1986 television film by Clive Donner
Babes in Toyland is a 1986 American made-for-television Christmas musical film directed by Clive Donner and starring Drew Barrymore, Richard Mulligan, Eileen Brennan and Keanu Reeves. Based on the 1903 operetta of the same title by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, this version features a new score by Leslie Bricusse along with select portions of Herbert's score.
Shot on location in Munich, West Germany, in summer 1986,[4] it was broadcast on NBC on December 19, 1986 and released on VHS in 1991. The film was shortened to 94 minutes for overseas theatrical release; it is this version that received a worldwide home media release, leaving the original 145-minute cut unreleased.
Plot
Lisa Piper, an eleven year old girl from Cincinnati, Ohio, cares for her family because her father's passing has made her grow up too fast. She has no time for toys, and refuses to be treated as a child. Her older sister Mary works in a toy store run by a man who sexually harasses her and is enraged when everyone leaves in anticipation of a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Mary and her boyfriend Jack are taking Lisa and their friend George home when the snowy roads cause an accident, where Lisa is thrown out of the car and transported to Toyland.
Lisa arrives just before Mary Contrary is to be wedded to the unpleasant Barnaby Barnacle, although Mary loves Barnaby's nephew, Jack Nimble. Lisa stops the wedding and, with her new friends, finds out that Barnaby plans to take over Toyland. Lisa, Mary, Jack and Georgie Porgie seek help from the kindly Toymaster, but he can only help them if Lisa really believes in toys. Barnaby confronts them, showing his true colors, and steals a flask containing distilled evil that the Toymaster had been collecting, before leaving Lisa and company to be eaten by Trollog, a vulture-like monster with a single enchanted eye that Barnaby uses to spy on enemies. They escape by blinding Trollog with paint and locking him in a chest, but are captured and imprisoned one by one in Barnaby's hidden fortress.
Barnaby reveals that he had been creating an army of trolls to take over Toyland, and attempts to corrupt his captives into being his servants with the contents of the flask, stating he would use it to make Mary his Troll Princess and transform Lisa into a monster akin to Trollog. However, Lisa proves to be immune to the evil, and reverses the effects on her friends. After escaping from Barnaby's stronghold, they return to the Toymaster. By now, Barnaby has ordered his trolls to attack Toyland, where they harass and capture residents. Lisa's newfound belief animates an army of life-sized toy soldiers created by the Toymaster, and they drive Barnaby into the Forest of the Night.
Having lost control of his creatures and having failed at making Lisa his new Trollog, Barnaby is banished from Toyland. Jack and Mary are married, and Lisa is taken home by the Toymaster—who is revealed to be Santa Claus—in a sleigh with wooden reindeer. They travel the Milky Way until she wakes at home, as though it has all been a dream. However, she notices a toy soldier identical to the ones from Toyland standing under the Christmas Tree, which promptly salutes her.
Release
The original 145-minute cut was never legally seen outside of television. However, through VHS recordings of these airings, it is currently available on YouTube, labeled as a "Director's Cut". The edited version, which was theatrically released in Europe, is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. Much of the deleted scenes were musical numbers such as "We'll Think of Something" and "It's the Feeling", and other transitional dialogue.
