Jack and the Beanstalk (1933) User Reviews

A Pretty Wild Version Of 'Jack And The Beanstalk'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 20 May 2008]

I read where this was the first of the Celebrity Productions Comicolor cartoons. Color at the movie theater had to be a very, very big thing to audiences back 75 years ago. The cartoon still entertains today.

Jack and his mom are broke and hungry. The animals in the house are starving, too. It's not a pretty sight. Even mom's purse is depressed. (Inanimate objects often talk or come alive in these 1930s cartoons.). The purse says, "What are we going to do now?" Everyone is skin-and-bones but Jack sells the family cow for three beans. They turn out to be magical, of course, but you knew that! The beanstalk that sprouts overnight goes miles into the sky and Jack decides to check things out.

This really becomes an otherworldly fantasy with some crazy sight gags that include stinky feet and a hen that lays golden coins that automatically go into a cash register.

"Fee fi, fo fum" about sums up this entertaining classic cartoon.

Wild Jack

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 8 June 2018]

While not one of my favourites, Ub Iwerks was responsible for a lot of interesting work. Especially when working with Walt Disney, his oldest friend and one of his best, and co-creating one of animation's most famous characters in Mickey Mouse. His career since opening his own studio had interest value but the quality was variable, often being successful in the animation and music but wanting in the story and variable in gags, lead characters and tone.

1933 to 1936 saw twenty five cartoons, mostly based on famous fairytales and familiar stories, as part of Iwerks's "ComiColor" series. The "ComiColor" series is very much worth watching and interesting, as is the case with many series some cartoons are better than others but there are no real animation nadirs. It started off with 1933's 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and it was a very good way to start and one of the series' better cartoons.

'Jack and the Beanstalk', while faithfully adhering to the basic details of the famous stories while putting its own spin, is slight and is at times perhaps a touch too dark for younger audiences.

However, 'Jack and the Beanstalk' in no way disgraces the story and has enough freshness to stop it from being stale, even if there are wittier and fresher takes in animation. It avoids the cutesy and sentimental factor and is never dull.

There are suitably wild and amusing gags, that aren't too corny and never repetitive, it's very charming, endearingly wild and there is a genuine spookiness that generally doesn't go over the top. The characters drive 'Jack and the Beanstalk' well, with fun villains and a far from bland titular character. None of the characters are personality-deprived.

Furthermore, the animation is great. Meticulously detailed, fluid in drawing, vibrant in colour and often rich in imagination and visual wit. The music is cleverly and lushly orchestrated, is infectiously catchy and adds a lot to the cartoon.

Overall, very well done. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Worth seeing!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 4 March 2018]

Director: UB IWERKS. Screenplay: Ben Hardaway, George Manuell. Story: Otto Englander. Chief animator: Al Eugster. Animators: Shamus Culhane, Myron Natwick. Lay-outs: Shamus Culhane. Music director: Carl W. Stalling. Color by Cinecolor. Producer: Ub Iwerks. Executive producer: Pat Powers.

Copyright 30 November 1933 by Celebrity Productions, Inc. U.S. release: 30 November 1933. 8 minutes.

COMMENT: I don't know how to pronounce the director's name. Everyone I consulted seemed to favor a different pronunciation. Personally, I favor "Ub" as in boob and "Iwerks" as "Eye works", but I'm sure I am wrong! One of life's little mysteries!

Anyway, this is a rather quaint, yet fast-moving and often ingeniously animated vehicle which delivers a fairly straight version of the familiar story, yet creatively embroidered with many delightfully way-out incidental touches.

Strange but Fun Version

[Michael_Elliott · 3 January 2011]

Jack and the Beanstalk (1933)

*** (out of 4)

This short was produced and co-directed by Ub Iwerks so you can expect to see some pretty strange visuals. The story is one everyone knows as young Jack and his mother are starving so she sends him to sell the cow but he instead trades it in for three magic beans. I'm sure most people are already familiar with the story so there's no point in going into great detail about it. If you're a fan of the story then you're going to find this to be a good telling. If you're a fan of Iwerks then you're really going to enjoy this thing, although at times it's a tad bit too dark for young kids. I really enjoyed the surreal aspect of the film because it's clear Iwerks wanted to throw in some darker moments. The stuff with Jack and his mom starving has a pretty good musical number with it and the visuals of the starving animals is something you certainly don't see in every version. The animation is extremely good and another added benefit is that it was shot in color. The color certainly helps bring much of the scenery to life.

Not much of a message, but still a charming watch from start to finish

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 13 September 2018]

"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an 8-minute cartoon from 1933, so this one has its 85th anniversary this year and sadly everybody who worked on it back then is long dead, but yeah this was the year when Hitler came into power in Germany just to show you how old it is. It is a color cartoon though, which definitely helps and is one of the main reasons why I enjoyed the watch. Early on, it feels a bit like a musical as absolutely everybody is singing: the human characters, every single animal (including spiders) and even handbags and it was kinda fun. afterwards, there isn't too much dialogue anymore. i will spare you the story here. I assume everybody who reads this knows the basic plot at least about the magic beans that bring little Jack up in the skies to a castle inhabited by giants. You probably have seen the Disney version with Mickey being Jack that is much more known than this Ub Iwerks production we have here. At the core of it all, it is not really about escaping from the sleeping giant, but about the female and the male giant fighting for the human delicacy. I allso liked the way in which Jack escapes at the end and it much better than a boring "oh it was just a dream" explanation. Pretty brave too to depict death actually at the end and the giant's grave and it shows that cartoons back then were absolutely not (only) aimed at younger audiences. Did anybody else feel the giant looked a bit like the main antagonist from these many Popeye short films, Bluto I think is his name. Anyway, enjoyable film visually and audibly, I very much recommend it to those who love old cartoons. It's probably a bit on the underseen side. Everybody else can skip it I guess. Greatness it's not.

Rather unremarkable.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 9 February 2017]

"Jack and the Beanstalk" is the first color film from Ub Iwerks and unfortunately, apart from the animation and color it isn't all that good. The main problem is that many of these color films are based on very familiar fairy tales...and the story does little to bring them to life or make them unusual in any way. And, when the film is unusual, it's not for good--such as the unnecessary singing.

As far as the story goes, I'll recap it...though it's hardly necessary. Jack and his mother are dirt poor so Jack takes the cow to town to sell her. He takes some magic beans from a weird blue guy and when his mother gets mad and tosses them out, they grow into a beanstalk...and the rest you already know.

The biggest problem with this one is that although it looks good, Iwerks and his team forgot to make it fun or funny.

seductive

[Kirpianuscus · 25 December 2018]

A short version of a classic English fairy tale. Charming animation, nice ideas - the cow and spider-, precise resume, beautiful use of humor and music, little strange characters. But more than seductive for small details, for clear story and for precise reduction at basic traits of original story. so, a beautiful animation.