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Babes in Toyland (re-released in 1948 as March of the Wooden Soldiers, alternative titles Laurel and Hardy in Toyland, Revenge Is Sweet, Wooden Soldiers) is a 1934 musical comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy. Based on Victor Herbert's popular 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland, the film was produced by Hal Roach, directed by Charley Rogers and Gus Meins, and released to theatres on November 12, 1934 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was later remade into a Technicolor version in 1961 by Walt Disney, but with an entirely different plot, although it featured most of the same characters.
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Image:Laurel & Hardy Babes in Toyland.JPG Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee in a scene from the 2006 colorized version of the film. Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee (played by Laurel and Hardy, respectively), almost get themselves banished to Bogeyland on a burglary charge, but the "victim" of the crime, the villainous Silas Barnaby, agrees to drop the charges if Little Bo Peep will marry him. She reluctantly assents, but not before Ollie suffers the humiliation of the ducking stool (Stannie was to undergo this too, then both were going to be banished to Bogeyland, before Bo Peep agreed to the nuptials).
Tom-Tom and Bo Peep desperately seek a way out of Bogeyland ; and actually find one, in the form of a secret passageway that leads to the bottom of a wishing well in Toyland. Meanwhile, Ollie and Stannie find evidence implicating Barnaby in the pignapping, including the fact that the alleged sausage links presented as evidence at Tom-Tom's trial were made of beef instead. They later find the kidnapped pig Little Elmer; alive, in Barnaby's cellar. A manhunt commences for Barnaby, who flees to Bogeyland, commands an army of Bogeymen, and invades Toyland. Ollie and Stannie then wind up the wooden soldiers (of which there were 100 at six feet tall, instead of 600 at one foot tall as the toymaker had originally ordered - a blunder which caused Ollie and Stanny, who had heretofore worked for the toymaker, to be fired earlier in the movie) and the "march" alluded to in the film's title begins as the soldiers themselves march (in very primitive stop-motion animation), and then attack the Bogeymen by simply walking into them with their bayonets pointed. Barnaby and the Bogeymen are routed, and the kingdom of Toyland is saved. It is never clear whether or not Barnaby is actually done away with (he dies in the stage production, though under totally different circumstances), but he is covered by some falling toy blocks, three of which spell out the word "RAT", and is never seen in the film again. Spoilers end here.
SongsThe film featured only five musical numbers from the enormous stage score, though that was plenty for a musical with only a 78-minute running time. Included in the film, in the order in which they were performed, were "Toyland", "Never Mind Bo-Peep", "Castle in Spain", "Go To Sleep (Slumber Deep)", and "March of the Toys", an instrumental piece and perhaps the most famous number in the score. Almost all of the songs were performed by Bo Peep and Tom-Tom and none of them were performed by Laurel and/or Hardy (though they briefly danced/marched to "March of the Toys"). Alternate versions
Cast (credited)
TriviaImage:Babesintoyland34.jpg 1948 re-release poster for Babes in Toyland (1934)
See alsoReferences
External link
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