Customer Reviews

Rumpelstiltskin

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I loved this movie since I was a kid. It took me, if you can believe it, 5 years to track down a copy, and even now it's not available from where I found it. Amy Irving is delightful and, surprisingly, can sing very well. Clive Revill is a riot as the king and for once the prince really is charming. The script has taken quite a few liberties with the story, but it's so cute I really didn't care-- Anyway, this was my favorite movie when I was a kid and I still love watching it.

Rumpelstiltskin was released in 1987 and starred Billy Barty as Rumpelstiltskin and Amy Irving as Katie, the miller's daughter. It's the well-known tale from Grimms expanded and made into a musical.

Here's the movie's description available from Sony Pictures: "Happily ever after has never been so golden! Amy Irving (Tuck Everlasting) stars as a miller's daughter who must learn magic from a troll to perform a miracle in this dazzling musical adaptation of the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Billy Barty (Willow), the "dean of the screen's little people" (Los Angeles Times), co-stars as the mischievous troll whose name is the kingdom's best-kept secret! After Katie's (Irving) father boasts to the king that she can turn grain into gold, she finds herself thrown in a dungeon with orders to spin straw into gold...or else! A crafty troll (Barty) agrees to help her perform the seemingly impossible feat - and land the king's handsome son - but his assistance comes at a price. Unless she can figure out his unusual name, she must hand over her firstborn child!"


The Cannon Movie Tale series of nine films has become nearly as popular among fairy tale enthusiasts and family film fans as Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. Some would argue that this series is even more popular. Either way, these musicals are suitable for the entire family and feature well-known actors from the 1980s.

This fairy tale has beautiful sets and scenery, vivid costumes, great music, a charming story, good acting, the incomparable Amy Irving both acting and singing, and nice special effects.
I watched it with my great nieces, who are products of the robot/cartoon age, and they sat enraptured, except when they weren't laughing at the dwarf or asking me what a tax collector is. The King and Queen are hilarious. This is one for your collection; you have to see it.

"I Need A Miracle", sings the beautiful miller's daughter Katie (Amy Irving)-- and she needs that miracle quickly!
Because of her father's foolish boasts, she must spin straw into gold, or die! Enter Billy Barty as the mischievious title character/elf who seizes the opportunity to exploit Katie's plight for his own ends.
"RUMPELSTILITSKIN" was the first of the popular Cannon Movie Tales series of live-action fairy tale films.
Directed and written by David Irving from the Brothers Grimm story , this film is very much a family affair. David directs his mother Priscilla Pointer and sister Amy. Priscilla Pointer plays Queen Grizelda, who seemed very evil to me. Grizelda would sooner see Katie killed than have her son Prince Henry (John Moulder- Brown) marry the poor girl. Clive Revill is the ridiculously pompous and greedy King Mezzer.
It is wonderful to see Amy Irving ("CARRIE", "YENTL", "CROSSING DELANCY") in a starring role that gives her so much screen time. It is also nice to have Billy Barty as the title elf, who really is not as generous as he seems. He really wants to steal someone and use them as a slave and cook so he can have fun all day. As King Meezer's greed increases, the price of the elf's help grows higher and higher. He always speaks in rhymes and alternately giggles and screams as he works his magic. Rumpelstiltskin is a very spooky and scary little elf, indeed.
The songs by Max Robert, including "Straw Into Gold," "I Need A Miracle", "I'm Greedy," and "One Little Name," are serviceable to the plot but not particularly memorable. I wish the character of Prince Henry had been more developed in the screenplay. John Moulder-Brown has very little to do except hang around and hope Katie won't be killed by his father and mother so that he can marry her. Katie receives invaluable assistance from a talking raven and a supposedly mute servant girl named Emily. Henry should have been a more active Prince and participant on her behalf.

RUMPELSTILTSKIN was the very first installment of the Cannon MovieTales series in 1987. These great, family-friendly musicals have become quite popular and beloved over the years, and have now found their way to DVD.

"A promise made is a promise kept": that's the moral of this delightful fairytale which tells the story of Katie (Amy Irving), the beautiful miller's daughter who, according to her tale-telling father, can spin straw into gold. Of course, she cannot perform this task, but the greedy King Mezzer (Clive Revill), so taken with the concept of more wealth, demands that Katie spins the straw into strands of gold...or she will die. In the attic of the castle, Katie is visited by a strange little man, who offers to spin the gold...but for a price.

Amy Irving shines with a delicate performance; and reveals a lilting singing voice with such musical numbers as "Queen of the Castle", "I Need a Miracle", and "One Little Name". This film was very much a family affair for the Irving clan, because Amy's brother David Irving was the director, with their mother Priscilla Pointer as Queen Grizelda.

Clive Revill also turns in a suitably-hammy performance as the King; and Billy Barty commands with his wonderful turn in the title role. Yael Uziely is also very effective as the mute ladies' maid. John Moulder-Brown plays Prince Henry.

This was the premiere installment of the Cannon MovieTales series (which were filmed, very economically, back-to-back on location in Israel); however the subsequent titles all went straight to video.

A fantastic family musical at a price that's bound to please--and be sure to seek out the other Cannon MovieTales titles!

(Single-sided, single-layer disc)

i really enjoyed this cannon movie tale. Like all the cannon movie tales exept red riding hood sticks to the origional story. Amy irving has such a pretty voice. You may recognise her from carrie and the sequel. This was the first of the 9 movies in the series. It was in theatres and it flopped even though i can't see why it did. After that the movies went str8 to vhs. I love the songs. My favorite is the one amy irving sings while she's trying to think of the name of the elf. I highly reccomend this whole series to anyone of any age who like me loves fairy tales. I'm so happy that i now own all the movies in the series

Worth watching if only for the one song "One Little Name" sung by Amy Irving. All the songs are pleasant within this musical. Enjoyable.

A bragging miller gets his daughter in a jam. She must spin straw into gold for a greedy king. She makes a bargain with a "bad" elf. When she becomes princess, she must guess the elf's name or give him her baby.

"Hansel and Gretel" by the same studio is good too, with a witch with a lot of personality, probably doing a lot of ad-libbing.

I suggest how they could have written a better script under the "comment button" below.

My daughter was very happy to open up her present and see that it was a DVD for Rumpelstiltskin. We had taped it once a long time ago and most of it had gotten taped over. She is 13 but I, her mother, enjoyed this movie, as well as my 19 yr. and 22 yr. old sons, and my 25 yr. old married daughter. I am not exactly sure what it is about this movie that we all like, but we just find it very, very watchable.

Musicaly fairy tales. What more could a kid ask for. One of the classic and coveted Cannon Movie Tales series, although admitedly not one of their best (The Frog Prince and Sleeping Beauty are arguably better), still a member of something amazing. A bit of a twist on the old tale that succedes in bringing the characters to life, as many revisions of fairy tales often try but fall short of doing. Throw in a dash of sweet, catchy tunes that kids likely will be humming in those small quiet moments, even 10 years from now, when they've techinically "outgrown" childhood loves. As a child this movie was one of my most treasured possesion, and still holds a deep and beautiful place in my heart. For a 5-12 year old kid, especially one that likes fairy tales, this is an unmissable, everlasting treasure. Better even than the fairie tale theatre creations. I mean it.

I thought that this movie was gonna be really cool bc i'm a fan of the 80's movies but this is REALLY lame watching it now...i dont remember so much singing, its basically a musical and i hate musical's...LOL. The only parts that are cool watching is when rumpelstiltskin actually spins the hay into gold & thats what i remembered, its a GREAT MOVIE FOR SMALL CHILDREN & i know i'll keep it forever its just a bore for me.