Tom, Crosby und die Mäusebrigade

A young boy named Jack climbs a giant beanstalk and stumbles upon a city in the clouds ruled by an evil queen.

I have never really enjoyed anime. Some is alright, but even the hugely successful and popular films just do not really resonate with me. This one is different. The animation is certainly interesting, with only the princes really looking like what I expect from Japanese artists. So that helps, that multiple styles were used.

But this is also just so clever. Taking a classic tale, adding in music and lyrics, and a bit of a mystical twist. This is less about stealing fro ma giant than about saving a kingdom. Can "a simple farm boy" handle the task?

I grew up with this film, watching it every time I visited my Nan & Grandad, who had it on video. My sisters, cousins and I remember it with great fondness, although our parents thought it was 'creepy and weird'. It holds some original characters as well as the traditional Jack, the giant, the magic harp etc. The plot starts off as we all know it, with jack buying some magic beans of a stranger, planting them and the beanstalk growing over night. Jack climbs it to discover a land where a beautiful princess, her castle and all those who live there are kept under a spell by the giant and his evil mother (?). The mice are fun and loveable characters, probably my favourites. There is a feast of enjoyable songs, one of which ('No one's Happier Than I') I often find myself humming, even to this very day. Unfortunately my Nan sold the video at a car boot sale ten years ago and I haven't found a copy since. It's a very rare find if you do. Your kids will treasure it.

This Japanese animated film directed by Gisaburo Sugii was released originally in 1974, and although the animation has aged over the years it still manages to be genuinely sinister and rather unsettling for young children. Personally, my overly-active imagination ran riot with fear after watching this when i was little. I recently came across a VHS copy of it in a second hand shop and after watching it again, i realized that it still manages to give me shudders now. The plot is relatively the same as the original story, however at the top of the beanstalk Jack encounters an enchanted castle inhabited the Princess Margaret, who is betrothed to the giant, Prince Tulip the son of the most frightening witch since the wicked witch of the West, the evil sorceress Hecuba ( who has a penchant for eating children!)and who has placed Margaret under a powerful spell. Jack is aided by his pet dog Crosby and a gaggle of enchanted mice who were former courtiers of the castle,to break the spell placed upon the castle and Margaret, whilst still finding time to find the goose that lays the golden eggs, and talking harp and as well as other castle riches! There are a number of songs scattered throughout the film too, including Margarets ballad " Nobody's happier than i". It features some classic Japanese animation and some truly sinister set-pieces, the scene in the wedding chapel in which Hecuba makes guests out of paper gave me chills when i was little as did her original entrance. Its creepy and worth seeking out.

This cartoon version of Jack and the Beanstalk creeped me out when I was younger. The music (Paper cut out people singing "Are You Happy?")was very eerie and insane for a kids cartoon. The guy who sells the beans...he was a couple sandwiches short of a picnic. The Witch and Tulip were about as psychotic a pair ever drawn. I especially love the part where he crushes her under his foot and she's made of clockwork...weird! As for the animation, it's very good and the story surrounding the original concept of JATB is pretty creative. They just don't make 'em like this anymore. I'll let my kids watch this before I subject them to the crap Disney's been churning out for the past decade or so.

This is simply the best movie I have ever seen. It captured me when I watched it as a 10 year old boy, and hasn't aged (or I haven't).

It puzzles me that this truly amazing film was very difficult to obtain (for a long time at least). Made by an obscure Japanese director never heard of again.

When I saw it the first time as a boy, I constantly thought that story was too good to be true - for my personal expectations of how good a story could be that is - and was anxious and convinced, that either the movie would end prematurely, the princess die, or some other let-down would take place at some point, because it was setting itself up just too high to carry through. But it did.

(If I had to nitpick, changing the mice back into their human form was less than ideally 'cast', but then these characters only were there for a few seconds, so can't expect it to be perfect I guess)