(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 Enth degree and over the top and... oh yeah, it can be painful at times. But again, to it's 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 whose 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 ground breaking 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)
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! 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 outta 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!
Review
Doug (vo): And that's kinda one of the nice things about this movie. Even though there's a lot of chipper up beat things in it, there is also sort of that dark undertone that's throughout the whole thing. 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 kinda 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 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 kinda 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)
Doug (vo): You actually really feel this sense of community in this town. You feel like you understand them and actually kinda want to know them more. You kinda want to go to this pub or you kinda want to work in these fields or you kinda 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 kina like how the 70's looked back on the 50's and we got Grease. This is kind of how white Americans look at Ireshmen and well, this is the product of that.
Final Thoughts
Doug (vo): But I think it's heart is in the right place and like I said, I think these actors are just so good and so charming and so likeable. 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)