The Children’s Film Foundation Collection: Weird Adventures on DVD [read more]
Classic British eccentricity
The splendidly eccentric final collaboration from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes) is one of three films featured on a new volume of Children’s Film Foundation tales, released on DVD by the BFI on 17 June 2013.
The Children’s Film Foundation Collection: Weird Adventures brings together Alberto Cavalcanti’s The Monster of Highgate Ponds (1961), Powell and Pressburger’s The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) and A Hitch in Time (Jan Darnley-Smith, 1978) which stars Patrick Troughton.
In The Monster of Highgate Ponds young David promises to guard a mysterious egg which his uncle brings back from Malaysia. But, when a baby monster hatches, mayhem ensues. This enchanting story features brilliant animated sequences by the legendary Halas & Batchelor and was directed by celebrated Ealing director Alberto Cavalcanti (Went the Day Well?).
In The Boy Who Turned Yellow London schoolboy John Saunders turns bright yellow after losing his pet mouse on a school trip. Is the mysterious colour change the result of an alien invasion or does the answer lie closer to home? Click above to see a short clip of the wonderful moment when John turns yellow on London Underground.
Patrick Troughton (Doctor Who) plays time-hopping inventor Professor Adam Wagstaff in A Hitch in Time. Discovered working on his time machine by two curious kids, Wagstaff decides to send them back through the ages. But, with malfunctions a-plenty, will they be able to make it back?
