David Wayne, and Slim Pickens, and John McGiver, and a rather hot pre-Webster Susan Clark....

[gridlockjoe.livejournal.com]

I had no idea Dr. T was out on DVD. I will have to get that for my mom.

One short film that I remember vividly from school was "Winter of the Witch". Hermione Gingold was an old witch whose haunted house was moved into by a mother and her young son. The son befriends the witch, and the witch starts making "happiness pancakes" which were accompanied on screen with psychedelic blue dots. I finally tracked down a copy.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I forgot Darny O'Gil and the Little People. Now THAT was an good movie. :)

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I meant Darby O'Gil. sorry

[zellion.livejournal.com]

What?? The 5000 fingers is on DVD? I MUST HAVE!
(My husband has never seen it.)

[zellion.livejournal.com]

Oh, Let's see there was an animated version of "Chocolate Fever" and "The Flying Purple People Eater" was live action.

that last one was pretty horrible ( i.e. cheesy) but my sister and I loved it because we were raised on oldies.

Best Oddball animated kids movie ever? Carebears in Wonderland. Someday my VHS tape will die and I will sob for days. It has the best songs.

[per_solo]

I saw Watership Down when I was 8...I still, to this day, love it..but am not sure it should be a "kids" film. :-)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks...Who Framed Roger Rabbit (saw when a teenager...then immediately had to read the book..which was different), The Water Babies...and...hmm...those are the ones that come first to mind.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is a pretty tame (almost lame, honestly) mystery novel with one brilliant premise, the one that carried over to the movie. I understand there are sequels out there; never been moved to read them. But the movie? An absolute classic.

[madrona.livejournal.com]

the thief and the cobbler

[evil_plotbunny]

Dudley Do-Right
Josie and the Pussycats
My Little Pony: the Movie (don't ask)
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Alex Rider: Stormbreaker

[rivkaesque.livejournal.com]

Bedknobs and broomsticks. Tron (well, it was a kid's movie according to my folks...). Labyrinth. Umm... yeah, probably a few more. I was addicted to Nadia, a dramatization of the life of Nadia Comaneci. Is Neverending story a 'standard kids film'?

BTW, I've never actually seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. any good?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Crazed little film, with wonderful performances (and, bluntly, a few watershed scenes for various fetishes, but who knew when we were eight?) and a second-tier villain who out-slimes Snape....

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

It's seasonal, but I watch A Wish for Wings That Work all year round.

Another vote for The Incredible Mr. Limpet; I could never watch it enough as a kid (in the days before VCRs and constant reruns).

With you on both ...Dr. T and The Phantom Tollbooth (although there are points where I have to remind myself that the latter is the movie, not the book).

I'm sure that there are about half a dozen others I'm not thinking of, and will remember when I'm fully awake.

[dave-ifversen.livejournal.com]

Twice Upon A Time is pretty good, too. Very strange animation style and lots of fun.

[enigmaticfox.livejournal.com]

Heh, I wondered if anyone else would put forward Twice Upon a Time! Awesome little flick, with bizarre animation and jokes. :) Check it out if you find time, Tom!

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

Sit back with a glass of vintage pickle juice and enjoy.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

The Thief and the Cobbler.

"Bing-Bong-Biddy-Biddy-Bum-Biddy-Bool,
We're what happens when you don't finish school!"

I mean, what can you add to that? Other than animations that look like they were drawn by MC Escher?

Among my distant childhood memories is something called, I believe, Dominic, an English boy adventure involving an inheritance, villains named Finn and Wardle trying to capture Dominic the hero, and an eccentric lord named Stainton who plays with rockets. Other than my own distant memory, I have yet to find proof that the movie really exists. Does it ring a bell for anybody else? Could I have just imagined it?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Not a movie, but a British mini-series (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281435/).

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I was always partial to an odd bit of anime called Alakazam the Great. It and the Selfish Giant haunted me for years.


Speaking of Haunting:
Am I totally dreaming it (IMDB seems to think so) or was there an animated Little Mermaid in the 1950-60s with Talullah Bankhead as the voice of the sea witch?
(there's another haunting me, with a giant machine that sucked good creatures in a mouth at one end and spat them out evil minions on the other)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Gotta know how to look. ;) It was part of a collection of Anderson adaptations called The Daydreamer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060283/).

No recommendations, but...

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T is one of my favorite flicks.

[misterseth.livejournal.com]

Gawd Dr. T was brilliant! He had an impenetrable fortress, loyal, dumb, disposable and surprisingly musical henchmen, a full fledged dungeon, an evil uniform, dastardly plan, and was a piano teacher to boot!
The perfect supervillain!

Almost drives The Monarch, Cobra Commander, Blofeld, Bad Horse and Dick Cheney to shame!

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

And the Dungeon Song! And Going Do-Mi-Do-ing! And other fun stuff!