Customer Reviews

Boy Who Loved Trolls [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Good News: You can actually buy this video!
The Bad News: The poor video quality detracts greatly...

I love this video, it was one of my very favorite Wonder Works Productions. Too bad it doesn't look or sound any better than the copies I made off PBS on my own VCR...

This film is a masterpiece. It captures the depth of the developmental psychology of Erik Erikson with its main character who is confronting the trials and tribulations of growing up and the stolid disillusionment which is impressed upon him by adult who have lost their imaginations. The movie plays wonderfully with the duality of childhood imagination and adult ratiocination, and thusly presents to us a coming of age drama, while at the same time framing this with a comic sensibility. The dialogue between the overzealous bridge entrepreneur and the troll seeking kid is both frightening in an Orwellian sense and funny as it has the right touch of dark humor - which is maintained brilliantly throughout as the kid continues to be at odd's with the adults he encounters, all whom keep refusing to believe in the existence of trolls. Finally, the kid discovers an underworld where his imagination proves to be real, and the final hero is the boy himself, who endeavors to save the world of imagination from the destructive hyper-rationality of the grown-up world. This film is both thought provoking and at the same time accessible to children, who may not quite get the deeper motifs and symbolism, but will surely be motivated to ponder these very issues which will be presented in time as they reach the adult world. Overall, this short film is a master piece, and any one who doesn't think so I believe is not seeing beneath the surface, and perhaps is unfortunately too similar to the unimaginative, insipid adults which the film protrays as the antagonists to the powers of imagination and the creative mind.

Let's not take this film too seriously, or judge it as if it was intended for adults. It's based on a whimsical stage play for children, incorporating the various bridges and parks of Pittsburgh. It's not "low budget." It features Sam Waterston, William H. Macy (as a turtle), Susan Anton, Richard Schull, Max Wright ("Alf") and James Karen. It's a fairy tale set in modern-day Pittsburgh.

A well-meaning family friend once rented this movie for my family and his, and we dutifully watched it. What followed was the singularly worst movie any of us had ever seen. "The Boy Who Loved Trolls" has now become a running family joke and provided us with hours of entertainment from mocking it. Yes, it's low-budget Wonder Works, but that never bothered me before. There are several Wonder Works productions that I adored. It's the plot and script that really take you on a wild ride to terrible. So painful there are not even words.

Before "Law&Order",Sam Waterson played the troll Ofoeti.This is a bizarre movie,not the least of which is the campy '80s party scene (complete with rainbows)&the mermaid gazing vacantly at the camera.

The opening scene is a hoot,in which the young boy stares--several times--at the goodies hanging in the window of a lingerie shop(???)One assumes this shows his adolescence&sudden interest in girls.Kind of odd in a movie aimed at kids....

The villain (John Lithgow??)is out to turn the troll's world into a development&it's up to the little boy to Save the Day.This is a weird,weird,weird movie--and it explains why Oscars tend NOT to go to fantasy movies (bad acting,bad special effects,awful plot)!