Too much of everything

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

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

like or not like. have certain expectations, or do not have certain expectations. beautiful ideas. check. sweet song in "Be a Happy Guy too." check. profundity in the Tree of Knowledge. check. sweetness all around. check. ingratitude for the skill and talent which produced this movie. no check. smug criticism by "sophisticated" reviewers. check. proof the movie is good and is truly a delight by the reviews of smug critics. check, and thank you. i guess i have to write more, because my review isn't able to be published without 10 lines. OK, here's some more. and more yet. OK, i'll keep writing.. is this enough? how about this? and is this enough? and what about this? am i in a college class? am i back in my film class in college? i don't feel that young anymore. maybe the sandman has brought me there.

Despite a terrific "Emperor's New Clothes" episode, I'm hard-pressed to recall anything in "The Daydreamer" which really works, and that's a shame because the team of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass are obviously working with love and sincerity. Plot concerns a young Hans Christian Andersen who runs away from home and meets up with all the fairy tale characters he'll someday write about. Live-action prologue and epilogue are cringingly awkward, animated middle not nearly as bad but certainly not magical. Top vocal talents abound, however they're weakly used (Hayley Mills voices the Little Mermaid, yet when it's Hayley's turn to sing, we are instead treated to some kiddie variation on Marni Nixon). "New Clothes" segment is funny and better paced than the rest of the film, and is certainly helped by Ed Wynn as the delightfully egomaniacal Emperor. ** from ****

Fairy Tale lovers are in for a treat with this star-studded live action/animation feature film produced by the wonderful Rankin/Bass team - best known for their holiday masterpieces "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Frosty the Snowman" and "Mad Monster Party", just to name a few. The wraparound story (which is live-action) deals with a young Hans Christian Anderson struggling to find The Garden of Paradise. These parts of the movie are admittedly corny, but on his journey, we are treated to four enchanting stories, each filmed in Rankin/Bass's trademark stop-motion "Animagic". The stories are unusual in that they all end on a low note rather than a typical "Disney happy ending" - keeping true to Anderson's original tales. Included here are "The Little Mermaid", "The Emperor's New Clothes", "Thumbelina" and "The Garden of Paradise". Once again Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass have created a fantasyland of wonder and imagination filled to the brim with beautiful tunes. This movie should get 10 stars alone for getting Tallulah Bankhead to voice the sea-witch in "Little Mermaid". Magnificent Eye-Candy!

I've always admired the work of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass. Very few people's Holiday Seasons would be complete without "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty the Snowman," et. al. Similarly, their only other feature film, 1967's "Mad Monster Party," has acquired a considerable cult following over the years, with Tim Burton and William Castle among its many admirers.Which is what makes "The Daydreamer" such an incredible disappointment by comparison. The animation is incredibly sloppy, by comparison to their TV work during the same period. Paul O'Keefe was a repugnant little brat on the "Patty Duke Show" and he makes an even less appealing Hans Christian Anderson. Among the only bright spots in the live action cast are Ray Bolger and Margaret Hamilton, almost thirty years after "Wizard of Oz," proving themselves as talents that can shine in a broom closet. An all-star cast tries hard during the animated segments, but even they can't bring uninspired material to life. When you consider that the best part of the film is the Al Hirschfeld-designed opening credits, that's a sad commentary.In sum, "Daydreamer" is the only blot on Rankin and Bass' otherwise distinguished careers, and long-time fans, like myself, can forgive them this one transgression.