Customer Reviews

Fairy Tales Double Feature: Once Upon a Brothers Grimm/Pinocchio

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I'm a 29 years old women & this video we used to watch with my brothers when we were kids my father bought for us in VHS and a few years ago the video has been broken so I found @ AMAZON and I bought in DVD the copy is perfect & better of the one that we had I'm so happy that we have the opportunity to remember watching this video and you have to buy for your kids because is amazing

My mom taped this on our Betamax when I was a kid. I watched it over and over and over again. I just bought this for my 3 and 4 year old daughters and they love it. It has all their favorite characters and the stories change every 3-4 minutes so they are never bored. They don't care that it looks like a made for TV movie from the 70's (which it is). They are even singing the songs from it.

Saw this when my children were small and was impressed with the quality of the production. The cast is made up of well known actors from the seventies, and anyone, not only children, can enjoy it. It was as lovely and humorous as I remembered.

VCI Entertainment presents "FAIRY TALES DOUBLE FEATURE: ONCE UPON A BROTHERS GRIMM & PINOCCHIO" -- (1976-1977) (181 mins/Color) --- Two musical fairy tales with outstanding performances by an all star cast --- The wondrous new musical adaptations restored with all it's theatrical glory --- it's funfilled hours of entertainment all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early features like this one --- Sure to please the entire family.

"ONCE UPON A BROTHERS GRIMM" (1977) (103 mins/Color)) --- Under Norman Campbell (Director), Bernard Rothman (Producer), Jack Wohl (Producer), Jean Holloway (Screenwriter), Mitch Leigh (Original Score), Sammy Cahn (Lyricist) --- The Grimm Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German academics who were best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales and for their work in linguistics, relating to how the sounds in words shift over time (Grimm's Law) --- They are one of the best known story tellers of novellas from Europe, allowing the widespread knowledge of such tales as Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel - - - - story line and plot, One of the most remarkable things about this film is that most, if not all, of the fairy tales mentioned are set in some way to music and/or dance --- To see these fairy tales come to life in this way is remarkable --- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm meet some of their most famous characters in this all-star fantasy adventure --- would definitely recommend this film to every child I know -- and even to a few adults.

the cast includes:
Dean Jones ... Jakob Grimm / Grandmother (segment "Little Red Riding Hood")
Paul Sand ... Wilhelm Grimm
Betsy Beard ... Wood Nymph
Sorrell Booke ... King of Hesse
Arte Johnson ... Selfish and Mean
Ruth Buzzi ... Queen Astrid
Mia Bendixsen ... Gretel (segment "Hansel and Gretel")
John Clifford ... Prince (segment "Sleeping Beauty")
Corinne Conley ... Fairy Godmother (segment "Cinderella")
Gordon Connell ... Driver (segment "Cinderella")
Don Correia ... The Ass (segment "The Bremen Town Musicians")
Teri Garr ... Princess (segment "The Frog Prince")
Joe A. Giamalva ... The Rooster (segment "The Bremen Town Musicians")
Madeline Kahn
Joanna Kirkland ... Sleeping Beauty (segment "Sleeping Beauty")
Cleavon Little ... Wolf (segment "Little Red Riding Hood")
Todd Lookinland ... Hansel (segment "Hansel and Gretel")
The Los Angeles Ballet Company ... Dancers (segment "The Mazurka")
Edie McClurg ... Esmerelda (segment "Hansel and Gretel")
John McCook ... Prince Charming (segment "Cinderella")
Gary Morgan ... The Hound (segment "The Bremen Town Musicians")
Ken Olfson ... The King (segment "The Frog Prince")
Maria Pogge ... The Cat (segment "The Bremen Town Musicians")
Clive Revill ... Rumplestiltskin (segment "The King with Eight Daughters")
Chita Rivera ... Gingerbread Lady (segment "Hansel and Gretel")
Susan Silo ... Little Red Riding Hood (segment "Little Red Riding Hood")
Stephanie Steele ... Cinderella (segment "Cinderella")
Dan Tobin ... Prime Minister (segment "The King with Eight Daughters")

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Dean Jones
Date of Birth: 25 January 1931 - Decatur, Alabama
Date of death: Still Living

2. Paul Sand (aka: Paul Sanchez)
Date of Birth: 5 March 1935 - Santa Monica, California
Date of death: Still living

"PINOCCHIO" (1976) (78 mins/Color) - Danny Kaye and Sandy Duncan (Dolby digitally remastered)...Under director Ron Field and Sid Smith, producer Bernard Rothman and Jack Wohl, based on the characters of Carlo Collodi, music composed by Billy Barnes, Film Editing by Jerry Greene, Costume Design by Bill Hargate, makeup by Stan Winston, Choreography by Ron Field --- Pinocchio is a fictional character which first appeared in "The Adventures of Pinocchio" by Carlo Collodi, and has since appeared in countless adaptations of that story and others --- He was created as a puppet, but dreams of becoming a real boy --- He was created of a piece of pine by a woodcarver named Geppetto - - - - Our story features two wonderful characters in childrens literature, bringing them to life is Danny Kaye as Geppetto and Sandy Duncan as Pinocchio --- delightful film for the children and entire family featuring great music, dancing, singing in a story that is timeless --- Sandy Duncan is just marvelous as the wooden puppet, and her papa the aging woodcarver Danny Kaye will steal your heart.

the cast includes:
Danny Kaye ... Geppetto
Sandy Duncan ... Pinocchio
Clive Revill ... Coachman
Gary Morgan ... Candlewick
Liz Torres ... Cat
Flip Wilson ... Fox

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Danny Kaye (aka: David Daniel Kaminski)
Date of birth: 18 January 1913 - Brooklyn, New York
Date of death: 3 March 1987 - Los Angeles, California,

2. Sandy Duncan (aka: Sandra Kay Duncan)
Date of birth: 20 February 1946 - Henderson, Texas
Date of death: Still Living

3. Flip Wlson (aka: Clerow Wilson)
Date of birth: 8 December 1933 - Jersey City, New Jersey
Date of death: 25 November 1998 - Malibu, California

DVD BONUS - Includes over 30 minutes of Classic Cartoons
1. "SUPER LULU" - Little Lulu (1947) (6:52)
2. "OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM" - Noveltoon Sing-A-Long (1946) (7:27)
3. "THE WEE MEN" Noveltoon (1947) (9:44)
4. "THE ENCHANTED SQUARE" - Raggedy Ann (1946) (9:32)

Great job by VCI Entertainment --- looking forward to more Nostalgic Collections --- order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch releases --- where they are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector.

Total Time: 181 mins on DVD ~ VCI Entertainment ~ (7/31/2007)

what can i say. i just loved this. it was a great example of classic retro television and one of the best fairy tale productions that has been done. i enjoyed it as much or even more than a lot of Shelley Duvall's 'Fairie Tale Theater' shows. and that is saying quite a bit since i think Duvall is a genius with this material. there were times i almost forgot this wasn't a 'Farie Tale Theater'.
i don't mind productions that are filmed in videotape. i think it often gives the shows a live theater feel that enhances the Broadway stage-like approach. in fact this whole thing pre-dated the Tony Award winning Sondheim Broadway musical 'Into the Woods' by at least a decade. it even was ahead of the Heath Ledger fantasy by Terry Gilliam and strangely shares some of the same approach to interpreting the brothers themselves.
for me, stuff like this is the ultimate in entertainment. i couldn't have enjoyed the whole thing more.
this also comes with the adorable Sandy Duncan televised musical of 'Pinocchio' from 1976. Duncan's 'Pinocchio' show comes off as a little bit more campy retro than the 'Grimm Bros.', but it has a truly darling and inoccent approach that keep it fresh and ooky pooky cute. a lot of Duncan's 'Pinoky' is cornball as all heck, but it kept bringing a amused smile to my face throughout and was even funnier than the 'Grimm Bros.' in a campy retro way. after all what can you say about a musical that has simplistic lyrics like, "that izda earth, and dat izda sky, and that iza a birdie inda sky flyin' by".
if you love classic retro television, you'll love this stuff. a must own for nostagia fans. and a giveaway steal at four bucks a DVD.

Both features are great. There is a wide variety of well-known actors of the era portrayed in these films and they do a great job portraying their characters. Good clean family entertainment. These are films that are now being passed from generation to generation in our home.