Excellent, Without a doubt!!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Remember the timeless Charles Dickens' Christmas tale called The Cricket on the Hearth? Well, most people don't either, and there hasn't been a film adaptation of it since 1967, produced by Rankin/Bass, those then-up-and-coming animated holiday special masters. They tell the story, or rather Cricket Crocket himself tells the story...or rather Danny Thomas tells the story, or, you know what? They ALL the tell the story of how a prim and proper cricket changed the lives of a poor toymaker and his daughter...for better and for worse. It all began in spring when C.C. was hopping around, minding his own business, when he came across a toy shop owned by kindly old Caleb Plummer. When Caleb meets Crocket, he immediately invites him to come and stay with he and his daughter, Bertha, who was at present having to say farewell to her fiancée, Edward, who was being called away to serve on the royal navy for two years. For Bertha, it sounded like an eternity, but she promised to wait for him. So as the months passed, Caleb, Bertha, as well as Crocket worked on making toys, for Christmas was coming fast. One fateful night, a ghoulish-looking messenger stops by to inform the Plummers that Edward was lost at sea, and presumed dead. The shock of this news gave Bertha instantaneous hysterical blindness. As a result, Caleb stopped working and spent every waking moment tending to his daughter, bringing in doctors who could not fix her, and borrowing more and more money from creepy moneylenders. Eventually, Caleb was so deep in debt and couldn't pay his rent, and thus the three were thrown out into the street. With no work available anywhere, Caleb considered going to the poor house, but that's when Crocket spotted a toy factory. Maybe they could use an extra hand. Turns out, they could, as they had no hands at all. So, how were they in business if nobody was making toys? Anyway, the factory's owner, a miser named Tackleton, hired on Caleb and he'd be paid in food and shelter.That night, as Crocket complains about the new hearth he has to rest upon, he gets accosted by Tackleton's pet raven. Fortunately, the miser reclaims his pet before Crocket becomes a midnight snack. In the morning, Tackleton chastised Caleb for using too much paint, because it costs money... something I doubt he has much of since he didn't have a working factory or toys to sell before this. However, Crocket and Caleb make proper adjustments when the old miser wasn't around. And then, a few days before Christmas, Caleb bumps into an old man on the street, who looks mighty familiar, and invites him to stay at his place, like he's prone to do with every strange person or creature he runs into. Christmas Eve finds Tackleton in a very generous mood, as he gives Caleb a bonus of 4 shillings and 1 shilling for Bertha...shortly before suggesting he wanted to marry her. Sheesh, when they handed out class, this guy was in the john. Bertha was flattered at the proposal... as I'm sure any shallow, poorly-written female character would be. The old man on the street who, if you haven't figured it out yet, is Edward in cognito, attempts to break his silence, but when Bertha informs him of her engagement to Tackleton, he chickens out. I guess promises mean nothing. Crocket, on the other hand, attempts to sabotage Tackleton's wooing efforts, and in response, he orders the cricket's elimination. So Uriah the crow ventures to a seedy animal dive and enlists the help of two shady fellows who kidnap Crocket and bring him to a sea captain willing to pay good money for captured crickets. Instead, he pays them in bullets. No joke. He actually shoots them. You know, for kids! However, through a series of improbable and downright lucky occurrences, Crocket manages to get back to Tackleton's, where the toys come to life and tell him Edward's sad story: he'd been marooned on a deserted island for 2 years, and when he was finally rescued, he discovered Bertha's blindness and his guilt prevented him from coming clean. Crocket convinces him to stop holding his tongue and go claim the love of his life. Overjoyed, she marries him almost immediately. When Tackleton found out, he was genuinely heartbroken. For you see, beneath his greedy exterior, he was a lonely man who felt unloved. But some kind compliments from Bertha instantly perk up his spirits. For the first time in Mr. Tackleton's life, he felt special. So it all worked out and having a cricket on the hearth is lucky after all.Well, what can I say about Rankin/Bass' Charles Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth? Beautiful songs, beautiful music, decent animation for 1967, good camera-work, and of course, excellent voice acting from Danny and Marlo Thomas, Ed Ames, Hans Conried, Roddy McDowall as good ol' C.C., and of course, the legendary Paul Frees. But as far as story and plot, many things happen that don't make much sense and some things are never resolved. Did Bertha ever get her sight back? Did Tackleton grow a heart and start paying Caleb? So this Christmas, why not give Cricket on the Hearth a look? I decided to watch it after seeing a review by an internet comedian called Phelous. I recommend his review too, it's pretty funny. While Cricket isn't as good as Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Little Drummer Boy or Year Without a Santa Claus, it's still pretty good. It has some sad moments, and some that are downright dark. I mean, really? Senseless, off-screen murder? Regardless, I still recommend it.

I never heard of this film before, although I do heard that it was made by the same company Rankin Bass who made the timeless classic "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". So, my father got a DVD copy of this for me and my sibling to watch and we sat through it to see if it would enchant our hearts the same way their later efforts like "Frosty the Snowman", "The Little Drummer Boy", and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town". Later, we had a decent enough time watching it, but let me remind you all that I do have some problems with it.The 2D animation is completely standard. It has some beautiful pictures of the Nativity, but it's character animation's kind of awkward with some wonky movements. The characters, though, I thought they were decent. I liked the romance between Bertha and Edward and the main villain Tackelton is very creepy especially his pet raven. The main character Cricket did annoy me in the beginning, but it wasn't Roddy Macdowell's fault. I think he did a fine job voicing him with enough spirit and energy. In fact, the voice acting is pretty decent.The story isn't that bad at all either, although it does have some depressing moments especially the scene where a sailer captain shoots three animals off-screen which came across as a bit dark for kids. The other problem is that while the songs aren't that bad, there are still too many for me to remember them and slowed the movie down just a bit in some scenes.Overall, Cricket on the Heart isn't exactly Rankin Bass's strongest work and I haven't read the story from Charles Dickens, but this might be worth watching if all of you can give it a chance.

This movie is horrific and just poorly made.Don't let your children watch this. Don't. It's boring, disturbing, long, and hardly about Christmas. I can't believe people are giving this more than 2 stars, it honestly does not deserve that much!All the songs are boring ballads and completely unnecessary (so hard to sit through), there is a murder of animals (say whaaaat?!), and it is just plain depressing (a girl goes blind because her love is lost at sea, a creepy, fat, old man wants to marry her against her father's will, and many, many more disturbing, depressing moments). Don't let your kids watch this unless you want to ruin your Christmas mood, because it really will. However, this movie is so bad that my sister and I make it a tradition to watch it, but in fast mode. It makes all the songs sound like tango songs and it makes it a little easier to sit through and we just make fun of it. Honestly, I don't even know how we sat through it once at normal speed! Please stay away from this film unless you want to make fun of it for how un-child friendly it is. When you see the name "Cricket on the Hearth" on a box set, logically consider why you have never seen or heard of this special before.After all, what kid doesn't love to listen to 30 irrelevant ballads and see their furry friends get shot on a boat by some creepy guy?! That just screams Merry Christmas to me!

This wisp of a Christmas tale can't compare to Dickens's "Christmas Carol" but it was probably worth the 45 minutes or so my 8-year-old and I devoted to it on Christmas Eve.My little guy wasn't thrilled about having to sit through this old chestnut -- this 1967 piece seemed far too old-fashioned with its smarmy song interludes, shallow characters, and annoying cricket narrator. But I found this trifle a relatively pleasant retreat to the type of entertainment I knew when I was 11.This is a fairy tale for sure -- we had to rewind to actually get how the heroine went blind -- yep, it was really from shock that her beau had been lost at sea. Yet it's a fairy tale that seemingly ends on a saddish note. She doesn't regain her vision after her love miraculously returns -- or does she? (We didn't care enough to rewind to see if we somehow had missed that information.)The daughter's offer of love and inclusion to a crochety old miser ends this story on a charitable note that seems a faint echo of Dickens's far more worthy yuletide work.Not exactly a Bah Hum-BUG here, but close -- ho, ho, ho!