The Daydreamer
The Daydreamer
G | 01 June 1966 (USA)
The Daydreamer Trailers

A young Hans Christian Andersen goes in search of knowledge in the Garden of Paradise in order to make his studies easier. Each time he falls asleep, he experiences in his dreams the different characters he would later write about in fairy tales including The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and The Emperor's New Clothes.

Reviews
ThiefHott Too much of everything
Supelice Dreadfully Boring
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Richard L. Fairchild like or not like. have certain expectations, or do not have certain expectations. beautiful ideas. check. sweet song in "Be a Happy Guy too." check. profundity in the Tree of Knowledge. check. sweetness all around. check. ingratitude for the skill and talent which produced this movie. no check. smug criticism by "sophisticated" reviewers. check. proof the movie is good and is truly a delight by the reviews of smug critics. check, and thank you. i guess i have to write more, because my review isn't able to be published without 10 lines. OK, here's some more. and more yet. OK, i'll keep writing.. is this enough? how about this? and is this enough? and what about this? am i in a college class? am i back in my film class in college? i don't feel that young anymore. maybe the sandman has brought me there.
Steve Carras Forget what another reviewer (back in 2000) said about modern audiences having no ability to embrace the musical numbers in the older films. This was a longtime staple of both theatrical and television viewing. Rankin/Bass's experimental, and unusual combination of live-action and the animation that they themselves trademarked as "animagic" are both featured, with the AnimagicTM illustrating the daydreams, where our young hero (Paul O'Keefe of THE PATTY DUKE SHOW-speaking of Patty, she also appears in this as seen below) as 13-year old CHris has some dreams about his later storybook characters, with the Little Mermaid with Hayley Mills as the Mermaid, the Emporer's New Clothes with Ed Wynn in his final appearance as the emperor with VIctor Borge and Terry-Thomas as the con-man tailors (warning: NEVER buy your clothes from these guys] who take Chris with them to make the clothes), and (SPOILERS)(in the only dream not shown to us as one at first, despite the Animagic, Thumbleina with Patty Duke (whose appearance in the opening titles by Al Hirschfield may just well be the best done animation of her character] headlining this, and also the only dream that had two stories, the former and "Garden of Paradise". Chris eventually wakes up, returns to his normal life only to create the characters and stories we now know and love.And.."Isn't it Cozy...Here".
moonspinner55 Despite a terrific "Emperor's New Clothes" episode, I'm hard-pressed to recall anything in "The Daydreamer" which really works, and that's a shame because the team of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass are obviously working with love and sincerity. Plot concerns a young Hans Christian Andersen who runs away from home and meets up with all the fairy tale characters he'll someday write about. Live-action prologue and epilogue are cringingly awkward, animated middle not nearly as bad but certainly not magical. Top vocal talents abound, however they're weakly used (Hayley Mills voices the Little Mermaid, yet when it's Hayley's turn to sing, we are instead treated to some kiddie variation on Marni Nixon). "New Clothes" segment is funny and better paced than the rest of the film, and is certainly helped by Ed Wynn as the delightfully egomaniacal Emperor. ** from ****
whpratt1 Viewed this film many years ago and it always was a great film for children and adults. The cast of actors were all veterans of the screen, namely: Jack Gilford, Ray Bolger(The Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz) and Margaret Hamilton(The Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz) and the king of Horror, Boris Karloff (Frankenstein Monster). It also featured the voices of: Burl Ives, Tallulah Bankhead, Terry-Thomas, Victor Borge, Ed Wynn, Patty Duke and Robert Goulet. Karloff was the menacing voice of "THE RAT" in this internationally produced, live-action puppet fantasy. It is a MUST SEE to find out the complete story and ending.