"Jack and the Beanstalk"-Brian Henson's New Twist on a Classic Tale

In my last entry, I covered a Japanese animated film based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. I found it to be quite good, if not a bit quirky at times. However, while that adaptation was clearly taking liberties with the source material, for the most part it was pretty accurate to the original structure of the story. The core elements are present, and the film just builds framework of the story. But ultimately, it is still at its heart a story about a spirited young boy who outwits an evil Giant and steals his amazing treasures for himself.

I've noticed that, nowadays especially, a lot of movies try to take a different approach when adapting fairy tales; they often like to modernize them; set them in present times, create scenarios that parallel with those of the original story, but actually occur in a modern day setting. In addition to this, there are many films, (and even novels) that have toyed with the concept of how “we got the story wrong,” and set out to explain “how the story really happened.”

I feel that one of the best examples of this in film making has got to be “Jim Henson's Jack and the Beanstalk-The Real Story,” a miniseries that aired in 2001 and was directed and co-written by Brian Henson.

This is an incredibly imaginative little miniseries that plays off the idea that Jack, the foolish young boy who climbed the Beanstalk and stole wondrous treasures from an evil giant, wasn't truly the brave young hero we thought him to be.

The first thing that should be noted is that the star of this film is not actually “The” Jack that climbed the Beanstalk. The series follows the story of his descendant, Jack Robinson, (played by Matthew Modine) who is the CEO of a large, highly successful company. However, despite his and his family's great wealth, a terrible shadow hangs over the Robinson family that many who know of it venture to call a family curse. Not a single male descendant of the original Jack has lived past the age of 40, and no one knows why. In the beginning of the film, the great bones of the Giant from the story are found at the construction site of Jack's company, and from that point on, Jack begins to unravel the truth about what really happened up in the clouds over 400 years ago (in his time.)

Jack finds out that the true story of his famous ancestor from an old Countess (whose true identity I will not dare spoil here-I found it to be ingenious.) He finds out that the Giant was actually murdered, and that although the Giant, named Thunderdell, was kind to him, and also to everyone in his service, Jack's greed compelled him to betray the kindly Giant and steal his treasures, which were in reality the main source of prosperity and balance for the entire world of Giants. Jack discovers how his family twisted the story into the famous fairy tale we know today, but also how terribly cruel and selfish his ancestor was, to the point where the entire world up in the clouds now lies in jeopardy.

What is incredible about this series is just how many creative angles it takes regarding every minute detail. The golden Hen, (here portrayed as a goose) and the Harp, for example, are actually vitally important to the well being of the Giant's world, while the possession of these treasures by the Robinson family is what has lead to the early deaths of so many of Jack's ancestors. Along with this, the film makes it so the passage of time in the Giant world is vastly different to ours, as while 400 years have passed in the human world, only 400 or so days have passed in theirs, making what happened centuries ago in the human world, a crime still fresh in the minds of the Giants as their world crumbles around them. There are just so many interesting ways this series changes the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, and while it does add a slightly darker tone to the series, it doesn’t feel the need to be pitch black in tone either; it still has many lighthearted scenes that give it a nice balance so that isn't too serious, but it isn't too silly either.

But what I love most about this series is how it plays off of a brilliant idea that adds a whole other dimension to the story; what if the Giant was actually kind? What if he wasn't the terrible, greedy monster who hoarded all the wealth to himself, but that it was Jack that actually betrayed him and he who was being greedy and selfish. What some people might not know is that in an earlier version of Jack and the Beanstalk written by Benjamin Tabart, great care was taken by the author to have the story take place within a context where Jack's actions were justified; after all, no matter which way you slice it, Jack is, in fact, a thief, whether or not he may have felt that the Giant was unfairly hoarding his treasures (which is never outright stated in the fairy tale) In Tabart's version, Jack actually kills the Giant to avenge his father, whom the Giant murdered, and the golden hen and magic harp actually belonged to his father as well.

How does this relate? Well, the main point is that the author felt it was necessary to give Jack's actions a context, in order to make him seem like less of a bad example for children. In this series, the series takes a different approach, creating an alternate scenario wherein it shows us how morally bankrupt Jack was in stealing from someone who was so kind towards him. I find it interesting in how, in arguably the first written version, extra effort was taken to justify Jack's actions, and then, hundreds of years later, a version is made wherein Jack's actions are impossible to defend, and where his actions have left thousands suffering from hunger and starvation. It actually creates a scenario where there are terrible repercussions for his actions in the form of an entire world slowly dying around him. I just find it kind of funny, in a way, how much the approach Tabart contrasts with the approach of the writers of this series, who chose to take this story in a completely opposite direction.

I also love how in the series itself the fairy tale does exist, and was actually a work of deliberate deception to absolve the family of any guilt for Jack's crimes, while they continue to hoard the wealth of the goose and the harp and make themselves richer. In this series, fantasy and reality clash together in such an ingenious way, and one that I have not yet seen in any other works.

I really just found this series to be great work of imagination and I could sense that a great deal of care and thought went into every aspect of this story. I thought most of the acting was also pretty solid, with only a few moments here and there where I found it to be a little wooden. The special effects in the film are also decent for its time, especially with it being a television project. But really, where this series shines is in its writing. I couldn't believe such a concept had never occurred to me before; something so simple, yet at the same time so obvious. After all, how many times have we seen creatures once thought to be only evil monsters humanized in film adaptations? At least a few. I actually felt really bad for the giant when he died in this series especially as his son see him just moments before. But for me personally, my favorite thing about this is how they managed to take a story so seemingly simple, and add so much more to it. It has a charm that is undeniably all its own; I think other directors should look to it for inspiration.

Overall, would I recommend this? Hell yes. It was a really interesting and engaging series that had a great twist on the original tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, and it has some of the most solid writing I have seen in a long time. I loved seeing how everything previously established in the series slowly linked together as it drew closer to the climax, like many small puzzle pieces being connected one by one. This series was an incredibly fun ride, and I think everyone reading this should at the very least, give it a shot.