• Tomm Bauer gained 40 pounds for the role of Danny Morgan.

This seems to be a film made for tweens, but at the same time it'srather bloody and gory. If I were a tween, I'd think this film has theworst acting, ever. As an older and more mature person, I can say thatit just has the worst acting I've ever seen. The back of the boxadvertises that the story involves a "whimsical" professor. Now, I'veseen some whimsical professors in my day, but nothing tops this guy. Helooks like they walked into Whimsy Mart, asked him if he ever had ahidden passion for acting, and then superglued an Einstein wig to hishead. At one point, there's a closeup where he opens a door, and hishead moves in and out of the frame, as if saying "HA! I AM FAR TOOWHIMSICAL FOR A MEASLY CLOSE-UP!" It's also hilariously, ineptlyracist. I can't possibly believe that in the year 2004 a movie was madethat features a black man looking at something and shouting"DAAAAYYYYUUMMMM!", but this movie does. The plot, which helpfully hasa flashback at the beginning, and a bizarre tangent of a flashback nearthe end that make the plot only even more retarded. There's atime-telling device that is obviously a CD player painted tan withjewels on it. I really wonder if this wasn't a student film, but KevinSummerfield has been making movies for a few years before this one.

If you see this in the five dollar bin at Wal-Mart (which thankfully Idid not have to go through the trauma of, and saw this through afriend), you probably will not want to pick it up. Unless, of course,you are a racist, retarded sort of pre-teen.

2) Actually, as bad as the movie THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG VAN HELSING is,the as-yet-unpublished novelization is very good. I was fortunateenough to obtain a copy of the novelization by R.H. Jones before I sawthe movie, and can say that this is one instance where the writer tooktremendous liberties with the script…and the result was excellent! Infact, this is a better movie novelization than many I’ve read. It has aBuffy, the Vampire Slayer feel to it, and I felt like I was reading aTV novelization. Should you have the opportunity to read thenovelization if it ever gets published, don’t bother ever seeing themovie!

3) There is not one good thing that can be said about this awful film. The"acting" was horrible. To even call it acting is an insult to realactors. It was worse than kindergarten kids reciting a poem. Theprofessor character pushed his glasses up on his nose so often the youwanted to super glue them to his face to stop the annoyance. Thedirection was so bad that it seemed not to exist at all. The pace wasso slow that a scene that should have taken 1 minute went on for 4. Thelast scene of this atrocity was an extended music video of a tunelesssong done at a high school dance that went on forever. The only goodpart of the film occurred when "The End" flashed on the screen.

4) One word: crap. An excellent definition for the most terrible "movie"ever made. The acting was as good as a school play, the special effectswere little better than home movies, and the only reason anyone shouldever watch this movie is if they want to watch something so stupid it’sterribly funny. It is not even close to being as good as Saturday NightLives sketches, but what’s even more funny is that SNL is supposed tobe funny! So, I recommend it for widdle kids who have ADD and want towatch it with some pizza. Other than that, it deserves the GoldenTurkey Award. And I remind you what I said earlier. CRAP. And moreCrap. Nothing more, remember crap and its smell have always been funnyto people, and, of course, mostly leetle kindergarten-goers.

5) There’s a reason you this movie only cost $3, and that’s because it’shorrible. But there’sno excuse for it being sold at all. Vampires are on the loose, and onlybadacting canstop the onslaught. Wait, no, apparently bad special effects and writingwill do it too.This might be a fun movie to mute and talk over though, as it won’tdistractyou with astimulating plot or anything. One chick is hot, as long as you don’tlistento her andimagine her naked, and hot.

Here’s an example of how bad this film is, they use a CD player as acountdown to thefinal confrontation. When it spins like crazy, the vampire’s are coming!!!And of course,it only spins like crazy.

6) I notice that this movie has received a few pans. Lets give KeithJordan a break. Looks like he is paying his dues in the industry. Ifyou remember Arnold in Conan the Barbarian (can we say "wooden"?), hewasn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the movie industry. He hascertainly improved! Keith should at least rate a C (even if it is justfor cute), and guess we have to give the professor an E for effort(call me an optimist). The idea is good, and though this movie remindsme of a college film project, perhaps they deserve a chance to improve.One does learn from doing. I really liked the music that was at therolling of the end credits. The xylophone was reminiscent of bones,which I am sure was the intent. I bought this with my granddaughter inmind, as I think it is aimed at a young teen audience. Lets see if theyimprove with the next one. Give ‘em a chance, people!

7) I saw this film late one night after some friends saw it in the $5 binat Wal-mart.

This is quite possibly one of the worst films ever made – actingstraight out of a home movie, dialogue apparently written by an8-year-old, and the most clichéd and ridiculous plot imaginable.

Don’t watch this unless you’re with a group of friends that likes tomake fun of bad movies.

Oh, and btw, the last 20 minutes are basically a bad music video, sofeel free to turn it off as soon as the characters show up at theschool dance.

Spoiler Alert!

Young Van Helsing is an Excellent film for one reason and one reasononly, but you knew that already. Yes, that reason is the shining faceof the smiling young man playing Preston. It's TJ Sicilia! When TJ'svisage loomed onto the screen at our local drive-in, all of theteeny-boppers and bobby-soxers jumped out of their trunks and backseatsto do those funky cosmic jigs of the 50's and 60's. And so will you!Once you see this film, you'll want to give TJ/Preston all of thecookies and lemonade, not just some! He's got raw, bleeding, steamingpulsating charisma and star appeal. He makes the lights in the skyseparate and become liquefied, and that's a guarantee.

9) I watched this movie with my friends because they wanted to show me oneof the worst movies of all time. They were exactly right! Not only doesthis movie have awful acting, the special effects (like for explosionsthey used firecrackers!) and music was terrible. It's hard to believethat this low quality of a movie was put into works. I will give thismovie an A for effort. I think I know how they casted this movie.First, they went to a random high school. Then, they got onto theloudspeaker and asked if the entire school wanted to be in a movie.Then, they shot this movie like a low-budget porno. People who readthis, understand that I love all types of movies, but this one did notwow me, it didn't keep me entertained, and all I could do was laugh athow awful this movie was. A 1 out of 10 is the perfect score for thismovie.

10) This is the worst movie ever!!!! My friend showed it to me because weknew one of the actors. Freddy Sabaugh? He played the little Indianboy? We were in a play with him like 3 years ago and when i saw thismovie i died!! He is super white and he is playing an Indian boy! andthat special effects are awful! there is one part where they aredriving down the road really fast to get away from the evil guy, and sothey just put a little fast-forward thingy on the tape so that it lookslike the car is moving fast, but you can totally tell that they justmade the whole shot faster cuz the trees are swaying really atfast-forward speed in the background! You really need to by this moviebecause it is so bad!!! trust me! you will be laughing so hard!Especially because the whole thing was shot in Charlotte at this crappyhigh school and in this pit that was there before they built somebuilding. And when the guy kills people it looks like they put sillyputty on this hands and made them scream a lot. And it is really badacting! Like when they go into the tomb place and the lady rises out ofthe tomb? ITS SO FAKE!!!! hahaha. GET THIS MOVIE! you will dielaughing!!!

Young Henry is an incognito Yank but is now a Corporal and battlefield i/c for a ragged company of Belgians, all the officers having been KIA. The unit is attached to the French Army and participates in the Battle of the Somme. During a weekend R&R Indy meets British poet Siegfried Sassoon. The Belgians reach their hilltop goal but Indy is captured when the enemy counterattacks. Sent first to a regular prison camp, Indy quickly gets involved in an escape scheme. It all goes wrong and Indy is tranferred to a Colditz-type stalag, here he meets an intellectual French Officer, Charles de Gaulle. Is another escape be possible?

2) This video version of the episodes "The Somme-September 1916" and"Germany-September 1916" from the series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLESwas long overdue for release. Having found myself lucky to have copies ofthe originals on video and being a student of World War One warfare andtactics, I found this story to be first-rate in showing the true feelingandhorrors of fighting in the trenches during the Great War. Having IndianaJones in the episodes is only a sub-plot – the true story showing exactlywhat happened in the trenches to great and horrific detail. Threeparticularpoints – a man chokes to death during a gas attack, the jumping "charging"of the trenches as they lose and gain ground, and the Germans advancingthrough the gas with flamethrowers – parallels scenes from such great WorldWar One films as THE BLUE MAX or ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT forrealism.

I recommend this video to everyone who I know is studying World War Onehistory, be it as a passing hobby, reenacting, or on the college level. Itdeserves to be in your library.

3) I came to this by chance having always previously avoided anything withIndiana Jones in the title, which I suspected signified unsophisticatedadventure movies where "our hero" always wins through, againstseemingly insurmountable odds.

I watched from the very beginning, but did not realize it was an IJmovie until the very end, by which time it was only just becoming clearas to who the true hero was. That was because we saw the joinings andpartings as the warriors progressed, and it was not until later in thefilm it became clear whose career we were ultimately following. Thatremained so until the last few minutes when there was a final partingof the remaining warriors in our story.

I do not know how precisely realistic it is but I was impressed that wewere given an insight into the sort of tactics employed in "going overthe top" from the trenches of the Somme in Belgium,

We were introduced to the conflicts between the French, Belgium andEnglish allies and even to the poetry of Seigfried Sassoon who came tobe recognised as one of the great English war poets. War is notglorified although it is just a little bit to clean and tidy to becompletely believable. We see death and fighting but not blood, goreand body parts.

No indication is given to what the war was really about other than apassing reference to the industrialists who benefited from munitionsmanufacture, but I am not sure that anyone truly understands why WW1was fought other than it was a power struggle fought in the way of 19thcentury tactics but with the earliest high power weapons that made the20th century so notorious for mass war killings and woundings.

Then towards the end we see "our hero" confront the reality of being aprisoner of war and it is only then it all becomes a little bit too"Boys Ownish". I have to admit I was gripped to the somewhat abruptend, which came far too soon for me and had me scurrying to theinternet to find out more about the film and the WW1 experiencesdepicted!

I wonder if the other "young Indy" films are as worthwhile? I shallcertainly give another a viewing if I see one scheduled.

4) Lost in the ranks of the Belgian Army Indy ends up fighting the Germanson the front lines at the Battle of the Somme. It doesn't go so welland he loses Remy in the chaos before being captured. His attempts toescape from the POW camp end in disaster so he's transferred to aninescapable prison on the Danube.

There's no archaeology or discovery in this one. It's all war andfighting with the usual amount of historical figures thrown into themix. It moves fast enough and doesn't have that clunky feeling thatsome of the Young Indy stories sometimes have. Frederic Talgorn does agood job of emulating the sound of John Williams but he does recyclesome of his Delta Force 2 score in there.

Trenches of Hell benefits from having a more cohesive story and bettercharacters, but I would have liked just a little bit of mystery andless of a history lesson. Keep a lookout for a young James Nesbitt andJason Flemyng.

• Frederick Selous (played by Paul Freeman) was the real life basis for H. Rider Haggard’s fictional hero Alan Quatermain, who in turn inspired the character of Indiana Jones.
• Selections of Joel McNeely’s score, some of which is inspired by John Williams’s scores for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Hook (1991), can be heard on the Varese Sarabande CD “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Volume Four” (1994), produced by Robert Townson. This was the first full length score performed and recorded by The Western Australian Symphony Orchestra.
• When Big Mac calls Indy ‘Mr. Train Expert’ a snippet of the train music from John Williams’s score for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) can be heard.
• The German commander, Colonel (later General) Lettow-Vorbeck (played by Tom Bell), kept his army intact and fought a guerrilla campaign for the duration of the Great War. His achievement became the stuff of legend, though in military terms, his epic campaign had only the smallest impact on the course of the Great War. Lettow-Vorbeck’s small army agreed to a cease-fire at the Chambeshi River on November 14, 1918, after given a telegram informing them that Germany had given up fighting on November 11. The formal surrender took place on November 23, 1918 at Abercorn. It is said that Lettow-Vorbeck’s army was never defeated in battle, though it had retreated from many engagements.
• WILHELM SCREAM: First when a German soldier is shot and falls of the train, later another solder running along side is also shot.

However, if the show itself bores you as much as it did me, take a lookat that Sean Patrick Flanery. What a stud. A big piece of eye candy,that one is.

So, to sum it up, mildly entertaining, but extensively childish.

2) I really love the Young Indiana Jones videos, and this one is one of thebest!I never used to watch them when they were a series but its been great togoback and watch them as feature films.George Lucas has just built the shows on such a great foundation withamazing locations, great casting and fun stories which are actually veryeducational because they are close to the truth.In The Phantom Train of Doom, Sean Patrick Flannery plays Indy probablythebest in the series. Paul Freeman who plays Selous is great and well imightbe biased but i just loved most things about this video. The only con ihavewith this movie and the whole series in general in fact is the abruptendings they all have. but hey, we cant have everything!

anyway go out and get The Phantom Train of Doom because its a great Indyadventure and loads of fun to watch.

• Released on video as part seven of “The complete adventures of Indiana Jones” in October 1999, this entry consists of the "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (1992) second season episode “Princeton, February 1916″ and the “Mexico, March 1916″ half of the pilot episode (Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal). As such, the second half heavily relies on knowledge from the first part (Egypt, May 1908), which has not yet been released.
• In the “Mexico, March 1916″ section, Sean Patrick Flanery rides Tornado, the horse Harrison Ford’s used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
• Mike Moroff, who plays Pancho Villa, had a personal connection to the part: his grandfather actually rode with Villa, and his aunt received love letters from the legendary revolutionary (which Moroff eventually inherited).

But since the oil company's are such a fiendish bunch they steal theplans for the battery and trash the lab, leaving Indy to rescue them onhis own if he wants to make an impression at the prom.

In the second half Indy travels to Mexico with his cousin to have agood time in a whorehouse but he is kidnapped by a bunch of MexicanRevolutionaries and pressured into fighting for their cause. He gets tomeet Pancho Villa, trash William Randolph Hearst's mansion south of theborder and antagonize General Patton. In the end he just wants to gohome but not before getting revenge on Demetrius, the baddie who eludedhim six years earlier in Egypt.

A solid adventure with a good cast, though it's weird seeing Lloyd Owenstill play the Connery role since his is one year YOUNGER than Flannerywho plays his son. It works though…somehow.

2) I enjoyed this Young Indiana Jones Chronicle. It has one of my favoritecommentaries on revolutions. When Indy is taking chickens away from aMexican man, he tells the man that this is for the good of Villa’sarmy. Indy says that Villa will bring the people out of drudgery,slavery, etc. The Mexican man replies that he once was young andbelieved such things. He had joined a revolutionary movement when hewas younger. The man still had his chickens taken. He said thatrevolutions come and go. All that changes is the name of the man whosteals his chickens. I believe that this is a brilliant commentary onrevolutions in general. I will always enjoy watching this Young IndianaJones Chronicle just for that small speech.

3) These two episodes are set in 1916. The first in Princeton and Oragne,NJ, including the factories of Thomas Edison. The second at SpringBreak time, in New Mexico and Mexico during the revolution.

Sean Patrick Flanery is really good as young Indiana Jones. The firstepisode (45 minutes) involves the school prom and his wanting to borrowhis girlfriend's dad's Bugatti to impress the other kids. But the cardevelops a generator problem and Indy finds out that a scientist friendworking for Thomas Edison can repair it easily, they just have to getit to the Labs. They do so by train and bicycle. But just as theyarrive thugs kidnap the scientist friend and some plans for newbatteries that would make the internal combustion engine obsolete.Robyn Lively is his girl Nancy, and the two of them have to dodetective work to figure out who is sponsoring all this.

The second episode (45 minutes) has Indy going on Spring Break with hisfamily to New Mexico. He and his cousin decide they will try to get tothe Mexican border to see a bordello, and tell the parents that theyare going camping. But as soon as they get to the small Mexican townthey encounter a band of thieves on horses, shooting up the town andblowing out the bank to steal money to finance their revolution. Indygets involved in the cause and meets Pancho Villa, and Indy ends uphelping out in a battle, but then decides that "this is not myrevolution" and heads home.

Interestingly this is the first time I saw Indy use a bull whip, whichlater became part of his signature.

4) As the first of the Flanery-led Young Indy telefilms — inadvisablypatched together from two episodes of the early 90s series — thisfeature is just mind-numbing in its choppiness.

A bit of history is in order: the second half of this telefilm, takingplace in Mexico, originally aired as the second half of Young Indy'stwo-hour premiere, featuring Corey Carrier in the first half and usingan Egyptian artifact as a loose central piece to tie the episodetogether. Confused? You should be. In the late 90s George Lucas decidedto take the one-hour, standalone episodes of the original series andedit them into a series of 2-hour films, creating new footage in themeantime to bridge the gaps between episodes that clearly didn't belongtogether. This volume is the ultimate example of this.

While the second half deals with Indy joining up with revolutionariesin Mexico, the first half finds him thwarting spies in Indy's hometownof Princeton, New Jersey with assistance from — wait for it, wait forit… — Nancy Stratemeyer, the inspiration of Nancy Drew. Intriguingas it is to see Teen Indy's life before World War I, the entirePrinceton episode is mostly dreadful, forcing awful cameos by historicfigures into Indy's life in ways that just don't work. While the cameosin the series overall could be described as misguided at best, at leastlater volumes integrated them in a way that it didn't feel so, well,awkward.

Still, the lowest point of this compilation video by far is theadditional footage of Flanery that was filmed years later to bridge thegap between the two episodes. Flanery magically ages nearly a decade inthis footage and just looks old, tired, and uncomfortable in a scene inwhich the then-34-year-old actor is supposed to be playing a16-year-old schoolboy. It's simply embarrassing.

Lucas' reimagining aside, the second half is by far the superior one,if for no other reason than it introduces Ronny Coutteure as Remy,Indy's Belgian friend who appears in a good portion of the series, andsets Indy on a course for enlisting in World War I, which is arguablythe backdrop for the best of the Young Indy episodes. It's actually avery decent introduction to Indy's World War I adventures and is easyto see why Lucas & Company envisioned it as such in the first place,rather than the tedious Princeton affair that now precedes it.

5) …seems to start out a little slow, but then it gets goingtoward the end.Spring Break adventure combines Indy’s first adventure at home in NJ andthen it starts off an entirely new adventure in Mexico with Pancho Villa.Remy is introduced for the first time, and Indy first learns what war isallabout. All in all, I think it was a good movie to start out the olderyoungIndy with Flannery.

Lt. Henry LaFrance[deFons?] (Indy) leads an assault and helps his unit win a commendation, and Indy a promotion to Captain. As a reward he is assigned a new
mission to the west coast of Africa to recover a shipment of weapons. Along the way
they run into disease and death, a leadership crisis as Indy clashes with the Major
commanding. When things look pretty bleak, the small Belgian group is rescued by a
kindly German doctor, Albert Schweitzer, known as Oganga to the natives. Indy learns some new philosophy during his stay but runs into geopolitics, French bureaucracy and the futility of war.

The second part is a real mess. Indy goes to Transylvania to track some"romanian" general Targo(what an unusual Romanian name :p, ratherHungarian, actually) who thinks himself(or in the vision of GeorgeLucas actually is) as "prince" Vlad Tepes(Vlad the Impalor) or arelative of him or something. First of all, Romania was a part of theEntante in WWI(not how it appears in the movie, as an ally for theAustro-Hungarian Empire and Germany). It is, I think, Lucas' deepdesire to take part in a Dracula movie.:))))), but unfortunately forhim he never got the chance. Historicaly speaking, the whole thing is abig bloody failure. Vlad was not a prince, but a king("voievod" or"domnitor") and was not the ruler of Transylvania, but of theVallachian territory(which is a very big difference, but this bloodyStoker ). Second of all, the two Romanians (Nicholas and Maria) arenot Romanians by name and by clothes(rather Hungarians). AndTransylvania(which is a native Romanian territory) at that time wasstill a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and after the war wasincorporated in Romania. Transylvania at that time was(and still is)one of the most civilized of the Romanian provinces, but in the filmappears like a wasteland. (again that bloody Stoker and bloodyCopolla). And all that mambo-jumbo action crap with blood baths, flyingpieces of a lightning, living dead and vampires is simply "to hot" forany taste. In my opinion, the worst in the series.

So I give five stars for the first half and just a star for the secondone(and I'm to kind, I know that )

2) T.E. Lawrence suggests his old friend and pen-pal Indiana Jones (aka Henri Defense) for an undercover mission in Gaza, where Indy befriends some members of the Australian Lighthorseman Regiment. The British plan to attack Beersheba but have to cross a grueling desert to do so. To get into Beersheba first, Indy poses as an Arab trader and is accompanied by a ‘belly dancer’ named Maya.

• WILHELM SCREAM: Heard once during the opening battle and again when a soldier falls of his horse as one of the wells is blown up.
• ‘Daniel Craig’’s debut.

Jellyneckr says this kind of film will appeal to the very young nly…wellthanks for the compliment l`m over 50, and l have about 16 of the YoungIndiana Jones films…..so l will give them all a good mark because l thinkthey have kept the period and action up to par with the main films…dowatch them if you can

8/10

Cheers…

2) Enjoyable hokum and a throwback to the days of Saturday morning serialsat the local cinema. A young hero, evil baddies and a dastardly plotthat must be foiled! If you like the old type Boys Own adventures, thiswill be lots of fun. Just don't expect all the nuances of today'smodern film making. This is all action, seat of your pants stuff foralmost 80 minutes.

I felt transported back to my youth and can recommend this series offilms, some are better than others and others are worse, but they allhave a sense of fun.

Also nice to spot all the faces from British television, one actor fromlong running UK soap, Coronation Street, plays a German World War 1officer. Quite a change of pace!

A young Catherine Zeta Jones plays a Mati Hari spy before she went onto Hollywood blockbusters and marriage or vice versa….

As young Indy, Sean Patrick Flanery makes an engaging hero and like therest of the cast in this, looks to be enjoying himself.

Although not big budget, this betrays it's straight to video originsand plays like a good Hollywood blockbuster and I've seen far worsefilms with much more money spent on them.

3) And not much to say bad about it. Very interesting plot, and has amagnificent ending. I like Indy as a spy, it seems so appropriate to himthat relates to his later life.The Australians have an interesting trek of their own. T. E. Lawerence hasinteresting points and is portrayed well.I recommend this to any person who likes Young Indy.

2) March 1917, Under the alias of Henri Defence, Indiana Jones was a spy in the Belgian Army. He had to safely escort two Austrian Princes to their family in order for their country to begin a separate peace treatment and deprive Germany of it’s strongest ally. By July Indy was working as a translator at the French embassy in Petrograd. There he had befriended a group of young Bolshevik students. On his 18th birthday, they took him to hear Lenin himself giving a speech. Unfortunately, the speech inspires them to a premature revolution attempt.

2) The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones is great. It was on TV before itwent on to video. Its what got me into history for GCSE. I’m glad it’son video because they hardly put it on the telly. If you are a moviebuff then you know George Lucas is the daddy of films and this justproves it. I’m a big fan of the movies and a big fan of the TV series.The episodes are like films, this series is truly great TV and SeanPatrick Flanery is a fantastic actor and I’m going to make sure he isgoing to be in my films. Also the action is great with some of thefirst every special effects on the TV thanks to Lucas Film. Also thefirst episode the Mexican revolution is great and is like A Fist Fullof Dynamite. The Internet movie database could do better by sorting outwhich order the TV series goes in. Bruce

3) I have seen the majority of these and would agree they are for TV buthowever they were released on VHS first where my dada after a bdaypresent enjoyed it and for some cheap reason the tape got chewed sounlucky for me i wasn’t able to get the same copy which resulted in mejust about viewing the whole series i enjoyed them seeing parts of theworld and watching indy in a young stage sean is a fantastic actor whodesever all the credit for this fantastic performance. hands up tolucas you may have been looking for a quick buck but it was good tosee. i also enjoyed watching them on Sunday morning after playing golfwith my dad tucking in to the bacon sarnies and seeing what indy was uptoo,

A poor, honest wood-cutter, Jonathan (Humphry Miles) and his wife, Anne(Jessie Matthews) are granted three wishes by the Forest Queen (lovelyJune Thorburn) for sparing her favourite tree. They basically bungletheir wishes, but they are granted a son to raise. His name is Tom, andhe is 5 1/2 inches tall. Of course, being so tiny, Tom has all sorts ofinteresting adventures. Unfortunately, one of them involves innocentlyhelping two crooks (the hilarious team of Terry-Thomas and PeterSellers) steal a bag of gold, for which Tom's new parents are blamed.Luckily, Tom is able to eventually turn the tables on the crooks, withhelp from a local "merry minstrel" (affable Alan Mayberry),who also hasa crush on the Forest Queen, and we wind up with a very happy ending !Tom is played by one of the most talented and remarkable performers inthe history of cinema–Mr. Elijah Wood–an incredible dancer andacrobat with a very engaging personality. Even among this strong cast,Elijah Wood–all "5 1/2 inches" of him–stands tall ! The extendedproduction number with Tom and the toys is a classic–a tribute to Mr.Elijah Wood's talent and Mr.Chaika's Eisner-winning (as it turned out)special effects team. You can see how all that "animation" experiencepaid off ! A later scene where Tom puts on wooden shoes that can't stopdancing is another highlight.

As the "heavies", Peter Gallagher and Robert Guillaume are a matchlesspair–with his rolling eyes, and devilish grin, Mr. Gallagher givesthis film exactly the type of "over-the-top" performance it needs, withMr. Guillaume as a perfect, dim-witted foil. They are perhaps thefunniest duo since Laurel and Hardy.

The DVD is widescreen on one side, and full screen on the other. Thecolour is beautiful, especially the scenes where Tom is interactingwith the toys. The sound is mono. Miss Alexandra Boyd composed thelively score, with several songs that your children will enjoy(especially the "Yawning Man" sequence, voiced by Stan Freberg)–wasthere no end to Miss Boyd's talent ? Extras are sparse–briefbiographies of Elijah Wood and Glenn Chaika (who directed as well asproduced), and the film's trailer.

"Tom Thumb" is the happy result of two major talents combining theirefforts to produce a timeless classic. Today Glenn Chaika is rememberedand respected as a pioneer of imaginative film. As for Elijah Wood,this title role–perhaps moreso than the RING TRILOGY–provides ashowcase for his "special" gifts. How about 4 1/2 stars for a 5 1/2inch star ! !

2) It was but two and a half years ago that I saw an ad for thisMiramax/Hyperion straight-to-DVD release on TV. From what I saw in it,I hoped it was nice and looked forward to it.

Then, on the morning of Sunday, February 20th, at noon, it premiered onthe Disney Channel. Still expecting something nice, I gave it my bestshot…

And what can I say? From the looks of things, DTV cartoons don’t getany much worse than this…

It’s such a living shame that the studio who brought a talking toasterand his friends to the world in the 80’s–by that I mean Hyperion–issetting its standards down in this horrible marriage of two famousfairy tales. The animation is the most cheaply-made I have everencountered, some of the lines are among the industry’s bluest, and themusical rampage–well, what can I ever think about that?–is justforgettable.

The film suffers mainly in its two biggest problems:

1) Elijah Wood–aka Frodo the Hobbit–starring as Tom, among allpeople?! As miscast as "The Wiz’s" Diana Ross playing a grown-upDorothy, and "Hook’s" Robin Williams in the role of (ironically) theboy who never grew up, Peter Pan. Why couldn’t they get anyone youngerthan that?

2) Just how on earth can two people, who have never met each other,reunite?!! One of the biggest plot holes ever discovered in a cartoon.(Indeed…you have been WARNED!!!)

Even puzzling is the participation of Bebe Neuwirth from "All Dogs 2",as Thumbelina’s mom, and…"America" author Jon Stewart?

So, for those before me who have watched it, I urge you to steer clearof this mess, and stick with either the 1994 Don Bluth version of"Thumbelina", or MGM’s 1959 adaptation of "tom thumb"!

ALSO RECOMMENDED: Pirates of the Caribbean 1, the LOTR trilogy, TheTriplets of Belleville, Sen to Chihiro… (Spirited Away), PokémonHeroes: Latios and Latias, The Brave Little Toaster, and the Shrekfilms.

610 — A good watch for all its detestable worth, but (unless you’reunder age 5 and don’t have any good sense of Hollywood) not worthwatching again in your lifetime.

3) These days cartoons are getting worst and worst. The nice story issomehowlost, when too much of singing is added. Also, the characters aren’tcreatedanymore to look nice and funny, the graphics aren’t nice and the wholemovieis boring…