Die goldene Gans

NOTE: This review is of the English-dubbed version of THE GOLDEN GOOSE, dubbed and distributed in the USA by K. Gordon Murray.

Of all the many children's films exported to the US by "master showman" K. Gordon Murray in the 1960's, THE GOLDEN GOOSE is one of the three of four best in terms of entertainment value. I showed my children (now teens) this film when they were in the 5-8 age range, and they loved the color, the slapstick comedy, the comforting broadly-played characters, and the sense of fun. Also, this film lacks the Gothic touches and overall weirdness found in some of Murray's Mexican imports (although those have a lot of appeal for adults watching them today). The young women in the film are dubbed by adults trying to sound like children, which gives the whole film a non-realistic quality, almost like story time at a daycare! I don't know what frame of reference today's children would have to help them with something like this--perhaps the skits performed at theme parks or when the high school musical comedy players go to elementary schools to perform--but THE GOLDEN GOOSE holds up well as timeless, simple family entertainment for the under 10 crowd. And the visuals are interesting enough that adults would not be bored. Unfortunately, the days when films such as this played in actual theaters were dead by the early 1970's--your best bet today for finding old children's films might be in the DVD/VHS pile at your local dollar store. Some of the children's films imported by Murray in the later 60's were more strange than entertaining, but THE GOLDEN GOOSE still contains a lot of entertainment value for those with old-fashioned tastes, or those parents who want to broaden their children's horizons.