While best known for their classic animated TV specials (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Hobbit, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, etc.), the team of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass also made feints at theatrical features. This 1966 release was part of a multi-picture deal with mogul Joe Levine that soured when results obviously did not hold Disney-level box-office potential. For homevid viewers, the small screen suits the Rankin/Bass vision nicely.
An anthology mix of live-action and “Animagic” stop-motion puppetry—actually outsourced to collaborators in Japan—the feature takes place in 1801 Denmark (portrayed by a Flemish town mock-up then extant at the New York World's fair). Thin-plotted bracket segments feature child actor Paul O'Keefe as a young Hans Christian Andersen (AKA "Chris"), raised by his gentle shoemaker father (Jack Gilford) on fanciful tales and aphorisms. Inspired, Chris runs away from home, drowsing now and then to dream (in Animagic form) the stories The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Garden of Paradise, with little inserts/nods to The Ugly Duckling, The Nightingale and others threaded throughout the dialogue.
The astonishing cast (some voiceovers, some live, some both) includes Patty Duke, Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton, Boris Karloff, Hayley Mills, Ed Wynn, Burl Ives, Cyril Ritchard, Victor Borge, Tallulah Bankhead, and Terry-Thomas. Modern-day filmmakers probably would not dare touch the Thumbelina characterization of a sinister/amorous Oriental mole (voiced by Sessue Hayakawa) coveting Thumbelina (Duke). Each performer in the credits even gets his/her Al Hirshfeld caricature.
For all that, the material is rendered more or less faithfully, and one must remember the Little Mermaid (Mills) only finds heartbreak in the end; Disney heavily rewrote Andersen’s original there. Highlights are imaginative and colorful aquatic environments, including a coiled electric eel serving as the cauldron for the Sea Witch (Bankhead).
But the songs are unmemorable (oh, for a production-number visit from the Miser Brothers!), and results do not stand the test of time as well as the much-rerun television productions from the same team. Small children and some nostalgia-minded adults might find The Daydreamer an OK curio on the J shelves, and the disc is accented by a commentary track from Rankin-Bass super-fans and historians Rick Goldschmidt and Lee Gambin. A ragbag of movie trailers (The Railway Children, The Time Travelers) also accompanies the strong optional-purchase feature. (Aud: P)