An inappropriately timed Christmassy film question
February 12, 2010 4:11 PM   Subscribe

Can you help me name this movie which sounds like it might be Babes In Toyland or an adaptation of The Nutcracker -- but probably isn't?

I must have been something like six or seven years old when I saw this movie on TV in the UK, it's one of my earliest memories.

The part I remember was a big (climactic?) scene where a toy soldier (or just a soldier?) carried an unconscious/dead girl through a set of *enormous* doors, beyond which Santa Claus was sitting. Santa Claus was gigantic too -- I presume the girl and the soldier had been shrunk. I think the idea was that Santa could bring the girl back to life. But it's possible I've got it the wrong way round, and the girl was carrying the unconscious/dead soldier.

Probably filmed 1940s / 1950s? I remember it seeming very 'Technicolor' and magical and dreamy -- very much like The Wizard Of Oz.

The Nutcracker? Santa doesn't tend to crop up in that. One of the versions of Babes In Toyland? Rings a bell, but I haven't found an adaptation that quite fits.

Help!
posted by sleepcrime to Media & Arts (4 answers total)
 
In the Disney 1961 version of Babes in Toyland there is a whole lot of shrinking things going on toward the end of the movie -- you should check that out.
posted by hermitosis at 4:54 PM on February 12, 2010


Here's the 1961 version of "Babes in Toyland" that hermitosis mentions (seems available on YouTube in 11 parts). There *is* a lot of shrinking in the final clips.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:17 PM on February 12, 2010


Best answer: Here's a trailer for the 1934 Laurel and Hardy version of Babes in Toyland. Though it was originally filmed in black and white, it's been colorized. The trailer is for the colorized version. Colorized films usually do look over-saturated and Techni-color-esque. From the trailer, you can see that this version also has a Santa Claus character.
posted by marsha56 at 5:36 PM on February 12, 2010


Response by poster: Aha! I hadn't seen the colorized version of the Laurel and Hardy version, and the whole look of the film, and the final scenes (the villain carrying the girl, big doors), make me think that must be it. Thank you marsha56!
posted by sleepcrime at 3:47 AM on February 13, 2010


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