The Blue Bird (1918) - Maurice Tourneur

I hear very little about this film from most film cannons. My only guess is that the film's 2005 restoration was too recent for inclusion, and I'm unaware of how impossible to find it was before then. The DVD boasts of a spectacular restoration, but in all honesty the film print is still in shambles. What can be salvaged has but several spots are in particularly bad shape. The film is imaginative if not occasionally overbearing. Based on a stage play that has all the makings of a timeless fable some children are awakened by a fairy who needs to find the magic bluebird of happiness. Suddenly the family pets as well as several inanimate objects take on human characteristics and everyone is off to a magical world where emotions and processes are people rather than things. I feel sometimes that the filmmakers are too impressed with what they are doing. The joy and happiness segment went on for far too long and the journey without resolution was a little disheartening. However certain sequences are fantastic and if you're a fan of primitive special effects this film will thrill you, and certainly it is worthwhile viewing it in the subjective eyes of someone from 1918. Of course the happiness is in your own home message can be well appropriated, but an overall delightful film, that could stand a little trimming.