Babes in Toyland

Plot synopsis:
The film begins as a stage play presented by Mother Goose and her talking goose, Sylvester, about Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary and Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son, who are about to be married. The miserly and villainous Barnaby hires two crooks, dimwitted Gonzorgo and silent Roderigo. They are to throw Tom into the sea and steal Mary's sheep, depriving her of her means of support, to force her to marry Barnaby. Mary is unaware that she is the heir to a fortune, but Barnaby is aware and wants it all for himself. Gonzorgo and Roderigo decide to sell Tom to the Gypsies instead of drowning him, in order to collect a double payment.
Gonzorgo and Roderigo return and tell Mary, Barnaby, and the citizens of Mother Goose Land that Tom has accidentally drowned. They show Mary a forged letter in which Tom tells Mary he is abandoning her, and she would be better off marrying Barnaby. Mary, believing she is destitute, reluctantly accepts the proposal from Barnaby. Barnaby unknowingly arranges for the same Gypsies who have Tom to provide entertainment for the wedding. Tom, disguised as the Gypsy Floretta, reveals himself, and Barnaby pursues the frightened Gonzorgo and Roderigo, furious at their deception.
One of the children who live with Mary informs her of some sheep tracks leading into the Forest of No Return. The children sneak away into the forest to search for the missing sheep. The trees of the forest awaken and capture them. Tom and Mary follow and find the children in the forest, where they tell stories about the live trees. The trees seem just like ordinary trees to Tom and Mary. Tom, Mary, and the children camp for the night. In the morning, the trees once again come to life and explain that they are now in custody of the Toymaker in Toyland (who is also the Mayor and Chief of Police). Tom, Mary, and the children happily continue on, escorted part of the way by the trees.
Through the windows of the Toymaker's house they watch the Toymaker's brilliant apprentice, Grumio, present a new machine that makes toys without any manual labor. Overjoyed, the Toymaker speeds up the machine to such a high rate that it explodes, destroying every toy in the factory. Tom, Mary, and the children offer to help make more toys in time for Christmas.
Grumio presents another invention, a shrinking "gun" that reduces everyday objects to toy size. He warns that if it is used on anything more than once, the shrunken object disappears completely. The Toymaker is at first delighted at the idea of producing toys by shrinking life-sized objects, but then Tom points out the impossibility of finding enough everyday objects to shrink down into the large quantity of toys needed for Christmas. The Toymaker berates Grumio for his stupidity and throws the shrinking gun out the window in disgust.
Barnaby, who has been spying on them, takes the discarded shrinking gun and uses it to shrink the Toymaker and Tom. When Barnaby's henchmen see him threatening to shoot Tom a second time, they abandon Barnaby. They try to flee, but Barnaby shoots them and locks them up with Tom in a birdcage.
Barnaby forces Mary to marry him by threatening to destroy Tom, and he threatens to destroy the Toymaker if he refuses to preside over the wedding ceremony. While the Toymaker draws out the ceremony, Gonzorgo and Roderigo rescue Tom, and the three of them sneak away and return with an army of toy soldiers to fight Barnaby. Barnaby easily demolishes the toy soldiers. He is about to obliterate Tom with another dose from the shrinking gun, but Mary destroys it with a toy cannon. The liquid splatters all over Barnaby and shrinks him to toy size. Tom, after challenging Barnaby to a duel with swords, stabs Barnaby, who falls from a great height into an empty toybox.
Grumio presents another new invention, one that returns shrunken people to their original size. He immediately uses it on Tom, the Toymaker, Gonzorgo, and Roderigo, but not on Barnaby. Tom and Mary are married, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Tags: good versus evil, fantasy, entertaining

Review:
I fell in love with Stan and Ollie, with Toyland, with the magic of the movies, all at once- -all of us watching laughed and thrilled to see all of the characters we had heard of in nursery rhymes come to life- -even the Three Little Pigs (with "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" on the soundtrack, courtesy of Uncle Walt Disney's studio!)- -we trembled with ecstatic terror at Silas Barnaby and his army of Bogeymen and cheered the house down when Stan and Ollie discovered the Perfect way to rout them and save the day!- -and yes, many of us, watching Charlotte Henry and Felix Knight as Bo-Peep and her plucky suitor Tom-Tom (the Piper's Son), found awakening within ourselves the realization of what romantic love might be about.- -and Stan and Ollie?- -a funny, wonderful duo, children like ourselves, joyously silly and giddily amazing.
BABES IN TOYLAND (Hal Roach/MGM, 1934), directed Gus Meins and Charles Rogers, is a musical fairy tale based on Victor Herbert's 1903 operetta that became tailor-made for the talents of comedy team Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in what's considered to be their very best and highly acclaimed adaptation taken from an operatic work, thanks to its fine script, comedy material and notable storybook characters brought to life on the screen.
In spite of Stan and Ollie having to take time away from the screen in favor of plot development, musical interludes and romantic subplot, even appearing nearly ten minutes from the start of the story, the movie, overall, succeeds.Set in the mythical land of Toyland, Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) is an old woman about to be evicted from her home by the evil Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon) unless her mortgage is paid.
Stanley Dumb (Stan Laurel) and Oliver Dee (Oliver Hardy), a couple of toy-makers who take up room and board in Widow Peep's home, attempt to help by asking their employer, the toy master (William Burress) for an advance in salary, but because Stanley confused Santa Claus's (Ferdinand Munier) order 600 toy soldiers at one foot high, thus giving him 100 toy soldiers at six foot high instead of 600 soldiers at 1 foot high, they both get fired, and must come up with another solution in rescuing Bo-Peep from the clutches of Barnaby.A memorable score by Victor Herbert, only a few were selected for the screen, including: "Toyland" (sung by Virginia Karns); "Don't Cry, Bo-Peep, Don't Cry" (sung by Felix Knight); "The Castles in Spain," "Go to Sleep, Slumber Deep" and "The March of the Toys (Wooden Soldiers)." Some reissue prints retitled MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS eliminate Mother Goose's opening of "Toyland" as she opens the "Babes in Toyland" storybook and introduces it main characters in song: Little Bo Peep who lost her sheep; Tom Tom the Piper's Son; The Little Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe (Widow Peep); Silas Barnaby, "the meanest man in town"; Hi Diddle Diddle, The Cat and the Fiddle; Three Little Pigs: Elmer, Willie and Jiggs; and finally Stanley Dumb and Oliver Dee, "they love to sleep as you can see;" along with the "Go to Sleep" number, having recently been restored on both video and DVD distributions ranging from colorized to original black and white photography.
They are both set in a mythical land; Silas Barnaby and the Wicked Witch are evil individuals who bring fear to those around them; Barnaby is assisted by hideous Bogeymen while the Witch has her flying monkeys; Laurel and Hardy are do-gooders similar to the Tin Man and the Scarecrow; and finally Toyland citizens bursting into song.
Their key scenes include having them sneaking into Barnaby's home to retrieve Widow Peep's deed only to get caught, thanks to Stanley, and being sentenced to public dunking in a pond of cold water (only Ollie gets the treatment) and thrown out of Toyland into Boogeyland forever (the same fate later set for Tom-Tom accused of pig-napping Elmer, thanks to Barnaby); their participation in Barnaby's wedding, as well as the grand finale where the toy soldiers are brought to life from the toy factory in their war against the bogeymen with Stan and Ollie's ammunition of darts fired from the cannon.
Coyote tradition, but not to the extreme.More Laurel and Hardy than Victor Herbert, BABES IN TOYLAND is geared for children and adults alike, especially adults who watched this annually on television during the Christmas when they were kids themselves since the 1950s.
I know this movie better as "March of The Wooden Soldiers," but it really is one of, if not the, best of Laurel and Hardy.
Somehow cast as a Christmas movie (there is an arbitrary reference to Christmas in this movie, and a Santa Claus toy order is messed up), the movie shines as all of the characters in the Mother Goose tales come to life, as do the goblin-like bogey-men, but the movie's best parts shine on Laurel and Hardy's scenes.
Fabulous rendition of the Victor Herbert operetta.Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are endearing as the two workers in the toy factory who need to help out their landlady-the old lady who lives in the shoe.Not only can't they borrow money to help her with the mortgage, they soon find themselves out of work for making the wrong size soldier.
Leave it to Laurel and Hardy to dress up the former as a bride to fool the old skinflint.Bitter, Barnaby plots to destroy Henry (Bo Peep's) lover, Felix Knight.
Stannie Dumb (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy), live in a shoe (as in the nursery rhyme There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe), along with Mother Peep (the Old Woman), Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry), a mouse resembling Mickey Mouse (and actually played by a live monkey in a costume), and many other children.
MARY'S (1945)* and Charles Dickens'A Christmas CAROL (all versions).One film that makes its appearance with out any fanfare each Yuletide is BABES IN TOYLAND aka MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS (Hal Roach/MGM, 1934).
Much of the music that was retained for the film was very well known to the general public.The Movie of BABES IN TOYLAND takes the characters of Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle Dee, prominent in English literature even before being featured in Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND; and transforms into Stannie-Dumb & Ollie-Dee. It was a near perfect adaptation; putting Laurel & Hardy right in the story, both as Mother Goose type characters and in their familiar roles.OUR STORYThe Boys have jobs working in the Toy Factory and share the rental of a room from Mother Peep (Florence Roberts), who is a Widow and lived in a huge Shoe and had so many Children, etc.
But, the "Crooked Little Man, who lives in a Crooked Little House" also holds the now overdue, subject to foreclosure Mortgage on Widow Pep's house.The Boys attempt to help Mother Peep both in trying to borrow the money from their stern and crabby boss, the Toymaker (William Burness) and in an unsuccessful attempt to steal the Mortgage agreement from Barnaby's house.Rather than see Stannie-Dumb & Ollie-Dee face punishment and to save her Mother and family from eviction, Bo-Peep agrees to nuptials with Barnaby.
In the finale, after Stan & Ollie rescue Bo-Peep & Tom-Tom, Barnaby leads the Bogeymen in the invasion an sacking of Toyland; until Laurel & Hardy turn the tables by using "The March of The Toys" and some hereto for useless Toy Soldiers.BABES IN TOYLAND (or MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS) successfully touches all the bases and hits the ball right out of the ball park, a Grand Slammer!
And we are treated to a vast array of the great Comedians' best stuff; what, with Stan's prowess for a sort of "stick ball game" ("Peewees") and some references to bits of comic business from previous pictures.Producer,Mr. Hal Roach, Sr. did an excellent job of assembling a supporting cast featuring many a veteran of the old silent comedy days, like Old King Cole (Sennett veteran Kewpie Morgan), Chief of Police (Billy Blecher) and Townsmen (Sam Lufkin, Ham Kinsey & Roach Studios regulars, Baldwin Cooke & Charlie Hall).
(What a "dirty old man" I have become!) The music is all Victor Herbert, but for short quotations from Disney's "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf"; as the Three Little Pigs and a couple of additional characters added were "The Cat and the Fiddle's" foil, a Monkey dressed as Mickey Mouse!
Mother Goose characters inhabit Toyland, as do Stannie Dumb (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy).
It has some good musical numbers like 'Toyland,' 'Castle in Spain,' 'Never Mind, 'Bo-Peep,' and the one in the cave that used to put me to sleep; you even hear 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?' in the background in a Three Little Pigs scene.This movie passes my Test of Time Test: I watched it with my 8 and 10 year old grand children-- they were hypnotized throughout, really enjoying and laughing at Laurel and Hardy's comedy, and were appropriately scared by the sight of the bogey-men.
This movie is perfect for anyone who is exactly eight years old (or who ever has been).We get Ollie's famous finger wiggles, Stan's plays on words, and a little edgy content for adults when Stan, disguised as Bo-Peep, marries Barnaby and does his pinched face cry, when he realizes he then has to stay with Barnaby, "But I don't love him!" Later, when Ollie says that Stannie gets along with Barnaby, he replies, "But that was before we were married." I give this film a 10.
There's more to Toyland than meets the eye apparently.Now mean man Barnaby is tricked by Laurel and Hardy into not marrying Bo Peep, so he frames Tom Tom as a killer of one of the three little pigs.
The razor thin story of the lecherous Barnaby trying to steal-away Bo-Peep from the virginal TomTom made me thank-goodness for the fast-forward ability of the DVD format!The film is really more of a fantasy than a comedy, so don't expect much L & H fun-making.
Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee are the toy makers in toyland.Toyland is a fantasy town, where there are lots of great characters, like three little pigs.Stannie and Ollie have to get money to old man Barnaby, or he marries the beautiful miss Little Bo-Peep.
Babes in Toyland is a great Laurel and Hardy comedy.There are lots of great actors in the movie.Charlotte Henry is cute as Little Bo-Peep, Felix Knight is nice as Bo-Peep's sweetheart and Henry Brandon is great as the evil Barnaby.The movie has many memorable moments, like when Stannie marries Barnaby.And there are some great musical numbers in it.You gotta see the movie..
That "crooked man who walked a crooked mile" - Silas Barnaby - makes a good, nasty villain and the finale with the Bogey Men is a real treat.(Trivia: Hal Roach arranged with Walt Disney for 4 of Disney's cartoon characters to appear "live" in this film, which explains what Mickey Mouse and the 3 Little Pigs are doing here.
The Victor Herbert-Glen McDonough music will last forever and productions for Theater companies that specialize in youth will always be putting on this show.Hal Roach put on this one and it starred his two favorite comedy players Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy playing sorcerer's apprentices to the evil Barnaby played by Henry Brandon.
The song,"TOYLAND", is a classic and the Santa Claus is especially jolly even in the Boys'mayhem all around.They lived happily ever after and only this movie has introduced the great Laurel and Hardy to a new generation of kids with any success.This film is over 70 years old now and as popular as ever thanks to video......(THE GOV).
So it's up to Stan and Ollie to save the day.For some odd reason, this Laurel and Hardy movie has been elevated to classic status.
During the 1930s, Hal Roach Studios (affiliated with MGM) periodically put the team in some really weird movies and this one may not be the weirdest one (that honor goes to either BABES IN TOYLAND of FRA DIAVOLO--an OPERETTA with Laurel and Hardy comedy segments!)--but it certainly is one of the worst full-length film they made--and this includes most of their rather lame 1940s and 1950 film (the only ones that are worse than BABES are THE BIG NOISE and UTOPIA).
Giant, elaborate sets, peppy musical numbers, nightmare-fuel costumes (that mouse!), and in the middle are Stan and Ollie providing a much needed injection of modernism into the fairy tale aesthetic.In a way, this is kind of like a proto-Shrek, aware of itself and its fairy-tale conventions, if only because of its two stars and their own comic timing, except here it's more timeless due to the black and white photography (I didnt watch the colorized version), and because of the MGM/Golden-age Hollywood production, from the non-stop music to the innocent-but-not-too-innocent tone - yes, mortgages and foreclosures included.
They are well-known in Brazil as " The Fat and the Thin" and had in the past a great success here and made a lot of fans, meanwhile l don't belong their era l've really like them, they made a physical comedy like the Three Stooges, in this old movie made in black and white mixing comedy and musical on a fantasy land sounds great, the musical part is unfashionable nowadays, apart from that all movie is funny and enchanting, my DVD copy is colorized that means that it was of high relevance through the time and valuable until now, the great sets builded in a large studio shown why this picture survives and continues and sharing to new generation this gem from the past!!Resume:First watch: 2012 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25.
Only a few of their feature length films were able to sustain the pair's humor all the way through: "Sons of the Desert," "Way Out West" and most definitely "Babes in Toyland."Walt Disney tried his hand at a remake, and Drew Barrymore starred in a (1986) TV-movie version, but neither of these come close to the original.
Laurel & Hardy Came to Fairyland in 1934.When they starred in Hal Roach's cinematic version of "Babes In Toyland!".From the start,the boys brought their comedic magic to the screen.As their approach to spoofing man's foilbels fit in with the musical/fantasy of The Victor Herbert and Glen McDonough comic opera.The story has Poor Old "Mother Peep"/"The Old Woman Who Lives In A Shoe"(Flo Roberts)trying to prevent the evil and lecherous mortage holder"Silas Barnaby"(Henry Kleinbach Brandon)trying to force "Mother Peep"to either pay off the mortage or allow her daughter "Little Bo Peep"(Charolette Henry)to marry him .As an alternitive to Eviction."Little Bo Peep"doesn't love "Barnaby",she loves "Tom Tom Piper"(Felix Knight).And she has trouble in preventing the villian from throwing out her family and "Mrs.Peep's"two struggleing boarders.The two Boarders"Stannie Dum & Ollie Dee"(Laurel & Hardy)are two unsuccessful asistant toymakers.Who try to get a loan from "The Toymaker"(Bill Burress)to help pay off the mortage.But when the boys inadvertedly make the wrong size for Santa Claus'(Ferdi Munier's)order of Toy Wooden Soldiers for Christmas.
They also  allow one of their creations to run amok in the toy factory.The boys are fired.And they have to find another way of preventing "Barnaby"From evicting them and bringing "Bo Peep"and "Tom Tom"Together.While the film doesn't maintain the entire score from the original stage production.It does have the best songs from the show's score(arranged and performed by The Hal Roach Studio orchastra and conducted by Harry Jackson and John Swallow)It also has a beautiful setting that maintains the flavor of the original stage production(Courtsey of William Cameron Menzies)and it has  some ingenuius special visual effects courtsey of The Hal Roach Studios master FX Magicians:Art Lloyd And Roy Seawright and the fine direction of Gus Meins(Who worked with the kids)and Charley Rogers(Who worked with the comic/character actors and singers in this film.Mr.Rogers also had a small cameo in this film as"Simple Simon").and some chills..as L&H,their cannon of darts  and their armies of Toy Wooden Soldiers foil "Barnaby"and his "Bogeymen"Monsters during the film's climatic ending.Most importantly..The film has the comedic brillance of Laurel & Hardy.Which makes this film a classic for adults and for the kids.Forget about The Walt Disney,NBC TV and MGM/UA Remakes?
They live in Toyland in the house with the Old Woman who lives in the Shoe and her daughter, Little Bo Peep, whose grown up and loves Tom Tom. When the evil Silas Barnaby threatens to evict the old lady in the shoe, Stannie and Ollie have to come up with a plan to stop it including a wedding ceremony that will leave you laughing and an attack by the bogeymen in Bogeyland where you could be sent to live in exile and survive in the wilds.
Laurel & Hardy's Babes in Toyland is still a wonderfully made film for all the child-like joy one gets from it.
In summary, this was quite an enjoyable film, both as a Laurel & Hardy comedy and as a dramatic tale of the plight of the loving couple Tom-Tom (Felix Knight) and Bo-Peep (Charlotte Henry) and the villainous Barnaby's (Henry Kleinbach i.e. Brandon) attempts to marry the latter.
. MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS (1934) **** Laurel & Hardy are wonderfully cast in this adaptation of the childhood fave that incorporates all of the Mother Goose tales/characters in Babeland where the doofus duo Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum, respectively  try to help Old Mother Peep and Little Bo-Peep keep their shoe, um, their house, from the clutches of the evil tyrant Silas Barnaby.
This 1934 Hal Roach production provides drama, songs by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, humor, especially from Laurel and Hardy, and romance, involving the young lovers of TomTom(Felix Knight)and Bo Peep.(Charlotte Henry) Quite a few nursey rhyme and children's story book characters wander through.