Customer Reviews

The Gnome-Mobile (VHS)

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I accidentally recorded this film on VHS video tape about seventeen years ago from TV and I have taken special care of it ever since. The fact that it is finally being released on DVD is like a dream come true. It's one of those rare movies that capture the innocence of a bygone era, a time when excellent, feel good, family movies were made. It is with such movies that Disney defined the term family entertainment and that made a whole lot of difference to those of us that grew up with these films. Call it nostalgia if you will but movies are about entertainment and to me entertainment means that you can let yourself go for 90 minutes or so and travel to the faraway places in your imagination where the burdens of everyday life are nonexistent. Any movie that can achieve this is- to me- well worth a place in my collection. The Gnome Mobile is definitely one of those films and I would be a happy man if my son would grow up watching films like TGM rather than all the violent stuff that is so popular among youngsters nowadays.

While DJ Mulrooney is picnicking in the woods with his grandchildren, his granddaughter discovers a couple of gnomes living there, who think they are the only gnomes left in the world. JC agrees to help them find other gnomes and all kinds of complications ensue, including stolen gnomes, a stay in and escape from an insane asylum, car chases and a race to catch a "greased" gnome.

The Gnome-Mobile is a typical Disney Film from the `60's - silly but lots of fun to watch. Walter Brennan is great as both DJ and one of the gnomes, while Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber (listed in the credits as the kids from Mary Poppins) are okay as his grandchildren. It's fun spotting the character actors who seem to appear in just about every comedy made in the 60's including Richard Deacon, Frank Cady, Ellen Corby and Charles Lane. Ed Wynn appears all to briefly as a gnome.

The Gnome-Mobile is a good, fun family film.

THE GNOME MOBILE reunites Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber in their third and final Disney film pairing. Walter Brennan impresses in two roles with fine support from Tom Lowell and Sean McClory.

Elizabeth and Rodney (Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber) are spending the summer with their tycoon grandfather D.J. Mulrooney (Walter Brennan). Stopping off in the Redwood Forest for a picnic, Elizabeth meets Jasper (Tom Lowell) and Knobbie (Brennan once more), who claim to be the last surviving gnomes.

Promising to help them find more of their own kid, D.J. and the children bundle up Knobbie and Jasper, their destination the Virgin Forest many miles away. A stop at a motel blows their cover and the gnomes are abducted by freak show owner Horatio Quaxton (Sean McClory). The plot thickens when D.J. is thrown into a madhouse!

The story quickly rushes to it's eventful conclusion with Jasper finding the girl-gnome of his dreams (Cami Sebring).

Too bad the movie's in full-screen but never mind. Alas the Disney people are doing this with more and more frequency in their back-catalogue titles.

An entertaining tale with the MARY POPPINS kids! Based on the book by Upton Sinclair. With Ed Wynn, Maudie Prickett, Norman Grabowski, Ellen Corby, Susan Flannery and Richard Deacon.

Once again, the folks at Buena Vista Home Video disappoint Disney fans and film scholars with a poor release of a Disney favorite. Why can't both versions of the film -- the "pan and scan" and the widescreen (original theatrical ratios) be presented on the same disc? The cropping is very distracting, especially with a film like this that has so many scenes inside of a car!!
While "The Gnome-Mobile" may not rate a "Vault Disney" or "Special Edition" release, the least Disney Home Video could do is release the film in its original format. Of course, this might present a little extra expense to the Company, and it's obvious that current management likes to keep profits up by cutting back any way possible. Walt's philosophy of "exceeding guest expectations" seems to have been forgotten. Hopefully, things will change soon.
Note to Disney Home Video: Treat your company's film heritage, and your customers, with some respect.

The Gnome-moble is an excellent movie and a childhood favorite.
I would love to purchase this and many other Disney titles....
but they are not widescreen. Why are they not releasing these
titles the way they deserve to be shown?
Until the release of the widescreen versions, I will avoid those
pan-and-scan Disney titles.

Walt Disney had a wonderful taste for the tales and lore of leprechauns and gnomes and his talents of bringing them to film are proven most successful with his productions of "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" as well as this enchanting picture, "The Gnome-Mobile." The talents of child actors, Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber ("Mary Poppins" and "The Three Lives of Thomasina") are once again called upon in this delightful tale. Walter Brennan plays D.J. Mulrooney, the incredibly wealthy grandfather of the two children, who are visiting him while their parents are in Europe. Brennan is the head of a large timber corporation and owns a Rolls Royce, of which the children call "the gnome mobile" later in the picture. During a picnic lunch, Karen goes exploring in the woods and is pleasantly greeted by a young man named Jasper, who is a real and genuine gnome. As the story progresses, Karen introduces her grandfather and brother to Jasper and he takes them to meet his grandfather, also played by Walter Brennan, who does a great job. The gnomes explain that they are the last of the gnomes in this forest, and want to find a young female gnome for young Jasper to marry. D.J. and his grand kids agree to help, so they're off in the "gnome-mobile" in search of more gnomes. Disney's dvd transfer is quite good, with a few glitches here and there, and the picture is in full-screen. I highly recommend "The Gnome-Mobile," especially to young viewers and fans of the classic Disney live-action films. An enchanting tale that will add some whimsy to your dvd library.

I have for many years enjoyed this movie, and now that it has finally made it to DVD I had to pick it up. My 3 year old has watched for the last 4 days straight and loves it.

The plot of the movie is fairly unique and really enjoyable. I was surprised to see that the movie is based on a story by Upton Sinclair, who knew? It also packs quite a cast. Walter Brennan plays two key roles and does them both very well. Although I would say that his Mulrooney character does have an anger problem that my child picked up on pretty quick.

The film also uses the Disney stable of actors to fill out the cast from the adults like Ed Wynn and the child stars: Matthew Garber and Karen Dotrice.

The children really are the stars of the show and deservedly so. These two actors had been in two other movies by this point. 1. The three lives of Thomasina (disney movie), and 2. Mary Poppins (one of my all time favorites)

An interesting side bar to this is that this would be the last movie for child actor Matthew Garber and he would die under mysterious conditions just a few years later. It's an interesting story the curious could look up.

Over all this is a great Disney live action movie that should get more respect than it does, and I hope that now it has made it to DVD more people will take notice of it. My only complaints are that:
1. No Widescreen
2. The story is not long enough
3. No Bonus features

If you have young children or if you have a nostalgia steak pick it up.

Robert Stevenson's delightful little 1967 film deserves to be seen in a widescreen edition, but your kids won't really care. The catchy music and wonderful theme song, "In the Gnome Mobile" will have you tapping your foot for sheer joy, and perhaps you will be swept away in a wave of nostalgia at seeing the last teaming of Matthew Garber and Karem Dotrice, considerably more mature than they were three years earlier in Stevenson's MARY POPPINS. Robert Stevenson had a lovely way with directing children--he made Elizabeth Taylor a star in the Orson Welles JANE EYRE--and his touch is surefire with young Garber and Dotrice. Sad to think that this was his last film (he died in 1977) but it is a memorable one, not least for Walter Brennan's dual role--wonder if he got two salaries, he deserved them!

Watching the THE GNOME-MOBILE, even in its mutilated pan and scan version, turns into a whole snapshot album of treats. Fans with long memories will recall Sean McGlory from two classic John Wayne films of the early 1950s--THE QUIET MAN in which he played Owen Glynn, and also the rarely seen today ISLAND IN THE SKY, in which he played Wayne's co-pilot. Disney fans will recall he had appearances in both FOLLOW ME, BOYS and THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE. He died too soon, in 2003, without the Disney Legend status he deserved, but his performance here as Horatio Quaxton is filled with generous touches and a lot of old school hilarity.

The beautiful redwood forest at the beginning and the end of the film, shows a Disney comfortable with location filming. Wonder where these sequences took place? Must be somewhere in Northern California or Oregon?

Of all the movies of my childhood, there are few that I remember with such fondness as "The Gnome-Mobile". I recall my Uncle picking me up, sitting between 2 of my cousins in the theater munching on Milk-Duds. It was a wonderful day, and the film was absolutely magical.
I was SO excited to see that it came out on DVD - I wanted to share it with my own children. But then I looked at the specs, saw the aspect ratio and realized that it was yet another crappy Disney pan-and-scan hack job. The question I pose is this - at what point are the people at Disney going to have the RESPECT for their treasured films to release them in their entirety? Please don't support this horrible, thoughtless effort on their part.

This is a wonderful movie from long ago as my granddaughter said. I do not know who enjoyed the movie more, my granddaughter or myself. It is excellent entertainment for the entire family. I recommend this movie for everyone. It was truly amazing, no violence, no killing and it can still hold your attention through the entire movie. Call me old fashion, but more children need to see the movies we saw as children.

The quality was excellent and Walter Brennan actually looked "younger".

Aspasia