Product Details

• Actors: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy
• Directors: Gus Meins, Charles Rogers
• Format: Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Legend Films
• DVD Release Date: July 27, 2008
• Run Time: 77 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001BSBBI0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,424 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Item Name: March of the Wooden Soldiers; Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Product Description

Imagine an enchanted fantasy world of timeless characters and magical moments where nothing goes right for toy makers, Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee. Based on the original Babes in Toyland, this movie is a dazzling spectacle of 6-foot wooden soldiers, Mother Goose characters and the beloved team of Laurel and Hardy. This holiday classic is perfect for the Christmas season. In color and expertly restored, this film will surely become a part of your family holiday tradition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Christmas Must-Buy, December 3, 2008

By 

Teresa Anson (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: March of the Wooden Soldiers (Colorized / Black & White) (DVD)

The Laurel and Hardy classic, March of the Wooden Soldiers (originally released as Babes in Toyland), was the fantastic result of combining two tremendous talents with a childlike, fantasy world and adult situations (Laurel and Hardy, Toyland and an evil landlord's mortgage conspiracy, respectively). Such rich source material makes for a film of unsurpassed quality: featuring rich and imaginative environments, costumes, sights and sounds. Every fairytale has its day, from Little Bo Peep to the Three Little Pigs to Mother Goose, and even Santa. We all know that the winter months are a time to remember to greatest holiday classics from years past, and March of the Wooden Soldiers is unsurpassed in its genre.

The holidays are associated with bright and festive colors--bright reds, greens, blues and golds--that set a warm and cheery mood, and the movies that we choose to enjoy during this season are no different. Fortunately, this edition of March of the Wooden Soldiers has been colorized, bringing newfound vibrancy to the events on screen and helping to integrate this classic tale with the traditional warmth of the holiday season. Rather than a visually dull grayscale that reminds one of the dour winter weather, toy soldiers shimmer in brilliant red onscreen, and our two comedian leads are further humanized by their newfound flesh tones and colorful Christmas garb.

As colorization efforts go, March of the Wooden Soldiers is a superlative effort, looking as though it was originally produced in the first generation of Technicolor, rather than decades earlier. The producers in charge of this re-mastering effort clearly thought that we would find an "aged color" appearance more acceptable than attempting to make it look completely modern, and this approach works very well. I'm sure you'll agree if you see a preview.

It's worth noting that this disc also includes the black and white version of the movie, perhaps as a peace offering to those of you who might object to the alteration of a classic film. I would go so far, then, as to call this the definitive purchase of March of the Wooden Soldiers, not just because you'll have a choice between color and black and white, but because the first step in colorizing any movie is to "clean up" the pre-existing black and white material as much as possible, and it certainly shows in comparison with other versions available.

In addition to both versions of the movie, this disc's special features really push it over the top. As a media buff, the included classic trailers are a wonderful prelude to the main feature--I like to imagine that I'm getting the same experience as the audiences who first viewed Laurel and Hardy some seventy years ago. And, in keeping with this package's holiday theme, the animated Rudolph the Reindeer movie is thoughtfully included, ensuring that you and your family get the most value out of a single disc.

For any family or fan of holiday cinema, this package is definitely a must-buy.

93 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your average Holiday collection..., October 26, 2007

By 

Albert M. Bozzo "The Vine House" (Sutter Creek, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: MGM Holiday Classics Collection (The Bishop's Wife / March of the Wooden Soldiers / Pocketful of Miracles) (DVD)

Here is a nice little Holiday film collection with a huge surprise! Most everyone is familiar with these titles and all of them have been out prior to this release. However, Laurel & Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers has never been released in quite the way it has here - complete, uncut, excellent transfer and the original studio logo and title cards for --- Babes In Toyland! Finally, after years of television "butchering" and copyright battles, one of Laurel & Hardy's best is available as it was originally released. Thanks to 20th Century Fox and MGM for releasing this little piece of film history.

58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning New High Definition Restoration and Colorization!, November 13, 2006

By 

JPL (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: March of the Wooden Soldiers (DVD)

Wow is all I can say! Laurel and Hardy's March of the Wooden Soldiers (aka Babes in Toyland) has never looked better. Legend Films and Genius Products found rare 35mm film elements and did a high definition digital restoration to create the finest looking black-and-white version of this L&H holiday classic ever seen. And to beat that, they created a stunning new COLOR version on the same DVD with a new Colorization technology. It really looks like it was shot in color. This disc is then jammed full of great bonus features to take any nostalgic viewer down Christmas memory lane. This DVD is FAR superior to the Goodtimes version (I viewed them side by side) and well worth the extra couple of dollars. I highly recommend this new definitive version of March of the Wooden Soldiers (with the Red box) both for yourself or for a gift.