It was 1977. My brother was lying on the couch with the worst toothache of his life. All he could do was lie there hurting. Then my sister turned on the t.v. and Dondi was on. For half an hour, my brother lay there growing angrier and angrier at the sound of Dondi's voice, which has been known to cause heads to explode. Finally, my brother got so sick of the treacly parade of sap that is Dondi that he said one word in disgust: "Dumbi". The pain of the movie was worse than the pain of his tooth. My brother thought he suffered enough, but after Dondi came the movie Dunderklumpen. Let's just say he forgot all about his toothache.

After ruining the long-running comic strip "The Gumps," Gus Edson launched the gooey dreck known as "Dondi" to dozens of newspapers. He or his syndicate persuaded Al Zugsmith, best known for his potboilers with the pneumatic Mamie van Doren, to make this bucket of cinematic treacle.One wishes Mamie could have appeared, but she had the good sense to stay out of this one - the closest we get is an appearance by a Jayne Mansfield hot water bottle, which displayed much more personality than Patti Page. The "singing rage" warbles several nauseous tunes that make "The Doggie in the Window" sound like "Highway to Hell." And I thought her theme to "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" was bland! And let's not forget David Kory in the title role...but I certainly want to! He yells his lines in the tone of a kid who didn't get sprinkles on his sundae. After watching this overly sentimental excuse for a film, you'll be praying to the porcelain gods! Show this to your kids and they'll ask what they did wrong!If you want a kids' movie from this era that's actually good, and sweet without being gooey, get a Philip Leacock film like "Hand in Hand" or "The Little Kidnappers."Incidentally, I met Irwin Hasen, artist of the Dondi comic, at a convention 12 years ago. He was such a nice guy, I hadn't the heart to tell him how much this movie sucked...though I wonder if I DID tell him, he might have agreed?

I have a couple of kids, but I'm pretty sure that if I made them watch this film with me, I could be accused of child abuse. This film has not a single redeeming feature, the kid, David Kory, should have stuck to selling newspapers on a street corner, coz acting is way above his abilities.

Saw this picture ages ago. Leonard Maltin hit the nail on the head when he said "Watch this film and you'll know why Janssen became a fugitive"! The comic strip was never very good and this film is ten times worse. If it had even a shred of Sci-Fi in it MST3K could swoop down on it for some laughs but it doesn't. David Janssen did fine work in his career but this is certainly the worst he was ever in.