Customer Reviews

5000 Fingers of Dr. T.

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This film is an incredible piece of work built onto a great story with great dialogue, conflicts, music and dancing. I had remembered this movie from my childhood but didn't know the name. So I searched through Google, only remembering a long piano and what I thought were propeller hats (they turned out to be happy fingers).

The music is one of the highlights for me. The lyrics and the melodies are thought provoking and inspiring. My son is only four months old, but he really seems to enjoy the music and colours. The sets are very well done, and the colours are fantastic. We watch it together often, and neither of us seem to tire of it.

"The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T" is a journey into the extraordinary, the unbelievable, and the entertaining. Albeit, it's wacky, but how else should the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss be? If you are up for a fantastic adventure into dreamland, than look no further!

Bart Collins is your average little boy--he loves his mom, he likes to play with his dog, and there is nothing he despises more than practicing the piano. No doubt his eccentric, but strangely captivating piano instructor, Dr. Terwilliker, has something to do with this. After a particularly trying lesson, Bart falls asleep at the ivories and is transported to the Terwilliker Institute, a prison-castle for tiny piano players like himself. He immediately attempts escape, but finds himself surrounded by a whole lot of bizarre characters, including some green-skinned musician-hostages who do not play the piano.

This colorful film may be a bit quirky, but beneath its oddity is a charming story that is sure to involve you and stimulate your imagination. Every aspect of "Fingers" is truly memorable, from the beautiful set to the catchy sing-along numbers to the original screenplay. This is a movie that the entire family will love--kids can identify with Bart and Dr. Seuss, adults can enjoy the music and choreography, and everyone will want to watch it again and again.

Once you watch "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T," you'll see why I went crazy when I was able to tape it on TV (and went crazy when someone taped over it!). I couldn't wait until this title appeared on DVD! Get it while it's hot! :)

This was my favorite movie as a little kid... and it still is. Its musical peices are fun for children and devilishly clever for adults. The insanity of its plot puts a smile on my face and makes me laugh even though I've seen it so many times. This is a timless classic that is good for people of all ages and is sure to make you laugh. This is just one of those films that you have to see.

This movie is an excellent movie if you enjoy Dr. Seuss. It does much better than either "The Grinch" or "The Cat in the Hat" in being Seuss-like, and has a pretty good story. Some parts are highly illogical, but what do you expect? I loved it.

Oh, and I'm 13, not 12.

If you are looking for a real dr. suess movie, you found it. This movie was made with input and approval from Dr. suess himself! The set design is miles more imaginative that modern day CGI effects. If you want a good movie, but mean streets. If you want entertainment, buy this movie!

I remember seeing this movie as a child and was delighted to see that it is now on DVD. While a bit on the strange side, it is a joy to behold. A movie that directly bears the thumb print of Dr. Seuss!

Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote and helped design this eccentric fantasy about a young boy named Bart (Tommy Rettig) who, like most young boys, doesn't enjoy his piano lessons with the mean-spirited Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried). He figures his time would be better spent playing baseball with his friends or helping his grown-up buddy Arthur Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes), a plumber. One night, while fast asleep, Bart has a long and remarkable dream in which he's trapped in the kingdom of the fearsome Dr. T, who has enslaved hundreds of little boys, forcing them to practice on the world's largest piano until they drop. With the help of a familiar plumber, Bart plans a revolt that will topple Dr. T's evil empire once and for all.

This is a pretty goofy flick, but fun nevertheless. It has its share of dance numbers, and you can definitely tell that Dr. Seuss had a hand in making it. The props, characters, and one musical number in particular that Bart spies on just scream Dr. Seuss. The scene takes place in a cavern with musicians flying around playing all sorts of weird and gigantic instruments. Definitely worth watching if, you are in the mood for a goofy flick.

This is one of the strangest and most entertaining movies you and you're kids will ever watch. I recommend this film to music teachers for classroom viewing - perfect for grades K-6. There is a scene with the most unique "band" you've ever seen. A must see!

Critics may not have thought this is the most wondeful movie ever made, but the Dr. Seuss sets and simple story of a boy who wants a dad and would rather play baseball than practice the piano is treated marvelously. It is a quirky, genuinely original fantasy. Children of all ages will be drawn into the at times cheerfulness and at other times scariness of the story. There is a timelessness about the underlying story of the loss of a parent that keeps this 1950s movie relevant.

Hollywood could not do a better movie today if they tried, even with modern special effects technology and buckets of money, witness the live-action "Grinch" if you don't believe me. I first saw this movie as a child in the late 1970s where it was a staple of Saturday afternoon movies. What can be said? Hans Conried makes this movie as the campy, completely over the top and utterly mad Dr. Terwilliker.
The story and sets are wonderful, reflecting the fertile, and rather twisted, imagination of Theodore Seuss Geisel. Tommy Rettig is perfect, and never annoying as Bartholemew Cubbins, the precocious child star of the movie, Mary Healy plays his mother and Peter Lind Hayes plays the wise plumber, August Zabladowski.
This movie is billed as a musical, it's not much of one, the songs seem as if they were tacked on to the rest of the production, however the movie is so good that even this cannot detract from it.
The DVD transfer is very good, much better than the earlier VHS transfers, there isn't much in the way of special features, just a trailer and some photo stills, but given the fact that this movie was made 50 years ago this isn't surprising. My only complaint about the disk is that the sound seems somewhat muffled in places, although free of the more objectionable forms of distortion. The scene with Peter Lind Hayes and Hans Conreid attempting to put a whammy on each other is sheerly fantastic.