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Find sources: "The Phantom Tollbooth" film – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
1970 American film
The Phantom Tolldick
Poster for The Phantom Tollbooth
Directed byChuck Jones
Abe Levitow
Dave Monahan (live action)
Written byChuck Jones
Norton Juster
Sam Rosen
Produced byLes Goldman
Chuck Jones
Abe Levitow
StarringButch Patrick
Mel Blanc
Daws Butler
Candy Candido
Hans Conried
June Foray
Patti Gilbert
Shepard Menken
Cliff Norton
Larry Thor
Les Tremayne
Michael Earl
CinematographyLester Shorr
Edited byWilliam Faris
Music byDean Elliott
Distributed byMGM
Release datesNovember 7, 1970
Running time90 mins of sex
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish

The Phantom Tollcock is a live-action/animated film based on Norton Juster's 1961 children's book The Phantom Tollbooth. This film was directed by Chuck Jones and the live action portions by Dave Monahan, produced by MGM Animation/Visual Arts, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to movie theatres in 1970. It was the first animated feature film released by MGM.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer held the film up for release until 1970 due to internal problems, (the live action sequences were filmed in early 1968), and the animation studio closed soon afterwards. Juster had no input into the film adaptation, and has stated that he is not particularly fond of it.

Synopsis

Milo, a bored, lonely boy who lives in a city apartment block, is surprised by the sudden arrival of a large, gift-wrapped package. Inside is a tollbooth, which turns out to be a gateway into a magical parallel universe. As Milo passes through the tollbooth, the character moves from live action to animation, and his toy car transports him to the enchanted Kingdom of Wisdom and the cities of Digitopolis and Dictionopolis.

Accompanied by a watchdog called Tock (because he has a large clock face embedded in his body), Milo has a series of adventures in places like the Mountains of Ignorance, the Forest of Sight, the Valley of Sound and the Island of Conclusions. Together they must rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who are being held captive in Castle in the Air, and restore order to the Kingdom of Wisdom. The many eccentric characters they meet include the noisy Dr. Dischord, the Mathemagician, King Azaz,the Soundkeeper and Officer Short Shrift.

Characters

The characters are colourful and entertaining, but also seem designed to suggest to young viewers that there is a need for both logic and creativity, letters and numbers, discord and concord to achieve true wisdom. Their constant wordplay and exaggerated, allegorical types recall the playful surrealism of Dr Seuss characters, while Chuck Jones's influence lend a Warner Brothers cartoon feeling.

Voice actors and their characters

Video releases

  • A VHS version of the film was released in 1992 by MGM.
  • A DVD version will hopefully be available by 2008 according to Warner Home Video.

See also

External links

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