Il meraviglioso mondo dei fratelli Grimm

In summer 2022 TCM is showing the recently extensively restored, full Cinerama image version of the film, which just came out on Blu-Ray. The image clarity and color are excellent, with almost no trace of 3 camera Cinerama distortions. But the movie itself is a mixed bag, with more negatives than positives. Anyone who is moderately savvy about film technique will see that the filmmakers were very limited by shortcomings with the Cinerama process. There are no close ups or medium close ups, everything is shot in long shots or medium shots. The large majority of the film is made up of static shots, where the camera does not move. The camera never moves side to side, only in and out. And there is very distracting fish eye distortion in the interior scenes (less noticeable in the outdoor scenes).

Lawrence Harvey is lively and fun in his role, but Karl Bohm is a liability. And how is it that one brother speaks with a British accent, and the other with a German accent ? The film makes good use of Russ Tamblin's tumbling ability and he shows plenty of playful energy. The women in the cast are given little to do and do it merely adequitely.

The music is a highlight, catchy and light, though to nitpick, the choral arrangements are old fashioned for 1962, sounding more like 1940's Disney (composer Lee Harline scored Pinochio and perhaps one or two other early 40's Disney features).

This is a well made entertaining little movie, told in a wonderful fairytale kind of way and with a great atmosphere, that makes you feel like a child again.

This movie had all the potential to become a real great and classic children movie but unfortunately the movie makes some bad choices. The movie can be seen as 4 in one. It features 3 told fairy tales and then there is the storyline regarding the brothers Grimm themselves. The whole story of the brother Grimm is perhaps not the most interesting told one (especially not for children) and its not as wonderful and fairytale like as the actual fairy tales told in this movie. And the brothers Grimm have written some of the most marvelous and best known fairy tales but yet this movie decides to use some lesser known and less great fairy tales ('The Dancing Princess', 'The Cobbler and the Elves' and 'The Singing Bone'). In my opinion it makes the movie a bit of a missed opportunity. It's not a bad movie now but the whole movie gave the feeling it all could had been more entertaining, humorous filled and a bit shorter. The movie had easily could and also should had ended 15 minutes earlier. The movie now needlessly goes on for too long.

The fairy tales are definitely the best told parts of the movie. They flow well, have a fun feeling and atmosphere all over it and all makes you forget your worries for a while. It's kept all perfectly childish and it ensures that it never ever becomes too scary for the young ones.

The movie is filled with some wonderful and lovable characters and they're being played by some good actors. Laurence Harvey and Karlheinz Böhm aren't really believable as brothers, mostly because of their looks and very different accent of course but they're still of course good actors. Some supporting roles are there for Terry-Thomas, Buddy Hackett and Billy Barty among others.

The movie was made filmed in 3-camera Cinerama. Cinerama is the trademarked name for a widescreen process which works by simultaneously projecting images from three synchronized 35 mm projectors onto a huge, deeply-curved screen. So a technique that works only in cinemas. On the small screen it just doesn't look good and it looks like the images on screen are cut in 3 parts but back then movies just weren't made for home release of course.

The movie is good looking. Deliberately campy with its fairytale sequences and good and realistic in its 'real world' sequences. The sets are all nice (Oscar-nom) and so are the costumes (Oscar-win). The stop-motion effects in the movie are all fair looking but it's nothing too impressive really. Wasn't Ray Harryhausen available for this movie?

Good entertainment, for the whole family.

7/10

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You have to be young at heart to relish the film and I enjoyed the visuals as a child would. You know today that the two brothers wrote on two desks side by side to accommodate the cinerama screen--yet it looks so much better visually. It is not great cinema but good cinema of the sixties.

Of particular note was the Terry Thomas and Bud Hackett sub-plot which might not appear to be great technically but is funny and heartwarming even today. Laurence Harvey as Wilhelm Grimm (it was difficult to note that was the Cobbler as well) and Martita Hunt as the witch were superb. The German locations were ideal. The art direction and the puppet/animation sequences were really topnotch--who cares if there was a car visible in one shot!

In short, this is an ideal film for family viewing and the studios should consider re-releasing it for school viewing. All the kids today know of Snow White and Cinderella, but how many know of the Grimm brothers or of why Cinderella was called by that name? The film needs imaginative marketing to keep the box office jingling...

Back when it first was out I never did get around to seeing The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm and it should be seen in the theater rather than a formatted VHS version. This was indeed a film for which Cinerama was definitely suited.

During the Fifties a whole lot of the Grimm stories were used in a shortlived series hosted by the grown up Shirley Temple entitled Shirley Temple's storybook. I think they were better presented on the big screen.

I'm not sure if these in fact are the real Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm as played by Laurence Harvey and Karl Boehm. Wilhelm is the married one, in fact married to the lovely Claire Bloom, with two small children and it's those kids who keep him interested in German folklore and tales of such. The more serious minded Jacob, scholar, historian, and linguist would like to marry Barbara Eden, but that ain't happening unless the brothers finish the dynastic history they've been commissioned to write by Duke Oscar Homolka. And Jacob can't keep Wilhelm's mind on the business at hand.

The real story of the brothers is merely a plot device on which to hang cinematic presentation of three of the Grimm fairy tales and the presence of a lot of the others during a delirious fever sustained by Laurence Harvey. The regular story is directed by Henry Levin, but George Pal who probably got the biggest budget in his career to utilize in The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm gets to direct the fairy tale segments.

My favorite is The Singing Bone with Terry-Thomas as the braggadocious knight and Buddy Hackett as his put upon squire and their encounter with a dragon in a cave. That is George Pal and Cinerama at their very best.

Don't expect a whole lot from this film, it's not deep, it was meant for the kid market. And it dates not a bit though with today's computer generated special effects it would be even better if done today.

While it's been encouraging to see a number of George Pal's sci-fi and fantasy classics finally come to DVD, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM is one of many still waiting to debut in the digital format (along with HOUDINI, ATLANTIS: THE LOST CONTINENT, a complete PUPPETOONS collection, etc..) With Terry Gilliam's new THE BROTHERS GRIMM film in theaters, it would seem like the timing would be perfect for such a release.

Although available on VHS for some time, the tape doesn't do the film justice. GRIMM was shot using the three camera/three projector Cinarama process. With cast and crew members such as Russ Tamblyn (who provided commentary for Pal's TOM THUMB DVD) and stop-motion animator Jim Danforth still around, it would be nice to see Pal's fairy tale film get the deluxe DVD treatment, with the insight of surviving participants giving us a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie.