Yet another addition to the infamous Why the heck isn't this on DVD yet? list: The Phantom Tollbooth, the 1970 live-action/animated romp starring Eddie Munster... er, Butch Patrick... as Milo, a boy who is in a serious depression until he discovers a magical tollbooth that sends him on a quest to save some princesses. What's particularly amazing about this film is the fact that it was created by the very people who basically defined my childhood... and I didn't arrive until ten years after this flick came out. Still, I think any person born within the last fifty or sixty years can appreciate the voice talents that were brought in for this movie... June Foray -- You know her as Granny from Looney Tunes, Ma Beagle & Magica from Ducktales, Grammi from Gummi Bears and a lot more. Candy Candido -- The guy with the really gravely voice, featured in old Disney movies like Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, and Robin Hood. Daws Butler -- Yogi Bear & Elroy Jetson Mel Blanc -- Need I explain him? Fine... Daffy Duck, Mr. Spacely, Pepe Le Pew, Tasmanian Devil, Speedy Gonzales, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Barney Rubble, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, BUGS FRIGGIN BUNNY, etc. The Phantom Tollbooth was directed by Chuck Jones... you know him as the director behind, oh, pretty much every Looney Tunes cartoon ever, and the old Grinch special. So we're talking about a stellar group of people, here. I could go on about that all day! But I won't. I think it would be nice to talk about the movie, too... The film begins by introducing us to a boy named Milo, who is sitting in class bored out of his mind. The voices in his head are all shouting stuff at him: "E = MC squared!" "Don't forget to carry the three!" Milo doesn't care. He's tired of it all. School lets out. A song begins, with a woman singing "What's to become of Milo?" as Milo slowly makes his way home. Remind you of anything? Yeah, this song is eerily similar in subject and tone of the evil Cheer Up, Charlie from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I mean seriously. Cheesy song sung by a woman lamenting about the poor depressed kid who is currently walking home. The early 70's must have been a fun and magical time for moviegoers, I swear. Charlie... I mean, Milo... gets home and calls his friend to whine about how bored he is. Suddenly he hears a thud and looks to find a big red & white box has landed in his room. He goes to investigate. Long story short: he's been given a magical tollbooth that allows him to travel through (in a toy car), into an animated world. Plot points aside, one of the things that really makes me appreciate this movie is the sophistication of it. I don't know if kids were smarter in 1970 than they are now, or if "smart" was just judged by different standards, but they had to be little scholars to understand half of the stuff in this film... or perhaps the film was never intended for kids. I mean, just about every animated movie has some quotes that go over the heads of small children, but this one really throws a lot of stuff out there that I'm sure I didn't get when I was eight years old (incidentally, that's the last time I saw this movie, until recently.) The first thing that struck me was the complexity of Milo... he is one depressed kid. Lethargic, tired of life... he seems to be suffering the malaise of your average adult in their mid-life crisis. But he's, like, ten years old! The cheesy song at the beginning of the film encourages Milo to look around at all life has to offer. And this basically sums up the point of the film: Stop being lazy and pointless, and get out there and do some good. Rescue some princesses or something! Tollbooth is full of wordplay and double meanings and all that good stuff. As Milo travels through the Land of Expectations ("the place you must always go before you get where you're going"), The Doldrums (where thinking is illegal and smiling is only permitted on alternate Thursdays), Dictionopolis (where words have the ultimate power) and Digitopolis (numbers rule!), Milo learns to think for himself and make some important decisions. The movie also brings up a lot of food for thought. Which is more important: numbers or words? Could you really choose to live life without one or the other? Of course not! Milo also runs into Kakofonous A. Dischord, Doctor of Dissonance, who is completely obsessed with loud noises that, as he explains, our society loves... whistles, crashes, bangs, alarms, etc. Later in the movie, we learn the power of sights, as a conductor conducts the sunset... and then Milo tries to do it, too... and basically messes up the entire sky. I have to throw this screencap in here because as a kid it made me giggle and it is just SO Chuck Jones... I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you, except to say that Milo does overcome his depression after he realizes that he is an invaluable member of society and that life doesn't always suck. More Phantom Tollbooth screencaps 8/26/2004 (c)2004 AlligatorJuice.com