The Daydreamer

Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. are best known for their "animagic" puppet holiday classics Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, but only hints of that magic appear in their 1966 feature-length film The Daydreamer. Set in Denmark, the story finds young Hans Christian Andersen (Paul O'Keefe) and his shoemaker father (Jack Gilford) living in material poverty, but blessed with a surfeit of imagination. A visit from the Sandman transports "Chris" off into the puppet-animated world of his stories, including “The Little Mermaid,” “The Emperor's New Clothes” and “Thumbelina.” The live-action portions of the film are badly directed, badly acted, and badly written (enlivened only by the appearances of Ray Bolger and Margaret Hamilton), while even the fairytale sections--though colorful--seem disappointingly simplistic compared to, say, Disney's interpretation of the same material. Featuring a cavalcade of quirky celebrity voices, including Hayley Mills, Boris Karloff, Victor Borge, Burl Ives, Patty Duke and Tallulah Bankhead (and a title track sung by Robert Goulet), The Daydreamer is presented here in a spiffy-looking but extra-less release that is not likely to appeal to today's animation-savvy youngsters. Not a necessary purchase. (D. Fienberg)