Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

classicsoncall Funny, even though Laurel and Hardy are in this film, I don't think of it first as a Laurel and Hardy movie. It has all those memorable nursery rhyme characters in it that have a certain resonance for kids growing up in an earlier time, and I think that's part of the magic the picture has to offer. Charlotte Henry is just as enchanting in this story as she was as the title character in the prior year's "Alice in Wonderland". Here she has a romantic partner in Tom-Tom Piper (Felix Knight), while fending off the lecherous advances of the evil Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon). With Stannie Dumb and Ollie Dee on the case, you just know that the bad guy will be foiled in his attempt to foreclose on the Widow Peep's (Florence Roberts) mortgage.You know, I was kind of amazed with Stan Laurel's hand/eye coordination whenever he took up with his pee-wee craze. It's more than evident when it comes time to battle Barnaby's Bogeymen near the story's finale. With Stan batting a thousand during the dart attack, I had to wonder why he never made it as a big league baseball player. It seems he couldn't miss! Like a handful of other reviewers, I first came by this picture when it went by the name of "March of the Wooden Soldiers", and yes, I too remember when it was a staple offering on Thanksgiving Day in the New York television market, way before the age of cable. It's another one of those films that brings back a sense of nostalgia for a simpler time when life wasn't so hectic, even if Stan and Ollie made it seem that way. With any luck, kids will be catching this entertaining film for a long time to come.

Christmas-Reviewer I know many people will not watch this for many reasons. The excuses range from "I Hate Black and White Movies", "I Do Not Like Old Movies" ,"I herd this was stupid", "I never Herd of this", and so many others.Well this film is "Dated" but its also part of its charm. This film stars "Laurel and Hardy" and it is a delightful surprise. Think of this film as the inspiration for the "Shrek" films.In this film A woman is about to lose her home. 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. The mortgage on the shoe is owned by the villainous Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon), who is looking to marry Bo Peep. Knowing the Widow Peep is having a difficult time paying the mortgage, Barnaby offers the old woman an ultimatum – unless Bo Peep agrees to marry him he will foreclose on the shoe. Widow Peep refuses, but is worried about where she'll get the money to pay the mortgage. Ollie offers her all the money he has stored away in his savings can, only to learn that Stannie has taken it to buy peewees (a favored toy consisting of a wooden peg with tapered ends that rises in the air when struck with a stick near one end and is then caused to fly through the air by being struck again with the stick). He and Stannie set out to get the money for the mortgage from their boss, the Toymaker (William Burress). But Stannie has mixed up an order from Santa Claus (building 100 wooden soldiers at six feet tall, instead of 600 soldiers at one foot tall) and one of the soldiers, when activated, wrecks the toy shop. Stannie and Ollie are fired without getting the money.I don't want to tell too much more but truest me the film is fast paced and its never boring. Give it a try!

TheLittleSongbird A Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy classic, and a great sentimental favourite. Whether Babes in Toyland is among their best is up for debate but when it comes to personal favourites of theirs Babes in Toyland is very high up. Of the four films with the title Babes in Toyland, this is by far and away the best and the only great one. The others being the 1961 Disney film, which is decent but one of their lesser live-action musicals, the 1986 Drew Barrymore/Keanu Reeves film which had its moments but most of it was pretty messy and the 1997 animated film which as I recall was only okay but a re-watch is due asap. Laurel and Hardy certainly don't disappoint. Their antics and jokes are a sheer delight, corny at times but in an endearing way, and they look so animated. And thankfully they don't swamp the supporting cast. Henry Brandon is particularly good and sinister as the villain Barnaby, and Charlotte Henry and Felix Knight are charming with wonderful singing voices, thankfully they don't drag things down which is a tendency with star-struck lover roles and subplots. William Burress is winning as the kindly toy-maker too, if not quite as memorable as Ed Wynn in the Disney version. The costume and set design are colourful and brings the inner child within you, like a fantasy world that you don't want to leave. The photography is equally nice and the effects have their acceptable charms, by today's standards they're not all that cheap. Victor Herbert's score and songs are not among his best but they are pleasant and memorable, the incidental scoring has the right amount of whimsy and Toyland and March of the Wooden Soldiers are deservedly the highlights of the songs. The dialogue is tight with plenty of jokes to enjoy, and there is a real sense of joy, fantasy and enchantment in the story that the other Babes in Toyland films don't quite manage, well the Disney film did but the 1986 film didn't. March of the Wooden Soldiers was the highlight and cleverest moment of the Disney film and it is every bit as memorably staged here. The Boogeymen are still frightening now. This version is the best directed by a mile, the film actually goes at a good pace(the Disney film had a few dull stretches while the 1986 film never really came to life as well as being indifferently directed) and is directed by people who clearly knew what they wanted to do and had enthusiasm for it. All in all, timeless for children and for adults. Those who like the operetta will be enchanted and will cherish this as the best version, and even if it is a little different to what Laurel and Hardy usually did even Laurel and Hardy fans can find much to enjoy(some die-hard fans will disagree, just for the record I've always liked Laurel and Hardy a lot). 10/10 Bethany Cox

ExplorerDS6789 This is the story of Toyland, a whimsical little world where all of Mother Goose's nursery rhymes too place, and where many of the character reside. Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, Little Jack Horner, Cat and the Fiddle, all of them. Mickey Mouse lives there too. Children laugh and play all day, it's a happy place. But there is one dark area in Toyland in the form of a man. A mean old grouch named Silas Barnaby, who would give Ebeneezer Scrooge a run for his money. Ol' Barnaby holds the mortgage on the shoe in which the old woman with so many children lives, and unless her daughter, Little Bo Peep, will consent to become his wife, he'll throw them out into the street. Barnaby makes several attempts to woo Miss Peep, but she tells him to get lost, and in response, he scares away her sheep. So as poor Mother Peep wonders what to do, her boarders, Ollie Dee and Stannie Dumb come downstairs, or rather, Stannie falls out the upstairs window. She tells them about her financial situation, so Ollie steps in and gives her his savings...which Stannie had "borrowed" to buy some more peewees. Ollie promises he'll get the money from their master, the Toymaker, and the two leave for work. Unfortunately the surly Toymaker wasn't in the mood to chit-chat because the boys were late again, and matters were not helped when they spill a can of paint all over him. Meanwhile, Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them. Tom Tom, the piper's strapping, handsome young son comes to her aide as they ask around and finally locate the little woolly beasts. Bo Peep is certain she's found the man of her dreams. Back at the toy factory, Santa Claus arrives to pick up a very special order: 600 toy soldiers, one feet high. Unfortunately for him, Stannie took the order and thought it was 100 soldiers 6 feet high. The life-sized toy soldiers nearly destroy the factory and cause Stannie and Ollie to lose their jobs.Things looked pretty bad for the Peeps, who stood to lose their shoe. Barnaby again made the offer that if Bo marries him, he'll forget the mortgage. Deciding to try and get the better of that old buzzard, Ollie has another plan: he puts himself in a crate and has Stannie deliver him to Barnaby as an early Christmas present, then once he's inside the house, he'll steal the mortgage. Barnaby is actually touched by the gift and all goes swell, until Stannie ends up giving it all away. So now the two of them are placed under arrest for burglary. They'll be publicly humiliated by "ducking" and then banished to Bogeyland. Yeesh, Toyland's got a very strict penal system. I'd hate to think what they give to murderers. Bo manages to get them released by reluctantly agreeing to marry Barnaby, and so Old King Cole pardons the boys. Little Bo Barnaby. Nah, doesn't sound right. But Stannie and Ollie won't give up so easily. They pull yet another elaborate trick on Barnaby, and this one works. They pull the old switcheroo and Barnaby ends up marrying Stannie. Bo and Tom Tom go off together, while Barnaby grumbles about being made a fool of. Time to pull off a dastardly deed of his own: he kidnaps Elmer, one of the three little pigs, then plants his hat and some sausage links in Tom Tom's house, framing him for both pig-napping and murder. The poor lad is then exiled to Bogeyland, despite having an alibi, but the king won't listen. Stannie and Ollie smell a rat when nibbling on the sausage, discovering it to be beef. They follow their hunch and find Elmer in Barnaby's cellar. The monster rushes off and King Cole puts out a 50,000 guinea reward for his capture. Meanwhile, Bo Peep has ventured off to Bogeyland to find her beloved, and they soon find themselves surrounded by those ferocious creatures. Stannie and Ollie come to their rescue and they all escape together. Unfortunately for them and everyone else in Toyland, Barnaby is in league with the Bogies. In fact, I'll bet he's their leader, who shaves off his fur and pretends to be a person. In other words, Barnaby leads a whole army of Bogiemen to lay siege to Toyland. Utter chaos ensues as residents try to fight off the monsters, or hide from them. Stannie and Ollie try hold them off using throwing darts, and Mickey Mouse drops small bombs on them. When this isn't enough, they bring out the big guns: the wooden soldiers! Once activated, the entire legion of 6-foot toy soldiers counter the Bogey attack, sending those monsters retreating. Stannie and Ollie decide to load some darts in a cannon for a parting shot, but unfortunately, it was Ollie, not the Bogeys, who got it in the end.So, I guess they all live happily ever after. Barnaby was probably crushed to death by those falling blocks, Stannie and Ollie were deemed heroes, and Bo Peep and Tom Tom got married. Maybe. If you're a Laurel and Hardy fan as I am, I definitely recommend this feature. I watch it every year at Christmas time. Well made for a Depression era piece. It's not perfect, but I think it's pretty enjoyable. See it when you can.