The Daydreamer (film)

The Daydreamer (originally known by its working title: The Enchanted World of Hans Christian Andersen) is a 1966 stop motion animated-live action musical fantasy film produced by Videocraft International.[2] Directed by Jules Bass, it was written by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Romeo Muller, 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 American actors Paul O'Keefe, Jack Gilford, Ray Bolger and Margaret Hamilton (both from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz), and Australian actor Cyril Ritchard as the voice of the Sandman. Some of the character voices were recorded at RCA Studios in Toronto, Ontario, under Bernard Cowan's supervision. The "Animagic" puppet sequences were staged by Don Duga at Videocraft in New York, New York, and supervised by Tadahito Mochinaga at MOM Production in Tokyo, Japan.

This article is about the 1966 Rankin/Bass film. For the 1970 French comedy, see Le Distrait.
The Daydreamer
Cover of the 2003 DVD release.
Directed byJules Bass
Produced by
  • Arthur Rankin, Jr.
  • Joseph E. Levine (executive producer)
  • Larry Roemer (associate producer)
Screenplay by
Based onstories and characters
by Hans Christian Andersen
Starring
Music byMaury Laws
Cinematography
Production
company
Distributed byEmbassy Pictures
Release date
  • June 1, 1966 (1966-06-01)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
Canada (voice recording)
Japan (animation)
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million[1]

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. Embassy Pictures later theatrically releases the company's two other films in 1967, Mad Monster Party? and The Wacky World of Mother Goose. 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 in 1977 (his final film role shortly before his death).

Plot

A teenaged Hans Christian Andersen daydreams instead of studying for school. He runs away from home. Whenever he falls asleep, he dreams that he is in strange adventures with 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. These dreams become the basis for his fairy tale fictions, which he writes as an adult: "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Emperor's New Clothes", "Little Claus and Big Claus", and "The Garden of Paradise".

Musical numbers
  1. "Daydreamer" – Robert Goulet
  2. "Overture" – Maury Laws
  3. "Wishes and Teardrops" – The Little Mermaid
  4. "Simply Wonderful" – The Emperor and His Three Minstrels
  5. "Who Can Tell" – The Pieman of Odense
  6. "Luck to Sell" – Chris
  7. "Happy Guy" – Thumbelina, Chris and Chorus
  8. "Isn't It Cozy?" – Three Bats and the Mole
  9. "Finale (The Daydreamer)" – Chorus

Cast

Additional voices

Crew
  • Director: Jules Bass
  • Writer/Producer: Arthur Rankin, Jr.
  • Executive Producer: Joseph E. Levine
  • Associate Producer: Larry Roemer
  • Adaptation from the Stories and Characters: Hans Christian Andersen
  • Music and Lyrics: Maury Laws and Jules Bass
  • Live Action Sequence Stager: Ezra Stone
  • Animagic Sequence Stager: Don Duga
  • Additional Dialogue: Romeo Muller
  • Recording Supervisor: Bernard Cowan
  • 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[3] 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.[4]

Main article: The Daydreamer (soundtrack)

Tales referenced

DVD

The Daydreamer has been released on DVD thrice: on March 4, 2003 and May 13, 2008 by Anchor Bay, and recently by Lionsgate in March 10, 2012 via Amazon.com as a MOD (Manufacture On Demand) disc.

See also

References
  1. Stephen Jacobs, Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster, Tomohawk Press 2011 p 468
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 175. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. "The Daydreamer Soundtrack Castalbumcollector". Retrieved 2009-12-02.
  4. "Percepto Records The Daydreamer". Retrieved 2009-12-02.
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