As a kid, I always enjoyed how creative Gumby had his adventures on the TV show. So much of it was just for pure fun. When I finally heard that there had been a movie released, I was super excited. And none to my surprise, Gumby: The Movie rocked my world. For any Gumby fan, this movie will be a great hit. Everything in this movie is kept the same and even includes some cultural references.Director Art Clokey, who directs his final Gumby film, has done a magnificent job. Dal McKennon is back as good old Gumby and several other characters. Even Art Clokey is Prickle and some other roles. All the animation is done by clay; how else would a Gumby film be done?! Most of the comedic parts are watching the silent Blockheads fight with each other. They're always doing something foolish.The effects are great in this movie. Since stop motion cinematography allows you to make a special effect over time, much of the creations that are made are really quite stunning. This movie BARELY uses CGI for any part of the film. It's things like these that bring the viewer back to the time where CGI wasn't used very often and was only used if it was available. Now almost if not every movie studio uses CGI for anything they want and its gets tiresome to see the same effects used over and over again. Claymation is a sorely missed special effect that is now extinct in the movie making business at least from what I see now.The music, which was composed by Jerry Gerber, is great listening to. Because this movie uses dated effects, it's great to hear music that belongs from the same era. Unfortunately, the soundtrack to this film is inaccessible. I get flustered over that but it's still good that it used in the movie thank heaven. What's also great to see are the cultural references in this film. The Blockheads make robot duplicates of the main characters; sounds a little like The Terminator (1984). Another scene where Gumby fights his robotic clone with a light saber. Need to say more?As the last film made by Art Clokey, Gumby: The Movie will please its fans and may gain interest in others who are not familiar with Gumby. For anyone who has never seen claymation at its best, this is it.

When I was around ten years old, I watched some episodes of "The Gumby Show" on video. Since I liked what I saw, I then watched this full-length feature, which came nearly four decades after the birth of the stop-motion character's original TV show. "Gumby: The Movie" was not a disappointment for me, and the first time I watched it during my childhood wasn't my last. I have watched it again three times, I think all within the past year, and thought it was pretty good the first couple times, but it went slightly downhill for me with my latest viewing. While I watched "Gumby: The Movie" last night, I wasn't quite as impressed.In this movie, Gumby is a member of a rock band called the Clayboys. The band has a studio on a farm, where they rehearse. As the band are on their way to their studio, along with Gumby's friends (Pokey, Goo, and Prickle), they learn that farmers are about to lose their homes, due to the fact that they cannot pay their debts. The Clayboys decide to hold a benefit concert for these troubled farmers. Unfortunately, the evil Blockheads, the ones who delivered the letters to the farmers, informing them of the bad news, are at the concert. When these two notice Gumby's dog, Lowbelly, crying pearls, they begin to record the music. After the show, the Blockheads kidnap Lowbelly, so they can play the recording they have of the Clayboys' music, and have him cry more pearls so they can get rich! However, they discover that Lowbelly will only cry pearls when he hears the music live, so the two villains now intend to kidnap the band members as well! "Gumby: The Movie" may have more for kids than for adults, but it's not strictly for kids. During previous recent viewings, I certainly wasn't blown away, but thought it reasonably entertaining, with some mild excitement, an occasional funny scene (such as the clumsy robot waiter in the café), and some interesting places the characters find themselves in when they enter books. When I last watched the film, I was entertained by these things for a while, but eventually, I found that it got tiring. I also found that some of the voice-overs are poor, although most of them are alright. I don't know, maybe I have now seen it too many times. However, since I liked the film more during previous viewings, and enjoyed a bit of it this time, I have to give it credit, and do recommend it for stop-motion fans of all ages. You just might not want to expect a masterpiece.

Folks, I'll be straight with you. This is not the greatest film ever made. In fact, it's not the best Gumby film ever made (although it's the best--read: only--full-length Gumby film ever made). I attribute this largely to the fact that Gumby and his secondary characters are intended to be digested in five-minute doses. An hour and a half with them is a little bit like a phone call from an old friend you haven't talked to in years, who stays on the phone long after you remember how much better you liked them when they hadn't been chewing your ear off for hours. In other words, as you watch the movie (if you're over the age of 8 at least), you're glad to see Gumby is doing well--he's got a new band, some new friends, even some groupies. And in fact, if you liked Gumby in normal-size episodes as a kid, you almost feel validated somehow because the slightly weird character you liked finally got his own movie. But as the clock ticks forward, you begin to wonder why there needed to be a Gumby cartoon of this length. In fact, you realize, even if you'd really wanted an hour-and-a-half-long Gumby fix, you'd rather have watched 15 or so regular Gumby shorts.But I must admit, once a Gumby fan, always a shameless Gumby fan. It has its moments, and if you like the little green guy with the pointy head, you'll get a kick out of it. But let me put it this way: I've owned the VHS of it since about 1997 and have watched it twice in the past eight years. It's not a movie you'll be watching again and again if you buy it, no matter how much you like Gumby.That said, a word about the two new characters: I can accept a guy named Gumby. I can accept, even, that his dad's name is Gumbo. I can accept a horse named Pokey, a girl named Goo, a kid sister named Minga, and even a dinosaur named Prickle. Not to mention a red teardrop with a face that has limbs coming directly out of said face, and the fact that said teardrop is a professor of some kind. I can even accept the fact that everyone in the world looks normal, except for Gumby and his pals, who are highly stylized blocks of primary colors. But I draw the line at two guys named Claybert and Fatbuckle. What kind of names are those?

First let me say that my recollections of Gumby from childhood are very hazy. It's much easier to recall those skits of Eddie Murphy playing Gumby on Saturday Night Live, but that's because I see those re-runs on Comedy Central all the time. So as I saw Gumby: The Movie on the shelf at the video store, I wasn't interested in reminiscing my own early years, but more an idea of what that's supposed to be like.When the tape went in and the movie came on, it was sheer joy from beginning to end. I watched this with several other people also, and made this observation: People who enjoyed Eyes Wide Shut (such as myself) also enjoyed Gumby: The Movie. People who did not enjoy Eyes Wide Shut... well you can guess. I am convinced that much of Kubrick's inspiration for his last work of art, came from Gumby: The Movie. You may think I am joking, but I am as serious as brain surgery.The entire tone set in the beginning of the FILM, is dark and oooh oooh oooh mysterious. There's a darn drive-in theater on the moon. What does that say to you? Come on now. Gumby is nowhere to be found and Pokey is naturally upset. (Though not as upset as he will be when he melds with two other characters as a result of a tube slide accident.) Yet, even as he is upset, he delivers his lines with the same lack of panache as any other line in the screenplay.Look at him! Pokey knows that Gumby will turn up somewhere, and they've been in a relationship for so long that you must appreciate the knowledge on their part of the routine. Pokey's been worried before and he recognizes that. Gumby and Pokey have done everything together, yet they somehow manage to honorably "sell-themselves" out one last time here. Old buddies out to make the world honest and pure.It is entirely too complicated to go into the depth of what every single word from their clay mouths' implies, but it offers the questions and the answers are for you to figure out. Let me ask you this, Why is it that Gumby's dad is red? Shouldn't his parents be yellow and blue? What does this tell you? Gumby's dad is not actually Gumby's dad! But then who is he huh? And NO I was not intoxicated in any way while watching this film, I'm straight edge!I'm positive that if you are interested in delving into the inner workings of films and not interested in taking things at face value, you will thoroughly enjoy Gumby: The Movie. So watch it again and again. By the way, Would you know you were human if nobody told you? And what kind of shock would it be if you happened to come across the word human in the dictionary?