Jack & The Beanstalk
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Movie Reviews of Jack & The Beanstalk
Movie Review: wow, didn't think this existed in dvd format
Summary: 5 Stars
i got this dvd and it brought back alot of memories when i saw this as a kid. now that i have it, it'll be a good addition to my collection. thanks alot again.Movie Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
A delightful movie for the whole family. Jack and the Beanstock offers great songs, adoring characters, and humor both children and adults will enjoy.Movie Review: "Tulip Kong" did not deserve his fate (contains spoilers)
Summary: 4 Stars
Ever since I viewed this slightly distorted version of "Jack and the Beanstalk" (hereafter JATB 1974) about 32 years ago on TV during Thanksgiving or Christmas on the "SFM Holiday Network" (including the "Monday Night Football" theme song - you know, EEEEEEEE, ta-ta-ta-ta-TA!), it has obsessed my memory. Before I bought and watched the DVD from Amazon, I could only remember bits and pieces from this extended cartoon feature, such as 1) Jack's stalwart bloodhound Crosby singing to the moon ("Crosby, you can talk!"), 2) the eerily weird wedding sequence with Princess Margaret, the giant Tulip, and the magically animated "paper congregation", 3) Tulip toppling some columns while chasing Jack and Margaret, 4) Tulip flicking a swordsman (the general) away with his finger, and 5) Jack's shrewish mother fainting at the sight of Tulip descending the beanstalk after Jack. These images flickered in my mind like a dream. Now, having watched the movie as an adult, some of the eeriness and oppressive atmosphere has diminished, but JATB 1974 is still quite a unique, compelling, and thought-provoking experience.
As other posters have commented, JATB 1974 strongly adheres to the basic plot, except for the inclusion of Crosby, Margaret, and the thoroughly malevolent and devious witch Hecuba, also the purported mother (!) of the brutish Tulip. In another deviation from the basic plot, after doing away with her royal parents, Hecuba has somehow mesmerized Margaret to see beastly Tulip as a beautiful prince so that she can marry him and make Hecuba "Queen of the Clouds". The jazzy, theatrical score permeating the movie is a third difference, prompting me to suggest to Broadway to produce a musical based on JATB 1974. Despite Hecuba's convoluted matrimonial scheme, JATB 1974 respects and fleshes out the classic plot, fully developing at a deliberate but lively pace all the characters and their motivations.
For example, Jack comes across as a boisterous, cheerful, friendly kid, if a bit impulsive, self-absorbed, and naïve (with the bean/cow trade and all). His plump, widowed mother appears as a shrill, harsh termagent, but still grudgingly empathetic since we realize that her bad temper probably arises from destitute circumstances. Crosby the bloodhound initially appears as a lazy dreamer of heroic deeds, but eventually proves himself an invaluable ally and conscience to Jack as he convinces him to accept the responsibility to save the princess from the witch and giant. Princess Margaret evokes our fearful sympathy as we feel sorry for the loss of her parents and pray that Jack can somehow break Hecuba's sinister spell over her. Hecuba makes for a completely seductive but hissable witch who is quite prepared to sacrifice anyone in her way (including her verbally abused son Tulip) to achieve her dream. Even the supporting cast of Princess Margaret's court entourage (transformed into speechless mice by Hecuba) charm us with their pluck and resourcefulness as they aid Jack and Crosby in their quest.
Even given this multifaceted cast, I still found Tulip to be the most interesting character of all because despite his seemingly simple brutish and villainous nature, he is actually a rather complex, conflicted, and even endearing being. To me, he had aspects of the Hulk, the Beast (of Beauty and the Beast), the Frankenstein monster, and even the green ogre Shrek. However, most of all, he reminded me of a persecuted King Kong, ape-like (longer arms than legs), fierce, and frightening, but ultimately more sinned against than sinning, and generally harmless unless provoked. Also, like Kong, he topples from a great height to his death, a fate he does not warrant. In other words, "Tulip Kong", in my opinion is not such a bad guy.
From the beginning we meet the giant, you feel a pang of sympathy for him. He comes back to the castle with an armload of firewood, and all Hecuba can do is berate him for being late because he probably was playing with snakes and lizards. In fact, throughout most of the movie, Hecuba treats her son like scum. You also come to the conclusion that Hecuba's scheme is almost entirely her own (I suspect she alone killed the king and queen, Margaret's parents) and "Tulip Kong" is just along for the ride. She tells him to stop "mooning about the castle", which is so much nicer than the cave they lived in. When she orders him to locate Jack, whom she placed in a cauldron to save for dinner (!) but escapes with Crosby's and the mice's help, "Tulip Kong" doesn't exactly knock himself out looking for him. A really big kid at heart, he would rather seek refuge from Hecuba's rants in the treasure room and amuse himself with a caged lizard and the golden hen that lays golden eggs. Okay, he does crush a wind-up doll of Hecuba that spews insults at him, but at that point you are inclined to be on his side. Jack is hiding in the treasure room and almost gives himself away, but "Tulip Kong" allows himself to be distracted by Margaret calling for him. In the movie, it is glaringly obvious that he loves and cares for Margaret.
Therefore, even when "Tulip Kong" acts violently against Jack, we suspect he is doing so only to protect his future "bride". He first catches Jack in Margaret's bedroom and understandably becomes upset, relentlessly chasing after the interloper. When Jack interrupts the faux paper-cutout wedding and kisses Margaret to break the spell, "Tulip Kong", like his counterpart, understandably goes crazy, tears off his wedding suit to reveal yellow t-shirt and underwear festooned with hearts (hee-hee) and chases Jack and Margaret to get her back. During the wedding sequence itself, "Tulip Kong" cradles and treats Margaret gently, and daydreams of wedded bliss with her, both of them swinging on a wedding bell (so he has shades of Quasimodo as well). During the sequence where Tulip attempts to thrust an enormous spear into a well where Jack and Margaret are hiding, he carefully aims the spear to get at that dream-killer Jack, not Margaret. In the main hall room, where Hecuba traps the duo with her stormy magic, "Tulip Kong" refuses to obey her command to trample them. Instead, he steps on her instead! It's not murder, because Hecuba turns out to be a clockwork vessel like the doll in the treasure room. Anyway, "Tulip Kong", not Jack, is the one ultimately responsible for destroying the witch and making the castle and its occupants normal again. After that deed, "Tulip Kong" does not resume chasing Jack and Margaret or anyone else. Probably relieved that he fulfilled his previous vicarious wish to get rid of his witch mother, "Tulip Kong" lounges on the front castle steps. He resumes chasing Jack (and Crosby) a la Tom and Jerry only because they mercilessly taunt him and lure him to his death by falling off the beanstalk vine.
Again, this death was unnecessary. I would have preferred that Margaret had intervened and made friends with "Tulip Kong" in an attempt to rehabilitate and humanize him. After all, with his tremendous strength and agility, the giant would have made a useful castle companion and defender. Furthermore, Jack could have reconciled with his enemy and continued to visit the castle in the clouds. Instead, he chops down the beanstalk and loses access to that magical kingdom. A foolish decision. By not deviating from the classic plot climax, JATB 1974 misses the opportunity to show tolerance and understanding to those we consider "monsters". To paraphrase Dino DeLaurentiis, nobody cry when Hecuba "die", but when "Tulip Kong" die, people gonna cry.
P.S.: I would like to conclude with a few observations, questions, and goofs:
1. The movie establishes that Tulip can track Jack by smell ("I smell a hu-man!"). Therefore, when he is searching for Jack throughout the castle, why doesn't Tulip just sniff him out?
2. Tulip's size is somewhat inconsistent throughout JATB 1974. I think he was meant to be about 20-25 feet tall (again, Kong sized). But in comparison with the other characters, he shrinks and grows. For example, Hecuba (about 7 feet tall, I'd say) reaches just above Tulip's knee in some scenes, and up to Tulip's waist in others. When Tulip crushes her, she probably doesn't reach above his ankles. Margaret (about 5 feet tall, I'd say) sometimes reaches up to Tulip's waist as well. Jack (about 4 feet tall, I'd say) reaches up to Tulip's knee. When Tulip flicks away the charging foolhardy general with his fingers, he looks almost 50 feet tall!
3. Tulip is green-skinned like the Hulk. Perhaps the chapel was green during the wedding sequence to conceal that fact.
4. Hecuba wants to be queen. She has killed Margaret's parents. Why doesn't she get rid of Margaret from the beginning as well, instead of going through the wedding scheme? Okay, maybe it was to keep Tulip obedient, but during the wedding sequence, Hecuba daydreams that she becomes queen and turns Tulip and Margaret into mice!!! Why doesn't she do that in the first place? Did they need to be "married" for her magic to work?
5. Hecuba is a powerful elemental sorceress. However, she apparently had no defense against a size 35 EEEEEEEE moccasin coming at her from above.
6. Jack uses an axe to cut down the beanstalk and send Tulip plummeting. It takes him only one chop! He either hit a weak spot in the vine, or he doesn't know his own strength!
7. Tulip's colossal corpse has probably left a crater in the landscape (unless he vaporized on impact) and will attract scavengers and curious townspeople for miles around. The putrefying carcass will also stink up the land.
8. Jack brings two sacks full of gold and the magic golden laying hen back to his mother and sings a song about how he is responsible for making them rich. However, at the movie's end, they seem as poor as ever. Have they already spent all that money? Has the hen "gone dry", so to speak?
Movie Review: good
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a Japanese cartoon adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk. I don't know what it is about it, but I think I will always remember watching this film. It's not traumatizing or overly weird, I felt more hypnotized than anything while watching it. It's just like any other film, but I just re-watched it recently after about a 15 year gap of having no seen it and I was hit with huge wave of nostalgia, every line and song and movement was familiar. I thought it was just me of course as I am sometimes told that I have a very esoteric taste in... everything, but after browsing through some forums I discovered that almost everyone who watched this film when they were younger loved it intensely and it has affected them in someway or another. And as I re-watched it I'd have to say that I agree with the sentiment.
The story is a familiar one. A poor boy and his mother live in a little shack of a house trying to make ends meet when one day their cow stops giving milk. The mother sends the boy, Jack, to the market to get a decent price for it. On the way to the market however, the boy is intercepted by a man playing weird piano (the note from which I can always remember so clearly as they were so queer), who convinces him to take a handful of magic beans in exchange for the cow. His mother is furious and throws the beans out the window, and after disciplining Jack, goes to bed. In the night the beanstalk grows and a little mouse comes running down it. The mouse motions to Jack's dog of trouble up the beanstalk and Jack comes out of the house marvelling at what had grown in his backyard. Jack, his dog, and the mouse all climb up the beanstalk. When they get to the top they come out of an old well in the courtyard of a castle and see this girl standing there watching them with an oddly vacant expression. She is the princess of castle and she tells Jack of the joy she will have when she marries her beloved prince Tulip. Jack soon discovers that Tulip is a giant and that his mother is an evil witch who is trying become queen by enchanting the princess to want to marry her son. Jack then faces the dilemma of whether or not to help the princess or leave with his gold.
I enjoyed the characters a lot, but what I like about it is there are two stories going on at the same time, one involving people and one with animals. Jack can't understand what any of the animals say and he doesn't even pay much attention to them most of the time because he's busy with his own plot line and agenda, but there are animals throughout the movie and the all have very vibrant personalities. Even the audience can't understand what they're saying, but through movements and expressions you can tell what they're trying to say. A lot of story lines with both people and animals bridge the gap between them and let them talk to each other or let the audience understand them if the people in the film don't. The animals in this film actually have their own sub-plot.
The music in this movie is captivating. It's not an award-winning score by any means, but there is just something odd about it that catches at one's interest. It's not quite unsettling, but it doesn't fade into the background either. The music is definitely one of the aspect that will draw you into the film to make you love it. The characters are good and the plot is very interesting, but the music is what will get you. The artwork too. There's just something about the movements of the characters and the setting, especially in the castle.
As I said, this isn't the best movie I've ever seen, nor is it even the best Jack and the Beanstalk story I've heard. Despite that, this is the kind of film that you'll remember after you've grown up. I don't know what exactly it is about it, but I do know that I enjoy watching it and will probably try to obtain it at some point on dvd.
Movie Review: In a word, bizarre!
Summary: 3 Stars
This film stayed with me since childhood, and like the reviewer below, I couldn't find any mention of it on IMDB, Amazon or anyplace else. And now here it is, in all its DVD goodness - and what a thoroughly strange film it is, too. I couldn't believe how much of it came back to me as I watched - it must be 25 years since I saw it last.
This is a very strange take on the standard tale. Jack is an impulsive, impudent kid who has to learn not to be selfish, with a very funny dog who fancies himself a military man. A creepy, possibly kiddie-fiddling musician with an electric organ tricks Jack into buying the magic beans, which grow overnight in a gorgeous sequence. The giant is a hulking beast called Tulip, and his mother is an evil, normal-sized witch who treats him so badly you almost feel sorry for him. There's an enchanted Princess, people turned to mice, a talking harp, a golden chicken, and some paper cut-out people...
The songs are mostly terrible, and yet weirdly compelling - especially the Pink Floyd-ish music for climbing the beanstalk and the ghostly wedding song. "Are you happyyyy?" Many sequences in the film are surreal, even psychedelic, and there's a strange undercurrent of Freudian unease in the relations between Jack and the Giant and their harsh, controlling mothers. The animation is pretty good, with some very nice backgrounds. The Princess has a proto-anime look to her.
I'm not sure I can recommend this film to kids or not, to be honest. It's weird and unsettling, and there's a terrible scene early on where Jack recieves a lengthy beating with a broom. Then again, kids don't pick up on a lot of stuff that raises adult eyebrows. For anybody who vaguely remembers it or is into funky kid-vids, it's a good party video. Parents, you might want to watch it first before showing it to the kids. But hey, it didn't freak me out. Much.
SPOILER WARNING: The image of the giant smashing his wicked, emasculating mother and finding only clockwork inside has haunted me for years.