The Phantom Tollbooth (1970)

Directors:

Chuck Jones
Abe Levitow

Writers:

Chuck Jones (screenplay)
Norton Juster (book)

Release Date:

7 November 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Adventure | Animation | Fantasy

Tagline:

It's an Alphabeautiful Mathemagical New Musical Movie!

Plot:

Milo is a boy who is bored with life. One day he comes home to find a toll booth in his room. Having nothing better to do...

Plot Keywords:

Toll Booth | Policeman | Ignorance | Child Driving Car | Journey

Cast

Butch Patrick	...	Milo
Mel Blanc	...	Officer Short Shrift / The Word Speller / The Dodecahedron / The Demon of Insincerity (voice)
Daws Butler	...	Whether Man (voice)
Candy Candido	...	Awful DYNN (voice)
Hans Conried	...	King Azaz / The MathemaGician (voice)
June Foray	...	Ralph / The Which / Princess of Pure Reason (voice)
Patti Gilbert	...	Princess of Sweet Rhyme (voice)
Shepard Menken	...	Tick Tock the Watch Dog (voice) (as Shep Menken)
Cliff Norton	...	Spelling Bee / Senses Taker (voice)
Larry Thor	...	Kakofonous A. Dischord (voice)
Les Tremayne	...	Humbug (voice)

Also Known As:

The Adventures of Milo in the Phantom Tollbooth

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:G | USA:G

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Animation Visual Arts

Trivia:

This film was actually made in 1968 but due to MGM's financial problems and frequently changing management, the film was not heavily promoted. When it was released in 1970, it was not a box office success.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Faintly McCabre offers Milo and Tock some cookies, Tock eats all of them, yet in the next shot they are back.

Quotes:

Officer Short Shrift: Now then, would you like a short sentence or a long sentence?
Milo: Well, I suppose a short one, if I have a choice.
Officer Short Shrift: How about "I am"? It's the shortest sentence I know.
[Writes "I AM" on his pad and hands it to Milo]
Milo: It's very kind of you to give me... such a short sentence.
Officer Short Shrift: And when do you think you can go to prison and start serving it?
Milo: Serving it? I guess I can't, not until I get back from Dictionopolis and the Castle in the Air.
[Thunderclap]
Officer Short Shrift: The what in the what?
Milo: Why, the Castle in the Air.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Parks and Recreation: Canvassing (#1.2)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Time Is a Gift

"No journey is valid without a proper destination..."

A youngster from San Francisco, bored with school and with time to kill, is offered an educational round-trip from a Phantom Tollbooth; he turns animated and takes a journey to the Castle in the Sky, where Rhyme and Reason have been banished by Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, the feuding worlds of words and numbers who each believe they are most important. Uneven animated feature (with live-action prologue and epilogue featuring Butch Patrick) is an erratic, but interesting adaptation of Norton Juster's book punctuated with musical interludes (and some odd "Wizard of Oz"-isms). Veteran animator Chuck Jones co-wrote the script and co-directed the animated sequences (the first, and last, cartoon effort from M-G-M). Jones makes a big mistake getting our young hero stuck in the Doldrums in the first act (there's no fascination in lethargy), but he picks up the pace soon after that. Digitopolis has a nifty look (and lively Hans Conried as the MathemaGician), and there's a lovely "conducted" sunset and an exciting race to the castle. The animation is alternately crude, clumsy, expressive, colorful, and routine, and the songs are an equally mixed lot (they're pleasant, if not especially catchy). Patrick has a marvelous deep voice for a little kid, but he isn't given anything clever to say; better are Conried, June Foray, and Mel Blanc in the voice-over department. Not too popular with child audiences at the time, this may have been a bit high-brow for the matinée crowds. If anything, the film has improved with time, and some of it is quite imaginative. **1/2 from ****