The Blue Bird (1940)

20th Century Fox
Directed by Walter Lang
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Fox Movie Channel)

Hilariously awful attempt by Fox to duplicate the success of MGM's Wizard of Oz. It starts off in black and white with Shirley Temple living in the German forest with her poor family. She's a selfish little girl who dreams of having handmaidens and living the life of luxury. She goes to sleep one night and dreams the rest of the movie in Technicolor (sound familiar?). In her dream her pet dog and cat become human. Eddie Collins as Tylo the Dog is actually fairly entertaining: he's got a dog face, walks like a dog, acts like a dog and argues constantly with the cat. Gale Sondergaard is less successful as Tylette the cat, she's a devious troublemaker who tries to sabotage every step of the journey. So this strange group is told by Light, basically the good witch of this story, to search the Technicolor wonderland for the "blue bird", aka "happiness". Taking cues from Dickens' Christmas Carol, they begin their search in the past. It's a spooky cemetery where they find their deceased grandparents "sleeping" in a gingerbread house. No blue bird here. Then they visit the land of luxury, where they find Nigel Bruce as a pampered royal. He's not too friendly. Next they end up in a forest, where the trees are summoned by Tylette the cat to kill Shirley and friends. A crabby old man is the Crab Apple tree and a crying woman is the Weeping Willow. They summon friends Lightning and Fire which set the forest on fire and kill Tylette. No blue bird here either. Finally, they end up in the future, which is inhabited by a bunch of kids in Roman togas "waiting to be born". They are called by Father Time to board a giant sailboat for their trip to Earth. Really. Shirley wakes up and finds the blue bird where it has always been, at home, another blatant Wizard of Oz rip-off. They forgot to return to black and white after Shirley wakes up.