Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

rorymacveigh I remember this film I was always fondly attached to, mainly because its just such an enjoyable little film. It encompasses that nostalgic feel of animations together with a lovely and quite innocent little story. When I was younger, I didn't exactly pay much attention to the plot, but the idea of being able to get into a car that builds itself in your room and somehow become animated was just exhilarating to my young imagination and it probably will be to other children of that age.The film begins with Milo, a young boy with way too much time on his hands. Spending another bored afternoon in his apartment, he comes across a strange present in his living room. Opening it up, a tollbooth and car magically form. On the tollbooth, a megaphone gives Milo instructions to get in the car and enter the tollbooth, taking him into another world of mad fun. This world has every strange creature that was ever conceived going around at once. It has the sludge like dull-drums which feed off the exhaustion of those who are unfortunate to travel within their swamp like surroundings and a Police Officer on one wheel who enjoys branding people Guilty until proved innocent on some of the most moronic charges. After a while, he comes across Tock the Dog, a Guard Dog with an Alarm Clock ticking inside him. Together, he and Milo travel to the Kingdom of Words where they meet the Humbug (a sarcastic charlatan who is rather simple minded) and the King of Words, who is in a feud with his brother, the King of Maths after the pair disagreed on whether Maths or Words were more important. Soon Milo finds himself on a quest with Tock and the Humbug to find the Princesses locked in the Castle in the Air, who hope to restore order and peace to the world. After stopping off at the King of Maths, the trio are now armed with the tools needed to face the various ghouls and demons that await them on their journey ahead. Can Milo and his friends make it to the Castle? Can they successfully defeat the dangerous monsters that await them? Only the movie can tell you...

TheLittleSongbird I am a fan of animation and of Chuck Jones, and I really like The Phantom Tollbooth. I do prefer Gay Purr-ee and the book is better and even more intriguing, but I thought the film was terrific. Yes even with some heavy-handed moralising and one or two scenes in the middle that drag.I loved the story, it is a wondrous concept with some imaginative sequences and a live start and finish that set the tone nicely. I liked the music too, it isn't quite as charming or witty as Gay Purr-ee's, but the incidental music has a great atmosphere and the songs while not to everyone's tastes are in my view memorable with fun lyrics and nice melodies.The animation is in general quite good. Some of the secondary characters could have been less misconceived in the facial expressions and scope, but the colours are wonderfully trippy and the backgrounds have a sense of surrealism about them. The writing is clever and witty, with quotable puns, while the characters are likable and add to the sense of fun, even Milo I can identify with. Some of it might fly over young children's heads, but adolescents and adults would love it I think. The voice acting is also terrific, the immortal Mel Blanc does a brilliant job voicing his characters, while not a tour-de-force as such, it is a real treat, and Butch Patrick, Daws Butler, June Foray and Hans Conreid are also great.In conclusion, a terrific animated film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

lemon_magic I am a big fan of Chuck Jones, and I had heard of "The Phantom Tollbooth" in various contexts as an animated feature, so when I saw it on the cable schedule, I made sure to reserve the time to watch it. Hmmmm. I decided that this wasn't bad for an first foray into feature length territory, and that if Jones had a chance to learn from his mistakes and try a couple more times, he would have probably come up with a real classic. But "Phantom Tollbooth" wasn't it, and deserves its place in semi-obscurity. Problem: Too much heavy handed moralizing. I was surprised that people as sneakily funny and subversive as Jones and his crew would be satisfied with the "tone" of the dialog and the exposition here. No matter that the target audience was young; Even Disney in the early years was never this blunt and cheesy in their subtexts and allegories. (From what I've read, the original text wasn't this unsubtle either. Or else what works in a 20 word blurb on the page doesn't always work at length in a live medium). More problems: About half of the songs are, um, pretty lame, at least to my sensibilities. The ones that yammer away about the virtues of earnestness, duty, hard work, etc. And Butch Patrick was a pretty good kid actor, but he was no singer - all he ever does is pipe along with the lyrics as if they were the musical version of The Pledge Of Allegiance. Worse yet, some of the animation is 2nd rate. Oh, sure, the main characters - the Watch Dog, the Humbug, Milo, the Mathemagician - are done as well as you expect from a Jones flick, and some of the backgrounds are suitably trippy, but most of the monsters and supporting cast (including Rhyme and Reason) are slapdash and badly conceived and look like another crew of 2nd unit apprentices did them. Still, the movie has its moments. The scene in the Doldrums had a nice sinister edge to it. It was nice to hear Blanc and Foray and Tremayne and the rest do what they do so well, even if they had trouble selling some of the dialog. And I am sure that the kid I was back in 1970 would have enjoyed more than I do now - although not as much as One Hundred and One Dalmations, or "The Sword In The Stone". I really wanted to like this movie as much as I do those two (which sport a similar style of character animation) and I want to overlook its faults, because it has a good heart. But as I said, it is undercooked enough that it really doesn't match up to the classics from that era.

Michael Morrison Turner Classic Movies presented this during a tribute to the legendary Chuck Jones.It is not regular Jones fare. But it is intriguing."Phantom Tollbooth" is apparently somewhat of an educational film, but it is not -- how could it be, coming from Jones? -- stuffy.Instead, it is whimsical, with some subtle humor for people not in need of education, for example the "senses taker." Part of the joy is in the performers. Hans Conried, for example, so often played a character who could be stuffy, who was so insistent on words and their correct pronunciation. To hear him as the MathemaGician and harping on the superiority of numbers -- How could there be Tea for Two without the Two? -- was funny-bone jarring.In the TV listings, the only stars mentioned were Butch Patrick and June Foray. Butch Patrick is still very busy but I bet he will always be best known for his "Munsters" portrayal.And that's really too bad, since he is, in fact, and without the garish make-up, a very handsome young man in this movie.June Foray, on the other hand, is known almost entirely as a voice (especially as -- Hokie Smokie -- Rocket J. Squirrel), even though she is and was a beautiful and funny and creative person, even without someone else's script -- and utterly charming.Her friends in Los Angeles loved to phone her home and hope she wouldn't be there ... so they could listen to her hilarious answering machine messages.Other voices included the extraordinary Mel Blanc and Daws Butler, the great radio star (who also did a few movies, though not enough to suit me) Les Tremayne, and others whom we've all heard even if we didn't realize it at the time.Purely as a theatrical experience, "Phantom Tollbooth" might not be for everyone, but surely every person who frequents IMDb will want to see it.I recommend it.