Jack and the Beanstalk (1933)
Jack trades the family cow for magic beans, climbs the overnight beanstalk to a giant's cloud castle, and makes off with a self-playing harp, a bag of gold, and a hen that lays golden eggs before chopping the beanstalk down behind him.
This Jack and the Beanstalk launched Ub Iwerks’ ComiColor Cartoons, the color fairy-tale series he built after leaving Disney to compete directly with the Silly Symphonies — not to be confused with the unrelated 1952 Abbott and Costello feature of the same name.
Background
Jack and the Beanstalk was made by Ub Iwerks, the animator who had co-created Mickey Mouse before leaving Walt Disney’s studio, and it launched Iwerks’s ComiColor series of color cartoons. The series was designed to compete with Disney’s Silly Symphonies, which were then among the most prestigious animated shorts in theaters. This early color fairy-tale short is not related to the 1952 Abbott and Costello feature of the same title.
What to watch for
The story follows Jack as he trades the family cow for magic beans, climbs the overnight beanstalk to a giant’s cloud castle, and escapes with a self-playing harp, a bag of gold and a hen that lays golden eggs. Watch for the way the cartoon uses color to separate the giant’s castle from Jack’s rural world, and how the chase down the beanstalk gives the short its most dynamic moment. It is an early example of the fairy-tale cartoon form that the Silly Symphonies helped popularize, and of the period’s interest in adapting classic tales to color. The brisk storytelling keeps the fairy tale’s sequence of trades and escapes easy to follow.
