PLEASE help me figure out what movie this is... It has to be an 80's movie although it could be very, very late 70's (78 or 79)...

All I remember is that it was about a little boy (maybe 8-10) who lived with his grandparents and his grandmother asked him to go to the corner store to buy saltines. She specifically told him to buy the ones with no salt. He didn't of course so she sent him back to return the salted tops and to get the unsalted crackers instead.

On the way he decides to mail a letter to his father, I believe. Later on he rides to this magic land where his father is by hanging on to the beard of this giant wizard's head. We don't see the body, just the head and the beard looks like it was made from really thick ribbons.

Once he gets to this land he meets new friends and has a whole bunch of experiences before he finally meets his father, the king at the end.

The only experience I really remember him having in the land is when he climbs up the side of a mountain, goes inside the mountain and the "people" there mold him a sword. I think there is a cape involved too but I don't remember.

I have been searching for this movie forever!! I would LOVE to finally get help with this. THANK YOU!! I would owe you BIG TIME!!

This would seem to be the 1987 Russo-Scandinavian production "Mio in the Land of Faraway". It featured Timothy Bottoms, Christian Bale, and the omnipresent Christopher Lee. It was based on a novel by the creator of Pippi Longstocking.

I absolutely LOVE this movie! The part with the cape that you were trying to remember is when Mio and his friend go to visit this woman who tells Mio to help rescue her daughter from the Evil Knight. She takes his cape and sews a special thread into it on the inside, where when he turns his cape inside out he becomes invisible.