I know many people will not watch this for many reasons. The excuses range from "I Hate Black and White Movies", "I Do Not Like Old Movies" ,"I herd this was stupid", "I never Herd of this", and so many others.Well this film is "Dated" but its also part of its charm. This film stars "Laurel and Hardy" and it is a delightful surprise. Think of this film as the inspiration for the "Shrek" films.In this film A woman is about to lose her home. Stannie Dumb (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy), live in a shoe (as in the nursery rhyme There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe), along with Mother Peep (the Old Woman), Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry), a mouse resembling Mickey Mouse (and actually played by a live monkey in a costume), and many other children. The mortgage on the shoe is owned by the villainous Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon), who is looking to marry Bo Peep. Knowing the Widow Peep is having a difficult time paying the mortgage, Barnaby offers the old woman an ultimatum – unless Bo Peep agrees to marry him he will foreclose on the shoe. Widow Peep refuses, but is worried about where she'll get the money to pay the mortgage. Ollie offers her all the money he has stored away in his savings can, only to learn that Stannie has taken it to buy peewees (a favored toy consisting of a wooden peg with tapered ends that rises in the air when struck with a stick near one end and is then caused to fly through the air by being struck again with the stick). He and Stannie set out to get the money for the mortgage from their boss, the Toymaker (William Burress). But Stannie has mixed up an order from Santa Claus (building 100 wooden soldiers at six feet tall, instead of 600 soldiers at one foot tall) and one of the soldiers, when activated, wrecks the toy shop. Stannie and Ollie are fired without getting the money.I don't want to tell too much more but truest me the film is fast paced and its never boring. Give it a try!

Old King Cole … Little Miss Muffett … The Cat and the Fiddle … Little Jack Horner … Mother Goose. And Tom-Tom loves teenager Bo-Peep, who keeps losing her sheep. Mother Goose characters inhabit Toyland, as do Stannie Dumb (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy). Stan and Ollie are toy makers who rent a room in the shoe of the widow Peep. Meanwhile, creepy landlord Silas Barnaby – played with a relish by Henry Kleinbach (Brandon) – is especially angry because Bo Peep, widow Peek's daughter, has rejected his marriage proposal. The spurned and lecherous Barnaby then comes to evict the Peeps from their shoe house, as he is armed with their overdue mortgage payment. With mean Barnaby it is either marriage with Bo-Peep or eviction. In a blundering way Stan and Ollie try to come to her aid, hoping to borrow the funds from their boss. But they are fired from the toy factory because they messed up Santa Claus' order of 600 toy soldiers one-foot tall. They made 100 soldiers six-feet tall; the soldiers are stored in the toy warehouse.Stan and Ollie again get into trouble as they try to thwart sleazy Barnaby's continuing evil designs; and Ollie is punished by being dunked in the village pond. Yet they are ultimately successful in preventing Barnaby's marriage to Bo-Peep. And they uncover the real kidnapping of Elmer, one of the three pigs, to the schemes of Barnaby (who had blamed Tom-Tom). In revenge Barnaby, all-along in league with the monsters of underground Bogeyland, unleashes his demons against the inhabitants of Toyland. Utilizing their large darts to good advantage, Stan and Ollie are Toyland's prime defenders. But the evil forces make headway, and Barnaby carries Bo-Peep away. Then the boys remember the soldiers, and in a climatic scene enlivened with a rousing musical score . . . Well, watch it and find out. It's worth the time! The Stan and Ollie version of Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland remains unequaled, whether in black and white or colorized. The sets are great, the story entertaining, and the songs nicely done. For those who are young or for those who think young. Recommended.

Around this time of year, the local stations would normally show classic holiday films like this one. But in recent years, they have largely been absent from the small screen. Too bad because they're watching every year. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy play Stannie Dunn and Ollie Dunn like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They live in Toyland in the house with the Old Woman who lives in the Shoe and her daughter, Little Bo Peep, whose grown up and loves Tom Tom. When the evil Silas Barnaby threatens to evict the old lady in the shoe, Stannie and Ollie have to come up with a plan to stop it including a wedding ceremony that will leave you laughing and an attack by the bogeymen in Bogeyland where you could be sent to live in exile and survive in the wilds. It's a cute comedy before other classics but I really enjoy watching Laurel and Hardy. I remember watching them on television on the weekends usually Sunday mornings. They were my favorite comic duo of the time.

. MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS (1934) **** Laurel & Hardy are wonderfully cast in this adaptation of the childhood fave that incorporates all of the Mother Goose tales/characters in Babeland where the doofus duo –Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum, respectively – try to help Old Mother Peep and Little Bo-Peep keep their shoe, um, their house, from the clutches of the evil tyrant Silas Barnaby. A cornucopia of classic characters like The Three Little Pigs and even Mickey Mouse (a monkey in a costume!) make for a delightful diversion. Oddly enough the 'colorized' version actually enhances the dream-like quality of the production. A true family fare classic that is best seen during the holidays.