A young boy named Jack climbs a giant beanstalk and stumbles upon a city in the clouds ruled by an evil queen.I have never really enjoyed anime. Some is alright, but even the hugely successful and popular films just do not really resonate with me. This one is different. The animation is certainly interesting, with only the princes really looking like what I expect from Japanese artists. So that helps, that multiple styles were used.But this is also just so clever. Taking a classic tale, adding in music and lyrics, and a bit of a mystical twist. This is less about stealing fro ma giant than about saving a kingdom. Can "a simple farm boy" handle the task?

I call it okay, because this is essentially anime from the early 70s done to tell a classic European folk tale. I saw this on HBO many years ago in the early 80s, and shrugged at it. My only regret was that I hadn't seen the whole thing, because it did look interesting.Now, having seen the whole thing some thirty years later I can see how people get fond of this film. For the time it had an impressive scope of imagination; i.e. the kind of thing you'll never see Disney produce, but at the same time was hampered by it's own production values whereby Japanese studios use fewer drawings to animate their stories.This iteration of Jack and the Beanstalk takes the basic tale and blows it up to cinematic proportions by expanding on the basic tale, and adding a few more story points to make the tale that much more interesting. Having said all that I wish this movie had done more with those expanded points to deliver an even richer film, but nonesuch is the case here.I happen to like the film for what it is, but I'm hard pressed to recommend it to anyone because of its production limitations. Currently the only version available is a full screen DVD. Maybe we'll get a blu- ray reissue in widescreen format down the road.Still, see it once and decide for yourself.

I watched this 1974 anime film on YouTube, and after watching it, I found this film AND the Disney short "Mickey and The Beanstalk" are the best adaptations of the well-love fairy tale of the magic beanstalk that reaches up to the sky. As I said I maybe 22 years old, but I still love fairy stories.I love the song that played in the background, when Jack, his dog Crosby and the mice (that were really the castle servants turned into mice by Hecuba) escape to the treasure volt. I think the mice are so ubber cute, and have tracings of the mice from Disney's Cinderella; I think. I also love the musical sequence for the Princess's song "No One's Happier Than I." You know what I think? I think Princess Margaret and Princess Rosa from Puss in Boots would be perfect as Non-Disney Princesses would you? Overall I love this movie.

I am fortunate in that I have had this movie on tape ever since I was a little girl. I still watch it with my kids when they watch it. I hadn't seen it in at least ten years when they found it and watched it. It is interesting to see it as an adult. Some movies and books that were parts of our childhood are a lot darker than we thought they were when we were little (another example of this is "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"). I would definitely recommend watching it by yourself and then deciding if your kids are old enough to watch it.