The Phantom Tollbooth

Plot synopsis:
Milo is a boy bored by the world around him; every activity seems a waste of time. He arrives home from another boring day at school to find a mysterious package. Among its contents are a small tollbooth and a map of "the Lands Beyond", illustrating the Kingdom of Wisdom (which will also guide the reader from its place on the endpapers of the book). Attached to the package is a note "For Milo, who has plenty of time". Warned by an included sign to have his destination in mind, he decides without much thought to go to Dictionopolis, assuming this is a pretend game to be played on the floor of his room. He maneuvers through the tollbooth in his electric toy car, and instantly finds himself driving on a road that is clearly not in his city apartment.
Milo begins with Expectations, a pleasant place where he starts on Wisdom's road. In Expectations, he seeks directions from the Whether Man, who is full of endless talk. As Milo drives on, he daydreams and soon is paying no attention at all, and gets lost in the Doldrums, a colorless place where nothing ever happens. Milo is soon joining the inhabitants, the Lethargarians, in killing time there, a pastime angrily interrupted by the arrival of Tock, a talking oversize dog with an alarm clock on each side (a "watchdog"), who tells Milo that only by thinking can he get out of the Doldrums. Head abuzz with unaccustomed thoughts, Milo is soon back on his road, and the watchdog joins him on his journey through Wisdom.
Milo and Tock travel to Dictionopolis, one of two capital cities of the divided Kingdom of Wisdom, and home to King Azaz the Unabridged. They meet King Azaz's cabinet officials and visit the Word Market, wherein are bought and sold the words and letters that empower the world. A fight between the Spelling Bee and the blustering Humbug breaks up the market, and Milo and Tock are arrested by the very short Officer Shrift. In prison, Milo meets the Which (not to be confused with Witch), also known as Faintly Macabre, long in charge of which words should be used in Wisdom. She tells him how the two rulers, King Azaz and his brother, the Mathemagician, had two adopted younger sisters, Rhyme and Reason, to whom everyone came to settle disputes. All lived in harmony until the rulers disagreed with the princesses' decision that letters (championed by Azaz) and numbers (by the Mathemagician) were equally important. They banished the princesses to the Castle in the Air, and since then, the land has had neither Rhyme nor Reason.
Milo and Tock leave the dungeon. King Azaz hosts them at a banquet where the guests literally eat their words, served to them on plates. After the meal, King Azaz lets Milo and Tock talk themselves into a dangerous quest to rescue the princesses. Azaz flatters the Humbug into being their guide, and boy, dog and insect set off for the Mathemagician's capital of Digitopolis as they must gain his approval before they can begin their quest.
Along the way, they meet such characters as Alec Bings, a little boy suspended in the air who sees through things and who will grow down until he reaches the ground. Milo then loses time in substituting for Chroma the Great, a conductor whose orchestra creates the colors of the world.
In Digitopolis, they meet the Mathemagician, who is still angry at Azaz, and who will not give his blessing to anything that his brother has approved. Milo maneuvers him into saying he will permit the quest if the boy can show the two have concurred on anything since they banished the princesses. To the number wizard's shock, Milo proves that the two have agreed to disagree, and the Mathemagician gives his reluctant consent.
In the Mountains of Ignorance, the journeyers contend with demons like the Terrible Trivium and the Gelatinous Giant. After overcoming testing obstacles and their own fears, they reach the Castle in the Air. Princesses Rhyme and Reason welcome Milo and agree to return to Wisdom. Unable to enter the castle, the demons cut it loose, letting it drift away, but Milo realizes Tock can carry them down because time flies. The demons pursue, but the armies of Wisdom repel them. Rhyme and Reason heal the divisions in the old Kingdom of Wisdom, Azaz and the Mathemagician are reconciled, and all enjoy a three-day celebration.
Milo says goodbye and drives back through the tollbooth. Suddenly he is back in his own room, and discovers he has been gone only an hour, though his journey seemed to take weeks. He awakens the next day with plans to return to the kingdom, but finds the tollbooth gone when he gets home from school. A note instead is there, "For Milo, who now knows the way." The note states that the tollbooth is being sent to another child who needs help finding his direction in life. Milo is somewhat disappointed but agrees and looks at a now-interesting world around him, concluding that even if he found a way back, he might not have time to go, for there is so much to do right where he is.

Tags: fantasy, whimsical, insanity, psychedelic, revenge, storytelling

Review:
The Chuck Jones-directed animation is terrific and although the music is very 1969 middle-of-the-road (dreamy choruses and faux-Herb Alpert trumpet), it doesn't get in the way of a clever adventure story that celebrates using your mind to solve problems.
I argue that Chuck Jones is the most important of the animation directors of the Golden Age of Cartoons, and this is his only full-length feature.
If you like his cartoons, you should definitely hunt for this charming adaptation of Norton Juster's charming (if pedantic) novella.Here's the interesting thing about "Phantom Tollbooth".
The Phantom Tollbooth is warped movie from the warped mind of the great Chuck Jones.Milo, an ordinary boy, is bored with life.
From here on in, he journeys to the "Whether" man, into the doldrums, meets tock, the watchdog, and onward to Dictionopolis and the Kingdom of Numbers in order to save Rhyme and Reason.The movie is twisted in every which way; there are plenty of songs the make no sense but make you laugh out loud.
The Animation is typical "Looney Tunes" style but works very well with the quirky plot.The Phantom Tollbooth is a lost gem the deserves DVD treatment in the worst way.
While complaining on the phone to his friend that he is bored stiff, he is startled by the sudden arrival of a strange package which, when unwrapped, unfolds into a gateway into a magical world...Like all of Chuck Jones' work, this movie is great for children and doesn't seem dated at all.
The avuncular "Watch Dog" Tock will look fairly familiar to any regular viewer of Chuck's work on Warner Brothers' short cartoons.
The songs are lots of fun and you'll probably be humming them for a long time afterwards.All in all a great movie for kids, and Mums and Dads too.
Like Chuck Jones' earlier "Gay Purr-ee," this is a good film for those who are looking for something good, if decidedly different, in family entertainment.
Mel Blanc, June Foray, Shepard Menken, etc., contribute their usual outstanding voice work (The scenes with Blanc as "Officer Short Shrift," especially, are a howl!), and the visuals, as one would expect from Jones, are consistently outstanding and imaginative.Not that the film is without its' faults, by any means.
And, finally, Butch Patrick (Best known as "Eddie Munster" on "The Munsters") plays Milo, the central character, as such a whiney little jerk, at least in the beginning, that it's hard to work up much sympathy for him as the story goes on.
Plus, even though he was still short for his age, there was no disguising the fact that he was, in every other way, a fast-maturing fifteen year old, and, thus, just a bit too old for the procedngs.But, and I have to emphasize this again, don't let you stop you from seeing this movie.
I think it has only been on UK television twice in my lifetime and I am now 42.I still love some animated films, especially PIXAR movies as I appreciate the shading and rendering needed to make parts like the water in Ratatouille so amazingly realistic.Back to the Phantom Tolbooth, I think Disney or/and Pixar should re-make this film but I still love the original.Will buy it on DVD if ever it is released..
Granted, the moralizing was a bit heavy-handed, but all the same, I loved it when I was young and still find it entertaining now.BTW: Those of you who did not like the movie may want to read the book.
A youngster from San Francisco, bored with school and with time to kill, is offered an educational round-trip from a Phantom Tollbooth; he turns animated and takes a journey to the Castle in the Sky, where Rhyme and Reason have been banished by Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, the feuding worlds of words and numbers who each believe they are most important.
Uneven animated feature (with live-action prologue and epilogue featuring Butch Patrick) is an erratic but interesting adaptation of Norton Juster's book, punctuated with musical interludes (and some odd "Wizard of Oz"-isms).
There is a segment with milo checking out the tollboth as a human and animated!!!This movie is fine for families, just do not expect any of the disney stuff they see all the time nowadays!!!!It has no swearing, violence or sex, so everyone under 10 can enjoy this classic underated movie!!!.
The characters have incredible voices that take you back to Saturday morning cartoons.It's a movie that parents can enjoy with their kids, teenagers can enjoy with friends, and all people should agree it's like a tiny mind trip without the drugs.Anyone that can't find joy somewhere in this movie is stuck in the Doldrums!.
This was also one of the first movies I remember seeing - not in cinemas (the movie came out the year I was born!), but on BBC1 in the 1970s, and later on TV again in the 1980s.Norton Juster also provided the source material for Jones' truly wonderful Oscar-winning short "The Dot and the Line," and this movie is another happy marriage - although the songs are for the most part guilty of slowing down the action, and this movie is not as child-friendly as the medium would suggest (the writing and a lot of the imagery don't have "cute" written all over them), it's a treat for fans of Jones and of cartoons that at least try to have something to say.
A lot of elements in the book obviously had to be left out (such as the half-child Milo meets while trying to get to the Land of Infinity ("Infinity is a dreadfully poor place - they can never manage to make ends meet"), and the man who's a thin man to fatties, a fat man to thinnies, a midget to tall men and a giant to those of diminished stature), and I'm not too sure having Milo see the tollbooth arrive and leave was such a good idea, but Jones and his team manage to bring Juster's fine work to the screen without damaging it en route.
Overall, a nice animated adaption of Juster's great book, and another excellent animated feature from Chuck Jones..
I consider myself a big kid, personally, and many a movie I watched in my childhood still holds a special place for me (Transformers, The Dark Crystal, Sword in the Stone, etc.) but unfortunately I've outgrown the Phantom Tollbooth at age 22.
Hell, I don't even know which Maestro bit came first; the one from this, or when Bugs is conducting the orchestra.Either way, my point is that while the animation is great, it's still a Looney Tunes movie without the Looney Tunes, and while the message is a good one, it is far too heavy handed for many adults to take.Highly recommended for the young, mildly recommended for the old.
Classic surrealistic Chuck Jones animated feature film (with some live action parts).
I would say educational as well but if your kid is able to learn from the fast-paced and often tongue-twisting wordage here then they are much smarter than I was as a tyke.The plot is about a young boy named Milo (Butch Patrick) who enters a mysterious tollbooth and is transported to the Kingdom of Wisdom.
I understand that Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc had to find something to do now that they were no longer creating Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons, but a musical doesn't seem like the right thing.
"What's to become of Milo?" That was the question posed by "Milo's Theme," the catchy pop tune co-written and produced by Lee Pockriss and Norman Gimbel, which opens Chuck Jones' 1969 film adaptation of Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth." I've seen the film myself, even during the early years of at least two of the Turner-owned networks: TNT and the Cartoon Network.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had bought the rights to Tollbooth, along with Juster's second kids' book, The Dot and the Line, in around 1967; shortly thereafter, the management then in place at MGM assigned both properties to animation legend Chuck Jones, who by then was under contract to MGM.
He not only made the short, bringing in actor Robert Morley to read the entire Juster text from The Dot and the Line, he also transformed "The Phantom Tollbooth" into a 90-minute feature --- i.e., an animated cartoon bookended by live-action sequences filmed on location in San Francisco, and starring Eddie Munster himself, Butch Patrick.
And that brings us to the part of this story concerning my very special dream: after having seen the Chuck Jones Tollbooth, I have spent the last several years tackling plans for a live-action, nonmusical remake of "The Phantom Tollbooth" --- in fact, I have actually spoken with Norton Juster himself about this!
--- one that would basically correct the mistakes Chuck Jones had no doubt made when he filmed Tollbooth in late 1968.
Mr. Juster has expressed his gratitude that I should want a new film version of his beloved book, but officially he has little to say on the matter in light of the fact that Chuck's 1969 film is, of course, part of the Turner Entertainment library.
With their combined expertise in computer-generated characters, animatronic effects, special make-up techniques and other way-cool elements, only ILM and the Henson Shop could truly make the magic of "The Phantom Tollbooth" come alive --- especially for what George Lucas once called that "generation [doomed to grow up] without fairy tales." And I have wanted nothing less than to be the man to make it all --- and I do mean ALL!
"But Richard," I sense you're asking, "did you like the movie itself?" Yes. Artistically, Jones' Tollbooth is a visual treat; and its clever motive of taking the concepts of Juster's Dictionopolis and Digitopolis to literal extremes provides the largest degree of 'eye candy.' The film does, sadly fall short by making the two Princesses, Rhyme and Reason, mere silhouettes; that, alas, denies the viewer the pleasure of seeing how beautiful they really are.
The Grand Studio of the Lion was slowly dying when this musical for kids was released.I read the Norton Juster Book in '71 before seeing the film at a summer film series in my hometown public library.
The movie "Tollbooth" I found faithful to the book, but I didn't like the way the characters were animated.
The animation was good, and the story was fairly true to the book (which isn't always necessary), but the characters just didn't live up to my "great" expectations.
Could one imagine the effect of making Lord of the Rings into a musical would have done to its chances for an Oscar bid?At any rate, my older son has read the book now, a number of times, and has seen the movie (in school).
I have always preferred to watch a film rather than read its book (a mixture of laziness and becoming bored quickly).
The order in which Milo hits his destinations, such as Chroma's place, and Dr. Dischord's van also made more sense in the book and probably should have been followed more strictly in the movie, for the sake of the story's flow.
Oh well, maybe another producer will pull off the Phantom Tollbooth in a better way, but for now, read the book; the story flows much more nicely when it is read..
But it is intriguing."Phantom Tollbooth" is apparently somewhat of an educational film, but it is not -- how could it be, coming from Jones?
so they could listen to her hilarious answering machine messages.Other voices included the extraordinary Mel Blanc and Daws Butler, the great radio star (who also did a few movies, though not enough to suit me) Les Tremayne, and others whom we've all heard even if we didn't realize it at the time.Purely as a theatrical experience, "Phantom Tollbooth" might not be for everyone, but surely every person who frequents IMDb will want to see it.I recommend it..
in fact im quite sure itd be more entertaining to just listen to an obnoxious alarm clark while listening to dogs bark, than to waste any moment of time watching this horrid movie.
Having nothing better to do, he gets in his toy car and drives through, only to emerge in a world full of adventure.This film is pretty good, and the animation is quite well-done.
I think those who read the book will better appreciate the film.Would I like to see a remake of this?
It's as if Chuck wanted to get to the animation as fast as possible.3) When we get to this animated world, it's very mundane and not very imaginative, ESPECIALLY the opening scenes involving the doldrums.Do we really need to see the main character yawning while other snot-like creates yawn too?
Adults should love the book, especially those with feelings just like Milo's..
As he drives the given car through the tollbooth, he turns into a cartoon character in an animated world.From the mind of Chuck Jones based on a children's book, this is a wild and imaginative road trip.
I am a fan of animation and of Chuck Jones, and I really like The Phantom Tollbooth.
After that, my brother and I seldom missed the opportunity to rent it out again if we could, and even today we can probably quote the entire film to each other, or to anyone who would want to listen for that matter.Made by MGM in 1970, The Phantom Tollbooth pretty much remains faithful to Norton Juster's book but gets brought right up to date, (for the time that is), and given a good dose of phsycodelia.Milo, (Butch Patrick), is a bored young boy who lives in San Fransisco, one day a mysterious box appears in his bedroom, which contains a magic tollbooth which, when passed through takes Milo into a cartoon world called the Kingdom Of Wisdom.
I am a big fan of Chuck Jones, and I had heard of "The Phantom Tollbooth" in various contexts as an animated feature, so when I saw it on the cable schedule, I made sure to reserve the time to watch it.
Oh, sure, the main characters - the Watch Dog, the Humbug, Milo, the Mathemagician - are done as well as you expect from a Jones flick, and some of the backgrounds are suitably trippy, but most of the monsters and supporting cast (including Rhyme and Reason) are slapdash and badly conceived and look like another crew of 2nd unit apprentices did them.
I really wanted to like this movie as much as I do those two (which sport a similar style of character animation) and I want to overlook its faults, because it has a good heart.
When I was younger, I didn't exactly pay much attention to the plot, but the idea of being able to get into a car that builds itself in your room and somehow become animated was just exhilarating to my young imagination and it probably will be to other children of that age.The film begins with Milo, a young boy with way too much time on his hands.
In fact you could say all three stories are a trilogy of uber classic fantasy tales but like I said I don't think many folk have heard of this one.This cutesy little tale follows Milo, a young schoolboy, with a drab boring life...or so he thinks.
Milo is soon lead on an adventure to save a couple Princesses from a strange castle in the sky along with a few companions he meets along the way.Produced by the legendary Chuck Jones who was at the peak of his greatness coming off a string of massively successful Looney Tune cartoon shorts and 'Tom & Jerry' (amongst other things).
There is another great little moment where Milo discovers he appears in cartoon form once crossing the tollbooth barrier which is typically Chuck Jones, again its simple but effective.
From there on as Milo goes through the tollbooth the film crosses over into full animation and doesn't go back to live action until Milo comes back across the barrier.This isn't just any old silly fantasy filled with monsters and heroes oh no, like the source material its actually very smart.
Such as Milo enjoying a feast with King Azaz where they all tuck in and eat their own words.The visuals are passable by today's standards but a little sketchy admittedly, its nice to see hand drawn animation and its all very Chuck Jones.
The plot about a boy who finds life meaningless and dull - discovers a box in his room that takes him to an animated world of words and numbers and to me just plain gibberish which most small kids will find boring and not understand the puns or jokes.
They may enjoy the animation and the live action sequences with Butch "Eddie Munster"Patrick but everything else will be over their heads and boring.One thing I did notice was that the character of Milo is supposed to be 10, Butch Patrick was going on 15 when this movie was filmed - however he does look like a much younger kid than 15.
The dialog Milo spouts at the beginning is very adult for a kid of that age too -Like "What's the point of it all "" There's no rhyme or reason to life"?
2/10 stars - Not worth watching except maybe for die hard Chuck Jones animation fans..
I haven't watched the movie, but if it is anything like the book, then it is really a waste of your time.
So, I have enjoyed discovering shorts such as "The Dot and Line" and movies such as "The Phantom Tollbooth" in my later years.
An interesting thing about this animated film is that it's likely way over the heads of young audience that it is about, but clearly aimed at the parents of those kids.
If we let kids go like Milo at the start, they'll fall way behind in life.A number of actors voice the cartoon characters in the film - all very well.