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Tom Thumb

Tom Thumb

List Price: $24.98
Your Price: $22.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beliveable Effects and Camera work...
Review: This was among the first movies that used front screen and back screen process projection. Of puting small objects on a larger screen and filtering out the lines so that it looks like a smaller object is standing next to a large object in one frame of film. In 1958, this kind of photographic optical effects work was very difficult to do and only a few movies were able to do it in a way so that effects footage and live action footage would look like it belonged there and you could not see the lines where the two different film plates were put together or were distorted. George Pal was a real pioneer film maker and this movie showcases that.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: when i was a little kid, this was my favorite movie
Review: and the good parts are just as good today.

start off, of course, with the brilliant sequences from george pal. if i am not mistaken, this was the final puppetoon animation he did, as he was then involved increasingly in directing feature length films. but if only for the yawning man and con-fu-shen, this film would be worth seeing.

add to that, the wonderful live performances by such as the underrated dancer russ tamblyn in the title role; the legendary jessie matthews; and a young peter sellers and terry thomas as marvelous comic villains. sadly, the love story between queenie and woody slows thing down, and even the usually wonderful alan young cant save that part of the movie. (incidentally, a year later young would turn in his finest performance in the george pal "time machine.")

i have such fond memories of this movie, and it manages to live up to them -- i would wholeheartedly recommend it, especially to fans of fantasy, dance, or puppetry. bravo!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Don't overlook the George Pal animation, George Pal fans
Review: Fans of George Pal need to check out this movie for the animation sequences that bear his mark. They are typically delightful and creative. The rest of the movie is okay, my 9 year old son thought it was pretty good, but not great. But the George Pal sections take it up a notch, and make this a must for fans of this brilliant animator.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Don't overlook the George Pal animation, George Pal fans
Review: Fans of George Pal need to check out this movie for the animation sequences that bear his mark. They are typically delightful and creative. The rest of the movie is okay, my 9 year old son thought it was pretty good, but not great. But the George Pal sections take it up a notch, and make this a must for fans of this brilliant animator.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A delightful film for the entire family!
Review: I found this late 1950's version of Tom Thumb" to be the best Rus Tamblyn was superb in it. It's so very well worth seeing. i think it deserves all the stars it can get. It really impressed be as such a magical film. The dance numbers were great. It was funny amusing, romantic, colorful, nice songs and dance. I also found Alan Young wonderful in it as well. It's a must see for the entire family.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A delightful film for the entire family!
Review: I found this late 1950's version of Tom Thumb" to be the best Rus Tamblyn was superb in it. It's so very well worth seeing. i think it deserves all the stars it can get. It really impressed be as such a magical film. The dance numbers were great. It was funny amusing, romantic, colorful, nice songs and dance. I also found Alan Young wonderful in it as well. It's a must see for the entire family.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A delightful film for the entire family!
Review: I found this late 1950's version of Tom Thumb" to be the best Rus Tamblyn was superb in it. It's so very well worth seeing. i think it deserves all the stars it can get. It really impressed be as such a magical film. The dance numbers were great. It was funny amusing, romantic, colorful, nice songs and dance. I also found Alan Young wonderful in it as well. It's a must see for the entire family.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Warning - No Commentary
Review: I loved this film in the cinema, though it may be too
slow and dated for some children now. However I was
very dissapointed when I bought this DVD to find that
there was no audio commentary contrary to description
here and other sources. I don't know whether it was
perhaps on some early copies but it isn't on the
current version. Seems a missed opportunity if it was
dropped for some reason.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tom Thumb
Review: Loved the film; brought back memories of my childhood when my parents brought me to see it back in the late 50's. The film though presented principally for children, has a lot of sentimentality and morals to its' credit. Really nice movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It came so close to being a masterpiece...
Review: So much of Tom Thumb is so good, unfortunately, that it makes its faults all the more glaring. George Pal's "Puppetoon" sequences, featuring Russ Tamblyn interacting with puppet characters, exude both charm and mystery--the perfect fairy-tale movie experience. Tamblyn, a much underrated talent, is adorable--no other word will do--as Tom, while as the villains Terry-Thomas and Peter Sellers manage the hat trick of being both supremely funny and truly frightening. On top of this, George Perinal's Technicolor photography is exquisite, giving the whole film the patina of a forgotten masterpiece. Here, however, praise must end. The screenplay is overly cutesy, the writers seeming to write down to the audience. The songs by Peggy Lee and others are merely serviceable, and whenever the story concentrates on Alan Young and June Thorburn as the young lovers, the movie stops dead. Young, a likable actor without the slightest vestige of sex appeal, would have been far better cast as Tom's father. It's too bad Pal wasn't able to persuade Donald O'Connor to take Young's part (O'Connor held out instead for Tom, and lost out to Tamblyn). O'Connor would have added pizzazz to the movie, and can you imagine the special effect/dance duets that Pal could have created with him and Tamblyn? The very thought is heartbreaking.


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