This movie is nothing if not over-the-top. A little orphan boy with a dancing caterpillar? Come on! The boy bursts into tears at the drop of a hat all the way through the movie. He's like Opie on steroids.
The caterpillar spends the whole movie in a box - kind of like the original Tinkerbell being played by a beam of light - except that it's hard to take that as a modern audience - couldn't they have at least done like a puppet?
I'm used to over-the-top from CG, but both his character (the enthusiastic slightly shyster theater-owner) and the prudish love interest were played straight, not for laughs (as far as I can tell) - and that was just a bit much for me. I dare anyone but Walt Disney to remake this movie. It's like a live-action Pinnochio, actually. With a caterpillar instead of a cricket. In fact, in the movie a rep from Disney shows up to try to buy the caterpillar. That's actually interesting - that Disney was already the stand-by corporate heavyweight of the entertainment world in 1944.
Nowadays you can't even say "Disney" without their permission.
The caterpillar's name is Curly and the boy is named Pinky so I had a hard time keeping that straight. Every time someone said "where's Pinky?" I had to think if they meant the caterpillar or the boy. Also this boy has a lisp so every time he says the caterpillar's name it sounds like "Curwy" and he keeps repeating that "Curwy couldn't live wiffowt me!" It was about as much as I could take.
All-in-all, I couldn't have watched if I wasn't simultaneously online-shopping.
Would not watch again.
Two stars.
