Like most if not all Henson productions, this TV movie has beautifully done puppetry work, SPFX, and music. The harp's music will haunt listeners for years afterwards.
To understand Henson's take on the story, it helps to know the original story.
The original tale of Jack and the Beanstalk was first written down more than 250 years ago and is known to have existed in oral form long before then. The tale was considered a good enough tale to be referenced by William Shakespeare in his play *King Lear*.
In all its oral and written forms, the tale presented a bold trickster equivalent to the Greco-Roman creator of humanity, Prometheus, and to such Native American heroes as Coyote, Hare, and Grandmother Spider. In all these stories, the trickster heroically attempts "fire theft", i.e. liberating humanity from poverty and starvation and suffering by entering the land of the gods and stealing fire or a similar magical treasure, sometimes killing one or more guardians of the treasure in the process.
In the Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire, granting humanity the ability to cook food and forge weapons and stave off the cold and predators. In the original English folktale, Jack stole the music of the gods in the form of a golden harp, stole food for his starving family or community in the form of a cooking pot that created a meal every day, and stole the equivalent of shining fire in the goose that laid shining gold eggs. Jack also liberated his people from the god-giant's cannibalism, not unlike liberating his people from a plague that was devouring them.
However, Henson has said that he hated the original story and chose to work on it only if he could alter it. "It's a fairy tale that became part of British culture during a time when empire building and conquering other cultures was heroic" he stated (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk:_The_Real_Story in 2016).
Henson's film vilifies the folktale's bold trickster hero into an avaricious cad who betrays an almost clownishly innocent giant. The film then whitewashes the folktale's oppressive cannibal god-giant into a courtroom of judgmental god-giants who follow the cruel ancient idea of imprisoning, enslaving, or murdering the innocent descendants for whatever crime their ancestors may have committed, one of the principles that has been used to justify slavery and vendettas that approached genocide throughout history. "Surely in your world, if you benefit from the wrongdoings of your fathers, then you inherit the obligation to right the wrong" rationalizes a likable god-giant played with considerable charisma by Richard Attenborough as the unfortunately named character Magog.
Henson's film has been accused of political correctness and a painfully naive interpretation of serious issues such as ecology, appropriation, and reparations, but these accusations remain in dispute.
Nevertheless, after seeing what Henson did to Jack in the Beanstalk, one wonders what he would do to the myth of Prometheus or to any of the many Native American tales about this sort of theft. Perhaps he could revise Prometheus' theft of fire into copyright infringement and have the gods win a lawsuit against everyone with a stove, space heater, or book of matches?
To understand Henson's take on the story, it helps to know the original story.
The original tale of Jack and the Beanstalk was first written down more than 250 years ago and is known to have existed in oral form long before then. The tale was considered a good enough tale to be referenced by William Shakespeare in his play *King Lear*.
In all its oral and written forms, the tale presented a bold trickster equivalent to the Greco-Roman creator of humanity, Prometheus, and to such Native American heroes as Coyote, Hare, and Grandmother Spider. In all these stories, the trickster heroically attempts "fire theft", i.e. liberating humanity from poverty and starvation and suffering by entering the land of the gods and stealing fire or a similar magical treasure, sometimes killing one or more guardians of the treasure in the process.
In the Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire, granting humanity the ability to cook food and forge weapons and stave off the cold and predators. In the original English folktale, Jack stole the music of the gods in the form of a golden harp, stole food for his starving family or community in the form of a cooking pot that created a meal every day, and stole the equivalent of shining fire in the goose that laid shining gold eggs. Jack also liberated his people from the god-giant's cannibalism, not unlike liberating his people from a plague that was devouring them.
However, Henson has said that he hated the original story and chose to work on it only if he could alter it. "It's a fairy tale that became part of British culture during a time when empire building and conquering other cultures was heroic" he stated (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk:_The_Real_Story in 2016).
Henson's film vilifies the folktale's bold trickster hero into an avaricious cad who betrays an almost clownishly innocent giant. The film then whitewashes the folktale's oppressive cannibal god-giant into a courtroom of judgmental god-giants who follow the cruel ancient idea of imprisoning, enslaving, or murdering the innocent descendants for whatever crime their ancestors may have committed, one of the principles that has been used to justify slavery and vendettas that approached genocide throughout history. "Surely in your world, if you benefit from the wrongdoings of your fathers, then you inherit the obligation to right the wrong" rationalizes a likable god-giant played with considerable charisma by Richard Attenborough as the unfortunately named character Magog.
Henson's film has been accused of political correctness and a painfully naive interpretation of serious issues such as ecology, appropriation, and reparations, but these accusations remain in dispute.
Nevertheless, after seeing what Henson did to Jack in the Beanstalk, one wonders what he would do to the myth of Prometheus or to any of the many Native American tales about this sort of theft. Perhaps he could revise Prometheus' theft of fire into copyright infringement and have the gods win a lawsuit against everyone with a stove, space heater, or book of matches?