Thanks for the memories!

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Tommy Steele was a popular entertainer when I was a kid. A pop singer, actor and frequent performer in musicals.He had a trademark toothy grin but I was surprised how relatively few films he made.In the late 1970s he branched out into television and made two Christmas Specials for ITV and Quincy's Quest was one of them. You might say it was the Toy Story of its day.A live action extravaganza with plenty of blue screen. Steele plays Quincy an imperfect toy among group of rejected ones in a department store and are set to be destroyed. He sets outs in a quest to visit Santa in his grotto on the top floor in order to save these toys destined to be thrown into the fire. However a wicked witch is hellbent on stopping Quincy.Quincy gets detoured along the way, a showman puts him on a wrong train which crashes, a damsel sends him to the army and then he battles giant robots.Its really musical theatre with plenty of effects. Steele is in his element with the song and dance numbers, Mel Martin is very appealing and Gretchen Franklin (Ethel from Eastenders) is the witch.The special effects have dated but its still an enjoyable show for kids.

I totally LOVE this story. Tommy Steele has a wonderful bright personality, and this role really showcases it. I love the songs in this, especially the one sung by the "perfect" dolls, and the stage number hosted by the ventriloquist dummy.I also love the way that the various elements of the story really balance each other out. The comedy isn't too wacky, the romantic angle isn't TOO sappy, the action and adventure is balanced by the warmth and humour.This is really top class fantasy storytelling for the child in all of us. I just wish there were more TV specials in this class.

Despite not containing any of the original cast of Quincy this still holds up as a classic film. It contains many scenes that may be considered disturbing to fans of Quincy and strays wildly from any of the situations the original Quincy would have ever come close to finding himself in. Regardless, the film has it's own charms, revolving around the "Quest" of "Quincy". Not much else can be said about this film except that it still enthralls and entertains the children I show it to today. Nostalgic and classic this film has legendary proportions and is still regularly discussed on websites such as friendsreunited and other nostalgia sites.

The Holy Grail. The Fisher King. Moby Dick. The quest motif is as old as story-telling itself, but never told so effectively or thought-provokingly as this 1979 masterpiece. Steele is solid, Franklin the stuff of childhood nightmares,but it is Reed's bold, sweeping directorial strokes that set this epic towering over its contemporaries. The fact it is set at Christmas lends it atmosphere but is immaterial - the themes are timeless, as valid now as they ever were. Essential.