User Reviews

Like most people I'd never seen this special (though being a Rankin & Bass fan I knew of it) and as it was included in the collection I was finally able to see it. I have to say though, that it's not difficult to understand why it has rarely been seen since it's release. Unlike the rest of the Rankin & Bass specials, this one somehow looks dated and doesn't quite have the charm of the rest of their efforts. I don't think the character design was the best they'd ever done either. It was good up to a point and had some good music for the kids so I won't give it a zero but I didn't find it all that interesting and what happened next totally turned me off to it forever.

***SPOILER WARNING***

The biggest shocker came about halfway through. There is a scene (which I can't understand why it wasn't cut or wasn't changed in some way) that I was very, very disappointed to see. At one point the cricket is kidnapped by the typical bad-guy henchman and delivered to a sea captain and when they ask to be paid the sea captain says "I have your payment right here' and pulls out a gun and murders them!!! Bang! Bang! Bang! Are you kidding me??? I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! They don't actually show it but you see a long shot of the boat and the flashes from the gun muzzle. Unbelievable. I don't have to tell you how uncomfortable it is on Christmas Eve trying to explain what just happened to your two young children who were expecting to see a nice Christmas video with their parents. If you like that sort of thing then give it a look but we won't be watching 'The Cricket On The Hearth' in our house anytime soon.

Mind you, Cricket on the Hearth (1967) is no Rudolph either, but it's not unwatchable or a train wreck as these other reviewers would have you believe. It's actually a little better than I expected it would be: as maddeningly average as most of the film is, there is a darkness to it that gives the whole thing flavor.

The animation is standard 1960s television fare: limited, stiff, and awkward at moments. The character design is mostly uninspired, but sometimes appealing. None of the songs are memorable, though the voice actors perform them well. Unfortunately, most of the songs do not move the story along and bring the special to grinding halt (I'm looking especially at that brief number in the bar... just why?).

The one thing that stands out about this special is not its animation or songs, but the poignancy of the story. There's a lot of dark subject matter here: grief, poverty, blindness, kidnapping, exploitation, and even murder (yes, murder; three henchman get capped in one infamous scene). There's an undercurrent of despair that makes this rather pedestrian movie memorable, though of course there's a happy ending, this being a Rankin-Bass special after all.

In the end, this is a decent Christmas special. I doubt most of today's children would go for it, but if you have nostalgia, then it should serve you well. It's certainly not incompetent, as others argue.

Remember the timeless Charles Dickens' Christmas tale called The Cricket on the Hearth? Well, most people don't either, and there hasn't been a film adaptation of it since 1967, produced by Rankin/Bass, those then-up-and-coming animated holiday special masters. They tell the story, or rather Cricket Crocket himself tells the story...or rather Danny Thomas tells the story, or, you know what? They ALL the tell the story of how a prim and proper cricket changed the lives of a poor toymaker and his daughter...for better and for worse. It all began in spring when C.C. was hopping around, minding his own business, when he came across a toy shop owned by kindly old Caleb Plummer. When Caleb meets Crocket, he immediately invites him to come and stay with he and his daughter, Bertha, who was at present having to say farewell to her fiancée, Edward, who was being called away to serve on the royal navy for two years. For Bertha, it sounded like an eternity, but she promised to wait for him. So as the months passed, Caleb, Bertha, as well as Crocket worked on making toys, for Christmas was coming fast. One fateful night, a ghoulish-looking messenger stops by to inform the Plummers that Edward was lost at sea, and presumed dead. The shock of this news gave Bertha instantaneous hysterical blindness. As a result, Caleb stopped working and spent every waking moment tending to his daughter, bringing in doctors who could not fix her, and borrowing more and more money from creepy moneylenders. Eventually, Caleb was so deep in debt and couldn't pay his rent, and thus the three were thrown out into the street. With no work available anywhere, Caleb considered going to the poor house, but that's when Crocket spotted a toy factory. Maybe they could use an extra hand. Turns out, they could, as they had no hands at all. So, how were they in business if nobody was making toys? Anyway, the factory's owner, a miser named Tackleton, hired on Caleb and he'd be paid in food and shelter.

That night, as Crocket complains about the new hearth he has to rest upon, he gets accosted by Tackleton's pet raven. Fortunately, the miser reclaims his pet before Crocket becomes a midnight snack. In the morning, Tackleton chastised Caleb for using too much paint, because it costs money... something I doubt he has much of since he didn't have a working factory or toys to sell before this. However, Crocket and Caleb make proper adjustments when the old miser wasn't around. And then, a few days before Christmas, Caleb bumps into an old man on the street, who looks mighty familiar, and invites him to stay at his place, like he's prone to do with every strange person or creature he runs into. Christmas Eve finds Tackleton in a very generous mood, as he gives Caleb a bonus of 4 shillings and 1 shilling for Bertha...shortly before suggesting he wanted to marry her. Sheesh, when they handed out class, this guy was in the john. Bertha was flattered at the proposal... as I'm sure any shallow, poorly-written female character would be. The old man on the street who, if you haven't figured it out yet, is Edward in cognito, attempts to break his silence, but when Bertha informs him of her engagement to Tackleton, he chickens out. I guess promises mean nothing. Crocket, on the other hand, attempts to sabotage Tackleton's wooing efforts, and in response, he orders the cricket's elimination. So Uriah the crow ventures to a seedy animal dive and enlists the help of two shady fellows who kidnap Crocket and bring him to a sea captain willing to pay good money for captured crickets. Instead, he pays them in bullets. No joke. He actually shoots them. You know, for kids! However, through a series of improbable and downright lucky occurrences, Crocket manages to get back to Tackleton's, where the toys come to life and tell him Edward's sad story: he'd been marooned on a deserted island for 2 years, and when he was finally rescued, he discovered Bertha's blindness and his guilt prevented him from coming clean. Crocket convinces him to stop holding his tongue and go claim the love of his life. Overjoyed, she marries him almost immediately. When Tackleton found out, he was genuinely heartbroken. For you see, beneath his greedy exterior, he was a lonely man who felt unloved. But some kind compliments from Bertha instantly perk up his spirits. For the first time in Mr. Tackleton's life, he felt special. So it all worked out and having a cricket on the hearth is lucky after all.

Well, what can I say about Rankin/Bass' Charles Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth? Beautiful songs, beautiful music, decent animation for 1967, good camera-work, and of course, excellent voice acting from Danny and Marlo Thomas, Ed Ames, Hans Conried, Roddy McDowall as good ol' C.C., and of course, the legendary Paul Frees. But as far as story and plot, many things happen that don't make much sense and some things are never resolved. Did Bertha ever get her sight back? Did Tackleton grow a heart and start paying Caleb? So this Christmas, why not give Cricket on the Hearth a look? I decided to watch it after seeing a review by an internet comedian called Phelous. I recommend his review too, it's pretty funny. While Cricket isn't as good as Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Little Drummer Boy or Year Without a Santa Claus, it's still pretty good. It has some sad moments, and some that are downright dark. I mean, really? Senseless, off-screen murder? Regardless, I still recommend it.

Critically maligned Rankin/Bass animated special introduced by Danny Thomas starring a cricket voiced by Roddy McDowell that arrives in the life of talented toymaker and daughter (Danny and daughter Marlo Thomas) as their lives fall on hard times. Toymaker, Caleb, loses his love of crafting toys when daughter, Bertha, loses her sight and passion for life after her fiancé, Edward (voiced by Ed Ames), is lost at sea after departing with his military. Unable to work and indebted to those vicious moneylenders, Caleb and blind Bertha lose their home and must brave the unknown, finding a job and new place to live. Crafty Tackelton (voiced with mustache-twirling villainy by Hans Conreid), and his insidious raven, offer Caleb a job and less-than-glamorous digs for his services. Cricket follows Caleb and Bertha, truly faithful in their rebounding from the glum and disappointment befalling them but raven is bound and determined to get rid of him...reprehensible his master, Tackelton, asks for Bertha's hand in marriage. Meanwhile Caleb befriends a fellow also enduring hardship, seemingly too old and broken by age's effects to recover and make a success of himself...but looks might be deceiving. Highlight could be how cricket is kidnapped by thugs that are friends with conniving raven, cast aboard a ship, escaping into the sea, and using fish and other water creatures-- essentially hitching a ride on them!--to return home. The use of still cells and simple, not so elaborate or distinctively impressive animation give the film a rather unmemorable visual look, but voicework is buoyed expertly by McDowell and company. The songs I thought were merely okay, with some quite forgettable...if anything, the songs might have dragged this out too long. In fact, if this had utilized McDowell even more, like a lynchpin or glue, rather than litter long songs throughout, it could have been a tightly paced thirty minute sleeper among the Rankin & Bass specials. Instead, this will never quite emerge from the obscurity, if it becomes an annual tradition considering its inclusion in Christmas classic sets now available. The abuse of Tackelton's employ where he demands so much from Caleb and expects mass production and less quality sets him up as worthy of boos but being that this is Dickens, even he is allowed a Scrooge-like transformation thanks to Bertha. Cricket as a lucky device in Caleb and Bertha's favor is challenged but ultimately he is not the albatross of ill fate that he might seem.

This movie is horrific and just poorly made.

Don't let your children watch this. Don't. It's boring, disturbing, long, and hardly about Christmas. I can't believe people are giving this more than 2 stars, it honestly does not deserve that much!

All the songs are boring ballads and completely unnecessary (so hard to sit through), there is a murder of animals (say whaaaat?!), and it is just plain depressing (a girl goes blind because her love is lost at sea, a creepy, fat, old man wants to marry her against her father's will, and many, many more disturbing, depressing moments). Don't let your kids watch this unless you want to ruin your Christmas mood, because it really will.

However, this movie is so bad that my sister and I make it a tradition to watch it, but in fast mode. It makes all the songs sound like tango songs and it makes it a little easier to sit through and we just make fun of it. Honestly, I don't even know how we sat through it once at normal speed!

Please stay away from this film unless you want to make fun of it for how un-child friendly it is. When you see the name "Cricket on the Hearth" on a box set, logically consider why you have never seen or heard of this special before.

After all, what kid doesn't love to listen to 30 irrelevant ballads and see their furry friends get shot on a boat by some creepy guy?! That just screams Merry Christmas to me!

Can't imagine why anyone gave this more than one star. Or even one star (I gave it one just to bring down the average). Given the cast I was expecting something decent. How could any of them, starting with Danny Thomas, who has done some great work, have been a part of this dreck? Watched it because it was a throw in with a dvd set of Christmas classics such as Rudolf and Frosty. The animation was awful from a technical standpoint. And not just awful, but downright strange, such as Caleb with blue hair and a green government messenger who looks like he should have been an orc in The Lord of the Rings. (Maybe Rankin/Bass should have taken lessons from Looney Tunes.) The songs were so bad we had to fast forward through them. And since boring was not enough, the story took dark and awful to a new level then decided to go horrific with some bad guys actually getting blown away, for reasons that defy explanation or even common sense. All of that and a story that was just bizarre and inexplicable. Bertha gets hysterical blindness and they go broke because her father stops working to care for her, apparently oblivious to the fact that moving to the poor house is not a great way to take care of his daughter, but then does go to work for a hideous miser so they can live in a hovel to eke out their Bob Cratchit-like existence. Bertha's betrothed returns after being lost at sea and hides as an old man instead of rushing to Bertha's side, all the while Bertha, for some reason also beyond belief, accepts the marriage proposal from the Scrooge of the story. Blind to his outer ugly apparently also made her blind to his inner ugly. Reunited with her true love, after exhausting the viewer waiting for the obvious, Bertha doesn't even regain her sight. If you have this on dvd, unless it has other shows, use it as a coaster.