What if StudioCanal is founded in 1937?/The Daydreamer (film)

The Daydreamer is a 1966 stop motion animated-live action musical fantasy film produced by Videocraft International. Directed by Jules Bass, it was written by Arthur Rankin, Jr., Stanley Carls and Romeo Muller, based on the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. It features songs by Jules Bass and Maury Laws. The film's opening features the cast in puppet and live form plus caricatures of the cast by Al Hirschfeld.

Plot
A teenaged Hans Christian Andersen daydreams instead of studying for school. He runs away from home. Whenever he falls asleep, he dreams that he is in strange adventures with tailors, a tiny girl no bigger than a thumb, a mermaid, a devil boy in Eden, and others. In reality, as well as in his dreams, Hans is searching for the Garden of Paradise, which in reality, he does not find. The dream sequences are puppet animation, complete with a puppet version of himself. These dreams become the basis for his fairy tale fictions, which he writes as an adult: "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Emperor's New Clothes", "Little Claus and Big Claus", and "The Garden of Paradise".

Musical numbers

 * 1) "Daydreamer" – Robert Goulet
 * 2) "Overture" – Maury Laws
 * 3) "Wishes and Teardrops" – The Little Mermaid
 * 4) "Simply Wonderful" – The Emperor and His Three Minstrels
 * 5) "Who Can Tell" – The Pieman of Odense
 * 6) "Luck to Sell" – Chris
 * 7) "Happy Guy" – Thumbelina, Chris and Chorus
 * 8) "Isn't It Cozy?" – Three Bats and the Mole
 * 9) "Finale (The Daydreamer)" – Chorus

Cast

 * Paul O'Keefe as "Chris" (Hans Christian Andersen)
 * Jack Gilford as Papa Andersen
 * Margaret Hamilton as Mrs. Klopplebobbler
 * Sessue Hayakawa as The Mole
 * Patty Duke as Thumbelina
 * Boris Karloff as The Rat
 * Hayley Mills as The Little Mermaid
 * Burl Ives as Father Neptune
 * Tallulah Bankhead as The Sea Witch
 * Victor Borge as The Second Tailor
 * Ed Wynn as The Emperor
 * Ray Bolger as The Pieman
 * Cyril Ritchard as The Sandman
 * Terry-Thomas as The First Tailor
 * Robert Harter as Big Claus the game warden

Additional voices

 * Billie Mae Richards
 * Larry D. Mann
 * James Daugherty
 * William Marine

Crew

 * Director: Jules Bass
 * Writers/Producers: Arthur Rankin, Jr., Stanley Carls
 * Executive Producer: Joseph E. Levine
 * Associate Producer: Larry Roemer
 * Adaptation from the Stories and Characters: Hans Christian Andersen
 * Music and Lyrics: Maury Laws and Jules Bass
 * Live Action Sequence Stager: Ezra Stone
 * Animagic Sequence Stager: Don Duga
 * Additional Dialogue: Romeo Muller
 * Recording Supervisor: Bernard Cowan
 * Assistant Director: Kizo Nagashima
 * Live Action Cinematography: Daniel Cavelli
 * Animagic Technician: Tadahito Mochinaga
 * Puppet Makers: Ichiro Komuro, Kyoko Kita (both uncredited)
 * Animation: Fumiko Magari, Hiroshi Tabata (both uncredited)
 * Emperor's Clothes: Oleg Cassini
 * Set Design: Maurice Gordon
 * Makeup: Phyllis Grens
 * Mobilux Effects: John Hoppe
 * Optical Effects: Coastal Films, Inc.
 * Production Manager: Sal Scoppa, Jr.
 * Choreography: Tony Mordente
 * Music Composer and Director: Maury Laws
 * Title Song Orchestration: Don Costa
 * Sound Recorders: Alan Mirchin, Eric Tomlinson, Peter Rage, Richard Gramaglia

Soundtrack
A soundtrack album was issued by Columbia Records featuring all of the songs and the partial score from the film. In 2006, the album was reissued on CD by Percepto Records in a limited edition release that included four bonus tracks.

Tales referenced

 * "Ole Lukøje" (1842)
 * "The Garden of Paradise" (1839)
 * "The Little Mermaid" (1837)
 * "The Ugly Duckling" (1843)
 * "Thumbelina" (1835)
 * "The Emperor's New Clothes" (1837)
 * "Little Claus and Big Claus" (1835)

DVD
The Daydreamer has been released on DVD twice; in 2003 by Anchor Bay, and recently by Lionsgate in 2012 via Amazon.com as a MOD (Manufacture On Demand) disc.