I remember happening upon this film in the early eighties, flipping through the channels one Sunday afternoon when nothing but golf or infomercials were on. To this day I'm not sure why I watched the thing from beginning to end...the weirdness alone must have mesmerized me. It truly made my lonely, wintry Sunday and I've been on the look out for it ever since. Lo and behold, the interweb and all its magic brought this hilarious nightmare back to me. This ain't yo mama's Jack And The Beanstalk.
I do remember noticing how much the animation reminded me of my beloved Speed Racer. Anime, as a genre, was not on my radar at the time, but after watching this film, the groundwork was laid for my future fandom.
Throughout the whole movie a thread of menace winds it way. The goofy doggy sidekick, the cute enchanted mice, nor the effervescent music can obscure that uncomfortable feeling. Maybe it's the monstrous musician, who swaps the beans for Jack's cow, and his demonic organ music, or the way Jack's mother beats the hell out of him for selling the cow for those beans. I don't know...but things only get more uncomfortable after the beanstalk rockets into the sky, into the realm of a suspiciously spaced out princess and her cannibalistic captors. As for Jack, he frolics in and out of danger like a young, animated Buster Keaton sporting a killer mullet. His dog, Crosby, and the battalion of magical mice provide the moral fiber in this version of the classic tale.
Some of my adult friends who have watched this version have said things like, "I find most fairytales to get creepier the older I get" and "There's almost too much to process." The soundtrack alone is fascinating but not easly digested.
The whole movie is available on Youtube. Watch it...you may wish you could but you won't be able to look away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnd3MFBink4&feature=share
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