What a GOD-AWFUL movie!
Who thought this mess up?
Obviously, it was made in the wake of "The Wizard of Oz", although this movie's book had been considered something of a staple in children's literature.
I remember Shirley Temple (on "The Dick Cavette Show") once admitted that it was made after she didn't get play Dorothy in WOZ, and she said one reviewer wrote "'The Bluebird' Lays An Egg."
The children characters are absolutely unappealing, like in the scene where they fight over the horse.
And what's up with invoking the Dead? The grandparents come back to life - but Shirley's character has no time for them. She's got other fish to fry, so the grandparents recede into Forgottensville. Really?
Gale Sondergaard is nice to watch, apparently happy that she got to play her glamorous self in a kid's movie (although initially cast as the Wicked Witch in WOZ, she - and the director - decided that trying to "uglify" her beauty was a ridiculous notion).
On that same note, it's ironic that human characters play a dog and a cat - since, in the original staged Broadway version of "The Wizard of Oz", Toto was replaced by a human actor playing a cow named "Imogene"!
As for the Mr. & Mrs. Luxury, I found them hilarious: Nigel Bruce is Sherlock Holmes' "Dr. Watson" no matter what role he plays, and Laura Hope Crews is amusingly glamorous, a complete turnaround from her role as the dowdy "Aunt PittyPat" in the previous year's "Gone With The Wind."
There's no heart to this movie, which is why it pales to "Wizard of Oz". However, for an out-and-out fantasy that tries to make the same point, watch Disney 1951 "Alice in Wonderland": it's filled with Lewis Carroll's wacky fanciful characters - who eventually tire Alice out to the point that she just wants to go home. )Disney tried to inject some kind of "heart" into the otherwise emotionless tale in attempt to make the animated film more appealing.)
Infinitely more appealing than this waste-of-time "Bluebird".
"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"