The Daydreamer is a 1966 live-action/stop-motion hybrid film released by Rankin/Bass Productions.
Set in 1800, the film centers around a young Hans Christian Andersen (Paul O'Keefe) — known simply as "Chris" — who is the son of a poor shoemaker (Jack Gilford). Chris regularly escapes his normal life by daydreaming and imagining himself in fantasy stories. With the help of The Sandman (Cyril Ritchard), Chris travels through stop-motion (or "Animagic", as Rankin/Bass called it) animated versions of The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, and Thumbelina in search of the Garden of Paradise his father mentioned.
The film also stars Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton, Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, Tallulah Bankhead, Terry-Thomas, Victor Borge, Ed Wynn, Patty Duke, Boris Karloff, and Sessue Hayakawa.
This film contains examples of...
- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: The three bats in the Mole's lair do this at the beginning and end of their Villain Song.
- Actor Allusion: Margaret Hamilton's character is an obvious Expy of Miss Gulch, a character she previously played in The Wizard of Oz, having a similar bitchy attitude towards the main characters.
- Adaptational Badass: The toad in the original Thumbelina story simply wanted the titular character to marry her son. Here, the toad is depicted as gigantic compared to Thumbelina and Chris, and appears to want to eat them instead.
- Adaptational Karma: In the original version of The Emperor's New Clothes, the tailors get away scott-free after the fabric is revealed to be fake. In this version, they are chased away by an angry crowd throwing rocks upon being exposed as frauds.
- Advertised Extra: The Pie Man is given a lot of credit despite having very little screentime.
- Animal Wrongs Group: The antagonistic game warden is shown to enjoy punishing (supposed) poachers a little too much, laughing maniacally when he leads Chris to chop wood and saying he hopes Chris's fine is never paid so he can continue to punish him For the Evulz.
- Artistic License – History:
- The opening narration states that it is the first year of the nineteenth century, however Hans Christian Andersen was not born until 1805.
- The film portrays Andersen's father as being a widower. In reality, it was he who had predeceased his wife, who then remarried, giving Andersen a stepsister named Karen.
- Back from the Dead: Chris drowns during the Little Mermaid segment, but the titular character brings him back to life via the potion the Sea Witch gave her.
- Based on a Dream: In-Universe. Chris grows up into Hans Christian Andersen and turns all of his dreams into iconic fairy tales.
- Children Are Innocent: This is the reason the two con artist tailors get Chris to work for them in the Emperor's New Clothes segment, as they believe people will have an easier time believing the words of a child. Also serves as Foreshadowing, since this is what exposes the tailors as frauds in both the original fairy tale and this version.
- The Corrupter: A horned duplicate of Chris, greatly implied to be Satan himself, appears in the Garden of Paradise to fill the role of the serpent from the Adam and Eve story, tricking Chris into eating the flowers from the Tree of Knowledge.
- Deal with the Devil: Like in the original story, the Little Mermaid makes one with the Sea Witch. In this case, she asks for a potion to bring Chris back to life after drowning, and the witch tells her that if Chris doesn't love her back as much as she loves him, she will be trapped between the land and the sea.
- Fat and Skinny: The two tailors in the Emperor's New Clothes segment.
- Faux Affably Evil: When the Rat first invites Chris and Thumbelina into his house, he initially acts warm and hospitable, letting the two warm themselves by the fire, giving them cheese tea, and letting them sleep in some cozy beds he has nearby. As soon as they're asleep, however, he's seen kicking and verbally abusing a young orphaned rat he uses as his slave.
- Friend to All Living Things: Chris is seen during the opening credits holding and releasing a dove, then stopping to pet a rabbit on a log. Later in the film, he befriends a duckling, which comes with him during his next daydream, and speaks to a sparrow outside his window at the end.
- Garden of Eden: The Garden of Paradise is obviously meant to be it, complete with the Tree of Knowledge. The Sandman even mentions that the reason humans no longer inhabit it is because they couldn't resist the temptation to eat from the tree. Just like in the original story of Adam and Eve, Chris is tricked into eating from the tree by what appears to be Satan, and things go downhill from there.
- The Hyena: The Sea Witch provides Evil Laughs practically every time she speaks.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: The Thumbelina segment begins with the titular character giving Chris a magic tulip seed that shrinks him down to her size.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The majority of the stop-motion puppet characters are designed to resemble their voice actors. This can be seen most clearly during the opening sequence showing each character alongside caricatures of their respective actor drawn by Al Hirschfeld.
- I Should Write a Book About This: Chris ends up turning most of the stories he's experienced into fairy tales.
- "I Want" Song: "Luck to Sell". Unlike most examples, it's sung in the middle of the film instead of the beginning, as Chris is dragged through town by the game warden.
- Large Ham: Ray Bolger as the Pie Man. "PiiiIIIIIEEEEEEs!"
- Lawman Gone Bad: The main antagonist of the "real" world is a corrupt game warden who falsely accuses Chris of poaching ducklings and Papa Andersen of fishing in a "no fishing" area.Chris: How long do I have to stay here?Warden: Til' your fine's paid up... which I hope will be never!
- Meaningful Name: The two tailors are named Zilch and Zero, signifying that they are frauds.
- Medium Blending: As well as shifting from live-action to stop-motion whenever Chris daydreams, the Sandman is animated in a thin and papery way different from the other animated characters.
- Medusa: The Sea Witch in the Little Mermaid segment has snakes for hair, obviously inspired by the famous gorgon.
- Missing Mom: While her old wedding ring is an important plot point, Mama Andersen is completely out of the picture with no explanation as to what happened to her.
- Mr. Imagination: Chris is constantly daydreaming, as shown by the film's very title.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At the end of the Garden of Paradise segment, Chris flashes back to all of his previous betrayals as he falls down the crevice.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The mice in the Andersen's cottage are animated in the same cartoony stop-motion style as the fantasy characters, a stark contrast from the other live-action animals in the "real" world.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: While the Little Mermaid and her sisters, the latter of whom have hair that are different shades of blue depending on the individual, are the standard "fish with a human torso" type of merfolk with the Sea Witch having snakes for hair, Father Neptune has regular human legs, and resembles a normal human, dark teal hair aside, who just so happens to be able to talk and breathe underwater.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Sandman gives one to Chris at the end of the Thumbelina segment.Chris: Why, oh why can't I reach the garden? Why? Why?Sandman: Because you have deserted your friends. Lied and betrayed those who have loved you. All of this you have done to reach your goal, and yet you have not succeeded.Chris: But... I didn't mean to.Sandman: We all say that, little master. "I didn't mean to! Forgive me! I didn't mean any harm!" But we continue to hurt those who trust us. Our own selfish ambitions force cruel acts upon us.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: Besides the aforementioned mice, there's also the stop-motion Thumbelina's first scene with the live-action Chris.
- The Sandman: Depicted as a thin papery figure made of sand who acts as a mentor figure to Chris.
- Seahorse Steed: Chris briefly rides a seahorse during the Little Mermaid segment, before being kicked off.
- Toon Transformation: Anytime Chris daydreams, he turns into a stop-motion puppet version of himself.
- Underwater City: In the Little Mermaid segment, though it's scarcely populated outside of the mermaid and her family.
- Villain Song: "Isn't It Cozy?" sung by three bats in the Mole's lair during the Thumbelina segment.
- Yellow Peril: With his squinty eyes, glasses, buck teeth, Fu Manchu mustache, and thick accent, the Mole in the Thumbelina segment is an obvious Japanese stereotype. His voice actor, Sessue Hayakawa, was commonly typecast as these character types later in his career.
- You Dirty Rat!: One of the antagonists in the Thumbelina segment is a rat (with the voice of Boris Karloff) who intends to use Chris as his slave and send Thumbelina off to marry his mole friend.
