The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm |
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Souvenir program cover
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| Directed by | Henry Levin George Pal (fairy tale sequences) |
| Produced by | George Pal |
| Screenplay by | Charles Beaumont William Roberts David P. Harmon |
| Story by | David P. Harmon |
| Starring | Laurence Harvey Claire Bloom Karlheinz Böhm Barbara Eden Walter Slezak Oscar Homolka Yvette Mimieux Russ Tamblyn Jim Backus Beulah Bondi Terry-Thomas Buddy Hackett |
| Music by | Leigh Harline Bob Merrill (songs) |
| Cinematography | Paul Vogel |
| Editing by | Walter A. Thompson |
| Studio | George Pal Productions Avernus Productions |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cinerama Releasing Corporation |
| Release date(s) | August 7, 1962 |
| Running time | 135 minutes |
| Country | United States Germany |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6.25 million or $6 million |
| Money made | $8,920,615 |
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is a 1962 American fantasy film directed by Henry Levin and George Pal. The latter was the producer and also in charge of the stop motion animation. The film was one of the highest-grossing films of 1962. It won one Oscar and was nominated for three additional Academy Awards. Several prominent actors—including Laurence Harvey, Karlheinz Böhm, Jim Backus, Barbara Eden, and Buddy Hackett—are in the film.
It was filmed in the Cinerama process, which was photographed in an arc with three lenses, on a camera that produced three strips of film. Three projectors, in the back and sides of the theatre, produced a panoramic image on a screen that curved 146 degrees around the front of the audience.
Plot
The story focuses on the Grimm brothers, Wilhelm and Jacob, and is biographical and fantastical at the same time. They are working to finish a history for a local Duke, though Wilhelm is more interested in collecting fairy tales and often spends their money to hear them from locals. Tales such as "The Dancing Princess" and "The Cobbler and the Elves" are integrated into the main plot. One of the tales is told as an experiment to three children in a book store to see if publishing a collection of fairy tales has any merit. Another tale, "The Singing Bone", is told by an old woman in the forest who tells stories to children, while the uninvited Wilhelm secretly listens through an open window. The culmination of this tale involves a jeweled dragon and features the most involved usage of the film's special effects.
Wilhelm loses the manuscript of the Duke's family history while writing down this third story - he is supposed to be collecting additional information for the family history - and the brothers cannot meet their deadline. They are required to pay their rent, which was waived while they worked. As a result of wading through a stream in an effort to retrieve the manuscript (which fell into the water after his briefcase broke open), Wilhelm becomes critically ill with potentially fatal pneumonia. He dreams that at night various fairy tale characters come to him, begging him to name them before he dies. In the dream, Russ Tamblyn reprises his role as Tom Thumb from the 1958 film. Wilhelm's fever breaks, and he recovers completely, continuing his own work while his brother publishes regular books, including a history of German grammar, a book on myths and legends, and a book on law. Jacob, shaken by his brother's experience, begins to collaborate on the fairy tales with Wilhelm.
They are ultimately invited to receive honorary membership at the Berlin Royal Academy, which makes no mention of the tales in their invitation. Jacob prepares to make a speech deliberately insulting the Academy for snubbing Wilhelm. As their train pulls into the station, hordes of children arrive, chanting, "We want a story". Wilhelm begins, "Once upon a time, there were two brothers". The children cheer, and the film ends with a caption card that reads "…and they lived happily ever after".
Cast
- Laurence Harvey - Wilhelm Grimm / The Cobbler ("The Cobbler and the Elves")
- Karlheinz Böhm - Jacob Grimm (as Karl Boehm)
- Claire Bloom - Dorothea Grimm
- Walter Slezak - Stossel
- Barbara Eden - Greta Heinrich
- Oskar Homolka - The Duke (as Oscar Homolka)
- Martita Hunt - Anna Richter (storyteller)
- Betty Garde - Miss Bettenhausen
- Bryan Russell - Friedrich Grimm
- Ian Wolfe - Gruber
- Walter Rilla - Priest
- Yvette Mimieux - The Princess ("The Dancing Princess")
- Russ Tamblyn - The Woodsman ("The Dancing Princess")/ Tom Thumb (in Wilhelm's dream)
- Jim Backus - The King ("The Dancing Princess")
- Beulah Bondi - The Gypsy ("The Dancing Princess")
- Terry-Thomas - Sir Ludwig ("The Singing Bone")
- Buddy Hackett - Hans ("The Singing Bone")
- Otto Kruger - The King at Ludwig's Trial ("The Singing Bone")
- Arnold Stang - Rumplestiltskin (in Wilhelm's dream)
- Hal Smith, Mel Blanc, Pinto Colvig, and Dal McKennon Voicing The Puppetoons - The Elves ("The Cobbler and the Elves")
- Peter Whitney - The Giant (uncredited)
- Tammy Marihugh - Pauline Grimm
- Cheerio Meredith - Mrs. Von Dittersdorf
Legacy
Pal wanted to cast Laurence Harvey in the title role of his next film, The Seven Faces of Dr Lao, but wound up using Tony Randall instead.
Preservation status
Original high quality elements for the film are damaged and incomplete, and scattered among various international archives. As of August 2018, it is the only film originally shot in Cinerama to remain unrestored. The cost of a full digital scan and restoration of the best surviving elements has been estimated by film preservationist Robert A. Harris at between $1 million to $2 million.
In an introduction to a Cinerama Holiday screening on 11th October, 2020 at Pictureville, National Science and Media Museum in Bradford ongoing digital restoration work of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm was described and snippets shown as well as the intention to have it ready for a digital Cinerama screening at the 2021 Widescreen Weekend festival in Bradford. No film print is planned due to the prohibitive cost.
Comic book adaption
- Gold Key: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (October 1962)
See also
In Spanish: El maravilloso mundo de los hermanos Grimm para niños
