Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
This week, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile makes its cinematic debut. Adapted from a children’s book of the same name, the musical features a New York City crocodile living his best life. In celebration of the latest partially-live action animated movie, I thought I’d look back at my favorite live-action kids movies. There are quite a few with a mixture of animation and live action that I could have listed, like Pete’s Dragon (the original) or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I haven’t seen enough of them to populate a whole list, so I went with the broader live-action mantle. And with such a large number of great live-action kids movies, I found it difficult to narrow. In addition to the two mentioned before, another live-action/animation cross-over that didn’t ultimately make my list, but came close, is Bedknobs & Broomsticks.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
This 1939 Victor Fleming film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale of Kansas who rudely lands her house on the Wicked Witch of the East and then steals her shoes. Of course, that’s just a snarky way to reference the plot of the film, but it’s amusing nonetheless. Dorothy, her dog Toto, and her house are torn from the foundation of their rural Kansas homestead and are dropped into a world of pure imagination, the land of Oz. Set on her course of action by Glinda (Billie Burke), the Good Witch of the North, Dorothy picks up allies along the road with her ruby slippers to seek out the Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan), who then tasks her to destroy the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) and earn her way home. Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Tin Man (Jack Haley), and Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) are her companions for the journey.
At the time of its release, color film was becoming more and more popular. Symbolically, Fleming chose to set the present day Kansas-based portions of the film in black-and-white. Then, when Dorothy opens the door into Oz, the audience is pulled into a colorful world of bright hues and gorgeous scenery. This musical affair is a fascinating time capsule of the Golden Age of Hollywood and remains one of the best films intended for children, but which is just as enjoyable for adults. Everything about the film is simply iconic and quite a bit of it isn’t even in the original text by L. Frank Baum on which the film was based. Still, they made all the right decisions and made an indelible impression on generations of children.
Mary Poppins (1964)
Another film that has survived the test of time is this all-color musical extravaganza with Julie Andrews in the titular role of a magical nanny that arrives in London to look after the wayward Banks children who have continuously gotten in trouble. Their father is too busy trying to keep his house in order and bills paid. Mary arrives just in the nick of time, helping to correct the children’s behavior and giving them a compassionate caretaker who also helps to teach their father a lesson or two as well. Throw in a charismatic chimneysweep played by Dick Van Dyke and you have a wonderful little pastel marvel to behold.
The film earned a staggering 13 Oscar nominations, taking home five of them. Andrews was one of those five in her film debut as Best Actress, a fact that likely resulted in her loss of the Best Actress trophy for the next year’s The Sound of Music even though she was once again one of the best of the year. The film has managed to maintain a hold on the imaginations of countless children who have gone to great effort to relive those moments as they grew up, including a recent sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, as well as a biopic about Walt Disney trying to convince the author of the Mary Poppins books, PL Travers, to let him adapt the work. That film was Saving Mr. Banks.
No original review available.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Upon its release in 1982, Steven Spielberg had earned a reputation as one of the foremost directors of action-heavy features. From Jaws to Raiders of the Lost Ark, his films were not only popular pieces of entertainment, but great works of art. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was his first foray into children’s entertainment and the end result is just as magical as we could have hoped. No stranger to box office success, E.T. nevertheless outperformed everything he would do before or after, taking in almost $360 million after an unprecedented 52-week run on the box office, 16 weeks of which were spent at #1 on the charts with its first 19 weeks spent in the top 2. Adjusted for inflation, it’s the third most popular film in history, having amassed approximately $1.23 billion dollars since its debut and being topped only by Titanic and the original Star Wars in terms of inflation-adjusted grosses.
The film centers around an alien life form who finds himself trapped on earth, but makes friends with local boy Elliott (Henry Thomas) who helps guide him through Halloween in costume among other adventures. When the government finds out about the alien presence, things take a turn for the worse and Elliott must find a way to save E.T. and ensure he returns home without further incident. This enduring tale was successful for many reasons, not the least of which is its humanist storyline and its spectacular effects. It also remains one of John Williams’ most iconic musical themes, which is saying a lot considering all of the themes he’s crafted over the years.
No original review available.
Babe (1995)
To say that the aforementioned films have enduring legacies is not an understatement. Unfortunately, films in the intervening years have struggled to reach that level of salience. One of the films that deserves a more statuesque historical placement is this film. Babe is based on a children’s novel by Dick King-Smith called The Sheep Pig. Directed by Chris Noonan from a script he co-wrote with George Miller, the film is about a young pig who decides he wants to be a sheep-herder like his adoptive mother, a border collie. As he navigates a challenging world of expected appearances, he takes inspiration from his friend Ferdinand, a duck who wakes the farm as if he were a rooster, and Babe works hard to become an all-time great shepherd.
The film is a genuinely sweet story that encourages children to not accept the state of the world and strive to be more than society expects them to be. Babe himself is voiced with an estimable charm by Christine Cavanaugh. She is ably supported by a talented cast that includes Hugo Weaving, Danny Mann, Miriam Margolyes, Miriam Flynn, Russi Taylor, Roscoe Lee Brown as the narrator, and Oscar nominee James Cromwell as the human farmer who cares for the young pig and helps raise him as the little critter sees himself, not as what he has been conditioned to believe he should be. Babe is also a more affable and endearing figure than his porcine counterpart, Wilbur, in Charlotte’s Web, a similarly themed, twice-adapted book.
Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
The final film on my list this week is another seldom-touted children’s film. Unlike Babe, which was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Bridge to Terabithia was utterly ignored by the Academy and most critics organizations. In spite of all that, it was a critically acclaimed film and, in my opinion, one of the best films of 2007. The film follows Jess (Josh Hutcherson), a 12-year-old kid whose tenuous relationship with his father leaves him struggling to make friends at school. When he meets Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), they find a kinship in one another. Leslie’s abusive father helps her later befriend a bully (Grace Brannigan) who has been tormenting Jess at school. The pair find a quiet place in the woods where they build a beautiful friendship, creating the fantastical world of Terabithia where they fight monsters that resemble their bullies and work to save the realm.
The cast is terrific, but none more so than Robb and Hutcherson, two of their generation’s most talented actors. This film gave both a chance to grow and shine. The film, about confronting personal demons and growing up demeaned and bullied, is a gorgeously mounted tale directed by Hungarian artist Gábor Csupó who has to-date only made three other films, none of which amounted to as much as this picture. The screenplay was ably crafted by David L. Paterson and Jeff Stockwell based on David’s mother Katherine Paterson’s celebrated novel. It was pretty widely seen, making $82 million at the box office, but seems to have vanished from many minds in the intervening years. It remains one of the best children’s adaptations ever made and even if it weren’t, giving us the twofold brilliance of Robb and Hutcherson at such a young age, would have been well worth it.
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