Dreams of Toyland (1908) Poster

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5/10
Violence and mayhem in Toyland.
JoeytheBrit15 August 2010
This is quite a creative little film, but it doesn't really go anywhere, At eight minutes long it has just four scenes; the first shows a small boy and his mother entering a toyshop where an attentive shopkeeper shows the excited boy a variety of toys. This scene seems to go on forever, and is unfortunately marred by the fact that the boy stares directly at the screen as if the director is issuing an instruction to him. Then, when mother and son leave the shop, people can be seen peeping from neighbouring shop doorways. The following scene shows the boy being put to bed and we are immediately shown the dream he has about all the toys his mother has bought for him. It has to be said that this kid seems to have some kind of anger management issues judging by the things the residents of Toyland get up to in his dream. Golliwogs and bears wrestle on the floor, dolls are run over by buses, other dolls are sat on by a horse while one unfortunate chap is pecked by a goose in the most painful area imaginable .

This is a pretty good example of a filmmaker mastering a process (stop-motion) and then putting it to use into a film without giving any real thought as to how to make the best use of the process.
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6/10
An interesting experiment.
planktonrules8 February 2019
My score of 6 is relative to other films of the era. Most of the movies they made at that time lasted 2-3 minutes, so at about 7, this is actually pretty long for that time. Also, because it was 1908, I'll cut the film a lot of slack regarding the stop-motion. After all, it was an industry in its infancy.

A woman takes her child shopping at a top store. She buys him a trolley toy and they go home. When he does to bed, the boy has a nightmare. At first it seemed pretty cute...with a toy city and all sorts of toys (including his trolley) frolicking about the place. Now this was a problem in that many of the toys just seemed to move about rather aimlessly. Sometimes they fight, other times they dance and other times they bash into things. Eventually when the drive is filled with some ultra-violence, the boy awakens.

The story is simple and the animation, while simple, must have wowed audiences of the day. Now, it seems more quaint than anything else.
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provocative
Kirpianuscus4 June 2020
I admit, for me it is a very, very strange short film. The gnerosity of mother about the toys of her son is the first step. The violence remind, off course, the fights of children or the short films of Charles Chaplin but, in many moments, it seems too intense. Sure, for fans of stop motion, this grand - grand father of present animations is a precious gift. But it remains provocative in each detail. A good and bad point, in same measure.
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