History Film / FunInBalloonLand

A little boy named Sonny falls asleep as his mother reads him a bedtime story, and then dreams that he is in "[[SugarBowl Balloon Land]]" (really a Philadelphia warehouse). Actually, no, he ''doesn't'' do that; he [[{{sleepwalking}} sleepwalks]] over to a giant storybook nearby and just stands there, and then sort of ''poofs'' into Balloon Land. There, Sonny meets a diverse array of creepy balloon floats, visits a farm, meets mermaids and lobsters under the sea, and saves a stagecoach in the Old West. After 15 minutes, [[NoEnding [=the film gives up=]]] and the last 40 minutes consists mostly of straight parade footage, with occasional shots of Sonny watching the floats. Also, the parade is narrated by a woman who is ''[[LargeHam way]]'' too into the parade.

* LargeHam: The woman narrating the parade is so alarmingly enthusiastic about it that she sounds like she's either drunk, stoned, aroused or having a psychotic mental breakdown. Or ''all of the above.''

* NoEnding: Unless you consider Sonny waking up ''after'' the whole hour of the parade and then [[MindScrew going back to sleep]] ''[[MindScrew again]]'' on his mother's lap to be an "ending".
* NoIndoorVoice: Sonny does ''not'' modulate his voice well and the tinny acoustics of the warehouse it was filmed in only makes it worse.
* PaedoHunt: Though unintentional, the scene where Sonny meets the King of the Ocean gives off a ''lot'' of uncomfortable vibes.

* ShoutOut: During the parade sequence, a lot of fairytales and nursery rhymes are mentioned. The ShowDontTell moment with the crying Walrus is from "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass''.

** The most egregious example is when she mentions Humpty Dumpty when ''he isn't even shown on screen!'' (Due to the camera being zoomed in too close) Though he '''is''' clearly visible during the "guessing game" at the ''very end of the movie''.

* SugarBowl: The titular Balloon Land plays this straight.

** The most egregious example is when she mentions Humpty Dumpty when ''he isn't even shown on screen!'' (Due to the camera being zoomed in too close) Though he '''is''' clearly visible during the "guessing game" at the ''very end of the movie.''

** She also claims that a balloon named "Ms. Hippo" was blown away by the wind, even though no articles about a giant balloon belonging to Giant Parade Balloons, Inc., being blown away have surfaced. It could just be a tongue-in-cheek case of UnreliableNarrator. Especially, since she caps off the anecdote with [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer "It's true! Just ask me!"]]... after, you know, [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment she already said it.]]

* TontoTalk: The Native American balloons, as if their grotesque appearance wasn't offensive enough.

A little boy named Sonny falls asleep as his mother reads him a bedtime story, and then dreams that he is in "[[SugarBowl Balloon Land]]" (really a Philadelphia warehouse). Actually, no, he ''doesn't'' do that; he [[{{sleepwalking}} sleepwalks]] over to a giant storybook nearby and just stands there, and then sort of ''poofs'' into Balloon Land. There, Sonny meets a diverse array of creepy balloon floats, visits a farm, meets mermaids and lobsters under the sea, and saves a stagecoach in the Old West, accompanied by offensive Native American caricatures. After 15 minutes, [[NoEnding [=the film gives up=]]] and the last 40 minutes consists mostly of straight parade footage, with occasional shots of Sonny watching the floats. Also, the parade is narrated by a woman who is ''[[LargeHam way]]'' too into the parade.

* HollywoodNatives: The Native American balloons are offensive even by sixties standards!

* ShoutOut: During the parade sequence, a lot of fairytales and nursery rhymes are mentioned. The below-mentioned ShowDontTell moment with the crying Walrus is from "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass''.

** Another example is when the Walrus balloon shows up, she says the Walrus is crying (which is not shown, because we only see the Walrus from the back) because he [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone ate the oysters that]] [[NoodleIncident he promised to take a walk by the sea.]] [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole This actually did happen]] in the poem by [[Creator/{{LewisCarroll}} Lewis Carroll]] that it was based on, but the neither the poem or the book ''Through The Looking Glass'' are mentioned at all.

* PedoHunt: Though unintentional, the scene where Sonny meets the King of the Ocean gives off a ''lot'' of uncomfortable vibes.
-->'''[[Podcast/RiffTrax Kevin Murphy:]]''' Guys, is this movie even ''legal?''

* ShoutOut: During the parade sequence, a lot of fairytales and nursery rhymes are mentioned. The below-mentioned ShowDontTell moment with the crying Walrus is from "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from ''[[Literature/{{ThroughTheLookingGlass}} Through The Looking Glass]].''

** The most egregious example is when she mentions Humpty Dumpty when ''he isn't even shown on screen!'' (Due to the camera being zoomed in too close.) Though he '''is''' clearly visible during the "guessing game" at the ''very end of the movie.''

''Fun in Balloon Land'' is a NoBudget children's film from 1965 that is essentially documentary footage of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6abc_Dunkin%27_Donuts_Thanksgiving_Day_Parade Philadelphia Thanksgiving parade]][[note]]at the time sponsored by the Gimbel's department store; after they closed in TheEighties the parade was later sponsored by Boscov's, IKEA, and currently Dunkin'[[/note]] with a 15-minute scripted prologue added in an attempt to provide some semblance of a plot. It presumably was only screened in regional or local theaters during Saturday matinees before vanishing from the public eye, only to resurface in the PublicDomain around 2009 through the efforts of Something Weird Video. In 2014, the film was mocked via ''Podcast/{{RiffTrax}}''.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia It's always sunny in Balloonland.]]]]


''Fun in Balloon Land'' is a NoBudget children's film from 1965 that is essentially documentary footage of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6abc_Dunkin%27_Donuts_Thanksgiving_Day_Parade Philadelphia Thanksgiving parade]][[note]]at the time sponsored by the Gimbel's department store; after they closed in TheEighties the parade was later sponsored by Boscov's, IKEA and currently Dunkin'[[/note]] with a 15-minute scripted prologue added in an attempt to provide some semblance of a plot. It presumably was only screened in regional or local theaters during Saturday matinees before vanishing from the public eye, only to resurface in the PublicDomain around 2009 through the efforts of Something Weird Video. In 2014, the film was mocked via ''[[Podcast/{{Rifftrax}} RiffTrax.]]''

* CameraScrew: Whoever was operating the camera during the parade was clearly given very little direction. In fact, there are some moments where it feels like the operator was never actually given permission to film.

* UncannyValley: The balloons depicting human characters fall ''deep'' into this. Especially the "Indians."

* CameraScrew: Whoever was operating the camera during the parade was clearly given very little direction. In fact, there are some moments where it seems like the operator didn't even know it was on!

* '''[[Podcast/RiffTrax Kevin Murphy:]]''' Guys, is this movie even ''legal?''

* LargeHam: The woman narrating the parade is ''very'' enthusiastic about the balloons, to the point where she sounds like she's either [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation getting aroused or having a psychotic breakdown]].

* {{Gonk}}: A majority of the balloons are this [[UncannyValley by accident]]. They look particularly grotesque with very small eyes and overly detailed faces. ''Very'' few of the balloons actually avert this.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia It's always sunny in Balloonland.]]

* ShoutOut: During the parade sequence, a lot of fairytales and nursery rhymes are mentioned. The below-mentioned ShowDontTell moment with the crying Walrus is from "The Walrus & The Carpenter" from ''[[Literature/{{ThroughTheLookingGlass}} Through The Looking Glass]].''

* SugarBowl: The titular Balloonland plays this straight.

* HaveAGayOldTime: Nearly every other sentence coming off the narrator's mouth has the word "gay" in it, giving ''[=RiffTrax=]'' and [[WebVideo/{{TheCinemaSnob}} The Cinema Snob]] plenty of jokes. It doesn't help that although this ''was'' the [[UsefulNotes/{{TheSixties}} [=the '60s,=]]] "gay" '''did''' ''begin'' to be used as a euphemism for "homosexual" around the time.
* LargeHam: The woman narrating the parade is '''very''' enthusiastic about the balloons, to the point where she sounds like she's either [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation getting aroused or having a psychotic breakdown]].
* MindScrew: From the way the plot is set up, the movie seems to be [[AllJustADream Sonny's dream]] since his mother was reading him a bedtime story, and that ''would'' explain the parade being shoehorned in, since he actually "wakes" up from that at the end of the movie, but he doesn't actually lie down and go to sleep, he ''walks up to a tall standing storybook and just stands there, and he gets '''magicked''' into Balloonland.'' '''And then when he wakes up, ''he goes back to sleep in his mother's lap AGAIN!'''''
* NoEnding: Unless you consider Sonny waking up ''after'' the whole hour of the parade, and then '''[[MindScrew going back to sleep]] ''[[MindScrew again]]''''' on his mother's lap to be an "ending".

* TwoDecadesBehind: If you had no clue when this was made and had to guess a year, you'd probably say 1949 or so, with the unpolished color cinematography, cornball tone, and the archaic style of the "Balloonland" song. There's absolutely no way you'd guess this was a product of TheSixties.