Henry...encountered: The Phantom Tollbooth

You know you're near delirious with tiredness...


When you fall asleep to watching some weird stuff like The Phantom Tollbooth.


What a mishmash...what the heck-fire did I just watch? The movie, based on the children's "classic" written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer is one strange bird.

I had read the book, many, many years ago, but had forgotten almost all of it save that it was filled with some semi-witty puns and was kind of a "nerd boy's" version of Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. But to compare it to those two works is silly. The book has basically been forgotten in today's era and I doubt it will have a renaissance.

Anyway, the movie was produced by Chuck Jones (the genius behind a great deal of the Loony Toons classics, including the great "What's Opera, Doc?") in 1969 and does a fair job of adapting the book actually...but...I don't think this is one that needed to be made.

It's just so...boring. I mean there are clever parts...and the animation is actually kind of impressive given the time and apparent budget...but I just can't understand why a little kid would enjoy this.

The songs in this movie...good golly they're crap. Just no life to them. I give the film credit for getting on the "multiple songs in an animated film" wagon way before Disney really embraced it...but they're just so bad.

Also distracting is that the master of animated voice work, Mel Blanc, voices some characters in the film. So many characters have a... familiar voice...(coughBUGSBUNNYcough...ahemYOSEMITESAMahem). I mean, along those same lines, a lot of the animation is a little too reminiscent of those classic Loony Toons for my likings. You can't really blame Chuck Jones...but some of the character's facial ticks and eye movements are just a little too close to some of those from the great Warner Brother's cartoons.

Look, the movie is not without some clever bits. I really liked The Terrible Trivium, a faceless humanoid who seduces passers-by with mindlessly easy but pointless tasks on which they can waste all their time. That bit was quite well done. But the other "Demons of Ignorance" are more than a little tiresome.

To sum up, I'm gonna do the unthinkable and quote Family Guy. In one episode Lois Griffin, the "wife" on the show, admits to not liking The Godfather because, "it insists upon itself." Well the whole family derides her for her opinion and it is kinda funny. But I think that's a good way to describe this movie..."it insists upon itself."

Anyway, skip it, unless you were born in the 1970's and it's a childhood classic or something.

Grade: C-

Best Scene: The Terrible Trivium