An oh-so-silly children's musical for the early Saturday and Sunday matinée kiddie audience (while the parents did their grocery shopping), this Abbott and Costello film probably had little interest from their adult fans. The giant is actually just a tall, fat man, a big bully who just happens to live on the clouds, and the opening and closing framing (concerning a bratty kid Lou happens to be babysitting) just adds needless length to the film. A few silly songs are thrown in to add to the juvenile feeling. If you are at all familiar with Stephen Sondheim's musical, "Into the Woods", you've seen it done much better. In fact, if you've seen any of the productions of that hit show, those songs might pop into your head while these songs are instantly erased mercifully from your musical memory database.
One funny scene involves Costello (as Jack) being chased by the so- called giant in a hollow log which brings a few laughs, but the rest of the film is somewhat unbearable. I can't rate this film based upon what I thought of it, but by imagining how a less jaded and technically less advanced era of pre-teen movie audiences might have taken to this. But if you want to see how a good fairy tale can actually be from that era, I highly recommend "The 50,000 Fingers of Dr. T" over this mediocre nonsense.
One funny scene involves Costello (as Jack) being chased by the so- called giant in a hollow log which brings a few laughs, but the rest of the film is somewhat unbearable. I can't rate this film based upon what I thought of it, but by imagining how a less jaded and technically less advanced era of pre-teen movie audiences might have taken to this. But if you want to see how a good fairy tale can actually be from that era, I highly recommend "The 50,000 Fingers of Dr. T" over this mediocre nonsense.