L'oiseau bleu

I loved this movie as a child. I would love to see it again and share it with my children. It is a wonderful movie for children and the young at heart. I like it much better than the Shirley Temple version.

When my son was approximately 7-8 years old, he loved watching this movie. At that time he was really into watching the Saturday afternoon monster movies, Ultra man etc. My daughters watched it a couple of years later and they both loved it too. Elizabeth Taylor is beautiful, but the storyline was nice too. Actually anything that held my son's attention had to be really good. As an adult, I watched it with the kids a couple of times and then that was enough for me, so I think it is really for the kids. I'd like to get a DVD of this movie because now I have two granddaughters. The four and half year old would really enjoy it. It would probably be another year before my other grandchild would sit still to watch it. I recommend this story for children, if you let them watch make believe and magical movies.

The first co-production between USSR and Hollywood would have to be this strange kiddie film that is so icky sweet, it makes "Barney" look like "Penthouse Forum" in comparison! Some kids meet up with their fairy Godmother (Elizabeth Taylor dressed like a Mafia wife gone insane). With a wave of her magic wand, household pets, and inanimate objects come to life. The most disgusting has to be what happens to a pitcher of milk! It turns into a ballerina. To remind audiences of its milk origins, whenever the ballerina dances, we hear milk splash in a pitcher. It sounds as if the poor ballerina has a stomach disorder! The story goes that the production of this film was very rough. It went on forever. Jane Fonda supposedly kept on pestering the Russian workers, and it became an expensive mess.

I remember hearing the horrendous reviews when this film was originally released. Thirty-three years later, I finally managed to actually see it on YouTube. My, oh, my. Considering the budget and talent involved, it is indeed one of the worst films ever made. Most often, it comes across as a filmed stage play - one with incredibly bad performances. The technical aspects are well below par. The whole naive "political" background actually makes the film even more annoying...did these people actually think that they were performing some sort of noble gesture, bringing the world's superpowers together? If you haven't seen this, really, I suggest that you skip it. It might play as "good bad," if you've had a few drinks with friends. But watching this sober, is just plain tedious.

I am a fan of the earlier Shirley Temple version and just learned today of this 1970's version. Can't seem to find it anywhere to watch. Any suggestions???