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Jack the Giant KillerRating:
Release Date: 06 April, 2004 Retail Price: $14.94 OUR Price: $12.99 You SAVE: $1.95! Cast: |
Jack the Giant Killer Reviews
I loved it in 1962, and now my son does (but not my daughter)
I must admit that I was not as impressed with this as I was when I saw it at a birthday party in 1962. It is not so much that the special efects were crude, but that it was so monochromatic in terms of characters. Of course, in the eye of childhood memory, there were images that lived in my mind: the giant getting its hand crushed in the grain press, the leprican whose bottle prison burned "liers" who touched it, and the torch-holding arms on the castle walls that turned into sword-swinging defenses (with no diminution of light).
But then, this is a film totally for little kids. Bad guys and monsters are ugly, the hero and princess who falls in love with him are beautiful. So my son (6) was extremely happy and excited to see it, laughing and running around the room grabbing himself. However, his older sister (10) found the effects "fake" and the story "rather silly". She suffered through it, occasionally smiling.
This tells me that this film is for those who can still suspend their disbelief and get swept away in their imagination. For them, I would recommend this warmly. For others, well, bring a book along.
Family fantasy with scary creatures
Jack The Giant Killer is a great family fantasy movie. I've never seen the musical version, but it sounds like a hideous botch-up, and I can't believe people are disappointed because this DVD is of the original version and not some re-hash that had nothing to do with the production's original intention.
I think the film is excellent just the way it is. It's the tale of a simple farmer (Jack) who gets caught up in an evil wizard's plans to abduct a beautiful princess to be his bride. I've heard it said that the musical version was created to tone down some of the film's more frightening moments, and I can see why younger childeren could get nightmares after watching some sequences. There are several such scenes. Early on in the film, the princess is having a party and one of her birthday gifts is a miniature dancing jester in a musical box. Creepy enough to watch as it is, this ugly thing comes alive after dark and grows into a hideous giant demon. In another scene, ghostly flying witches descend on a ship to try and seize the princess, who is being smuggled away to a secret location to protect her. This sequence, involving some very freaky apparitions, genuinely frightened me as a child, especially the moment when the ghost in the guise of a skeleton in a wedding dress surprised the princess in a small dark cabin. Eek!
The animated monsters are of variable quality, ranging from the enlarged music box demon (the best) to the sea serpent that appears near the end (the worst). Maybe the money started to run out towards the end of the film! But the plot is engaging and never dull, mostly involving Jacks battle with the hammy but evil King Pendragon who has designs on the princess and is sending all these monsters to kidnap her, but also involving sub-plots such as the part where the princess is turned evil by a spell from Pendragon and almost double-crosses Jack - until the spell is broken.
All in all, tremendous fun. Yes it does look a bit dated now, and a lot of kids aren't going to be enthralled this easily any more, but it can still give an hour and a half's worth of solid entertainment.
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