The Phantom Tollbooth (film)

The Phantom Tollbooth
Poster
Directed by	Chuck Jones Abe Levitow Dave Monahan (live action)
Produced by	Chuck Jones
Written by	Norton Juster Sam Rosen
Based on	Novel: Norton Juster
Starring	Butch Patrick Mel Blanc Daws Butler Candy Candido Hans Conried June Foray Patti Gilbert Shepard Menken Cliff Norton Larry Thor Les Tremayne Michael Earl
Music by	Dean Elliott
Cinematography	Lester Shorr
Editing by	William Faris
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	November 7, 1970 (1970-11-07)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Phantom Tollbooth is a 1970 live-action/animated film based on Norton Juster's 1961 children's book The Phantom Tollbooth. This film was produced by Chuck Jones at MGM Animation/Visual Arts. Jones also directed the film, save for the live action bookends directed by fellow Warner Bros. Cartoons alum Dave Monahan. The film was released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 7, 1970, and was the last MGM feature film release to include animated segments. MGM's United Artists subsidiary would release its first fully animated film The Secret of NIMH in 1982.

Completed by 1968, the film was held up for release by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer until late 1969 due to internal problems. The animation studio closed soon after the film's release, with MGM leaving the animation business for good. Juster had no input into the film adaptation, and has stated that he is not particularly fond of it.

Plot

Milo, a bored, lonely boy who lives in a San Francisco apartment block all by himself, 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 Tock, a "watchdog" who actually has a large pocketwatch in his body, Milo has a series of adventures in places like the Mountains of Ignorance, the Doldrums, Dictionopolis, Digitopolis, and the Castle in the Air. Together they must rescue the Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who are being held captive in the Castle in the Air, and restore order to the Kingdom of Wisdom. The many eccentric characters they meet include the Humbug, the noisy Dr. Dischord, the Mathemagician, King Azaz, the Senses Taker, and Officer Short Shrift.

Cast

• Butch Patrick as Milo
• Mel Blanc as Officer Short Shrift, The Dodecahedron, The Demon of Insincerity
• Daws Butler as Whether Man, Sense Taker, The Terrible Trivium, The Gelatinous Giant
• Candy Candido as Awful DYNN
• Hans Conried as King Azaz, The MathemaGician
• June Foray as Princess of Pure Reason, Faintly Macabre the Which, voice of Ralph
• Patti Gilbert as Princess of Sweet Rhyme
• Shepard Menken (as Shep Menkin) as Spelling Bee, Chroma the Great
• Cliff Norton as Kakofonous A. Dischord, Tollbooth Speaker
• Larry Thor as Tock
• Les Tremayne as Humbug
• Michael Earl as Friend (Uncredited)

Home release

The film was released in VHS format in 1992 by Turner Entertainment. In 2011 it was released in a remastered DVD edition by Warner Bros. Archive.

Soundtrack

• "Milo's Song"
• "Don't Say There's Nothing to Do in the Doldrums"
• "Time Is a Gift"
• "Noise, Noise, Beautiful Noise"
• "Word Market"
• "Numbers Are the Only Thing That Count"
• "Rhyme and Reason Reign"

Reception

The Phantom Tollbooth was met with critical acclaim, earning an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Remake

In February 2010, director Gary Ross began development of a remake of The Phantom Tollbooth for Warner Bros. (current owner of the film) with the first draft of the script written by Alex Tse.

External links

• The Phantom Tollbooth at the Internet Movie Database
• The Phantom Tollbooth at the Big Cartoon DataBase