| The Phantom Tollbooth | |
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| Directed by | Chuck Jones Abe Levitow Dave Monahan (live action) |
| Produced by | Chuck Jones |
| Written by | 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 | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | November 7, 1970 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Phantom Tollbooth is a 1970 American live-action/animated film based on Norton Juster's 1961 children's book The Phantom Tollbooth. This film was produced by Chuck Jones at MGM Animation/Visual Arts. Jones also directed the film, save for the live action bookends directed by fellow Warner Bros. Cartoons alum Dave Monahan. The film was released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 7, 1970, and was the last MGM feature film release to include animated segments. MGM's United Artists subsidiary would release its first fully animated film The Secret of NIMH in 1982
Completed by 1969, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer held the film up for release until late 1970 due to internal problems. The animation studio closed soon after the film's release, with MGM leaving the animation business for good. Juster had no input into the film adaptation, and has stated that he is not particularly fond of it.[1]
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Milo, a bored, lonely boy who lives in a San Francisco apartment block all by himself, 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 (due to a large clock face embedded into his body), Milo has a series of adventures in places like the Mountains of Ignorance, the Doldrums, Dictionopolis, Digitopolis, and the Castle in the Air. 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 Mathemagician, King Azaz, the Senses Taker, and Officer Short Shrift.
The film was released in VHS format in 1992 by Turner Entertainment. It is being issued on re-mastered DVD by Warner Bros. Archive.[2]
In February 2010, director Gary Ross began development of a remake of The Phantom Tollbooth for Warner Bros. (current owner of the film) with the first draft of the script written by Alex Tse.[3]