In 1959, Walt Disney made this little gem of a movie, based upon Irish immigrant Herminie T. Kavanagh's two books Darby O'Gill and the Good People and Ashes of Old Wishes and Other Darby O' Gill Tales. Darby O' Gill is the groundskeeper for a local estate who spends a lot more time at the pub spinning yarns about his adventures with the Little people than he does doing his actual job. This is not due to his being merely shiftless however, for Darby is actually getting on in years and so the decision is made by his employer to hire a younger man to replace him after retiring Darby. Darby is aghast, not thinking himself ready to be put out to pasture, and so tells his daughter that the young man is seasonal help. Quite how he expected her to believe that when his retirement would also mean losing the tied cottage, I don't think even Darby knew. What Darby also did not realise, is that his tales about the Little People were not as fanciful as he and everyone else thought. For King Brian of the leprechauns has familiarised himself with Darby and feels sorrow for the old rogue. Deciding to end Darby's misery, he entices Darby into following him into the faerie realm, where he is trapped.King Brian thinks this grand, after all, Darby will remain as he is forever and never need face the ignominy of retirement and being found out by his daughter. Darby however, sees things differently, and wily rogue that he is, has other plans. What follows is an adventure as every bit lively and entertaining as the fox hunt fiddle piece Darby plays for his faerie friends. Will Darby escape, and does his daughter Kate come to terms with the changes in their lives? And will the local bully get his way? Then there is the dark and handsome young man...

I just wish I could heap as much praise on the DVD release. Both the region 1 and Region 2 DVD releases at first glance seem identical. That is, the prints were not returned to their original wide screen aspect ratio and have no extras or anything, just the movie. But I am going to tell you, if you can watch Region 1 films on your DVD player, bother spending the little bit of change extra to get the Region 1 version. This is because for some inexplicable reason, the North American version has the actor's original voices intact, including the leprechauns speaking to each other in Irish Gaelic. The Region 2 version however has been inexplicably over dubbed, with American voices and dialogue! It's grating to say the least and all quite puzzling as to why the this would be done, and just what Buena Vista was thinking of when they provided such a travesty to audiences on the home shores as it were of the actors involved. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!