Page 20 THE VILLADOM TIMES II, III & IV • March 13, 2013 Disney film puts new spin on old fairy tale by Dennis Seuling For decades, Hollywood has revised, updated, and reimagined the fairy tales, legends, and kids’ stories most of us grew up knowing and loving. The Disney company began tapping fairy tales and children’s literature for its classic animated films over 60 years ago with such classics as “Pinocchio,” “Bambi,” “Cinderella,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” and has continued in modern times with “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid.” Two recent features -- “Mirror, Mirror” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” -- provided new twists to the tale of the young maiden with a wicked stepmother. “Clash of the Titans” and its sequel “Wrath of the Titans” tapped mythology, and we recently learned that Hansel and Gretel grew up to devote their lives to hunting witches. Now “Jack the Giant Slayer,” a blend of live action and computer-generated imagery, joins that group. Based on the English folk tale “Jack and the Beanstalk,” the movie uses key elements of the original, but embellishes upon General Fallon is the leader of a race of giants who live in a land above the clouds in ‘Jack the Giant Slayer.’ it considerably. In town to sell his horse, Jack (Nicholas Hoult, “Warm Bodies”) is confronted by a desperate monk who convinces him to trade his horse for a handful of beans and warns him not to get them wet. Soon enough, the beans become soaked in a rainstorm and a huge beanstalk pushes skyward, elevating Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson) into the land of the giants high above the clouds. The king (Ian McShane) immediately orders a rescue party, consisting of the dashing, Errol Flynn-inspired swashbuckling knight Elmont (Ewan McGregor), his soldiers, and the scheming Lord Roderick (Stanley Tucci), who has a plan to unseat the king and take over the realm. Jack tags along. The Jack of the fairy tale had to deal with one angry giant and his wife. The movie Jack encounters an entire race of giants, each one uglier and meaner than the next, led by the giant warrior General Fallon (Bill Nighy). In the original, Jack climbs the beanstalk several times to steal the giant’s gold and valuables. Movie Jack hasn’t a larcenous bone in his body. Director Bryan Singer has put together a great-looking fantasy picture. The pace is brisk, the effects are impressive, and the added elements to the familiar story are true to the original, offering outstanding visuals, chief among them the conception of the giants. Rather than depict them as carbon copies of one another, the computer artists have given the key giants distinctive features. The General has two heads, one smaller (voiced by John Kassir) and less language-proficient than the larger one, which acts as a kind of sidekick/conscience. A cook prepares his specialty, pigs-in-a-blanket, using whole pigs. Another giant sports a Don King-style hairdo. The casting is unusually good, with McGregor excellent in a role that could easily have become campy. He plays it straight and convincingly as a courageous knight dedicated to his king and determined to rescue the princess. Tucci is appropriately unctuous as Roderick, disguising his nefarious intentions until the time is right. Hoult’s Jack is poor and humble, but unafraid to face great peril. The king has a rule that a royal cannot marry a commoner, yet the chemistry between Jack and the princess is evident, and they are clearly right for each other. Director Singer plants this seed and then moves on with the action as Jack struggles to survive in the dangerous land of the giants. Rated PG-13, “Jack the Giant Slayer” makes clear that the giants are cannibalistic monsters, yet never shows graphic images that would be too extreme. Viewers get the idea as the camera tactfully cuts away just before soldiers are chomped or crushed under a huge foot. This is a wellmade picture with a very good script. The actors bring the tale alive as director Singer makes that computer-generated beanstalk simultaneously fascinating and ominous.