The Phantom Tollbooth (film)
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| The Phantom Tollbooth | |
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 Poster for The Phantom Tollbooth |
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| Directed by | Chuck Jones Abe Levitow Dave Monahan(live action) |
| Produced by | Les Goldman Chuck Jones Abe Levitow |
| Written by | Chuck Jones Norton Juster Sam Rosen |
| Starring | Butch Patrick Mel Blanc Daws Butler Candy Candido Hans Conried June Foray Patti Gilbert Shepard Menken Cliff Norton Larry Thor Les Tremayne Michael Earl |
| Music by | Dean Elliott |
| Cinematography | Lester Shorr |
| Editing by | William Faris |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | 1970 |
| Running time | 90 mins |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Phantom Tollbooth is a live-action/animated film based on the 1961 children's book The Phantom Tollbooth. This film was directed by Chuck Jones and the live action portions by Dave Monahan, produced by MGM Animation/Visual Arts, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to movie theatres in 1970. It was the first animated feature film released by MGM.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer held the film up for release until 1970 due to internal problems, and the animation studio closed soon afterwards. Juster had no input into the film adaptation, and has stated that he is not particularly fond of it.
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[edit] Synopsis
Milo, a bored, lonely boy who lives in a city apartment block, is surprised by the sudden arrival of a large, gift-wrapped package. Inside is a tollbooth, which turns out to be a gateway into a magical parallel universe. As Milo passes through the tollbooth, the character moves from live action to animation, and his toy car transports him to the enchanted Kingdom of Wisdom and the cities of Digitopolis and Dictionopolis.
Accompanied by a watchdog called Tock (because he has a large clock face embedded in his body), Milo has a series of adventures in places like the Mountains of Ignorance, the Forest of Sight, the Valley of Sound and the Island of Conclusions. Together they must rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who are being held captive in Castle in the Air, and restore order to the Kingdom of Wisdom. The many eccentric characters they meet include the noisy Dr. Dischord, the Mathamagician, the sisters Rhyme and Reason, the Soundkeeper and Officer Short Shrift.
[edit] Characters
The characters are colourful and entertaining, but also seem designed to suggest to young viewers that there is a need for both logic and creativity, letters and numbers, discord and concord to achieve true wisdom. Their constant wordplay and exaggerated, allegorical types recall the playful surrealism of Dr Seuss characters, while Chuck Jones's influence lend a Warner Brothers cartoon feeling.
[edit] Voice actors and their characters
- Butch Patrick - Milo
- Mel Blanc - Officer Short Shrift, The Word Speller, The Dodecahedron, The Demon of Insincerity
- Daws Butler - Whether Man
- Candy Candido - Awful DYNNE
- Hans Conried - King Azaz, The Mathemagician
- June Foray - Ralph, Reason
- Patti Gilbert - Princess of Pure Reason, Princess of Sweet Rhyme
- Shepard Menken - Tock the Watchdog, Chroma the Great
- Cliff Norton - Spelling Bee, Senses Taker
- Larry Thor - Kakofonous A. Dischord
- Les Tremayne - Humbug
[edit] Video releases
[edit] See also
- Norton Juster
- The Phantom Tollbooth - the original book
