Babes in Toyland

Babes in Toyland
Directed by	Clive Donner
Produced by	Tony Ford Neil T. Maffeo
Written by	Glen MacDonough Paul Zindel
Starring	Drew Barrymore Keanu Reeves Richard Mulligan Pat Morita Eileen Brennan Jill Schoelen
Music by	Leslie Bricusse
Cinematography	Arthur Ibbetson
Editing by	David Saxon
Distributed by	Orion Pictures for NBC
Release date(s)	December 19, 1986
Running time	140 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Babes in Toyland is a 1986 television movie directed by Clive Donner which stars Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves. It was broadcast on NBC on December 19, 1986 and released on VHS. The European theatrical version was shortened to 94 minutes—this version was released worldwide on VHS, it has not yet been released on DVD.

Plot

Lisa Piper (Barrymore), eleven years old, takes care of her siblings and cooks for her family, and therefore she has no time for toys. During a blizzard on Christmas Eve, Lisa is transported to Toyland. She arrives just before Mary Contrary (Jill Schoelen) is wedded to the unpleasant Barnaby Barnacle (Richard Mulligan), although Mary loves Jack Nimble (Reeves). Lisa stops the wedding and, with her new friends, finds out that Barnaby plans to take over Toyland. Lisa, Mary, Jack, and Georgie Porgie (Googy Gress) go to the kindly Toymaster (Pat Morita) for help, but he can only help them if Lisa really believes in toys. Barnaby confronts them and the Toymaster, finally showing his true colors, and steals a flask containing distilled evil that the Toymaster had been collecting, before leaving Lisa and company to be eaten by Troller, a vulture-like monster with a single enchanted eye that Barnaby uses to spy on his enemies. They escape by blinding Troller with paint and locking him in a chest, but are captured and imprisoned one by one in Barnaby's hidden fortress.

Barnaby reveals that he had been creating an army of trolls to take over Toyland, and then attempts to corrupt them into being his servants with the contents of the flask, stating he would replace Troller with Lisa. Lisa, however, proves to be immune to the evil, and manages to reverse the effects on her friends. After escaping from Barnaby's stronghold, they return to the Toymaster. When Barnaby unleashes his army of trolls upon Toyland, Lisa's newfound belief animates an army of life-sized toy soldiers that the Toymaster had created, and they drive Barnaby into the Forest of the Night. Barnaby, having lost control of his creatures and trying to make Lisa his new Troller, is then banished from Toyland. Jack and Mary are then married. Lisa is taken back home by the Toymaster, revealed to be Santa Claus, in a sleigh with wooden reindeer, across the Milky Way until she wakes up at home as though it had all been a dream.

Cast

Deleted Scenes

Many deleted scenes were musical numbers such as Keanu Reeves (Jack) and Jill Schoelen (Mary) singing in jail or Drew Barrymore (Lisa) and the cast planning a jailbreak. Other transitional dialogue was missing from the European theatrical version, these deleted scenes were not featured on VHS. The original film was broadcast on NBC in 1986.

References

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

External links

• Babes in Toyland at the Internet Movie Database
• Babes in Toyland at Allmovie