El abuelo está loco

when this movie came out in 1967 i was only six. but when it was shown over the years on the disney channel and i got to see the movie for the first time i cried with laughter. the late but not forgotten walter brennan was as funny as funny could be. he was the perfect choice to do both roles. i take my hat off to walt disney for putting this movie together. this is a movie the whole family can enjoy. thank you...

The kids from Mary Poppins are re-united on screen to play modern-day siblings in this likable live-action Disney feature. Also on display are some neat special effects (for the time, anyway), in which normal-sized actors and gnomes seem to share the same screen space.

Rodney (Matthew Garber) and Elizabeth (Karen Dotrice) arrive in San Francisco to meet up with their grandfather D.J Mulrooney (Walter Brennan), who runs a successful lumber company. They drive out to a redwood forest for a picnic, where Elizabeth happens across a gnome named Jasper (Tom Lowell), who begs her for help. Seems Jasper's grandpa Knobby (Brennan, again) is on the verge of death-by-depression because he thinks that he and Jasper are the world's only remaining gnomes and has lost all hope of seeing young Jasper finding a wife. Rodney, Elizabeth and D.J agree to help the gnomes by driving them to other forests further up the coast. En route, an opportunistic freak-show boss, Quaxton (Sean McClory), catches a glimpse of the gnomes and kidnaps them for his carnival. Matters worsen when D.J tries to get his own security agents to lead the hunt for the kidnapped gnomes, for they dismiss his orders as the ramblings of a mad-man and have him locked away in an asylum. Rodney and Elizabeth are the only ones who can free their grandfather, rescue the gnomes, and find a bride for Jasper before it's too late!

Generally-speaking the film is likable and entertaining. Brennan is always a pleasure to watch and this is no exception (in fact, a double-pleasure as he has a dual role). Both child-actors are pretty good, especially Garber who demonstrates an understanding of comic timing/underplaying that most kids just don't have. The special effects are impressive for 1967, with convincing visual trick work to have the gnomes interacting with the humans, and some well done talking-animal-scenes at the beginning of the film. There are a few drawbacks. The title song 'Gnome-Mobile' is truly horrible, and McClory's villain isn't built up enough to make him a hissable bad guy. He just sort of appears in a few scenes looking shady, then disappears from the story without his role in it amounting to very much.

On the whole, I like The Gnome-Mobile. It's harmless fun, with an inventive plot, enjoyable performances and lots of agreeably zany episodes.

The Gnome-Mobile is a Disney production and stars Walter Brennan, Tom Lowell, Matthew Garber, Karen Dotrice, Richard Deacon and sees Ed Wynn cameo. It's based on a 1936 book written by Upton Sinclair called The Gnomobile. The story concerns a timber tycoon called D.J. Mulrooney {Brennan} who along with his two grandchildren Rodney & Elizabeth {Garber & Dotrice}, get involved in the affairs of two Gnomes, Jasper & Knobby {Lowell & Brennan (again) respectively}. Jasper desperately wants a bride and Knobby is fading away as he fears the Gnome race is being wiped out by the constant felling of the forests. But in spite of Knobby's mistrust of humans, especially foresters, all five of them set off in Brennan's Rolls-Royce; now nicknamed The Gnome-Mobile by the children. Sure enough tho, problems arise as first a row breaks out when Knobby finds out about Mulrooney's trade, and worse still, when the two Gnomes are Gnomenapped by weird circus owner Horatio Quaxton {Sean McClory}. What will become of them all in Disney's fantastical family delight?

What more do you want really? Leonard Maltin praised the film as being one of Disney's most unsung comedy/fantasies, and Roger Ebert wryly observed that Disney makes these types of films for kids, not critics. Who am I to argue with those two wise assumptions? It's a jolly film that contains bright and likable characters {acted likewise}, a lovely title song {written by the Sherman Brothers} and lasting effects work that has a timeless charm about it. The story {adventure} zips along with no boorish filler to hinder it, and the finale delivers everything you hope it will. Go Disney, this deserves a bigger reputation for sure. 7/10

Walter Brennan plays a dual role in this film; he's the millionaire who tries to help the gnomes, and he's also Knobby, the 945 year old gnome who is losing his interest in living because he doesn't believe there are any more gnomes in the world but him and his grandson, Jasper. Anything with Walter in it is bound to be good, and this film has a lot of excitement and chases in it. As well as a catchy title song that you'll be singing in your head for weeks. Great for kids and grown-ups.

I've always remembered Tom Lowell as Canoe, Hayley Mills beatnik boyfriend in That Darn Cat, since I saw that movie in the auditorium back in school in the seventies.

Later, I would learn he was the orderly that Cornelius killed in Escape from Planet of the Apes. I was puzzled as to how he became reduced to such a bit part, then seemed to vanish from sight. He never appeared on Love Boat or Fantasy Island, for crying out loud!

Lo and behold, I come across a movie called The Gnomemobile in the movie store. And it had Tom Lowell in it.

So I buy it. With Lowell as Jasper the gnome, the children from Mary Poppins (which, oddly enough was how they were credited) and Walter Brennan for some unexplained reason in a dual role, this movie could have been on the level of Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Willie Wonka.

So what went wrong? Over half the movie is spent on trying to get Grandpa out of the nuthouse.

With a cast involving Maudie PIckett, Ellen Corby, Frank Cady, Richard Deacon and Alby Moore, they all would have stood out well had the movie made them gnomes along with Ed Wynn.

So who was supposed to want to see this movie? If girls were supposed to think Lowell was cute, why does he sit out so much of the movie. He only gets one closeup toward the end as well.

So were small children supposed to like the Mary Poppins children?

Was Grandpa gnome or doodene supposed to be comically likable? Grandpa gnome maybe, but like Lowell, he sat out the majority of the movie.

Once the movie got back to the woods, those beautiful woods, and we see Jasper trying to find a bride, the movie gets cute again.

Even the talking animals, the birds, the owl and the raccoon, were all nice to see, but they aren't seen over five minutes at the beginning, then they are gone.

Effects-wise, especially in regards to the double filming, this was all done very well.

I must have caught some of this decades ago on the Wonderful World of Disney, as it all came back to me in strange shadowy flashbacks.

Still it could have worked, even with gnomes singing that silly song instead of grandpa doodene. Ellen Corby, Frank Cady and Alby Moore would have been hysterical singing that thing.