Slow moving non-musical

Rating: 6/10 (19 February 2006)

I always thought that an operetta or a musical film should contain fairly fast moving action,choruses,humor, perhaps some uniforms,catchy music and singing talent. "The Sound of Music" contains only some of these.There are uniforms but not necessarily ones you'd want to run into.They're not Austrian Hussars,Russian officers,Mounties, but Nazis at the time of the Anschluss. Nor are they the most exciting voices: the Mother Superior exhorts,somewhat out of place, the "Climbing of every Mountain", the Baron (or Count),if he does at all, sings in an uninteresting bland voice; Julie Andrews is no Lily Pons or Kathryn Grayson, or even Jeanette MacDonald,but vocalizing in "Pediatric".walks us through her favorite places where "the dog bites" or "the bee stings". "When you're sixteen" etc. is rather insipid, and the nuns' chorus is on the juvenile side. The Baroness acts insecure rather than malicious and the whole cast of characters is not more than unidimensional. The photography and scenery are excellent,but apart from this I would feel that this is a children's picture; perhaps that was what was intended.