My review was written in February 1984 after watching the movie at a Times Square screening room.
Made in Britain in 1977 as a feature spinoff of a popular BBC tv series, "Wombling Free" is an occasionally amusing but tiresome comey for children. Featuring The Wombles, furry creatures (portrayed by men in bulky costumes rather than puppetry or animation) responsible for literally cleaning up mankind's mess (litter) on Earth, picture is vaguely reminiscent of the Muppets' big-screen incarnations, but lacks the budget, wit and proper format to succeed.
Its belated domestic release (taking almost as long as The Smurfs' animated film to get here) augurs weak results this Easter, when film better suited to cable-tv broadcast.
Director Lionel Jeffries' own screenplay is overly episodic, shifting disconcertingly between the project's three types of footage: Wombles alone on screen (giving off a parallel-world aura somewhere between Gerry Anderson's strange "Thunderbirds" puppets and Jim Henson/Frank Oz's "The Dark Crystal" (creations); Wombles plus people ("The Muppets" format); and prosaic scenes of humans alone, overacting and pulling faces in kiddie film fashion.
Minor plotline has British Wombles, located from WImbledon to Scotland, suddenly becoming visible to humans, beginning with cute Kim (Bonnie Langford) who believe they exist. Later, Kim's parents (Frances De La Tour and David Tomlinson) also believe and can see the furry critters, who supposedly have been cleaning up after man, starting with the discarded apple core in the Garden of Eden.
Non-adventures here include avoidance of having their Wimbledon burrow plowed under by a construction project, several amateurish, low-budget musical production numbers and a final "Keep Britain Tidy" rally for human which culminates with children (a la "The Pied Piper of Hamelin") coming from everywhere to aid the Wombles in their chores.
Jeffries' attempts to shoehorn into the film message about the oil shortage, anti-pollution sentiments and even a trite lament about the death of Britain's film theaters don't work. With Bernard Spear's dialect and jokes as the Frogmorton family's Japanese neighbor (he makes Buddy Hackett and Jerry Lewis's oriental roles seem almost subtle by comparison), the film lapses into very poor taste.
The other lead actors are effective, Tomlinson even gives a wisecrack about "Mary Poppins" (one of his best screen roles) and tv comedienne De La Tour is a distinctive-looking talent. Among the Wombles (drolly voiced by Jeffries and others), Kenny Baker (R2-D2 in "Star Wars") as the littlest one, Bungo, is expressive and perky skipping around in his bulky suit. Tech credits are fine.
