The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T

1953 children's musical

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Bart's piano teacher, Dr. Terwiliker, is evil. It was a common problem from children growing up in the otherwise worry-free 1950s. Dr. T's plans involve marrying Bart's mom and kidnapping 500 young boys to play a giant piano he's constructed. Hence, the 5,000 fingers. Bart gets help from a friendly plumber to defeat the nefarious Dr. T.

I guess this is the best Dr. Seuss adaptation I've seen. When your competition is the awful Grinch movie, the lifeless Horton movie, and the malodorous hatted cat movie, that's probably not saying much. I believe this is the only feature-length Theodore Geisel screenplay. In a lot of ways, it's typical 50s children film fare, something that unfortunately dates it a bit. Most troubling are the songs. They're mawkish and nauseating, and if the particular dvd player I was watching this on had a working remote control, I likely would have been forced to fast-forward through some of them. But there's a lot to like with Dr. T, too. The kid (Tommy Rettig) is pretty good, and the set design is inspired, a good non-animated realization of those typical Dr. Seuss worlds. And there's lots of set here, too. Dr. T's lair is an expansive one and there are lots of nooks, contours, and shapes for your eyes to wander over. The incidental music is also pretty good, and one music number featuring a motley crew of musicians playing Seussian instruments is really great. And like all great children's movies, this approaches a sticky but universal theme in an abstract way. In this case, the underlying themes seem to be about the insecurities and feelings that surface when your mother starts having sex with your pedophilic piano teacher.