Princely Toys: The Private Kingdon of Jack Donovan (1976 TV Movie) User Reviews

The other review isn't exaggerating it really is one of the most unintentionally creepy things you're ever likely to come across, otherwise it's a pretty dull though

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 6/10 · 16 March 2022]

What were they thinking, this isn't joyful and it doesn't fill one with childlike wonder, it's just old and weird and vaguely unnerving all the way through, to me it was at least.. It's not even about toys as such, it's about the 'joy' of preserving antique clockwork automatons of the distant past, and that's a noble enough endeavour, this was made a long time back now and I do hope the man's impressive collection is as well taken care of today, but I personally don't really care for the things, or at least how they are eerily presented in this rather surrealistic documentary. It's kind of melancholy too, because the art of those kinds of toys and those who appreciate them are a dying lot. Anyway the main thing I felt while watching this was creeped out because of how they showcase the creations performing their robotic little tricks to distorted merry-go-round music, and the way their unmoving blank eyes and frozen little faces are swathed in deep shadows, they're human yet still appear larger like they're looking down on you, urk! They're like little demon savages that would hop about and surround you in a nightmare and eat your skin! So this is probably best enjoyed as a study of the Princely playthings of bygone eras rather than the joy of toys in general, actually it starts to get pretty boring once the novelty wears off, a bit like the automata themselves really.. I Really wouldn't show this to your little ones, seriously!

Terrifying

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 12 March 2021]

The wonderful folks at White Slaves of Chinatown are responsible for so many of the movies that we watched during this week of weird docs and educational films. This one may be the strangest they've shared, which is saying so much.

It's all about the 19th-century automaton collection of Jack Donovan set to strange synth music - created by Yardbirds member Paul Samwell-Smith - for about forty-five minutes. Forty-five hellish minutes of images of murderous dolls, acrobats, music playing figures and smoking monkeys dressing like Napoleon.

You know how every movie that has a cursed videotape always looks like The Ring? No. Not at all. That possessed footage should look exactly like this film. After all, Anton LaVey didn't just decide that "development and production of artificial human companions" would be part of the "Pentagonal Revisionism: A Five-Point Program" for the Church of Satan by accident.