Mytyl (Tula Belle) and her brother Tyltyl (Robin Macdougall) are young children who don’t come from a wealthy father. They don’t have much and often spend their time watching the what the wealthier children are doing. However, they often fail to appreciate the simple things they already have. One day, their neighbor Berlingot (Edward Elkas) asks to borrow the childrens’ pet bird to cheer up her sick daughter, but the children refuse to.
Later that night as the children sleep, the fairy Berylune (Lillian Cook) appears to them in a dream in the form of Berlingot and tells them about the blue bird of happiness. The blue bird of happiness is a bird that’s the exact color of the sky, so it’s very difficult to find, but brings immense happiness to those who are able to find it. Berylune sends the children on a mission to find the blue bird of happiness, but first, she gives them a special hat with a diamond in it that allows them to see the spirits of their pets and other objects. The children quickly make friends with all these spirits and they all set off to find the blue bird.
Berylune brings the children and the other spirits to mystical places like the Palace of Night, where they’re reunited with their deceased grandparents, the Palace of Happiness, where they’re introduced to all the joys of life, and the Palace of the Future, where the souls of babies wait to be born. Along the way, the children keep trying to find the blue bird, but with no success. But when they wake up in the morning, the children suddenly have a much greater appreciation for everything they have and realize their pet bird is none other than the blue bird of happiness. When Berlingot stops by, the children insist she bring the bird to her daughter and it’s exactly the sick girl needs. She makes a speedy recovery and when she comes to return the bird, it escapes and flies away. Rather than getting upset, Tyltyl asks the viewer to look for the blue bird of happiness in their own homes as that’s where it’s most likely to be found.
I wouldn’t say The Blue Bird was one of my favorite movies, but it was pleasant enough. It’s extremely imaginative and reminded me a lot of The Wizard of Oz, thematically speaking. I appreciated that Tula Belle and Robin Macdougall seemed like natural children and not overly-cloying and cutesy like many child actors could be. Many of the special effects were really well done, although the human actors portraying some of the spirits the children start to see like the dog and the cat might seem kind of bizarre Personally, I found the costume on the guy playing the spirit of the sugar loaf (yes, there is a person who gets to play the spirit of a sugar loaf) absolutely hilarious, but that may be because it’s been kind of a long day and I’m kind of easily amused. On the whole, I’m glad I saw it once, but I don’t think it’s the sort of movie I’ll go out of my way to see again.
