The ownership and copyright history of the 1934 adaptation of Babes in Toyland is almost unfathomably complicated to reiterate here. Producer Hal Roach sold the film to the Victor Herbert estate (Hebert composed the 1903 operetta upon which the film was based) in 1944. The movie’s copyright was reassigned, and a color remake planned that was ultimately scrapped, as the new script was rejected by the Motion Picture Production Code office for containing instances of incest and bestiality. The rights were transferred to another producer, Robert L. Lippert, who made changes dictated by the Herbert estate (including omitting the famous “Toyland” song and select other scenes) so the film could ultimately be reissued in 1950 under a new title, March of the Wooden Soldiers. The rights moved again later in the decade, when it began airing on television annually over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, changing hands until Allied Artists acquired it in 1959, and later Orion Pictures— an arm of MGM, the movie’s original home studio. The rights to the original 78 minute cut and the 1950 Lippert version are separately owned. It’s been retitled again and again under different owners and for different territories, including as Revenge is Sweet and, simply, Toyland. In 1991, the film was colorized, and in 2006, it was colorized again.
I’ve attempted to familiarize myself with the lengthy and complicated history of Babes in Toyland both before and during its production and long after its release numerous times. I’m only partially certain that I have it straight (I recommend checking out this page on the Chelsea Rialto Studios website for a thorough, illustrated breakdown). What I do know is that it’s wonderful and whimsical seasonal viewing for the whole family, bolstered by the presence of iconic comedy duo Laurel and Hardy working at the top of their game. The story is populated by numerous characters from familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes, including Mother Goose, Little Bo Peep, Tom-Tom Piper, Little Jack Horner, Curly Locks, and Little Miss Muffet. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee, who are faced with eviction from the shoe they live in thanks to the conniving Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon), who has designs on Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry). Technically, Babes in Toyland is set in July, but as Stan and Ollie work as toymakers contracted by Santa Claus (Ferdinand Munier), the Christmas vibes are unmistakable. A key part of the plot involves the pair screwing up an order: instead of building 600 one-foot-tall toy soldiers, they make 100 six-foot-tall soldiers, one of which single-handedly destroys the workshop when it gets out of control, and are fired by the head toymaker (William Burress) without obtaining the money they so desperately need to pay their mortgage. But no worry— they’ll turn out to serve a handy purpose when the Toyland residents need to rid themselves of Barnaby and his Bogeymen in the climax.
Babes in Toyland is brims with imagination. It’s a musical, somewhat derived from its source material, and its songs— from the aforementioned “Toyland,” an iconic number that even those who have never seen the film have likely heard before, to the orchestral “March of the Toys”— are sweet and lovely. Its sets and costumes are fantastical; reported, they were all rendered in such vivid colors that Laurel lamented the fact that the film wasn’t shot in color (at least partial two-strip Technicolor was the plan when RKO bought the rights in 1930, but the backlash against musicals following the onslaught of poor musical revues immediately after the advent of talking pictures caused those plans to be scrapped). It contains both timeless characters and contemporary pop culture elements that are fascinating to watch merge; Walt Disney (who at one point was potentially going to make an animated feature adaptation of Babes in Toyland) personally approved the appearance of Mickey Mouse (well, a monkey dressed in Mickey’s likeness, one of a few animal-like characters in the film that are pure nightmare fuel) as well as the use of the popular song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” that was written for the short 1933 Disney cartoon Three Little Pigs. The toy soldiers are delightfully brought to life via stop-motion animation. And of course, there’s Stan and Ollie, who became an official team in 1927 and had started to topline feature films after years of appearing in shorts, whose popularity alone was enough to ensue the film’s good standing at the box office (and it was well-received by critics to boot). They’re more part of an ensemble here than the complete center of attention (the romance between Bo Peep and Tom-Tom is another key thread of the plot), but their distinctive brand of humor and established screen personas ably mesh with the world of Toyland. It’s them, and not just the presence of Santa Claus, that have made the film an enduring favorite, even with Disney making their own version (starring one of their staples, Annette Funicello) in 1961. It was released in December 1934, and it’s become a tradition; to this day, the film airs annually on the station WPIX in New York City under its March of the Wooden Soldiers title.
Babes in Toyland is currently streaming on services including Tubi (albeit only in the colorized version) and AMC+, and is available to rent or purchase on all digital platforms. You can also watch it for free on YouTube here. Runtime: 78 minutes.
Katie at the Movies 