Hans Brinker

The detail with which 1838 Holland is recreated in this version of the classic "Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates" makes it hard to believe it was made for television. Seldom seen, this should be a Christmas classic, hauled out every year way ahead of many others that are shown repeatedly on television. I watched it for the first time some forty years after it was made, on a crusty old VHS tape that I bought for 25 cents, and it was still beautiful. Containing eight original songs by Moose Charlap, the film boasts two songs sung by Eleanor Parker as the loving mother (she of the baroness in "The Sound of Music"), but they are quite obviously dubbed. ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013