Line #24 Series/JackAndTheBeanstalkTheRealStory


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beanstalkrealstory.jpg]]
2	->OnceUponATime...[[LampshadeHanging yes, this sounds like a fairytale.]] A little something for the children.
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4	''Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story'' is a 2001 two-part MiniSeries directed by Brian Henson. It was a co-production of Hallmark Entertainment and [[Creator/JimHenson The Jim Henson Company]], and first aired on Creator/{{CBS}}.
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6	Just about everyone knows the tale of ''Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk''. Boy trades cow for magic beans, climbs the beanstalk that grows from the beans to a castle in the sky, steals a singing harp and goose that lays golden eggs from an evil giant then cuts down the beanstalk when the giant gives chase and he lives HappilyEverAfter.
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8	What if that wasn't what truly happened?
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10	Jack Robinson (Creator/MatthewModine) is the rich CEO of a large company who's having dreams about his father and an angry giant while trying to keep healthy since no Robinson male has lived to be over 40. Strange things start happening like a giant humanoid skeleton being found during construction of a casino around his ancestral castle and Ondine (Mia Sara), a mysterious woman who keeps suddenly appearing, accusing him of being "a thief and a murderer". Jack soon learns from a relative that he thought long dead that he is the descendant of Jack from the FairyTale and that the truth of the tale is not clear cut as it seems.
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12	----
13	!!The MiniSeries provides examples of:
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15	* AdaptationalAttractiveness: An InUniverse example. The woman who found and sheltered Jack in the fake tale is a haggard, old woman whereas the "real" woman, Ondine (played by Mia Sara), was young and had a relationship with Jack. This seems to be an effort to hide that the original Jack took advantage of her trust to steal from the giant.
16	* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the original fairy tale, the Giant was a straight-up villain who wanted to eat Jack. Here, the Giant, named Thunderdell, is a kind-hearted man and a loving father to Bran.
17	* AdaptationalVillainy: The fairy tale version of Jack's mother was a heroic character. In this adaptation, [[spoiler:Wilhemina killed Thunderdell, resulting in the curse that plagued him and his descendants for the next 390 years]].
18	* TheAgeless: Countess Wilhelmina, the woman whom the modern day Jack thought was his great aunt is actually the original Jack's mother. She was given {{immortality}} when she [[spoiler: killed Thunderdell, {{Curs\|e}}ing her to forever [[WhoWantsToLiveForever watch her descendants die young]].]]
19	* AnotherDimension: The realm that Ondine's people and the Giants live in appears to be as such, exemplified by the differing passages of time in both worlds, as well as the presence of the interdimensional rift that the beanstalk passes through in order to reach it.
20	* BigBad: Siggy's actions to take over Jack's business for money drives much of the miniseries' plot, and [[spoiler:Ondine and Jack must stop him before it's too late]].
21	* BigNo: Ondine yells "No" seconds before [[spoiler:she and Bran arrive to thwart Jack's death sentence]].
22	* CosmicKeystone: The harp and the goose contained the guiding energies of the lands at the top of the beanstalk and due to the original Jack's theft, the lands have become desolate and barren.
23	* CompleteImmortality: Wilhelmina became immortal after [[spoiler:killing Thunderdell]].
24	* CrossoverCosmology: The great council of giants is made up figures from various religions including [[Myth/NorseMythology Thor, Odin]], Maha Calia, [[Myth/CelticMythology Cernos]], [[Literature/TheBible Magog]], and others.
25	* DyingDeclarationOfHate: During the sequence that details the "fairytale version" of the story, as Thunderdell plummets to his death from the sky after Jack and his mother cut the beanstalk, he roars: "'''THAT ENGLISHMAAAAAN!!!'''"
26	* EveryoneHasStandards: [[spoiler: The original Jack may have been manipulative enough to trick Ondine into revealing the location of the harp and the goose, but he drew the line at murdering Thunderdell, so his mother took the initiative to kill him]].
27	* FracturedFairyTale: The miniseries has both a fairly straight telling of ''Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk'' and then modern day Jack starts to find out what "really" happened.
28	* {{Fiction 500}}: Modern day Jack is the chief executive of company called Robinson International that is a two hundred billion dollar enterprise.
29	* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Averted - GM crops are presented as a solution for supplying food in arid areas. The prototype seeds become a ChekhovsGun, allowing Jack to [[spoiler: convince the giants' council that life can be returned to their lands (apparently genetic engineering can overcome magical desolation).]]
30	* GoryDiscretionShot: When [[spoiler:Wilhelmina]] kills Thunderdell with the axe used to knock down the beanstalk, the impact is not shown, although his skull is shown to have been graphically fractured when his skeleton is dug up in the present.
31	* HappilyAdopted: Ondine to Thunderdell, which makes her quite hostile to the modern day Jack for what his ancestor did.
32	* HellIsThatNoise: In the fake tale, Thunderdell's scream as he falls from the sky.
33	* HereditaryCurse: Jack's family suffers from a 390-year-old curse that kills the sons after they turn 40 years old, which is ultimately the result of [[spoiler: the original Jack's theft and his mother killing the giant.]]
34	* HeroicBSOD: Bran went into a major one after [[spoiler:Thunderdell is killed by Wilhemina]].
35	* IdleRich: [[spoiler: Siggy encouraged present day Jack to not have children and take no interest in the business so Siggy can take over once the curse kills him.]]
36	* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: Magog's agent points out he was a librarian not a judge of character when discussing whom he gave the beans to.
37	* ImmuneToBullets: The giants are a bit [[GiantEqualsInvincible too big for bullets to have any effect on them]], although this doesn't stop [[spoiler: Siggy]] from trying.
38	-->[[spoiler: '''Siggy''']]: Giants? Get away. Don't hurt me. Leave me alone.\
39	(''Two shots are fired and the bullets bounce harmlessly off Thor'')\
40	[[spoiler: '''Siggy''']]: [[BlatantLies Oh, did I do that? I didn't mean to do that. ]]\
41	(''Fires two more shots and they too bounce right off'')\
42	[[spoiler: '''Siggy''']]: [[BlatantLies Just a silly reflex. I have no control]]. Someone call the army.\
43	(''[[ShootingSuperman Continues firing more shots which all bounce off Thor]]'')\
44	[[spoiler: '''Siggy''']]: What kind of gun is this? (''Thor kicks him across the room'')
45	* ImpoverishedPatrician: Robertson was a gentry family who was struggling financially from both the disappearance of Jack's knightly father and poor harvest. This was averted after [[spoiler: Jack manipulated Ondine into revealing the location of the harp and the goose so that they were able to use the latter’s gold eggs for wealth.]]
46	* InterspeciesAdoption: Thunderdell the Giant adopted the human Ondine after she lost her parents.
47	* LegendFadesToMyth: ''Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk'' was apparently based on exploits of Jack's ancestor and even he is surprised that the tale had some basis in fact.
48	* MyGreatestFailure:
49	** Bran was not able to save [[spoiler:Thunderdell]] when the beanstalk was cut down.
50	** Magog was the one who sent the beans to Earth only for his agent to choose the wrong Jack.
51	* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Giant, who didn't have a name in the original fairy tale, is named Thunderdell in this adaptation.
52	* NiceGuy: Thunderdell was a very pleasant giant loved by his people.
53	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:By stealing the harp and goose and helping Wilhemina kill Thunderdell, it set off the Robinson Curse that plagued their descendants for nearly four centuries]].
54	* NoNameGiven: We never do learn the name of the realm where the giants and Ondine's people live. Although Jack does casually refer to it as "giant land" in one scene.
55	* OurGiantsAreDifferent: Most of the giants are your standard giant humans but Maha Calia is blue with four arms and Cernos has the head of a stag in keeping with the depiction of their mythological namesakes.
56	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Magog clearly regrets having to kill Jack and is more than willing to let him return to Earth once he offers an alternative solution.
57	* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: By the time Jack and Ondine return to Earth, [[spoiler:the former has been declared legally dead and Siggy has taken his place in Robinson International]].
58	* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:Siggy basically suffers from this when Jack returns and the giants come down after him, pointlessly shooting the three giants with a standard gun and last seen on a newspaper headline being sent to an asylum for his 'delusion' that giants are after him]].
59	* SinsOfOurFathers: The protagonist and his family have been punished for the actions the original Jack for fifteen generations, to the point that the Giants [[spoiler:sentence Jack Robinson to die]].
60	-->'''Magog''': Surely in your world, if you benefit from the wrongdoings of your fathers, then you inherit the obligation to right the wrong. If you do not, then who shall?
61	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler:Jack Robinson tried to dissuade Siggy from shooting him by telling him that his death would turn the gold-egg-laying goose to a normal one; however, Siggy pointed out that such loss of income can be plugged by profits made from investments already made by the company.]].
62	* TakeMyHand: In the backstory, Bran tries to [[spoiler:help Thunderdell up the beanstalk when it's cut down, only for the latter to fall to his death as he accepts that his son can't save him]].
63	* TalkingAnimal: Galaga, the goose that laid golden eggs, until it was taken to Earth.
64	* TeleportationWithDrawbacks: LimitedUseMagicalDevice drawback. The giants possess glass vials that teleport the holder to Earth or back when smashed which makes the whole "climbing the beanstalk" thing a bit pointless (it is suggested that [[spoiler:the beanstalk was intended to encourage new awareness of their two worlds so that the giants could inspire humanity by establishing a more direct line of communication between the two worlds]]).
65	* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:Siggy should've known better than to shoot '''''giants'''''! Thor quickly kicks him away for his troubles]].
66	* TreacherousAdvisor: [[spoiler:Siggy set himself up as a ParentalSubstitute to modern day Jack and encouraged him to not settle down and have children so when Jack is killed by the HereditaryCurse, Siggy can produce a faked will that leaves everything to him and no one would have reason to question it]].
67	* WellDoneSonGuy: The first Jack's reason to climb up the beanstalk and steal the harp and the goose from [[spoiler: kind]] Thunderdell was to make his mother proud of him.
68	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Certainly applies to [[spoiler:Wilhemina; for actually killing Thunderdell, she is condemned to live for over four centuries (and it is implied that she wasn't even able to ''sleep'' during that time), watching her descendants die young]].
69	* WrittenByTheWinners: The show posits that the giant atop the beanstalk, Thunderdell, was in fact nothing but friendly and benevolent, with most of the fairy tale being a lie made up to cover for what Jack and his mother did for their own selfish ends. [[spoiler: This includes killing the giant after he falls off the beanstalk.]]
70	* YearOutsideHourInside: Time in the land at the top of the beanstalk passes at a rate of one day for every year on Earth, with the result that only a year has passed in the giants' country while almost four hundred have passed back on Earth.

Context Series / JackAndTheBeanstalkTheRealStory