Darby O'Gill and the Little People

(The Disneycember logo is shown before showing clips from the film, really happy Irish music plays throughout)

Doug (vo): Looking for a movie that celebrates Irish stereotypes more than The Quiet Man? Well, Darby O'Gill and the Little People is the film for you. Yeah, I'm not gonna act like a lot of this isn't played up to the Nth degree and over-the-top and...oh, yeah, it can be painful at times. But again, to its credit, there's a real charm that goes along with it. They have very likable actors that have a lot of heart, the effects are unbe-friggin-lievable, even by today's standards. And the story is just a great hodge-podge of all sorts of things Irish, and goofy, and mythical, and legendary, and all that fun stuff. So, what's the story?

Story

Doug (vo): Darby O'Gill is an old man who's trying to find the king of the Little People. He always tells stories in bars about how he comes across him, but, of course, nobody ever believes him. But Darby's destined to prove that he's right and he comes across a well that he falls down, through easily the worst effect in the movie. Seriously, with all these other groundbreaking effects, you couldn't do that one a little better? And he comes across King Brian and his merry men. They say that he has to stay there forever, but he manages to slip out. When King Brian goes to capture him back, Darby takes advantage and captures him instead. And every time he's trying to prove to someone that he actually captured the king of the Leprechauns, King Brian always has some sort of trick to fool 'em again. So that's one story going on. The other is that Darby has a daughter, a beautiful young maiden named Katie, who apparently is being courted by Sean Connery. Yep, Sean Connery. And on top of that, he sings.

(A scene showing Connery's character Michael McBride working in a field is shown. He's singing a song while thinking about Katie)

Michael: She is my dear, my darling one, my smiling and beguiling one. I love the ground she walks upon, my darling Irish girl...

Doug (vo): Yep, there's nothing like a Scottish man doing an Irish accent while poorly dubbing his own voice in a musical moment. But things heat up when Katie is on Death's Door, only in Irish lore, it's not the Grim Reaper that comes for her, it's the Banshee!

Review

Doug (vo): A lot of people may remember that I put this as the number 1 Scariest Nostalgic Moment and everyone sort of called bullshit on it. And, yeah, maybe they're right, maybe it is a little silly now. But I'm sorry. This thing still scares the shit out of me! Especially when he opens the door here.

(Darby is shown opening a door, thunder strikes and the Banshee appears. She screams right into the camera)

Doug (vo): That is scary as fuck! Yeah, the effect is kinda dated, yeah, we know how it's done, but just...doh! It's just so creepy! And that's kinda one of the nice things about this movie. Even though there's a lot of chipper upbeat things in it, there is also sort of that dark undertone that's throughout the whole thing.

[Several scenes described are shown]

Doug (vo): The things that people want to do in this are actually pretty mean. Darby tries to feed the Leprechaun to his cat, or the Leprechauns try to keep Darby there for the rest of his life. Hell, Darby tries to rob them on several occasions. There's headless horseman's on carriages, it's kinda messed up. It's kind of like it does in Aesop's Fables being webbed together with Irish lore, and it works out pretty well, and still creates, for the most part, a pretty flowing narrative.

[The characters are shown]

Doug (vo): The actors I think find just that right mix of charming and kind of goofy. The guy who plays Darby is pitch perfect, he is just so enjoyable. He kind of reminds me of a white Uncle Remus. It's just, how can you not enjoy his stories? How can you not enjoy every single time he opens his mouth and starts talking? He's just freakin' delightful. Sean Connery, though pretty unknown at the time, is actually a pretty good lead in this, too. And I swear to God, Darby's daughter must have the prettiest most adorable smile in this. Oh, my God, I just wanna eat her up. Even though she's not dubbed very well either.

(We see a scene showing Katie singing along with Michael. And yeah, the dubbing on her singing isn't very good either)

Katie: He is my dear, my darling one, his eyes is sparkling, full of fun. No other, no other can match the likes of him...

Doug (vo): You actually really feel this sense of community in this town. You feel like you understand them and actually kind of want to know them more. You kind of want to go to this pub or you kind of want to work in these fields or you kind of want to eat dinner in this house. I don't know, there's just something very homely about it that really like. Though, yeah, I don't know how Irish people would necessarily look at it because, kind of obviously, it's a bit over-the-top. It's kind of like how the 70's looked back on the 50's and we got Grease. This is kind of how white Americans look at Irishmen and, well, this is the product of that.

Final thought

Doug (vo): But I think its heart is in the right place and, like I said, I think these actors are just so good and so charming and so likable. And the effects are incredible and the music is great and, oh, there's just so much to like in it. So it's hard to say. If you're an Irish person, I can't vouch for it and I could be totally wrong in saying that you won't get offended. You have every right to be offended if you are. But just know that a lot of people nowadays know that this is played up as well, and enjoy it because it is just so fun and silly, especially if the people watching know that it's played more for goofs and laughs. So I say, it's definitely a fun flick and worth checking out.

(The final scene showing Darby, Michael and Katie riding off towards home is shown)

All: My darling Irish girl!