What a day Alexander is having. He's got gum stuck in his hair, he trips on his skateboard and he can't find his favorite glow-in-the-dark yo-yo. Things go from bad to worse in this charming animated musical based on the book by Judith Viorst.

Joe Lane, radio entertainer and songwriter, learns that the manager of the studio, Arthur Phillips, has made improper advances to his wife, Katherine. Infuriated, Lane engages him in a fight, and the encounter results in Phillips' accidental death. Joe goes to prison for a few years, and when he is released he visits his son, Little Pal, at school and is begged by him to run away together.

In 'The Circus Kid', Buddy, an orphan who runs away from a a harsh orphanage, joins Cadwallader's Circus.

Poor Ella Cinders is much abused by her evil step-mother and step-sisters. When she wins a local beauty contest she jumps at the chance to get out of her dead-end life and go to Hollywood, where she is promised a job in the movies. When she arrives in Hollywood, she discovers that the contest was a scam and the job non-existent. But through pluck, luck, and talent, she makes it in the movies anyway, and finds true love.

Elizabeth Cheney has a wealthy husband, social prominence and everything she could want in life . . . except Ted Lutton, the man she loves. She must decide whether to give everything up to follow her heart and run off with Ted.

Beautiful Felicity Arden, is forced by a storm to take refuge in Mad Marrat's dwelling on the South Sea Isle.