Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good movie but grossly overrated

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This is the worst movie ever made , bar none. five starts, are you kidding- the fact that any human being would rate this five stars could be used as a way to diagnose psychological disorders!i knew there were tons of nutcases in the world and all the 5 star ratings just absolutely proves this ! this movie would make a great pizza since it has super double extra cheese ! even for 1970 its horrid. the animation looks plain simple and awful. the story line is ridiculous. a watch dog with a clock? a clock is not a watch,so thats not clever, unless maybe you are 4 and dont know any better. plus he barks a lot, and his clock keeps ringing like an obnoxious alarm clock ! in fact im quite sure itd be more entertaining to just listen to an obnoxious alarm clark while listening to dogs bark, than to waste any moment of time watching this horrid movie. I think i will have nightmares about it for years to come. it should be used as a legitimate method of torture. the singing by the main characters is the worst sounding karaoke sounds, to put it simply i could sing better and i sound terrible singing ! um i could go on and on. this movie should be banned. its not worth the dvd its recorded on. its a waste of resources for it to continue to be printed and sold, or to exist. staring at a blank wall would be far more entertaining and less obnoxious than watching this movie.i would not watch it again unless you paid me at least $1000 dollars and i was aloud to wear earplugs. this just proves all the movie review websites are crooked and corrupt, to give this movie anything more than one half a star is a complete and total lie. if theres an audience for everything, there must be an audience that enjoys watching poop floating in a pool, because that would be far more entertaining than this movie, and less annoying too!

If we are to make the most of every second of life and explore the big beautiful world then skip this waste of time. I saw this movie as a child in 1970 and I remember over half the audience walking out before it was over because it was so boring. I watched it recently as a middle age adult and realized that it was so boring to so many children at that time because it is mostly mindless drivel and meaningless tripe. Chuck Jones does a fair job at animation especially given the limitations of technology when this was released in 1970. Many of the characters are reminiscent of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons which may have added to the confusion and boredom experienced by many of the children at that time. If you see expressions and vocalizations that are similar to Bugs Bunny or Yosemite Sam you naturally expect similar actions in the movie.

I am a fan of animation and of Chuck Jones, and I really like The Phantom Tollbooth. I do prefer Gay Purr-ee and the book is better and even more intriguing, but I thought the film was terrific. Yes even with some heavy-handed moralising and one or two scenes in the middle that drag.I loved the story, it is a wondrous concept with some imaginative sequences and a live start and finish that set the tone nicely. I liked the music too, it isn't quite as charming or witty as Gay Purr-ee's, but the incidental music has a great atmosphere and the songs while not to everyone's tastes are in my view memorable with fun lyrics and nice melodies.The animation is in general quite good. Some of the secondary characters could have been less misconceived in the facial expressions and scope, but the colours are wonderfully trippy and the backgrounds have a sense of surrealism about them. The writing is clever and witty, with quotable puns, while the characters are likable and add to the sense of fun, even Milo I can identify with. Some of it might fly over young children's heads, but adolescents and adults would love it I think. The voice acting is also terrific, the immortal Mel Blanc does a brilliant job voicing his characters, while not a tour-de-force as such, it is a real treat, and Butch Patrick, Daws Butler, June Foray and Hans Conreid are also great.In conclusion, a terrific animated film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately the movie does not do it justice. It does not come together in the same way the book did. I am not saying that all film adaptations should follow the book strictly, but the film should at least stand on it's own. I just feel like the movie was quite rushed and did not take time to explain things. The animation was also rushed too. The whole movie just seemed rushed. Weren't half baked ideas frowned upon in the movie? How ironic! A lot of my favorite part of the book were also skipped, such as most of the forest of sight where Milo learns about perspective. Milo's adventure in the valley of sound was also skipped. Milo also did not meet the child from infinity. Tock was also far too patronizing and did not preach as much in the book, where his character was far less perfect and more believable. The order in which Milo hits his destinations, such as Chroma's place, and Dr. Dischord's van also made more sense in the book and probably should have been followed more strictly in the movie, for the sake of the story's flow. Even for children, the film is much too choppy.The end was also very cheesy because it was sung. In fact, most of the songs were overkill.Maybe this book just isn't meant to be made into a film. It isn't exactly subtle and is more of a concept or "how to" type of story where the metaphors are more obvious. Film translates ideas a bit more subtly, with dialog, action, etc. Bad guys being defeated by a pencil firing the words "truth" just doesn't make for a good film. Oh well, maybe another producer will pull off the Phantom Tollbooth in a better way, but for now, read the book; the story flows much more nicely when it is read.