I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Director: GUS MEINS. Director of scenes and segments in which Laurel and Hardy appear: CHARLES R. ROGERS. Screenplay: Nick Grinde, Frank Butler. Based on the 1902 operetta Babes in Toyland by Victor Herbert (music) and Glen MacDonough (book and lyrics). Comedy scenes devised by Stan Laurel with the assistance of a team of gag men including Frank Terry. Photography: Art Lloyd, Francis Corby. Film editors: William Terhune, Bert Jordan. Music director: Harry Jackson. Additional song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" by Ann Ronell and Frank Churchill. Special effects: Roy Seawright (director), Art Lloyd (photographer). Barnaby's make-up: Jim Collins. Assistant director: Gordon Douglas. Sound recording: Elmer R. Raguse. Producer: Hal Roach. A Hal Roach Studios Production. Copyright 28 November 1934 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation. New York opening at the Astor: 12 December 1934. U.S. release: 30 November 1934. U.K. release: April 1935. Australian release: 13 March 1935. 79 minutes Re-issue titles: REVENGE IS SWEET, MARCH OF THE TOYS.SYNOPSIS: Stannie and Ollie are boarders in a shoe owned by the Widow Peep but mortgaged to Barnaby (the meanest man in Toyland). The boys undertake to borrow the mortgage money from their employer, the toy-maker, but this ploy fails when the boys are fired after a series of mishaps. When the mortgage becomes due, Barnaby not only throws the widow and her daughter, Bo, into the street but accuses the boys of pignapping.NOTES: Re-made by Walt Disney (as "Babes in Toyland") in 1961. Disney and Roach were close friends. In the Disney version, Ray Bolger starred as Barnaby, Tommy Sands played Tom Piper, Ed Wynn was the toy-maker and Annette Funicello portrayed Mary Quite Contrary. The original stage musical opened on Broadway in 1903. Directed by Julian Mitchell, it starred William Norris, Bessie Wynn, George W. Denham and Mabel Barrison. It ran a most successful 192 performances.The "mouse" who shares some delightful scenes with the cat and flies a balloon at the climax of this movie, was reportedly enacted by a monkey!COMMENT: An absolute delight, "March of the Wooden Soldiers" (as it is now known) was produced on the most expansive budget ever utilized on a Roach feature. And it's all up there on the screen in magnificent costumes and eye-popping sets. Thanks to Gus Meins' lively direction, the pace is fast and furious. Many of the Toyland characters flit by at the speed of knots. Laurel and Hardy fortunately emerge unscathed (they worked in a different unit, nominally under the control of director/actor Charley Rogers), contributing many delightful moments including a priceless bit of foolery when Stannie wishes Ollie "Good night!" We also enjoyed Miss Henry (Alice of Alice in Wonderland) as a radiant Bo-Peep and Florence Roberts (who replaced Margaret Seddon) as the shoe-living widow. Felix Knight has a wonderful voice which does more than justice to Herbert's melodies. And of course Herbert's still-famous "March of the Wooden Soldiers" accompanies the wonderfully glorious climactic free-for- all as hundreds of bogeymen run amuck in the vast Toyland sets.OTHER VIEWS: A superb example of collaborative film-making skill, "March of the Wooden Soldiers" was filmed simultaneously by two units under different directors, yet the result is a pleasingly harmonious whole with no visible seams. The sets are absolutely out of this world, the comedy bright, the songs tuneful, the climax a riot of action and fun. Although they play characters a trifle removed from their customary offerings, Babe and Stan are in top form.

A Christmas classic that's been remade a few times but none of those are as good as the original. Based on Victor Herbert's operetta of the same name, it's the story of the Mother Goose characters who live in Toyland. Comedy greats Laurel & Hardy play Stannie Dumb and Oliver Dee, two kindhearted nitwits who try to save their elderly landlady from being evicted and their friend Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry) from the clutches of the villainous Barnaby (Henry Brandon).Laurel & Hardy are terrific in this but it really shouldn't be compared to their regular comedies. They bring a lot of energy to things and are very charming and rootable. Henry Brandon (née Kleinbach) is downright Satanic as the evil creeper Barnaby. The 'young romance' subplot with Charlotte Henry and Felix Knight is handled way better than was the norm at the time. The couple do not suck up a lot of screen time or make you check your watch due to saccharine balcony scenes.The music might not be pleasing to all viewers today but I found it generally enjoyable and diverting. The costumes and sets are creative and mostly impressive for the time, especially coming from Hal Roach Studios. Seeing all these nursery rhyme characters brought to life is fun. I can only imagine how wonderful it was for audiences back then. Some of the characters are downright creepy, and I'm not just talking about the Bogeymen. Doctor Moreau must have stopped by Toyland because there are some man-beasts living there, such as the Three Pigs or the Cat with the fiddle, who could give Island of Lost Souls a run for its money. I half-expected Bela Lugosi to pop up. There's also a very funny little bit with a monkey dressed up like Mickey Mouse.A little corny for the "too cool for school" crowd perhaps but it has made me smile since I was a child. Highlights include the dunking scene, the wedding, the trip to Bogeyland, and the exciting climax with the toy soldiers. It's a timeless classic that has entertained kids and adults for decades and hopefully will continue to do so for decades more.

Funny, even though Laurel and Hardy are in this film, I don't think of it first as a Laurel and Hardy movie. It has all those memorable nursery rhyme characters in it that have a certain resonance for kids growing up in an earlier time, and I think that's part of the magic the picture has to offer. Charlotte Henry is just as enchanting in this story as she was as the title character in the prior year's "Alice in Wonderland". Here she has a romantic partner in Tom-Tom Piper (Felix Knight), while fending off the lecherous advances of the evil Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon). With Stannie Dumb and Ollie Dee on the case, you just know that the bad guy will be foiled in his attempt to foreclose on the Widow Peep's (Florence Roberts) mortgage.You know, I was kind of amazed with Stan Laurel's hand/eye coordination whenever he took up with his pee-wee craze. It's more than evident when it comes time to battle Barnaby's Bogeymen near the story's finale. With Stan batting a thousand during the dart attack, I had to wonder why he never made it as a big league baseball player. It seems he couldn't miss! Like a handful of other reviewers, I first came by this picture when it went by the name of "March of the Wooden Soldiers", and yes, I too remember when it was a staple offering on Thanksgiving Day in the New York television market, way before the age of cable. It's another one of those films that brings back a sense of nostalgia for a simpler time when life wasn't so hectic, even if Stan and Ollie made it seem that way. With any luck, kids will be catching this entertaining film for a long time to come.

This is the story of Toyland, a whimsical little world where all of Mother Goose's nursery rhymes too place, and where many of the character reside. Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood, Little Jack Horner, Cat and the Fiddle, all of them. Mickey Mouse lives there too. Children laugh and play all day, it's a happy place. But there is one dark area in Toyland in the form of a man. A mean old grouch named Silas Barnaby, who would give Ebeneezer Scrooge a run for his money. Ol' Barnaby holds the mortgage on the shoe in which the old woman with so many children lives, and unless her daughter, Little Bo Peep, will consent to become his wife, he'll throw them out into the street. Barnaby makes several attempts to woo Miss Peep, but she tells him to get lost, and in response, he scares away her sheep. So as poor Mother Peep wonders what to do, her boarders, Ollie Dee and Stannie Dumb come downstairs, or rather, Stannie falls out the upstairs window. She tells them about her financial situation, so Ollie steps in and gives her his savings...which Stannie had "borrowed" to buy some more peewees. Ollie promises he'll get the money from their master, the Toymaker, and the two leave for work. Unfortunately the surly Toymaker wasn't in the mood to chit-chat because the boys were late again, and matters were not helped when they spill a can of paint all over him. Meanwhile, Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them. Tom Tom, the piper's strapping, handsome young son comes to her aide as they ask around and finally locate the little woolly beasts. Bo Peep is certain she's found the man of her dreams. Back at the toy factory, Santa Claus arrives to pick up a very special order: 600 toy soldiers, one feet high. Unfortunately for him, Stannie took the order and thought it was 100 soldiers 6 feet high. The life-sized toy soldiers nearly destroy the factory and cause Stannie and Ollie to lose their jobs.Things looked pretty bad for the Peeps, who stood to lose their shoe. Barnaby again made the offer that if Bo marries him, he'll forget the mortgage. Deciding to try and get the better of that old buzzard, Ollie has another plan: he puts himself in a crate and has Stannie deliver him to Barnaby as an early Christmas present, then once he's inside the house, he'll steal the mortgage. Barnaby is actually touched by the gift and all goes swell, until Stannie ends up giving it all away. So now the two of them are placed under arrest for burglary. They'll be publicly humiliated by "ducking" and then banished to Bogeyland. Yeesh, Toyland's got a very strict penal system. I'd hate to think what they give to murderers. Bo manages to get them released by reluctantly agreeing to marry Barnaby, and so Old King Cole pardons the boys. Little Bo Barnaby. Nah, doesn't sound right. But Stannie and Ollie won't give up so easily. They pull yet another elaborate trick on Barnaby, and this one works. They pull the old switcheroo and Barnaby ends up marrying Stannie. Bo and Tom Tom go off together, while Barnaby grumbles about being made a fool of. Time to pull off a dastardly deed of his own: he kidnaps Elmer, one of the three little pigs, then plants his hat and some sausage links in Tom Tom's house, framing him for both pig-napping and murder. The poor lad is then exiled to Bogeyland, despite having an alibi, but the king won't listen. Stannie and Ollie smell a rat when nibbling on the sausage, discovering it to be beef. They follow their hunch and find Elmer in Barnaby's cellar. The monster rushes off and King Cole puts out a 50,000 guinea reward for his capture. Meanwhile, Bo Peep has ventured off to Bogeyland to find her beloved, and they soon find themselves surrounded by those ferocious creatures. Stannie and Ollie come to their rescue and they all escape together. Unfortunately for them and everyone else in Toyland, Barnaby is in league with the Bogies. In fact, I'll bet he's their leader, who shaves off his fur and pretends to be a person. In other words, Barnaby leads a whole army of Bogiemen to lay siege to Toyland. Utter chaos ensues as residents try to fight off the monsters, or hide from them. Stannie and Ollie try hold them off using throwing darts, and Mickey Mouse drops small bombs on them. When this isn't enough, they bring out the big guns: the wooden soldiers! Once activated, the entire legion of 6-foot toy soldiers counter the Bogey attack, sending those monsters retreating. Stannie and Ollie decide to load some darts in a cannon for a parting shot, but unfortunately, it was Ollie, not the Bogeys, who got it in the end.So, I guess they all live happily ever after. Barnaby was probably crushed to death by those falling blocks, Stannie and Ollie were deemed heroes, and Bo Peep and Tom Tom got married. Maybe. If you're a Laurel and Hardy fan as I am, I definitely recommend this feature. I watch it every year at Christmas time. Well made for a Depression era piece. It's not perfect, but I think it's pretty enjoyable. See it when you can.