Jack The Giant Killer (1962)
This fairytale film is based upon stories from the book of the same name. The King of Cornwall celebrating his daughter‘s birthday, befalls an evil scheme. Princess Elaine, is kidnapped by a giant, but before the giant can make his getaway, he is slain by Jack, a simple farm hand. The evil wizard, Pendragon, then sends witches to kidnap the princess and is successful. He puts a spell over the princess and declares, he and she will be married, therefore making him the new King. However, Jack, along with new comrades, a Viking, a young boy and a leprechaun, invade Pendragon’s lair and save the princess once again. Pendragon summons a two-headed giant to exact revenge but the leprechaun summons a dragon to battle with the beast. Jack and the dragon defeat the giant and sail away, leaving Pendragon in his exiled land.
I saw this for the first time when I was about eight years old and thought it was fantastic. It was soon after that I discovered the secret of stop-motion animation. As an adult, I can clearly see that the animation is not nearly as detailed or smooth as the work from Harryhausen or as realistic as O’Brien’s work. The film’s script is decent enough and could hold-up to much of the famed mythology films (the Sinbad films, Jason and the Argonauts, etc.) However, the claymation is more aligned to children’s shows, especially evident when it comes to the dragon. It would seem that since the story was a fairytale, perhaps the filmmakers didn’t want the monsters to be too realistic or too scary despite showing a bleeding giant and some skeletal creatures.
The first giant in the film is enjoyable to watch, but the effects take a downhill turn from there on out. It is for this reason that the film does not stand the test of time compared to its monster movie predecessors and mythological successors. If you’re a fan of stop-motion like me, you’ll probably want this in your collection. Just don’t let anyone catch you watching it and really digging it, unless you’re sharing it with your young son.
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Looking forward to the new one?
Oh yeah, its the new wave of giant monster movies (and giant people, too). And, even though I don’t generally like CGI, this would not have been possible without it. I think the right filmmakers can do CGI justice – there wasn’t one point in ‘War of the Worlds’ remake that I thought, this looks like CGI. I think Pacific Rim will be the same. Anyways, saw both of the new ‘Titans’ films ‘Clash and Wrath’ and enjoyed them – 1st one being a bit better. And of course we got a new Big G movie in 2014.
I find CGI to be something requiring time and patients to create truly great work, some of the stuff in Jurassic park is better than some in today’s films 😀
I’ve been reading about that in a book, “The Dinosaur Filmography’ and the reason the dino CG looks so good in JP is they started with physical models (just like in King Kong) and used the CGI to animate them – almost in a frame by frame, stop motion technique. They had a stop motion animator (can’t remember his name) and a CG team work together.
I find the hybrid between practical and CGI to produce the best visuals 😀
Somehow I have never heard of this one going to try and find this streaming somewhere and check it out with my boy. He was really into Jason and Argonauts and Sinbad.
Decent film for those of us who like mythology/fantasy flicks. I’m sure you will both enjoy it despite it not matching the quality of the Sinbad films.
I just put this movie on my Netflix queue. I can’t wait to see it. I really enjoyed Matthews as Sinbad. I’ll check this out with my kid soon. Nice post!
Mathews plays a fine part in this one also.
I like this film, but it wanted to be the 7th voyage of SInbad. Same hero, same villain, the giant looks similar to Sinbad’s Cyclops. The stop motion is far rough around the edges than Harryhausen’s great creation. It’s still a fun and enjoyable enough film though.
yes, I agree.
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