Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that Babes in Toyland (1961) was Walt Disney Studio's first live-action musical release. Halfway between a play and a movie, much of the piece takes place "onstage," using painted sets and contained in a theater-size area. One of a number of productions based on Victor Herbert's 1903 operetta, dancing, singing, and familiar Mother Goose characters are at the center of this movie. A thin story about a dastardly villain attempting to upset the wedding plans of Mary-Mary and Tom-Tom, the Piper's son, simply moves the action from one set piece to another. Only very young kids, not yet able to distinguish real violence from cartoon violence, might be bothered by the exaggerated, mustache-twirling, comic malevolence of Mr. Barnaby or by the farcical action in which characters slip, fall, get hit over the head with a mallet, and get lost in a forest filled with mildly menacing talking trees.
Sexual
Content
Violence
Slapstick antics. Characters get hit over the head by a mallet, slip on a banana peel, fall, get hit with a walking stick, fight with swords, get shrunk by magic, and get captured. A dastardly villain with blackened eyes, a shining mustache, and a black cape is a comic threat to everyone. Suspenseful scenes set in a Forest of No Return with comically scary talking trees.
Language
Some name-calling: "idiots," "bumbler," "stupid," "monster."
Social
Behavior
Good triumphs over evil. Greed is bad.
Consumerism
Not applicable
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Not applicable