Directors:Chuck Jones; Abe Levitow; Dave Monahan; Jones Levitow
AMG Rating:
Genre: Fantasy
Movie Type: Children's Fantasy
Themes: Mischievous Children, Fish Out of Water
Main Cast: Butch Patrick, Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Candy Candido, Hans Conried
Release Year: 1969
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
Plot
Master animator Chuck Jones has created this full length fantasy, his first since being name director of MGM's animation department. A young boy (Butch Patrick) is bored with his life in San Francisco and finds himself in a fantasy land where letters and numbers are at war with each other. He drives through the Phantom Tollbooth and into an animated fantasy land. The voices of Mel Blanc, June Foray and Daws Butler are featured in this story taken from the book by Norton Juster. The boy tries to rescue twin Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who have been banished to a castle suspended in mid air above the kingdom. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Review
The first full-length animated feature for both Chuck Jones (as a director) and MGM, The Phantom Tollbooth is a mostly faithful adaptation of the classic children's novel by Norton Juster -- but one that lacks the book's unique tone and spirit. The Juster original had an understated, quirky quality which added to the enjoyment of its complicated and entertaining wordplay. The film settles for a more conventional "cartoon" tone, going for easier laughs, softening some of the character design (of Milo in particular) and treating the story slightly too conventionally. The creators also opted to include some very poor Norman Gimbel-Lee Pockriss songs that do little more than slow down the story. While the voices are fine and certainly professional, they are not as special as the material demands. All of that said, the movie still has a number of pluses, not the least of which is the enormously clever original source material. The abundance of puns, fascinating concepts, and delightful ideas ensures that the movie has plenty of surprises. The animation, while not up to "Golden Age" standards, is well done, and obviously influenced by the then-current "psychedelia" craze, and Butch Patrick is very appealing. Not the enduring classic it could have been, Tollbooth will still entertain its target audience. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
George W. Davis - Art Director, Charles K. Hagedon - Art Director, Hal Ambro - Animator, William Littlejohn - Animator, Tom Ray - Animator, Phil Roman - Animator, Alan Zaslove - Animator, Edwin Aardal - Animator, Carl Bell - Animator, George Nicholas - Animator, Irven Spence - Animator, Ben Washam - Animator, Richard Thompson - Animator, Ed de Mattia - Animator, Xenia - Animator, Lloyd Vaughan - Animator, Abe Levitow - Co-producer, Chuck Jones - Director, Abe Levitow - Director, Dave Monahan - Director, Jones Levitow - Director, William Faris - Editor, Jim Faris - Editor, Maurice Noble - Composer (Music Score), Paul Vance - Composer (Music Score), Norman Gimbel - Composer (Music Score), Lee Pockriss - Composer (Music Score), Dean Elliott - Composer (Music Score), Maurice Noble - Production Designer, Lester Shorr - Cinematographer, Jack Stephens - Cinematographer, Chuck Jones - Producer, Les Goldman - Producer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Charles R. Pierce - Set Designer, Chuck Jones - Screenwriter, Sam Rosen - Screenwriter, Norton Juster - Book Author
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer held the film up for release until 1970 due to internal problems (the live action sequences were filmed in early 1968) and the animation studio closed soon afterwards with MGM leaving the animation business for good. Juster had no input into the film adaptation, and has stated that he is not particularly fond of it.[1]
Milo, a bored, lonely boy who lives in a San Francisco apartment block, is surprised by the sudden arrival of a large, gift-wrapped package. Inside is a tollbooth, which turns out to be a gateway into a magical parallel universe. As Milo passes through the tollbooth, the character moves from live action to animation, and his toy car transports him to the enchanted Kingdom of Wisdom and the cities of Digitopolis and Dictionopolis.
Accompanied by a watchdog called Tock (because he has a large clock face embedded in his body), Milo has a series of adventures in places like the Mountains of Ignorance, the Doldrums, Dictionopolis, Digitopolis, and the Castle in the Air. Together they must rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who are being held captive in Castle in the Air, and restore order to the Kingdom of Wisdom. The many eccentric characters they meet include the noisy Dr. Dischord, the Mathemagician, King Azaz, the Senses Taker, and Officer Short Shrift.
The movie has three major differences from the story in the book. The first is when Milo enters the Kingdom of Wisdom, the location he comes from once leaving the Tollbooth is the other side of the mountain he must reach the top of at the end of the movie. In the book Milo finds himself in a desert like highway which has a road leading up the mountain. The second difference is the appearance of Tock, who appears as a normal dog. In the book Tock is a "watchdog", a giant dog that is bigger than a human with a clock as their body. Another difference from the movie is Tock's explanation of his name, in which it is missing entirely in the movie. In the book, when Milo meets Tock, soon after the two enter the Kingdom of Wisdom Tock explains how he got his name, which was the result of a mix up with his parents. Tock was born at the same time as his brother, Tick. His parents originally wanted to name Tock "Tick" instead but mixed the two names up on the birth certificates therefore being unable to legally change the names. Alec Bings, the Soundkeeper, and the Island of Conclusions also don't appear, and the Humbug is depicted as a tall and lanky grasshopper rather than the rotund, beetle-like appearance he had in the book.
Home releases
A VHS version of the film was released in 1992 by Turner Entertainment. They have not announced a DVD for this film yet.
^ Stone, RoseEtta (2001). "An Interview with Norton Juster, Author of The Phantom Tollbooth", The Purple Crayon. Last accessed August 2008: http://www.underdown.org/juster.htm
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