Babes in Toyland is a 1961 Christmas musical film in Technicolor, directed by Jack Donohue, produced by Walt Disney, and distributed to theatres by Buena Vista Distribution. It stars Ray Bolger as Barnaby, Annette Funicello as Mary Contrary, Tommy Sands as Tom Piper, and Ed Wynn as the Toymaker. Barnaby's henchmen, Gonzorgo and Roderigo, were portrayed by Henry Calvin and Gene Sheldon in a Laurel & Hardy manner.
The film was based upon Victor Her...
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Babes in Toyland is a 1961 Christmas musical film in Technicolor, directed by Jack Donohue, produced by Walt Disney, and distributed to theatres by Buena Vista Distribution. It stars Ray Bolger as Barnaby, Annette Funicello as Mary Contrary, Tommy Sands as Tom Piper, and Ed Wynn as the Toymaker. Barnaby's henchmen, Gonzorgo and Roderigo, were portrayed by Henry Calvin and Gene Sheldon in a Laurel & Hardy manner.
The film was based upon Victor Herbert's popular 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland. There had been a well-remembered film version of the operetta in 1934 with Laurel and Hardy, and three television adaptations prior to the Disney film, but Disney's was only the second film version of the operetta released to movie theatres, the first in Technicolor, and the most elaborate by far. However, the plot, and in some cases, the music, bear little resemblance to the 1903 show (Disney had most of the lyrics rewritten and some of the song tempos drastically changed). Both the 1934 film and...
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