Retrospective: Rankin Bass "Daydreamer" (1966) - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Steve Carras · 05-22-2006, 12:32 AM

Recently issued on Anchor Bay DVD, this long semi-obscure classic ANimagic-Live flick is an interesting Hans Christan Anderson-inspired piece of semi-fiction and semi-fact.

With a very large cast:
CYRIL RITCHARD as the sandman/narrating
PAUL O'KEEFE as "Chris"(our hero)
JACK GILFORD as "Chris's Dad"
RAY BOLGER The Pieman
MARGARET HAMILTON is the mean Mrs.Kobblebobbler
HAYLEY MILLS is the Little Mermaid
BURL IVES is Father Neptune
TALLULAH BANKHEAD is The Ugly Sea Witch
TERRY-THOMAS is the First Tailor
VICTOR BORGE is the Second Tailor
ED WYNN is the Emporer
ROBT.HARTER is the mean Game Warden, "Big Claus"
PATTY DUKE is "Thumbelina"
BORIS KARLOFF is the rat'
SESSUE HAYAKAWA is the mole
BILLIE RICHARDS is "Puck" and various others
And
THE MAURY LAWS SINGERS(IIRC)
WILLIAM MARINE
JAMES DAUGHTERY
LARRY D.MANN
Music
MAURY LAWS
Lyrics by
JULES BASS
Vocal on title song
ROBERT GOULET
Title song orchestration
DON COSTA
Original Soundtrack (then at least!) available on:
COLUMBIA records
Story by
ARTHUR RANKIN JR.
ROMEO MULLER
Prints
PATHE' FILM LABATORIES
Continuity & "Animagic"(tm) Character Design by
DON DUGA
Songs
"The Daydreamer", vocal BOB GOULET
"Wishies & Teardrops", vocal HAYLEY MILLS
"Simply Wonderful", vocal THE SINGERS
"Who Can Tell?", vocal RAY BOLGER
"Luck to Sell" vocal PAUL O'KEEFE
"A Happy Guy" vocal PATTY DUKE
"Isn't it Cozy?" vocal THE MAURY LAWS SINGERS
Produced by (for VIDEOCRAFT,aka RANKIN/BASS)
ARTHUR RANKIN, JR.
Direction (for same)
JULES BASS (overall)
DON DUGA ("Animagic)
EZRA STONE (Lvie action)
Executive Producer (for EMBASSY PICTURES)
JOSEPH E.LEVINE

Released, July 1966.

An abimtious but down to earth and chamringly low budget feature with a ecelctic grouping of stars, this had thirteen year old HC Anderson going on a little walk in search of his "Daydreams". Kicking back as he's 1) first in his rowboat, then as he's 2) resting afront a frock then 3) when a fugly mean game warden oputs him to work ,1) meets and almost falls in love with The Little Mermaid (Hayley Mills, frehs out of Disney, with "That Darn Cat', the good NON-Christina Ricci one! Sorry Christina..Lindsay Lohan has done better!) whom he SNUBS! (her dad is Burl Ives, another Disney and Rankin-Bass vteran and the witch is Tallulah Bankhead who inspired Cruella Deville), 2)meets the Tailors (Terry-Thomas & Vic Borge) in, and the title character (Ed Wynn) of, The Emporer's new clothes, and 3) falls in love, or at le3ast puppy semi-"platonic" love again, this time with Thumbelina (voiced by Patty Duke whose TV show ciostarred the star of this unusual flick, Paul O'Keefe),and meets up with a fugly pair of characters a Boris Karloss voiced Rat and a (Japanese radio and film dramatic character actor) Sessue (pronounced "SESS-u-WEE) Hayakawa voiced Mole, then 4)(in two dreams in a row here) meets the evil "Puck"(Rudolph's Billie Richards, not to be confused with Kimba's Billie Watt!)! These dreamers and nightmares are linekd by a (British and US stasge and raido character actor) Cyril Ritchard-voiced, eerie ghostly trippy sandman, Along the way our other hero, hi sdad (Jack GIlford) poles various vessels a la Bob Denver & Alan Hale in Gilligan's Island (whcih was still on prime time televison at the time) to get to his son, who';s on his search for the garden of oparadise which he reached in his last dream (and winds up being in adulthood none other than, Hans Christian Anderson),.
By far the most popular of the seven original songs is "Luck to seell", and "Isn't it cosy" (LtS is reprised by its young star Paul O'Keefe at the end after the Patty Duke etc.sequences.)

Finally,don't those two rogue tailors remind you of the Grimm Brothers? Was Hans Christia inspried by the Grimms, who had already lived and died, in creating these two rogues?

The Ray Bolger song and dance "Who can tell" is a hoot and the major out and out comic part. Rankin Bass woiuld also do their biggest theatrical flick, "Mad Monster Party", also for Embassy Pictures, later to become in the nineteen seventies, "Avco-Embassy". This is loioke a bridge between classic Disney style and "The Hunchbakc of Notre ame's" Festival but without the heavyhandedness ("Daydreamer" was by Rankin/Bass in the 1960s), and is a delight.Then again, I';m a sucker for Ray Bolger's work.

This one..a definite keeper. Also look, finally, for longtime actress Margaret Hamilton, who worked in MGM's "Wizard of Oz" (1939) here as mena customer Mrs,Kobblebobbler, a custoemr of the cobbler who is our hero's (apparently widowed) dad (his wife "is in Copenhagen".)

musicradio77 · 06-06-2006, 05:41 PM

I used to have a copy of "The Daydreamer". I used to taped it off of AMC a few years ago, but now I lost it. I was trying to get rid of all of my VHS copies of my movies that I taped off of TV from years ago and put it on a few garbage bags. That was so sad.

I might get the DVD soon.

05-22-2006, 12:32 AM	#1
Steve Carras Sandra Bullock RULES! Forum Regular Join Date: Jun 30, 2002 Location: Riverside County, CA Posts: 807	Retrospective: Rankin Bass "Daydreamer" (1966) Recently issued on Anchor Bay DVD, this long semi-obscure classic ANimagic-Live flick is an interesting Hans Christan Anderson-inspired piece of semi-fiction and semi-fact. With a very large cast: CYRIL RITCHARD as the sandman/narrating PAUL O'KEEFE as "Chris"(our hero) JACK GILFORD as "Chris's Dad" RAY BOLGER The Pieman MARGARET HAMILTON is the mean Mrs.Kobblebobbler HAYLEY MILLS is the Little Mermaid BURL IVES is Father Neptune TALLULAH BANKHEAD is The Ugly Sea Witch TERRY-THOMAS is the First Tailor VICTOR BORGE is the Second Tailor ED WYNN is the Emporer ROBT.HARTER is the mean Game Warden, "Big Claus" PATTY DUKE is "Thumbelina" BORIS KARLOFF is the rat' SESSUE HAYAKAWA is the mole BILLIE RICHARDS is "Puck" and various others And THE MAURY LAWS SINGERS(IIRC) WILLIAM MARINE JAMES DAUGHTERY LARRY D.MANN Music MAURY LAWS Lyrics by JULES BASS Vocal on title song ROBERT GOULET Title song orchestration DON COSTA Original Soundtrack (then at least!) available on: COLUMBIA records Story by ARTHUR RANKIN JR. ROMEO MULLER Prints PATHE' FILM LABATORIES Continuity & "Animagic"(tm) Character Design by DON DUGA Songs "The Daydreamer", vocal BOB GOULET "Wishies & Teardrops", vocal HAYLEY MILLS "Simply Wonderful", vocal THE SINGERS "Who Can Tell?", vocal RAY BOLGER "Luck to Sell" vocal PAUL O'KEEFE "A Happy Guy" vocal PATTY DUKE "Isn't it Cozy?" vocal THE MAURY LAWS SINGERS Produced by (for VIDEOCRAFT,aka RANKIN/BASS) ARTHUR RANKIN, JR. Direction (for same) JULES BASS (overall) DON DUGA ("Animagic) EZRA STONE (Lvie action) Executive Producer (for EMBASSY PICTURES) JOSEPH E.LEVINE Released, July 1966. An abimtious but down to earth and chamringly low budget feature with a ecelctic grouping of stars, this had thirteen year old HC Anderson going on a little walk in search of his "Daydreams". Kicking back as he's 1) first in his rowboat, then as he's 2) resting afront a frock then 3) when a fugly mean game warden oputs him to work ,1) meets and almost falls in love with The Little Mermaid (Hayley Mills, frehs out of Disney, with "That Darn Cat', the good NON-Christina Ricci one! Sorry Christina..Lindsay Lohan has done better!) whom he SNUBS! (her dad is Burl Ives, another Disney and Rankin-Bass vteran and the witch is Tallulah Bankhead who inspired Cruella Deville), 2)meets the Tailors (Terry-Thomas & Vic Borge) in, and the title character (Ed Wynn) of, The Emporer's new clothes, and 3) falls in love, or at le3ast puppy semi-"platonic" love again, this time with Thumbelina (voiced by Patty Duke whose TV show ciostarred the star of this unusual flick, Paul O'Keefe),and meets up with a fugly pair of characters a Boris Karloss voiced Rat and a (Japanese radio and film dramatic character actor) Sessue (pronounced "SESS-u-WEE) Hayakawa voiced Mole, then 4)(in two dreams in a row here) meets the evil "Puck"(Rudolph's Billie Richards, not to be confused with Kimba's Billie Watt!)! These dreamers and nightmares are linekd by a (British and US stasge and raido character actor) Cyril Ritchard-voiced, eerie ghostly trippy sandman, Along the way our other hero, hi sdad (Jack GIlford) poles various vessels a la Bob Denver & Alan Hale in Gilligan's Island (whcih was still on prime time televison at the time) to get to his son, who';s on his search for the garden of oparadise which he reached in his last dream (and winds up being in adulthood none other than, Hans Christian Anderson),. By far the most popular of the seven original songs is "Luck to seell", and "Isn't it cosy" (LtS is reprised by its young star Paul O'Keefe at the end after the Patty Duke etc.sequences.) Finally,don't those two rogue tailors remind you of the Grimm Brothers? Was Hans Christia inspried by the Grimms, who had already lived and died, in creating these two rogues? The Ray Bolger song and dance "Who can tell" is a hoot and the major out and out comic part. Rankin Bass woiuld also do their biggest theatrical flick, "Mad Monster Party", also for Embassy Pictures, later to become in the nineteen seventies, "Avco-Embassy". This is loioke a bridge between classic Disney style and "The Hunchbakc of Notre ame's" Festival but without the heavyhandedness ("Daydreamer" was by Rankin/Bass in the 1960s), and is a delight.Then again, I';m a sucker for Ray Bolger's work. This one..a definite keeper. Also look, finally, for longtime actress Margaret Hamilton, who worked in MGM's "Wizard of Oz" (1939) here as mena customer Mrs,Kobblebobbler, a custoemr of the cobbler who is our hero's (apparently widowed) dad (his wife "is in Copenhagen".)
	__________________ "And that's showbiz......kid" -Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger, Chicago, 2002)

06-06-2006, 05:41 PM	#2
musicradio77 Disney Expert Forum Veteran Join Date: Jul 14, 2003 Location: Brooklyn, NY USA Posts: 6,475	I used to have a copy of "The Daydreamer". I used to taped it off of AMC a few years ago, but now I lost it. I was trying to get rid of all of my VHS copies of my movies that I taped off of TV from years ago and put it on a few garbage bags. That was so sad. I might get the DVD soon.
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