The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) was the seventh of the eight films made in the Cinerama process and the first to be released since the last of the travelogues in 1958, a gap of four years.
The travelogue motif had been used up: there were no more places in the world to visit worthy of a two hour running time. So MGM took a chance and set up the process for two all-star, narrative films, one released in 1962 (Grimm), the other (How The West Was Won) the following year in 1963.
As back-up MGM filmed Mutiny On The Bounty in a competitive process, Ultra Panavision 70, a single strip process that was comparable in height and width to Cinerama, but lacking the overlapping seam problems and curved screen effects of the latter. Mutiny was released in 1962, the same year as Grimm.
Eventually, MGM and the industry went with the Panavision process due to a number of advantages. It was less bulky, way less costly, theaters could more easily adapt to a single projector replacement than an elaborate three projector system that also required a specific curved screen to be installed. Most importantly close-ups and medium shots could return to the screen and actors could communicate facially with each other again (the Cinerama curved screen required actors to look up and to one side of the camera to be seen in the theater as looking at the audience and/or fellow actors).
Grimm is a minor film, endearing and charming, but of no great importance. The performances all seem either wooden or theatrically exaggerated. One exception is Laurence Harvey, giving one of his most sympathetic and warmest interpretations as Wilhelm Grimm. He also gives a wonderful character performance as The Cobbler in The Cobbler and the Elves sequence. Special note is to be taken of Jim Backus, hilarious as the King in The Dancing Princess episode; Terry-Thomas, equally amusing as the evil knight in The Singing Bone episode, and the charming dancing of Russ Tamblyn and Yvette Mimieux in The Dancing Princess.
The score is charming with a jaunty main theme and a catchy up beat number, Ah Oom!, for the elves to sing while making shoes.
While the invisibility special effects (The Dancing Princess) are expertly done, the George Pal Puppetoon stop action effects for the elves in The Cobbler and the Elves and the dragon in The Singing Bone are dreadfully out of date and amateurish. Once we had digital visual effects in Jurassic Park, all the old stop action dinosaur films were antiquated, and such is the effect here. As such, these sequences will seem uninteresting to modern children after the age of seven or eight, thus limiting the appeal to a modern audience.
There is only one thrill sequence for the Cinerama cameras, with a speeding coach towards the end of The Dancing Princess sequence. The opening scenes of Napoleonic battle seem to be an homage to Abel Gance, whose 1926 Napoleon used a three camera projection process for the final battle montage.
The film has never been released on DVD in this country. As of this writing it is the only one of the Cinerama eight that has not. An old VHS manufacture was a scan and pan full screen version. Today your only chance to see this in its wide screen composition is a TCM broadcast. That print is fuzzy and the colors are washed out. This is badly in need of a digital clean up and restoration if it is to be released on DVD eventually.
All in all, this is a charming film for parents with children up to the ages of eight years old. However, its lasting value is as an antique and as a Cinerama production.
Although officially given a 135 minute running time, with Overture and Intermission music, the full print times out at 2 hours, 21 minutes, 25 seconds.
It received four Oscar nominations: Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes and Score, and won the Oscar for Costumes.
Russ Tamblyn has the distinction of appearing in both MGM Cinerama films, the only actor in the MGM roster to have done so.
The travelogue motif had been used up: there were no more places in the world to visit worthy of a two hour running time. So MGM took a chance and set up the process for two all-star, narrative films, one released in 1962 (Grimm), the other (How The West Was Won) the following year in 1963.
As back-up MGM filmed Mutiny On The Bounty in a competitive process, Ultra Panavision 70, a single strip process that was comparable in height and width to Cinerama, but lacking the overlapping seam problems and curved screen effects of the latter. Mutiny was released in 1962, the same year as Grimm.
Eventually, MGM and the industry went with the Panavision process due to a number of advantages. It was less bulky, way less costly, theaters could more easily adapt to a single projector replacement than an elaborate three projector system that also required a specific curved screen to be installed. Most importantly close-ups and medium shots could return to the screen and actors could communicate facially with each other again (the Cinerama curved screen required actors to look up and to one side of the camera to be seen in the theater as looking at the audience and/or fellow actors).
Grimm is a minor film, endearing and charming, but of no great importance. The performances all seem either wooden or theatrically exaggerated. One exception is Laurence Harvey, giving one of his most sympathetic and warmest interpretations as Wilhelm Grimm. He also gives a wonderful character performance as The Cobbler in The Cobbler and the Elves sequence. Special note is to be taken of Jim Backus, hilarious as the King in The Dancing Princess episode; Terry-Thomas, equally amusing as the evil knight in The Singing Bone episode, and the charming dancing of Russ Tamblyn and Yvette Mimieux in The Dancing Princess.
The score is charming with a jaunty main theme and a catchy up beat number, Ah Oom!, for the elves to sing while making shoes.
While the invisibility special effects (The Dancing Princess) are expertly done, the George Pal Puppetoon stop action effects for the elves in The Cobbler and the Elves and the dragon in The Singing Bone are dreadfully out of date and amateurish. Once we had digital visual effects in Jurassic Park, all the old stop action dinosaur films were antiquated, and such is the effect here. As such, these sequences will seem uninteresting to modern children after the age of seven or eight, thus limiting the appeal to a modern audience.
There is only one thrill sequence for the Cinerama cameras, with a speeding coach towards the end of The Dancing Princess sequence. The opening scenes of Napoleonic battle seem to be an homage to Abel Gance, whose 1926 Napoleon used a three camera projection process for the final battle montage.
The film has never been released on DVD in this country. As of this writing it is the only one of the Cinerama eight that has not. An old VHS manufacture was a scan and pan full screen version. Today your only chance to see this in its wide screen composition is a TCM broadcast. That print is fuzzy and the colors are washed out. This is badly in need of a digital clean up and restoration if it is to be released on DVD eventually.
All in all, this is a charming film for parents with children up to the ages of eight years old. However, its lasting value is as an antique and as a Cinerama production.
Although officially given a 135 minute running time, with Overture and Intermission music, the full print times out at 2 hours, 21 minutes, 25 seconds.
It received four Oscar nominations: Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes and Score, and won the Oscar for Costumes.
Russ Tamblyn has the distinction of appearing in both MGM Cinerama films, the only actor in the MGM roster to have done so.