March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934)

I've never seen this film until a friend sent me a Youtube link to it. Not really a fan of Laurel and Hardy but I was pleasantly surprised. I was told even though it was shot in black and white, that it's best to see it in color (much sharper quality)

They poured a ton of money into this and it really is a weird film.Not much of a story and at times it drags,but it picks up towards the end. The three little pigs freaked me out and I wondered what kind of deal they made with Disney since we see Mickey (a monkey in costume) and they play 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf'?

The Fairy tale creatures and even the Boogey men are fun,even though over time it's become nothing more than camp. Not sure why people associate this with it being a Christmas movie but I'm just curious to hear what others think about this weird film.

---

I still find Tom, Tom to be utterly adorable. I feel like everyone must have suffered massive amounts of heatstroke from the costumes. The Boogey Men are basically wearing head to to shag carpeting!

Thanks Marianne2. That was pretty generous of Walt. The colorization really does look like early two strip technicolor,so I think that's why I did not mind it so much.

Barnaby was only 21? Damn!

Yeah, I really have become obsessed over this film. I love discovering movies like this.I watched this the same night I watched a movie called 'Santa Claus'. It was a Mexican movie made in 1959 where Santa goes up against the Devil. I really wanted to like that movie as well and actually watched the whole thing but was very bored. March of the Wooden Soldiers was a lot better, IMO.

---

Bdwaygirl, how is the b&w version on the DVD you bought? I always enjoyed this movie growing up and would love to have a good-quality DVD of it.

My family watched this each year for years on Thanksgiving. We lived in NYC and after the Macys Parade, we always watched it before the turkey. Great nostalgia for this old chestnut!

I knew the Annette Funicello Disney version first, and loved it as a kid, so it was strange seeing Babes in Toyland as a Laurel and Hardy vehicle. Of course either is better than the creepy 80s tv movie version with Drew Barrymore and (I think) Keanu Reeves. And all use different stories than the original 1903 hit Victor Herbert Broadway show (and, from what I can tell, from the version community companies still do now--I was a kid in one back in the late 80s--which I think are from a 1960s script.)

As for it being Xmas--I think for some reason the operetta itself has become a bit like an American Christmas pantomime--all the fairy tale characters, etc.

The original Herbert operetta was actually created due to the huge success the previous year of L Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz musical (the vaudevillian one where Toto is a cow, that ran in various versions for years.) The original score is GORGEOUS though--John McGlinn who did the complete Show Boat recording, among others, did a recording of the epic original score (including interludes like a cobweb ballet) but it was never released though copies are out there. The only songs that all of the versions tend to use are the ones in March - "Toyland" (opening), "Never Mind Bo-Peep", "Castle in Spain", "Go to Sleep (Slumber Deep)", and "March of the Toys" plust Can't Do the Sum.