Artist The Phantom Tollbooth

There was a magical moment in the early 1970s when mainstream children’s entertainment began to blatantly co-opt the aesthetics of hippie drug culture.The Phantom Tollbooth, a classic children’s book by Norton Juster, was the perfect source material. Essentially a slightly more academic-themed Alice In Wonderland knock-off, Tollbooth recounts the story of a bored boy named Milo and his journey into a world of psychedelic animation and didactic musical numbers—think Salvador Dali meetsSchoolhouse Rock. The film was produced by legendary animator Chuck Jones, who created many of the classic Looney Tunes characters, and his familiar visual style only increases the film’s surreality. If you can tune out the heavy-handed life lessons, the Phantom Tollbooth is a trip.

Updated 07/19/2011