Wombling Free

My review was written in February 1984 after watching the movie at a Times Square screening room.

Made in Britain in 1977 as a feature spinoff of a popular BBC tv series, "Wombling Free" is an occasionally amusing but tiresome comey for children. Featuring The Wombles, furry creatures (portrayed by men in bulky costumes rather than puppetry or animation) responsible for literally cleaning up mankind's mess (litter) on Earth, picture is vaguely reminiscent of the Muppets' big-screen incarnations, but lacks the budget, wit and proper format to succeed.

Its belated domestic release (taking almost as long as The Smurfs' animated film to get here) augurs weak results this Easter, when film better suited to cable-tv broadcast.

Director Lionel Jeffries' own screenplay is overly episodic, shifting disconcertingly between the project's three types of footage: Wombles alone on screen (giving off a parallel-world aura somewhere between Gerry Anderson's strange "Thunderbirds" puppets and Jim Henson/Frank Oz's "The Dark Crystal" (creations); Wombles plus people ("The Muppets" format); and prosaic scenes of humans alone, overacting and pulling faces in kiddie film fashion.

Minor plotline has British Wombles, located from WImbledon to Scotland, suddenly becoming visible to humans, beginning with cute Kim (Bonnie Langford) who believe they exist. Later, Kim's parents (Frances De La Tour and David Tomlinson) also believe and can see the furry critters, who supposedly have been cleaning up after man, starting with the discarded apple core in the Garden of Eden.

Non-adventures here include avoidance of having their Wimbledon burrow plowed under by a construction project, several amateurish, low-budget musical production numbers and a final "Keep Britain Tidy" rally for human which culminates with children (a la "The Pied Piper of Hamelin") coming from everywhere to aid the Wombles in their chores.

Jeffries' attempts to shoehorn into the film message about the oil shortage, anti-pollution sentiments and even a trite lament about the death of Britain's film theaters don't work. With Bernard Spear's dialect and jokes as the Frogmorton family's Japanese neighbor (he makes Buddy Hackett and Jerry Lewis's oriental roles seem almost subtle by comparison), the film lapses into very poor taste.

The other lead actors are effective, Tomlinson even gives a wisecrack about "Mary Poppins" (one of his best screen roles) and tv comedienne De La Tour is a distinctive-looking talent. Among the Wombles (drolly voiced by Jeffries and others), Kenny Baker (R2-D2 in "Star Wars") as the littlest one, Bungo, is expressive and perky skipping around in his bulky suit. Tech credits are fine.

This movie was actually shot on Location in Gerrards Cross and on Gerrards Cross common. I know this as the womble-car scenes were filmed in my garage... which was quite exciting as a 6 year old.

The production crew had a party in our back garden one night and left beer cans and rubbish everywhere. However they didn't bank on my psychotic ex-stepfather who gathered all the rubbish in one big sack, walked through a scene they were shooting and dumped all the garbage over the roof of the directors Bentley.

Kind of a forgotten movie, but has funny memories for me and great for kids!

The wombles are a group of rubbish collectors that have lived on earth since Adam and Eve. They've been collecting litter and have been dedicated on cleaning up ever since.

This is a fun look at the wombles and is enjoyable at the things they get up to in their little home, but it isn't really for adults but they may find some amusing. It really depends on your age.3 out of 5

There's an alternate universe where FilmFair (who made the beloved original Wombles series) were given movie money and the genius Ivor Wood gave UK cinemas a stop motion 70's spectacular like Dougal and the Blue Cat. That didn't happen, and instead they flung money at the endearing but deeply inconsistent Lionel Jeffries who turned out this strange meandering racist mess. No puppets here but nightmare concoctions of short actors in unwieldy suits stumbling around places that aren't Wimbledon. A young Bonnie Langord affects a lisp and befriends them whilst Frances De La Tour drinks and tries to forget. David Tomlinson does a solid job at being a thin cipher of Reginald Perrin and George Banks (and he even, depressingly, makes a Mary Poppins reference). Without Cribbins, without Wood, the Wombles were indeed lost.

It's the wombles, IN LIVE ACTION! What more can you say other than cool. I must have watched this movie a thousand times as a child and it's still fun to watch today. It ranks up as one of the best musicals I know even if the songs are mostly unrelating to the plot who cares. All the wombles from the original show are here; Bungo, Tomsk, Wellington, Tobermory, Great Uncle Bulgaria, Madam Cholet and last but not least Orinoko. The plot is rather split up into a few subplots. The burrow is under threat of being flattened to make way for a bypass. Their food supply is dwindling due to pollution. MacWomble the Terrible comes to visit and gets his car nicked by a greedy "Japanese" businessman, and they have to deal with all of this while going around cleaning up the country and getting people to listen to their message. It's full of overtones about environmental awareness but that's their whole point in life. The songs are fun, the plot is good for kids the way that it is easily digested in portions and is a classic kids tv to movie piece. Recommended to anyone who likes wombles and it's a safe as you can get for childrens viewing while still keeping some intelligence. Very good.