Review of The Gnome-Mobile

Lumber czar, whose unfaithful staff is trying to sabotage him, takes a car trip with his two grandkids, who are certain they've spotted gnomes in the forest. Upton Sinclair's book becomes a sometimes-sticky sweet comedy from Walt Disney, one saddled with the company's usual ingredients: broad slapstick for the matinée crowds, mercenary corporate baddies, and an extended car chase. Walter Brennan, in a dual role, and Matthew Garber and Karen Dotrice (the two cute kids from "Mary Poppins") are lively, yet "The Gnome-Mobile" isn't particularly inventive. Too much screen-time is wasted on contrivances, such as a freak-show entrepreneur kidnapping two of the gnomes (a glinty-eyed villain who does everything but tie the gnomes to the railroad tracks). The enjoyable opening promises a lot more fun than what is delivered, and the screenplay goes for such easy laughs that even children may find their patience taxed. The finale is a big, effects-laden splash with marriage-crazed female gnomes going on a manhunt, but it is unable to redeem the film's overall feeling of fatigue. ** from ****