{ "id": "epvg7nqxf3", "slug": "the-gnome-mobile", "title": "The Gnome-Mobile", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-before", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-before" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-before", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000: Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-before", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946", "label": "United States · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-before", "label": "Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-before" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Gnome-Mobile is a 1967 Walt Disney live-action fantasy comedy directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Walter Brennan in a dual role with the Mary Poppins child stars, based on Upton Sinclair's gnome novel.", "snippet": "The Gnome-Mobile is a 1967 Walt Disney live-action fantasy comedy directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Walter Brennan in a dual role with the Mary Poppins child stars, based on Upton Sinclair's gnome novel.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.science-fiction-fantasy.science-fiction-and-fantasy-films-before", "markdown": "# The Gnome-Mobile\n\n**The Gnome-Mobile** is a 1967 American live-action fantasy comedy from Walt Disney Productions, directed by Robert Stevenson, in which a California lumber tycoon and his two grandchildren help the last two gnomes of the redwood forests find the rest of their kind. It stars [Walter Brennan](https://www.edgepedia.org/walter-brennan) in a dual role, with [Matthew Garber](https://www.edgepedia.org/matthew-garber) and [Karen Dotrice](https://www.edgepedia.org/karen-dotrice), and is based on Upton Sinclair's novel *The Gnomobile: A Gnice Gnew Gnarrative With Gnonsense, but Gnothing Gnaughty*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | New York opening 19 July 1967; Los Angeles opening 9 August 1967; D23 and IMDb give a 12 July 1967 release[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) • [2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/gnome-mobile-the-film/) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061715/releaseinfo/) |\n| Director / writer | Robert Stevenson; screenplay by Ellis Kadison, from Sinclair's novel[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) |\n| Lead cast | Walter Brennan as D. J. Mulrooney and Knobby; Matthew Garber as Rodney; Karen Dotrice as Elizabeth; Tom Lowell as Jasper; Ed Wynn as Rufus[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) |\n| Running time | 90 minutes per AFI; U.S. Copyright records indicate 85 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) |\n| Music | Title song by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman; score by Buddy Baker[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) |\n| Rating | G (MPAA)[4](https://movies.disney.com/the-gnome-mobile) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nDriving his vintage 1930 Rolls-Royce, lumber tycoon D. J. Mulrooney takes his visiting grandchildren, Rodney and Elizabeth Winthrop, on a picnic in a redwood forest. Elizabeth wanders off and meets Jasper, a two-foot-high gnome, and his 943-year-old grandfather Knobby. Jasper cannot find a girl gnome to marry, so his species is in danger of extinction, and Elizabeth persuades Mulrooney to put his Rolls at the gnomes' disposal for a quest to find others.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE)\n\nJasper and Knobby are kidnapped by Horatio Quaxton, proprietor of the \"Academy of Fantastic Freaks.\" When Mulrooney orders his vice-president Ralph Yarby to organize a search party, the millionaire is committed to a sanitarium. Knobby escapes into the woods, the children free their grandfather and rescue Jasper, and after a chase over the mountains the Rolls reaches a glade where Knobby has contacted the 1,100-year-old gnome-king Rufus and a group of gnome-maidens. A contest is held to see which maiden can catch Jasper and hold on for a count of seven; the shy Violet wins, Rufus marries the couple, and Mulrooney donates 50,000 acres of his land to the gnomes.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) D23 summarizes the ending as the lumberman deeding the forest to the gnomes for eternity.[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/gnome-mobile-the-film/)\n\n## Production\n\nOn 3 March 1965, *Variety* announced that Walt Disney Productions had optioned the film rights to Sinclair's novel; the 22 September 1965 issue reported that the purchase brought the studio's current projects to nine, described as an all-time high for Disney at the time. [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began on 11 October 1965 at the Disney studios in [Burbank, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/burbank-california), with location scenes shot in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Production was completed under the working title *The Gnomobile*, and the spelling was changed to *The Gnome-Mobile* shortly before release.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE)\n\n[Walt Disney](https://www.edgepedia.org/walt-disney) was the producer, with James Algar as co-producer. Edward Colman was director of photography, Norman R. Palmer the editor, and the special effects were by Eustace Lycett and Robert A. Mattey, with Peter Ellenshaw as matte artist. Theatrical screenings were paired with the Disney short documentary *The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) • [2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/gnome-mobile-the-film/)\n\n## Cast and connections\n\nWalter Brennan, an Oscar-winning character actor who had appeared in Disney's *Those Calloways* (1965), played both grandfathers: the tycoon D. J. Mulrooney, owner of the title car, and Knobby, the elderly gnome. According to the Walt Disney Family Museum, Brennan, who had lost most of his teeth in an accident years earlier, played Mulrooney with his teeth in and Knobby with them out.[5](https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/celebrating-50-years-riding-along-gnome-mobile)\n\nKaren Dotrice and Matthew Garber, advertised in the credits as \"the Mary Poppins kids,\" appeared together as siblings for the second time after playing Jane and Michael Banks in Disney's *Mary Poppins* (1964).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) The film was the final screen appearance of both Garber and [Ed Wynn](https://www.edgepedia.org/ed-wynn). Wynn, known for voicing the Mad Hatter in *Alice in Wonderland* and playing [Uncle Albert](https://www.edgepedia.org/uncle-albert) in *Mary Poppins*, died of cancer on 19 June 1967, one month before the New York debut. Garber died of pancreatitis ten years later, at age twenty-one.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) • [5](https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/celebrating-50-years-riding-along-gnome-mobile)\n\n## The Sinclair novel\n\nThe film adapts [Upton Sinclair](https://www.edgepedia.org/upton-sinclair)'s only children's book. AFI's catalog dates the novel to 1962, while a 2022 scholarly study by Dimitra Fimi, a scholar of fantasy literature, dates it to 1936 and describes it as Sinclair's only children's book, written after he lost the 1934 California gubernatorial election, during a road trip in which he saw the Californian redwoods for the first time.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE) • [6](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10583-022-09507-7) The Walt Disney Family Museum adds that Sinclair himself had approached Walt Disney with the story in 1937, possibly as a fantasy follow-up to *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, and that the film was one of the last produced by Disney in his lifetime, released about seven months after his death.[5](https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/celebrating-50-years-riding-along-gnome-mobile)\n\nIn the novel, the child protagonist is twelve-year-old Elizabeth with her young uncle Rodney, and the last two gnomes of the redwoods are named Bobo and his grandfather Glogo; the Disney adaptation changed a number of the book's characters and themes. Fimi's study reads the book as an early children's story with an ecological message, engaging with deforestation and conservation well before [Dr. Seuss](https://www.edgepedia.org/dr-seuss)'s *The Lorax* (1971), while also celebrating the automobile and technological progress.[6](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10583-022-09507-7)\n\n## Reception and home video\n\nRoger Ebert, reviewing for the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) in July 1967 after a Saturday matinee among child audiences, reported that the children especially liked the gnome scenes, noting that Disney's technical tricks made \"the little people look like they're right there with the big people,\" and praised Brennan's performance and the special effects.[7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-gnome-mobile-1967) Tony Mastroianni of the Cleveland Press wrote that the film \"sags a little at the end but kids will find it fun most of the way,\" and singled out the auto chase sequence as one of the wildest and funniest put on film.[8](https://clevelandmemory.com/mastroianni/tm287.html) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a Tomatometer of 59% from two critic reviews.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gnomemobile)\n\nThe film was released on video in 1985 and on DVD in 2004, and is available for digital purchase.[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/gnome-mobile-the-film/) • [10](https://cml.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S109C5624232) • [11](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-gnome-mobile/1013865/where-to-watch/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Gnome-Mobile (1967), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23845-THE-GNOME-MOBILE)\n2. [Gnome-Mobile, The (film), D23: The Official Disney Fan Club](https://d23.com/a-to-z/gnome-mobile-the-film/)\n3. [The Gnome-Mobile (1967) Release info, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061715/releaseinfo/)\n4. [The Gnome-Mobile, Disney Movies](https://movies.disney.com/the-gnome-mobile)\n5. [Celebrating 50 Years of Riding Along in the Gnome-Mobile, The Walt Disney Family Museum](https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/celebrating-50-years-riding-along-gnome-mobile)\n6. [Fimi, Dimitra (2022). Gnomes, Gnature, and the \"Gnifty Gnomobile\": Elemental Spirits, Deforestation and Energy Systems in Transition in Upton Sinclair's The Gnomobile. Children's Literature in Education.](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10583-022-09507-7)\n7. [The Gnome-Mobile movie review (1967), RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-gnome-mobile-1967)\n8. [\"Gnome-Mobile\" Sets Merry Pace, Cleveland Press, 2 August 1967, Cleveland Memory Project](https://clevelandmemory.com/mastroianni/tm287.html)\n9. [The Gnome-Mobile, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gnomemobile)\n10. [The Gnome-mobile (DVD, 2004), Columbus Metropolitan Library](https://cml.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S109C5624232)\n11. [The Gnome-Mobile (1967): Where to Watch, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-gnome-mobile/1013865/where-to-watch/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-gnome-mobile", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-gnome-mobile.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Gnome-Mobile\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-gnome-mobile. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Gnome-Mobile](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-gnome-mobile)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-gnome-mobile](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-gnome-mobile). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Gnome-Mobile\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-gnome-mobile. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Gnome-Mobile is a 1967 Walt Disney live-action fantasy comedy directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Walter Brennan in a dual role with the Mary Poppins child stars, based on Upton Sinclair's gnome novel." }