The Laurel and Hardy version of Victor Herbert's turn-of-the-century children's fantasy with music was a sheer delight; Disney's 1961 version was lavish but saccharine; this updating of the theme is decidedly different and works well in patches. An 11-year-old Drew Barrymore is appealing as a young girl from Cincinnati transported on Christmas Eve to the magical Toyland, under threat from an evil ogre (played in splendidly hissable fashion by Richard Mulligan). Against this classic good vs evil storyline, there are several good production numbers which children should enjoy, as well as some nice charactisations by Pat Morita as the Toymaster and Googy Gress as Georgie Porgie. Decent direction by Clive Donner is spoilt by some over-cute sets and some pretty banal music, but you shouldn't miss the young Keanu Reeves as Jack - his appearance here is the equivalent of Tom Cruise's career misstep in Legend.

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