Barnaby (Babes in Toyland)

Barnaby was a scheming miser in Mother Goose Village and the main antagonist in the live action musical film Babes in Toyland.

Development
Barnaby was based on the character from the original 1903 operetta by Victor Herbert.

Background
Nothing much is known about Barnaby except that he is a Crooked Man who lives in a little Crooked House, just like in the Nursery Rhyme. He proposed to Mary Contrary once, but was rejected.

Personality
Barnaby at the very beginning was shown to be a greedy miser and schemer and also with a quick temper when he confronted Gonzorgo and Roderigo for their incompetence. He was also extremely determined to let nothing stand in the way of his evil objectives.

Role in the Film
Barnaby watches through a telescope from his house of all the people of Mother Goose Land celebrating the engagement of Tom Piper and Mary.

He is disgusted, knowing that if Mary marries she will inherit a lot of money, so he decides to get rid of Tom so he can marry Mary and get the money himself. He hires two crooks Gonzorgo and Roderigo to kidnap Tom and throw him into the sea as well as steal Mary's sheep so that she won't have any means of security and will be forced to marry him. The two crooks set out to do the job. But Barnaby doesn't know that they sold Tom to gypsies instead to gain money from them as well as Barnaby.

The villain pays Mary a visit who is there with Mother Goose wishing her the best with her future. Suddenly Gonzorgo and Roderigo appear telling everyone one that Tom accidently drowned and read a phony letter saying that he has left her and she would be better off marrying Barnaby Barnaby tries proposing to her and sings to her "Castle In Spain", but Mary turns him down for the second time. Later the gypsies come to Mother Goose Land and one of them is revealed to be Tom. Barnaby is furious and immediately realises that the two crooks deceived him.

They go off to the Forest of No Return following Tom and Mary who were looking for the kids who were trying to find Bo Peep's lost sheep that the crooks stole and wait untill dark before they make their way to the Toymaker's house. They watch as the Toymaker's assistant Grumio shows him his latest invention "The Poof Gun" that has a special formula that shrinks any large objects into the size of a toy, but Grumio warns that more than one blast of the formula can make the item disappear completely.

The Toymaker throws the gun out of the window when he finds out that there are no large items to shrink to small, Barnaby catches it and comes up with a devious plan to finally get Mary to marry him.

He firstly shrinks the Toymaker down to toy size and holds him prisoner in a bird cage saying that he will need him. Suddenly Gonzorgo and Roderigo turn against him when they find out that the crooked villain plans to use the Poof Gun on Tom as well and threaten to expose his cruel intentions. He responds by shrinking them down as well and locking them in the cage with the Toymaker.

Barnaby then goes into Mary's room who is staying with Tom and her children at the Toymaker's house helping him build toys and shows her now toysized fiancee, threatening that unless she marries him, he will use the Poof Gun on Tom again to make him disappear forever. Mary gives in and goes with Barnaby to the Toymaker's house to be wed.

The villain leaves Tom by the bird cage with Gonzorgo and Roderigo still imprisoned inside and orders the Toymaker to start the ceremony, getting infuriated with the constant delaying, not knowing that the Toymaker was giving Tom time to escape. Tom gets set free by the former crooks and comes back with a large army of Soldiers and war based toys.

Barnaby furiously fights back with the cannon of a toy boat, but a toy zeppelin flies above him dropping thousands of marbles for him to slip on. Deciding enough is enough, the villain decides to spray Tom with the Poof Gun once more to get rid of him forever, but Mary fires a marble from one of the toy boats that shatters the gun and splatters the liquid all over Barnaby making him toy size.

While trying to escape, Tom corners the villain and aims his sword at him. Barnaby responds by drawing his Crooked Cane Sword and the two engage in a fierce sword fight with the villain trying every single despicable trick to defeat him, but Tom wins, stabbing him and sending him falling over the edge into a box.

It is unknown what happened to him, the film shows that after he fell in the box, he never emerges while everyone else is being restored to normal with Grumio's restoring formula which suggests that he may of died either by the stabbing, the fall or maybe even both as Tom's sword was sharp enough to cut through ribbons and falling is an element often used in Disney Villain Death scenes, while movie tie-ins like the storybook say that he merely fell into a box accidentally and then was imprisoned in the same birdcage that he imprisoned the Toymaker and his former friends.

Trivia

 * It is common in Babes in Toyland films to stage Barnaby's final fate as up for debate with other films making it unclear as to whether he is eaten by goblins or alligators.