Great Film overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

In the early 80s I seen this cartoon on Cinemax at my friends home. 20 years later I found the VHS of the movie and bought it in a heartbeat. The cartoon is the basic Jack and The Beanstalk story with a huge twist. The cartoon is japan animation! the quality is super smooth and rivals Disney's quality work from the past. The story even has many songs that any child can enjoy. The classic cheesy sound effects from cartoons are there but, the movie has a very dark ending and may be too un p.c. for the new generation of fans. I seen this movie go for about $10 to $40 on VHS. i have seen the movie poster go for $200!! Last thing, the movie feels like it runs for a good 2 hours with excellent story line that is way far advanced than the average cartoon offers. As I stated, a rare gem of a cartoon. I personally had dumped my VHS footage to DVD format and cleaned up the quality to enjoy it over and over again. I would love to see a official DVD come out of this one.

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.

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.

I did a search for this movie a couple of months ago and came up with imdb reviews (The only place I found it by the way).It is the best rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk I know of and my brothers and I saw it like 20 years ago, and still talk about it. I would love my kids to get a chance to see it also.