Babes in Toyland (1986) – Rewatch

Even at young ages, Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore had some quality performances, so it seems like this made for television movie couldn’t really be that bad. Unfortunately it is so bad, I had mostly suppressed my memories of watching it many years ago. In what comes across as a long advertisement for the city of Cincinnati, Drew falls out of a car during a Christmas Eve snowstorm and smacks her head on a tree. When she comes to, she has landed in Toyland, a town inhabited by people who curiously look like all the people back home a la The Wizard of Oz. The whole production looks like it was filmed on an off day at a storybook themed amusement park and the actors were just told to quickly phone it in. While the rest of the film makes no mention of the holiday, Christmas is bookmarked into the story by having toymaker Pat Morita morph into Santa Claus.