''The Daydreamer'' is a 1966

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

–

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

musical fantasy film produced by Videocraft International. Directed by Jules Bass, it was written by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and

Romeo Muller Romeo Earl Muller, Jr. (August 7, 1928 – December 30, 1992) was an American screenwriter and actor most remembered for his screenplays for the Rankin/Bass holiday specials including ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy ...

, based on the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. It features seven original songs by Jules Bass and Maury Laws. The film's opening features the cast in puppet and live form plus caricatures of the cast by Al Hirschfeld. Among the cast were the American actors

Paul O'Keefe Paul O'Keefe (born April 27, 1951) is an American actor best known for his work as Ross Lane, the younger brother of Patty Duke's character Patty Lane in the television series ''The Patty Duke Show'' and for the movie '' The Daydreamer''. Born i ...

, Jack Gilford, Ray Bolger and Margaret Hamilton (both from

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

's 1939 classic film '' The Wizard of Oz''), and the Australian actor

Cyril Ritchard Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard (1 December 1898 – 18 December 1977), known professionally as Cyril Ritchard, was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is best remembered today for his performance as Captain Hook in ...

as the voice of the Sandman. Three of the voice actors:

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...

, and Canadian actors

Billie Mae Richards Billie Mae Richards (née Dinsmore, November 21, 1921 – September 10, 2010) was a Canadian voice actress, who also appeared onstage and on television. She was the voice of Rankin/Bass' version of the character Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer fr ...

and Larry D. Mann, were the voice suppliers for Videocraft's stop motion Christmas television special, ''

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on ...

'' (1964). Some of the character voices were recorded at RCA Studios in Toronto, Ontario, under

Bernard Cowan Bernard Cowan (June 11, 1922 – July 17, 1990) was a Canadian actor, producer and writer. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was occasionally credited under his nickname, Bunny Cowan, such as on the production ''Willy McBean and His ...

's supervision. The "Animagic" puppet sequences were staged by Don Duga at Videocraft in New York, and supervised by Tadahito Mochinaga at MOM Production in Tokyo, Japan. The film was Videocraft's first theatrical feature production to be distributed by Embassy Pictures, located in Los Angeles, California and headed by executive producer

Joseph E. Levine Joseph Edward Levine (September 9, 1905 – July 31, 1987) was an American film distributor, financier and producer. At the time of his death, it was said he was involved in one or another capacity with 497 films. Levine was responsible for the ...

. Embassy Pictures later theatrically releases the company's two other films in 1967, ''

Mad Monster Party? ''Mad Monster Party?'' is a 1967 American stop-motion animated musical comedy film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions for Embassy Pictures. The film stars the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, and Phyllis Diller. It tells the ...

'' and ''

The Wacky World of Mother Goose ''The Wacky World of Mother Goose'' is a 1967 animated musical fantasy film made by Rankin/Bass, written by Romeo Muller and directed by Jules Bass based on Charles Perrault's stories and nursery rhymes. The movie is the first theatrical featu ...

''. As an association with Rankin and Bass, Ritchard also made his voice appearance in three of their studio's other animated productions: '' The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes'' in 1972, '' The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow'' in 1975, and ''

The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ''N ...

'' in 1977 (his final film role shortly before his death).

Plot

A teenaged Hans Christian Andersen, the son of a poor

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...

, daydreams instead of studying for school. He runs away from home. Whenever he falls asleep, or goes into a daydreaming spell, he dreams that he is in strange adventures with two swindling tailors, a tiny girl no bigger than a thumb, a mermaid, a devil boy in Eden, and others. In reality, as well as in his dreams, Hans is searching for the Garden of Paradise, which he does not find. The dream sequences are puppet animation, complete with a puppet version of himself, as well as with the pie man. Hans gets falsely arrested for

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

by a game warden, and is sent to work chopping wood. His father, who is out looking for Hans, gets falsely arrested, too, by the same game warden, for fishing in protected waters, and is also forced to chop wood, too, where he reunites with his son. Only when the father gives up the ring that he wore on his finger, while he was married in the past, are the father and son released from their labors. These dreams become the basis for his fairy tale fictions, which he writes as an adult: "

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a ...

", " Thumbelina", "

The Ugly Duckling "The Ugly Duckling" ( da, Den grimme ælling) is a Danish literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). It was first published on 11 November 1843 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection'' ...

", "

The Emperor's New Clothes "The Emperor's New Clothes" ( da, Kejserens nye klæder ) is a literary Folklore, folktale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, about a vain emperor who gets exposed before his subjects. The tale has been translated into over 100 l ...

", "

Little Claus and Big Claus "Little Claus and Big Claus" ( da, Lille Claus og store Claus) is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, published in Danish in 1835 in the first instalment of his booklet '' Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection.'' (Danish ...

", and " The Garden of Paradise".

Musical numbers

#"Daydreamer" – Robert Goulet #"Overture" –

Maury Laws Maury Laws (December 6, 1923 – March 28, 2019) was an American television and film composer from Burlington, North Carolina. Biography In his teens, Laws performed in local country, jazz and dance bands as a singer and guitarist in his home st ...

#"Wishes and Teardrops" – The Little Mermaid #"Simply Wonderful" – The Emperor and His Three Minstrels #"Who Can Tell" – The Pieman of Odense #"Luck to Sell" – Chris #"Happy Guy" – Thumbelina, Chris and Chorus #"Isn't It Cozy?" – Three Bats and the Mole #"Finale (The Daydreamer)" – Chorus

Cast

as "Chris" (Hans Christian Andersen) * Jack Gilford as Papa Andersen * Margaret Hamilton as Mrs. Klopplebobbler *

Sessue Hayakawa , known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man ...

as The Mole *

Patty Duke Anna Marie "Patty" Duke (December 14, 1946 – March 29, 2016) was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awa ...

as Thumbelina *

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film '' Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...

as The Rat * Hayley Mills as The Little Mermaid *

as Father Neptune *

Tallulah Bankhead Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, 1902 – December 12, 1968) was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's '' L ...

as The Sea Witch *

Victor Borge Børge Rosenbaum (3 January 1909 – 23 December 2000), known professionally as Victor Borge ( ), was a Danish-American comedian, conductor, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in the North America and Europe. His ...

as The Second Tailor *

Ed Wynn Isaiah Edwin Leopold (November 9, 1886 – June 19, 1966), better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian. He was noted for his ''Perfect Fool'' comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a d ...

as The Emperor * Ray Bolger as The Pieman *

as The Sandman *

Terry-Thomas Terry-Thomas (born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens; 10 July 19118 January 1990) was an English character actor and comedian who became internationally known through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members of t ...

as The First Tailor *Robert Harter as Big Claus the game warden

Additional voices

as one of the Little Mermaid's sisters * Larry D. Mann *James Daugherty *William Marine

Crew

*Director: Jules Bass *Writer/Producer: Arthur Rankin, Jr. *Executive Producer:

*Associate Producer: Larry Roemer *Adaptation from the Stories and Characters: Hans Christian Andersen *Music and Lyrics:

and Jules Bass *Live Action Sequence Stager: Ezra Stone *Animagic Sequence Stager: Don Duga *Additional Dialogue:

*Recording Supervisor:

*Assistant Director: Kizo Nagashima *Live Action Cinematography: Daniel Cavelli *Animagic Technician: Tadahito Mochinaga *Puppet Makers: Ichiro Komuro, Kyoko Kita (both uncredited) *Animation: Fumiko Magari, Hiroshi Tabata (both uncredited) *Emperor's Clothes: Oleg Cassini *Set Design: Maurice Gordon *Makeup: Phyllis Grens *Mobilux Effects: John Hoppe *Optical Effects: Coastal Films, Inc. *Production Manager: Sal Scoppa, Jr. *Choreography: Tony Mordente *Music Composer and Director: Maury Laws *Title Song Orchestration: Don Costa *Sound Recorders: Alan Mirchin, Eric Tomlinson, Peter Rage, Richard Gramaglia

Soundtrack

A soundtrack album was issued by Columbia Records featuring all of the songs and the partial score from the film. In 2006, the album was reissued on CD by Percepto Records in a limited edition release that included four bonus tracks.

Tales referenced

*" Ole Lukøje" (1842) *" The Garden of Paradise" (1839) *"

" (1837) *"

" (1843) *" Thumbelina" (1835) *"

" (1837) *"

" (1835)

Home media

''The Daydreamer'' has been released on DVD thrice: on March 4, 2003 and May 13, 2008 by Anchor Bay, and by Lionsgate on March 10, 2012 via Amazon.com as a MOD (Manufacture On Demand) disc. Scorpion Releasing has also announced a Blu-Ray release for 2021.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Daydreamer, The 1966 films 1966 animated films 1966 directorial debut films 1960s American films 1960s English-language films 1960s musical fantasy films 1960s stop-motion animated films American films with live action and animation American musical fantasy films Animated musical films Cultural depictions of Hans Christian Andersen Embassy Pictures films Films based on fairy tales Films based on multiple works Films based on The Little Mermaid Films based on The Ugly Duckling Films based on Thumbelina Films based on works by Hans Christian Andersen Films directed by Jules Bass Films scored by Maury Laws Films set in Denmark Films set in the 19th century Films using stop-motion animation Films with screenplays by Arthur Rankin Jr. Films with screenplays by Romeo Muller Rankin/Bass Productions films Sandman in film Works based on The Emperor's New Clothes