Wombling Free
They are Four Foot Tall, Fat and Furry. The Wombles have been picking up rubbish since the dawn of time, quietly and unseen by Mankind. But things have got so bad recently that young Bungo Womble decides to try and make them listen before it's too late. Unfortunately, most people don't see the Wombles because they don't realise they exist.
Plot Outline
The Wombles have been picking up rubbish since the dawn of time, quietly and unseen by Mankind. But things have got so bad recently that young Bungo Womble decides to try and make them listen before it's too late. Unfortunately, most people don't see the Wombles because they don't realise they exist.
Nearby, on the edge of Wimbledon Common where the Wombles have their burrow, lives the Frogmorton family and fortunately their daughter Felicity 'Kim' Frogmorton does get to see young Bungo. It's a small start, and of course there are many obstacles to their plans along the way as the Wombles hatch all manner of ideas to help avert ecological crisis. They even get some help from a distant relative MacWomble the Terrible who comes to visit in his new invention - the clockwork recycled car.
Things improve when Kim's Mother becomes a believer too, and then it's all down to whether they can persuade Father to help with the public meeting to get the Common cleaned up. But on the day, will people be able to see the Wombles so the event can be a success?
Review
On the face of it, this movie had everything going for it. It had the head start of being based on a mega-successful children's T.V. show, chart topping songs from Mike Batt, the writing and directing skills of Lionel Jeffries, and Elisabeth Beresford (the authoress of the original stories) on board as Script Consultant, and a host of British acting and voice talents to bring it to life.
The film necessarily takes a little while to introduce us to the characters, both Womble and Human.
It's just a pity that studio interiors and Black Park Country Park in Buckinghamshire had to stand in so often for Wimbledon Common, as the latter is not renown for its stony paths and conifer plantations. But there again, if it was good enough for 'Carry On Cowboy' and many others then I guess it's good enough for this movie.
The scope for ideas in the main storyline is sufficient (with time out for the odd song or two) to fill ninety minutes, but unfortunately they don't leave it there. The film is saddled with a wealth of additional details which are introduced at a dizzying pace. Just when you begin to see how they might fit within the main plot they are dropped without any sense of logical conclusion. Although some of these segments have different ecological points to make the result is very wearing on the viewer. There is a danger that the 'less than subtle' presentation of these could dilute the central message. It was very noticeable that my two children lost focus and began to fidget during most of these moments, yet responded much better when they got back to the main story.
Even here though there are ideas which go nowhere. For example, we are told more than once that Mr. Frogmorton has a dream of buying the house next door. At one point it seems that a miracle Womble invention could save the planet and Bungo has the job of taking it to Kim for it to be given to mankind. It's overly simplistic of course, but quite acceptable in a children's film for such a plot device to provide the means for Mr. Frogmorton to realise his ambition. Instead there is some nonsense about all the pollution in the air turning the 'wonder substance' in the jam jar to a deadly acidic poison so that all poor Bungo is left with by the time he gets there is the piece of string he was holding it by.
The musical numbers do not fit very well with the rest of the story either, and most could be cut without any danger to the story. The 'Madame Cholet' sequence where they set up an outdoor cafe in tribute to their distinguished French cook is the weakest of the offerings and was cut when shown on ITV to shorten running time.
'White Tie and Tails' is a homage to the days of the Silver Screen and although equally superfluous it is fun to spot the references to classic movies of the day. The number that makes more than one appearance in the film is the infuriatingly catchy 'Standing on Your Tiptoes' exercise song, and I may have to go and bang my head against a wall for half an hour to stop it popping back in my head when I least expect it.
In general the Womble suits work well, and even allow us to see a Womble run which we didn't in the puppet series. Bearing in mind how short their legs are, it's a very amusing high speed waddle effect. You have to be a real hardened misery guts not to have that raise a smile on your face. 1977 was obviously good to Kenny Baker as he was not only Bungo Womble but R2-D2 also that year! It's as well that they had voice talents such as Jon Pertwee, David Jason and Janet Brown on hand though, as I doubt that the limited eye, mouth, and nose movements would have conveyed as much character without them.
The Frogmortons are pivotal however, and David Tomlinson as the patriarch Roland gives us a more stressed-out and nervous version of his character from Mary Poppins. The script acknowledges the fact by having him exclaim 'What in the name of Mary Poppins...' to his daughter Kim, played by Bonnie Langford. I must admit I inwardly groaned at seeing her name in the credits, and she does indeed project the cute lisping little girl that was her trade mark. Instead of being 'wince-some' however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that her role was not as simplistic and that she is a good enough actress to be able to portray the extra sides to her character convincingly.
Top honours go to Frances de la Tour (Julia Frogmorton) who copes with the numerous switches in character that the script demands of her. It seems one of the hardest things to act convincingly is drunk, yet her performance during the dinner party scene where all the suppressed frustration and rage towards her husband surfaces through an alcohol induced haze is superb. Only once towards the end was there a momentary slip and the spell was broken.
And from the sublime to the ridiculous. The film could well do without the characters of the Frogmorton's neighbours, a stereotypical Japanese couple where the wife wears Japanese dress throughout and is constantly berated by her husband for not having learnt any 'Engrish' as he has done.
I doubt it was funny then, but it's even more painful now. It's hard to imagine which is the bigger insult...
Employing a Japanese actress who I'm pretty darn sure speaks perfect English from seeing her in the few other roles she's played, or a English born Jewish actor who puts on a cod-Japanese / English / American accent and squints a lot. The accent is so variable I'm sure there was even a touch of Welsh in it! Granted this does give rise to a lovely 'in joke' where the character exclaims 'Oi Vey' in exasperation, and Roland remarks that you really have to push a Japanese man for him to say that. But I suspect that the joke was lost on a lot of adults, let alone children.
Video
Carlton's previous releases had been on a budget 'Silver Collection' label, and suffered in many people's eyes by offering 'bare bones' releases with full frame transfers regardless of original ratio. Things seem to have improved with their recent releases, as we get an anamorphic transfer of the film here. The film dates from 1977, and yet is very well preserved with no evidence of scratches, specks or missed frames.
Contrast is generally good across the frame, but some of the darker scenes in the Burrow and the 'White Tie and Tales' and 'Madame Cholet' song and dance scenes could do with more punch to lift the action from the very dark backgrounds. The picture seemed a little soft too in places, and I was never sure whether it was a deliberate choice on the part of the cinematographer. There didn't seem to be any consistent reason for it so I presumed not.
Carlton pick up brownie points for giving us a trailer in anamorphic too but overall the Video rating is lowered by the quite staggeringly bad digital artifacts in a number of scenes. They are so intrusive that my wife commented on them, and she's not usually one to notice defects like that. I presume it's down to compression, because the worst one appears in a uniformly coloured sky behind John Junkin as he describes the road works to be carried out on the Common. It looks like one of those optical illusions where you think you see spots at the junction of white lines between black boxes, but the spots really are there in this case.
Audio
A low score here for the mono soundtrack. I haven't been able to find out the tech. spec of the original movie, but I can't believe that a film with musical numbers from the late seventies wouldn't have been in stereo. There is even scope for a 5.1 mix to have enhanced the film greatly, as the sub-woofer could have given the scene where the demolition machines appear a real presence. But the cost of doing this would have been prohibitive no doubt. The sound is none the less quite presentable, although rather flat, and dialog is clear throughout.
Extras
As already remarked, the trailer is a nice clear anamorphic extra, but beyond that you are looking at only subtitles in English for the hard of hearing, and chapter selections. These occupy two pages and are at least moving extracts of the scene opening rather than static snapshots. However, they represent a rather meagre choice of only ten entry points and I for one would have appreciated more to help me get round the film afterwards for this review.
The opening menu is nicely done, with extracts from the movie running on the left hand side of the screen, clear menu selections down the right, and even a flying MacWomble animating across the screen after a while.
Overall
Simplistic and non demanding children's fare which will still raise a smile amongst even quite jaded adults. My children obviously weren't too bored by the profusion of distracting sidelines to the story because my daughter asked tonight at tea time if she could watch it again. I suspect the catchy musical numbers and funny bits of Womble business will carry them through the slumps on quite a few viewings yet.
Carlton could try a little harder on the extras but there again this is a value priced release and we can be thankful that Carlton have dispensed with the uniform dull silver branding of their previous 'Silver Collection'. If they ever decide to push the boat out however my daughter came up with some great ideas for at least three Womble games to put on this DVD, so for a small consultation fee I think I can arrange for her creative input.
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