ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

higherall7 Hard to be objective about this prize winning movie! I have always considered myself fortunate that I lived during an era when you could watch a movie about Don Ameche playing Alexander Graham Bell. I remember him inventing the telephone while subsisting off apples and cheese. I also fondly recall this gem of an adventure. Nowadays kids look up to Rap and Hip Hop stars and pine to matriculate into the NBA. Justifiable ambitions, to be sure, but man, that young Tom Edison. He could make anything work better! This is actually the first time I don't want to say too much about the film, as I really don't want to spoil it for you. This is a great genre for young people that has never been fully exploited. The drama of the young inventor.Earlier you read my review about ZORBA THE Greek and his inspiration or epiphany if you will about building a contraption that would transport logs safely out of a forest and down a steep hill into an awaiting bin. Now it didn't work and we left our hero and his ward dancing Greek in the ruins of their failure. Well, here is an example where truth is stranger than fiction and comes out to a lot happier result for all concerned. You could easily imagine what Tom Edison would have said were he standing in the wake of such a disaster. "I haven't failed, I've simply found a thousand and one ways this won't work." Just another example of the spirit of American ingenuity and enterprise at work, folks.Mickey Rooney is great in this role. I could not imagine anyone besides Michael J. Fox bringing that kind of energy and enthusiasm to this acting assignment. This film has everything, a young boy always getting into something with his new ideas and developing a reputation around town as the 'addlepated' or 'addlebrained' son of Thomas and Nancy Edison. Who knows but today he might be diagnosed as having asperger syndrome and put on medication. But one thing is for certain, he has a genius for understanding mechanical advantage and sure can work wonders with mirrors and lights when the chips are down and you need to improvise an operating room on the spot.It is sheer fun watching Rooney as young Edison operating his own press and putting out a newspaper and hawking a cure-all with the rest of his wares that happens to have more kick than expected. It is thrilling and inspiring to see him reading and collecting a library chronicling the present state of scientific discovery in his time as he studies the work of such luminaries as Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Isaac Newton, and others. We see this young boy preparing for his future as a great inventor and to be the man he has yet to become.The ending of this film is a cliffhanger straight out of a silent movie. We see the young Tom adroitly apply a body of knowledge that saves lives instead of imperiling them and before we know it he is on his way into the future as the lights fade to black.Already I have said too much, but take my word for it this is a film that gives you a warm feeling about troubled youth, family, and the positive force that learning and ideas can have on the world.

michaelcarraher I was much more familiar with the sequel, "Edison The Man," when I watched this film. The depiction of Edison is completely inconsistent between the two films (apparently about seven years Edison spent as a telegrapher). He doesn't just mature; he undergoes a complete personality change. Edison in this movie is sort of Sheldon Cooper of the 19th Century but annoying, rather than funny. I am shocked by the physical abuse he endures but at times I feel the urge to hit the self- absorbed brat, too. I have read the Edison may have suffered from Asperger's Syndrome (like Sheldon), and Rooney's portrayal is consistent with that, although Asperger's was not yet defined when this movie was made. This may be a far more realistic depiction of Edison than Spencer Tracy's in "Edison The Man." But Tracy's is the more enjoyable of the two films.

utgard14 Mickey Rooney stars as the teenaged Thomas Edison in this wonderfully entertaining MGM biopic. The movie covers the young inventor's struggles to fit in with a town full of people who don't understand him. He makes mistakes but proves his worth and ultimately becomes a hero.Rooney is his usual likable self. He tones his high energy down some and shows his dramatic skills. He really was a phenomenal star and a great actor. Superb supporting cast includes Fay Bainter and George Bancroft as Edison's parents, Virginia Weidler as his sister, and Eugene Palette as a railroad conductor. I really like the MGM sets and the 19th century American style. Lovely music, pleasant tone, and good cast. Script is a nice mix of humor, drama, and action. This is the first of two MGM biopics of Edison released in 1940. The other is Edison, the Man starring Spencer Tracy. That movie covers Edison's adult years so it's like a sequel to this picture. Both are excellent. These old biopics were usually solid, uplifting character-driven stories. Yes they take liberties with the details but the more cynical defamatory biopics we get these days do the same. I'll take an inspirational biography that builds people up and leaves you with the warm fuzzies over some deconstructionist tabloid trash any day.

Boba_Fett1138 This movie is a biopic about the young years of famous inventor and movie-making pioneer Thomas Alva Edison but above all this movie is an entertaining one to watch.The movie could had also be easily named "The Adventures of Young Tom Edison", since the movie itself is quite adventurous, with young Tom Edison embarking on some adventurous dealings in the normal world and in his own world of inventing and experimenting.It above all is a movie that at all times entertains, with also some comical characters in it and some fun typical comedy dealings. Guess its also insightful about the early years of Thomas Edison's life, though its hard to tell how much in this movie actually also occurred in real life. Some things are certainly hard to believe and obviously fabricated for the movie, to also make it more fun and tense. This is really not a bad things, since it definitely improves the movie so much. I'm sure the movie would had been really boring and simplistic if it was done in a completely serious dramatic kind of biopic style. It's entertainment value is mostly what makes this movie such a great watch.It's a typical '40's movie, made in typical '40's movie style, with typical '40's way of story-telling, typical '40's kind of characters, typical '40's kind of humor and a typical '40's musical score. Needless to say, fans of '40's movie shall probably enjoy the most watching this movie.Mickey Rooney fits the role really well, even though he at the time was already much older than the character in the movie was supposed to be. He carries the movie mostly and handles everything in it very well. He especially seems at ease with the comical aspects in the movie. Other child-star Virginia Weidler also plays a good role. The parents of Tom Edison are also portrayed nicely by Fay Bainter and George Bancroft. The movie provides a good view of the home situation which also definitely helps to make the more dramatic and serious aspects of the movie work out.The movie is followed by "Edison, the Man", starring Spencer Tracy in the role of Thomas Edison, who also makes a cameo at the end of this movie, to prepare- and get viewers to the theater for its sequel. An in-movie teaser trailer!A really greatly made and entertaining movie to watch! Very recommendable.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/