In Theaters | New DVD | Find Reviews | Thumbs Up

Dr. Seuss's 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T Genuinely Disturbing! Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell I always thought there was something a little disturbing about Dr. Seuss. Remember the total anarchy of Cat in the Hat, the hubris of Yertle the Turtle and, of course, the parsimonious Grinch? Illustrations of negative personality traits have always had their tutorial value in children's literature, but Seuss's miscreants always seemed so vivid and his morals tagged on simply for social acceptance. In this little nightmare, Bart Collins (Tommy Rettig) runs around wearing a "Happy Fingers" beanie, topped by a rubber hand, chased by an army of pudgy men in skin tight suits and balaclavas bearing colorful child-catching nets. He awakens from his daydream to the stern admonitions of his piano teacher Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried) for whom "practice makes perfect." Bart introduces his young and Betty Crocker beautiful war-widowed mother Mrs. Collins (Mary Healy) and surrogate father figure/plummer August Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes). From here, Auntie Em, we're not in Kansas anymore, but at the Terwilliger Institute where we find Bart mano a mano with Dr. T, diligently exercising his "10 Little Dancing Maidens" at the 44,000-key extended bi-level keyboard designed for 500 little boys. The films most inseussiant highlight is a ballet sequence of by the non-pianistic instrumentalists that Terwilliker has banished to one of his dungeons. Here green skinned trumpeters, string players, percussionists, saxophonists etc. bound about in their tattered tuxes as if performing the halftime routine at the Hell Bowl. How does one play an instrument resembling a man with bells attached to his antlers? You grab him by the neck and shake him, of course. Buglers sway their instruments from right to left while overhead, a percussionist on a rope swings over to bang his drum. A half dozen men in colorful fuzzy mittens man the xylophone. Occasionally, during this bacchanale, there's a cutaway to fresh-faced Bart looking on in wonderment. One only hopes he didn't have to witness the event. There is no moral to this story and no apologies for its perversity. Did anyone have a problem with the roller skating Hassidics who fly about joined at the beard? And what about a piano teacher who wants to wear...well, check it out. For further explorations of Dr. Suess's other side, check out The Secret Art of Dr. Suess. You may also want to compare the original Grinch to the Jim Carrey version. The guy who sings the songs is Thurl Ravenscroft aka (Tony the Tiger). They also throw in Horton Hears a Who.

Search Now: