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March of the Wooden Soldiers - In COLOR! Also Includes the Original Black-and-White Version which has been Beautifully Restored and Enhanced!


Availability:
In Stock

Price:
$14.95
$7.78*
Part No:B001BSBBI0
Manufacturer:

Legend Films

MFG Part:

DLF00419D

Customer Rating:
4.5 / 5.0
Qty:





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    Imagine an enchanted fantasy world of timeless characters and magical moments where nothing goes right for toy makers, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee. Based on the original Babes in Toyland, this movie is a dazzling spectacle of 6-foot wooden soldiers, Mother Goose characters and the beloved team of Laurel and Hardy. This holiday classic is perfect for the Christmas season. In color and expertly restored, this film will surely become a part of your family holiday tradition.


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    March of the Wooden Soldiers Dvd2008-12-314 / 5
    Great Classic!!! I loved this movie as a kid and am glad to be able to share it with my kids.
    A wonderful exception2008-12-065 / 5
    Why has so little of Laurel and Hardy's work been released on DVD? The Marx Brothers, The Stooges, W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin -- all are well represented; Stan and Ollie are easily in their rank, but most of the DVD releases available seem to be shoddy public domain prints of their later, and least satisfying, films.
    This release is a wonderful exception. Legend has done a smashing job restoring the original BABES IN TOYLAND; it's one of Stan and Ollie's best movies, and I have never seen it looking so good. While I normally loathe colorized movies, this is different for three reasons: first, Legend has included the complete, fully restored Black and White version for purists like me. Second, unlike other colorized classics like KING KONG, BABES IN TOYLAND does actually lend itself to color. And third, although it galls me to say it, Legend's coloring process is really quite amazing. It doesn't have a wish-washy, painted-over look about it. It actually looks appropriate. Kudos to them all around.
    The extra features on the disk are another matter: some are fun, but there's quite a lot of public-domain junk that's been shoveled indiscriminately onto the disk. That's OK, though -- you're not buying this for the extra features; you'll look at them once and then treasure the main feature for years to come.
    Of the several versions of BABES IN TOYLAND/MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS available on DVD, this is clearly the one to buy.
    Now if only someone would release Laurel and Hardy's other early features and short subjects on DVD. . .
    A Christmas Must-Buy2008-12-035 / 5
    The Laurel and Hardy classic, March of the Wooden Soldiers (originally released as Babes in Toyland), was the fantastic result of combining two tremendous talents with a childlike, fantasy world and adult situations (Laurel and Hardy, Toyland and an evil landlord's mortgage conspiracy, respectively). Such rich source material makes for a film of unsurpassed quality: featuring rich and imaginative environments, costumes, sights and sounds. Every fairytale has its day, from Little Bo Peep to the Three Little Pigs to Mother Goose, and even Santa. We all know that the winter months are a time to remember to greatest holiday classics from years past, and March of the Wooden Soldiers is unsurpassed in its genre.

    The holidays are associated with bright and festive colors--bright reds, greens, blues and golds--that set a warm and cheery mood, and the movies that we choose to enjoy during this season are no different. Fortunately, this edition of March of the Wooden Soldiers has been colorized, bringing newfound vibrancy to the events on screen and helping to integrate this classic tale with the traditional warmth of the holiday season. Rather than a visually dull grayscale that reminds one of the dour winter weather, toy soldiers shimmer in brilliant red onscreen, and our two comedian leads are further humanized by their newfound flesh tones and colorful Christmas garb.

    As colorization efforts go, March of the Wooden Soldiers is a superlative effort, looking as though it was originally produced in the first generation of Technicolor, rather than decades earlier. The producers in charge of this re-mastering effort clearly thought that we would find an "aged color" appearance more acceptable than attempting to make it look completely modern, and this approach works very well. I'm sure you'll agree if you see a preview.

    It's worth noting that this disc also includes the black and white version of the movie, perhaps as a peace offering to those of you who might object to the alteration of a classic film. I would go so far, then, as to call this the definitive purchase of March of the Wooden Soldiers, not just because you'll have a choice between color and black and white, but because the first step in colorizing any movie is to "clean up" the pre-existing black and white material as much as possible, and it certainly shows in comparison with other versions available.

    In addition to both versions of the movie, this disc's special features really push it over the top. As a media buff, the included classic trailers are a wonderful prelude to the main feature--I like to imagine that I'm getting the same experience as the audiences who first viewed Laurel and Hardy some seventy years ago. And, in keeping with this package's holiday theme, the animated Rudolph the Reindeer movie is thoughtfully included, ensuring that you and your family get the most value out of a single disc.

    For any family or fan of holiday cinema, this package is definitely a must-buy.

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