I got Once Upon a Time because of a Tom Hanks interview in which he praised it as some sort of family classic. It stars Cary Grant as a seedy Broadway producer who woos a single mother (Janet Blair) in order to get his hands on her child's dancing caterpillar.
Turns out this very light fantasy just doesn't pay off. We not only never get to see the dancing caterpillar (which, yes, is just as well), but we unfortunately do see the idiotic animation for the butterfly, may Walt Disney burn in Mormon hell.
Any child who isn't bored by it will probably have a good time because of the child actor who plays Pinky (Ted Donaldson, who also starred in a largely forgotten series of eight movies about Danny Mitchell & his dog Rusty aka Ace the Wonder Dog, later replaced by Flame the Wonder Dog). Young Donaldson is at least as good as Barny the Purple Dinosaur. But for ages nine & up, the messagy obviousness & the sentimental claptrap makes it a continuous eye roller.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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