Beanstalk Parody

Jack and the Beanstalk is one of the most iconic fairy tales, and as such, it is often parodied in media.

These stories usually follow the original fairytale more or less closely — characters obtain magic beans, sometimes as part of being swindled, from which a giant beanstalk grows that leads to a castle in the clouds, inhabited by a giant. The giant will often be guarding a Damsel in Distress (most commonly a living harp), a goose that can lay golden eggs, a vast amount of treasure, or any combination of the three. Some works may also have the twist that the giant may not actually be that big, and is using the castle as compensation for his diminutive size. Changes and omissions are rare, but sometimes include replacing the giant for another villain or threat, dropping the beans' origin story, or replacing the beanstalk with another plant or tall structure.

This trope is more commonly seen in surreal works; in works more grounded in realism, this will often be used as story being told to the works' characters or used as an Imagine Spot or a dream by one of the characters. In both cases, this trope is rarely played straight in modern media; like most stock fairy tale adaptations, it's usually lampshaded, parodied, or deconstructed in some manner. It's also fairly common for the residents of the land in the sky to be "played" by the work's regular cast.

In some cases, the giant's castle may be part of a larger world up in the sky. This is fairly rare, however; most often, the castle or mansion is all that will be visited or described.

In video games, this trope is used when a level (usually a Level in the Clouds) takes place on a giant beanstalk. This may often involve fighting giant insects and walking across clouds. A giant may appear as the level boos at the end of the stage.

A Sub-Trope of Fairy Tale Episode, Journey to the Sky, and usually a Fractured Fairy Tale. Compare Cinderella Plot, another fairy-tale reference trope.

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Examples:

Asian Animation

• Bread Barbershop: "Wilk and the BeanStalk" has Wilk buying magic seeds that grow into a beanstalk. The beanstalk brings him to a bunch of foods in the sky, but Wilk must refrain from telling anyone about the magic the beans have.
• The Noonbory and the Super 7 episode "Cozy and the Rosy-stalk" is loosely based on the fairy tale. In it, Cozybory trades her art supplies to Rosygury for a magic rose seed. The rose, whom she calls "Cozy-Rose", then grows giant, but instead of leading to a castle in the sky, Cozy-Rose comes to life and takes things from the borys to give to Rosygury, who was unaware of what Cozy-Rose was capable of.

Comic Books

• Archie Comics: In one comic, Jughead is reading Jack and the Beanstalk to Jellybean's class, but Jellybean spaces out and imagines Jughead going up a beanstalk to find a goose who lays golden Pookey-Man cards.
• Issue 2 of the Cartoon Cartoons comic series by DC has a Cow and Chicken story called "Chicken and the Beanstalk". In it, Chicken trades Cow for a bag of beans to Mr. Harry Tale, owner of the company "Beans For Beef, Inc." and who is impersonated by the Red Guy. Sure enough, a large beanstalk grows from the beans. Chicken climbs it and has to deal with a giant who wants him to lay golden eggs like his goose. However, Cow senses her "udder sense" tingling, changes into Supercow and saves him.
• A Marvel Fairy Tales Infinity Comic had Spider-Man accidentally cause Sersi to misfire a blast intended to transmute a Deviant monster a specific way into some beans. This inadvertently causes the beans to grow into a gigantic stalk that somehow reach into a home in Jotunheim. There, due to a belligerent J. Jonah Jameson tagging along, Spider-Man runs afoul of a Frost Giant couple.
• Played for horror in one story of an anthology comic, where the giant beanstalk is explicitly stated to reach into other dimensions and the one the protagonist just grew appears to have made contact with an Eldritch Abomination.

Fan Works

• In Danger Than Fiction, a bookwalking spell gets the pony protagonists sucked into the plots of numerous books. Near the end, as the spell starts to break down, they wind up as interlopers in a mash-up of two different versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk". The Giant is replaced by Gullfaxi from Norse Mythology, and there are two Jacks invading the Giant's castle: the regular version from a straight telling of the fairy tale, and a cynical smart-ass (literally—he's a donkey) from a Fractured Fairy Tale version. The two Jacks get to arguing and take so long that Gullfaxi eventually gets confused and just wanders away.
• The This Time Round fic Story Time! Jack and the Beanstalk has Chris and Roz from the Doctor Who New Adventures as Jack and his mother, OC Bob the Muse as the giant, Fitz from Eighth Doctor Adventures as the giant's wife, and Mel Bush as the harp. It goes completely off the rails in the final scene.

Films — Animated

• Fun and Fancy Free: The second half of the film is a retelling of the story with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy in the collective role of Jack.
• In "The House That Jack Built (1967)", Jack trades his busted car for magic beans that grow into a beanstalk. Jack climbs it and reaches the castle of Mr. Giant, who is not a giant at all (in fact, he's shorter than Jack) but has a "motivational mirror" that makes him think he is. Jack steals the mirror and uses it to become wealthy and successful.
• Jack to Mame no Ki is an anime retelling of the Jack and the Beanstalk story.
• In Puss in Boots, "Jack and the Beanstalk" really happened, but it happened about 60-100 years ago, as evidenced by the fact that Jack is now an old man. The main plot is about Puss, Humpty Dumpty and Kitty growing a second beanstalk and climb to the castle in the sky, where a goose laying golden eggs is now said to live. For this end, they have to steal the remaining magic beans from Jack (who's an outlaw here) so they can plant them.

Films — Live-Action

• In Abbott and Costello's Jack and the Beanstalk, Eloise Larkin and her fiancé Arthur's plans to attend the rehearsal of a play are jeopardized because no one will babysit her obnoxious kid brother Donald. Eloise phones the Cosman Employment Agency, where Mr. Dinkel (Bud) and Jack (Lou) just happen to be seeking work. Jack flirts with Cosman employee Polly, but he is thwarted by the arrival of her boyfriend, a towering police officer. Polly sends Dinkle and Jack to babysit, but an attempt to lull the boy to sleep by reading the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk (Jack's "favorite novel") aloud fails when Jack stumbles over the larger words. Bemused by Jack, Donald reads the story instead — a role-reversal made complete when Jack falls asleep as Donald reads. In his slumber, Jack dreams that he is the young Jack of the fairy tale. Hilarity Ensues as he the people he has met fill the various roles in the story.
• Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story revolves around a descendent of Jack trying to undo the mistakes of his greedy ancestor.
• Jack the Giant Slayer is an Actionized Adaptation of the story, where there is an entire tribe of giants living in the sky, waging a war on humanity.

Literature

• In The Big Over Easy, set in a world where fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters walk among us, Jack Spratt is an amalgam of several oral tradition characters named Jack. Minor plot elements subtly recreate the "Jack and the Beanstalk" story and build up towards the climax. Early on, he trades a Stubbs' cow painting his mother told him to sell for some magic beans, which create a huge beanstalk in his mother's backyard. In the climax of the book, Jack climbs up, then falls off of the beanstalk in order to escape a giant bioengineered chicken-monster. Jack then chops down the beanstalk, and it falls down, killing the monster and its creator who was the villain of the story.
• The Faraway Tree has an unofficial crossover with Jack and the Beanstalk (being in the Public Domain) where the main characters visits the Land of Giants. They even encounter Jack himself (a bit of an Anachronism Stew as the book is set in the 1940s, unless the Jack they encounter is a descendant of the original) before using Jack's beanstalk to escape from some giants.
• In Hogfather, Susan's "translated" version of the story pokes fun at the concept of the Designated Hero.
  "...and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions."
• In the kids' book Jim and the Beanstalk, a boy named Jim climbs another beanstalk and meets the original giant's adult son.
• In Revolting Rhymes, the "Jack and the Beanstalk" parody turns the mother into an Abusive Parent and Retcons the reason the giant can smell people into being because they didn't wash.
• The first story in the Spongebob Squarepants book "Once Upon a Spongebob" parodies Jack and the Beanstalk. Spongebob, playing Jack, is sent to sell Gary by his mother (played by Mrs. Puff), but is tricked into buying magic kelp from Squidward, which grows into a giant kelpstalk. Spongebob climbs it, but is caught by the giant (Plankton) before he can steal the magic golden jellyfish.
• The Stinky Cheese Man is an anthology of Fractured Fairy Tales, with Jack (of "and the Beanstalk" fame) serving as the Interactive Narrator for the whole thing. When it comes time for Jack to tell his own story, the Giant comes down the beanstalk early and announces he hates how the story usually goes, and instead he reads to the audience a story he wrote himself. Said "story" turns out to be a nonsensical mashup of sentence fragments literally cut-and-pasted from other stories. Jack complains about how bad this new story is, so the Giant grabs him and threatens to eat him if he doesn't tell a better story—then he adds that when the story's over, he'll eat Jack anyway. Realizing that his only hope is to stall for time, Jack tells an endless, recursive story and keeps it up until the Giant falls asleep, allowing him to sneak away.
• The Thomas & Friends book "Thomas and the Beanstalk" involves Thomas, having heard the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, delivering a train of beans, when he gets knocked down by Diesel 10, causing his load to spill into the ground. A giant beanstalk grows from the beans, with railroad tracks circling it, allowing Thomas to climb it. When Thomas reaches the top, he sees a golden engine being held prisoner by The Giant and a giant Diesel 10 (big enough for The Giant to ride in). In the end, the story appears to have been All Just a Dream from Thomas, but then Thomas' driver finds a piece of gold-colored coal from the Golden Engine in his bunker.

Live-Action TV

• 31 Minutos: In "La alcancia" (The Piggy Bank), Juanin is instructed by his friends to buy a "Super Chancho Alcancia" (Super Piggy Bank). However, he is tricked by Tio Pelado into buying him some seemingly magic beans. Just as expected, the beans grow into a huge beanstalk that leads not to a giant, but to God himself. He reveals the beans aren't magical at all, and just made them grow in order for Juanin and his friends to have the chance to choose between all the wisdom in the world and a golden Super Super Piggy Bank. They choose the piggy bank.
• Gilligan's Island: The Dream Sequence in "V For Vitamins" features Gilligan in one of these, searching for "The Goose That Lays The Golden Oranges." Mrs. Howell plays his mother, Mr. Howell sells him the beans, and The Skipper is the Giant.
• The Goodies: In "The Goodies and the Beanstalk", the Goodies fall on hard times, and Tim and Graeme send Bill to sell their trusty three-seater trandem. All the local townspeople find it ridiculous and Bill is humiliated by only being offered a tin of baked beans. Tim and Graeme are disgusted with only getting baked beans, instead of money, but Graeme gets the idea to plant a bean. This rapidly grows into an enormous beanstalk — reaching all the way from England to the summit of Mt. Everest. In hot pursuit of their beanstalk, the Goodies enter an "It's a Knockout" competition, which is being held at the foot of Mt. Everest. Among other things, the Goodies have to climb the beanstalk to the top of the mountain, as part of the contest. There, they find the Giant's castle and, in it, a Giant of surprising height who has a valuable secret to protect.
• Green Acres: "Oliver and the Cornstalk" has Oliver's corn growing into an enormous cornstalk. Lampshaded by Eb and Lisa, who directly compare it to "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Jacqueline and the Beanstalk", respectively (each comparison is followed by a child with that name climbing down). The Jolly Green Giant is also apparently at the top - we hear his laugh come from the clouds above, and he thows down several cans of vegetables, causing Eb to remark "Golly! We're in a TV commerical!"
• Mr. Young: Invoked. "Mr. Freshman" involves Adam trying to convince Ivy to go to college by relating to her a story of how he also felt college was to difficult and went back to regular school (Adam being only 9 at the time) and accidentally caused the class project of growing beans, to grow a massive Beanstalk trapping Mr Tater up the top. Professor Fenway keeps trying to implement a giant into the story to fit with the fairy tale, to Adam's annoyance.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Salem manages to grow one in an episode, although, instead of a giant, a mortal eating witch named Margalo lived at the top (however, Sabrina's aunts warn her that beanstalks leading to the home of a giant exist too; beanstalks in general always lead to a bad neighborhood). Margalo managed to lure Harvey up, causing Sabrina to follow despite the altitude shorting out her powers due to her half mortal status (which also made her fair game as far as Margalo was concerned). The two are eventually able to escape, and when Sabrina's magic is restored, she gets some revenge on Margalo by turning her into a vegetarian. Hilda and Zelda, after spending the entire episode trying to get help but running into a Obstructive Bureaucrat, finally get a tree trimmer to get rid of the beanstalk.
• Sesame Street:
  • In one episode, Jack grows a beanstalk but refuses to climb it for fear of damaging it.
  • In one of the news skits, Kermit climbs a beanstalk and meets a giant (played by puppeteer Jerry Nelson in a rare live action cameo).
  • In Episode 3046, after Mike reads Elmo the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, Elmo decides to plant his own beanstalk so he can climb up it and get some golden eggs, despite Mike trying to tell him it's only a story. However, when Elmo plants his beans, the beanstalk doesn't grow right away, making him upset. Big Bird tells Elmo to imagine the beanstalk while he waits for his beanstalk to grow, and that's what Elmo does. In his Imagine Spot, Elmo reaches the top of the beanstalk, but has to be careful not to wake up Mike as the Giant as he takes the golden eggs.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: One of the various random effect that can be created by planting the contents of a bag of beans is the creation of a towering beanstalk that, if climbed, leads to a random sky-themed location such as a cloud giant's floating castle, the Elemental Plane of Air, or "a great view".
• Magic: The Gathering: Eldraine, a plane based on fairytales, has this as a recurring motif.
  • Throne of Eldraine has the cards "Beanstalk Giant", depicting a giant covered in twining bean vines, and "Tall as a Beanstalk", where a character realizes he was supposed to plant the beans, not eat them, once they begin sprouting out of him.
  • Wilds of Eldraine features this more prominently in its main story, where Kellan and Ruby need to climb up a huge beanstalk during their quest in order to consult a magic mirror belonging to the giant Beluna Grandsquall, who doesn't lightly tolerate "smallfolk" in her home. These sorts of vegetable towers are apparently relatively common in Eldraine, and are home to immense vegetal serpents when they aren't animated things in their own right.

Video Games

• Action 52: Game 43 in the Sega Genesis version is Magic Bean. In it, you control presumably Jack who has to climb the giant beanstalk while dodging objects thrown at him, like boots, swords, bottles, and horseshoes.
• Bubsy: Chapters 4, 5, and 6 of Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales are called "Out on a Limb", "Highly Stung", and "Jungle Furvor". These chapters are based on Jack and the Beanstalk and feature Bubsy climbing the titular beanstalk. "Jungle Furvor" takes place in the Giant's castle, although the boss is a normal-sized man in a pair of robot legs, rather than the Giant.
• Kickle Cubicle: The first boss in the NES version, Koke, lives in a castle in the clouds, and Kickle rides a growing beanstalk to get there.
• Donkey Kong 64: Getting one of Tiny Kong's golden bananas in Fungi Forest involves obtaining a magic bean from one area of the world and then planting it in another. The bean immediately grows into a giant talking beanstalk which gives Tiny a golden banana that she grabs using her Mini Monkey ability.
• Doraemon 2: SOS! Otogi no Kuni revolves around Doraemon and friends using the Picture Book Entry Shoes to enter the world of fairytales, including a level based on Jack and the Beanstalk where the player jumps their way upwards to the beanstalk's tip while avoiding enemies.
• Elmo and the Beanstalk is a Licensed Game of Sesame Street involving Elmo collecting beans and climbing up a beanstalk.
• Kingdom of Loathing: The Level 10 quest has you find a way to stop giant trash from falling from the sky. For the quest, you plant an enchanted bean in in a pile of giant coffee grounds and climb the beanstalk, adventure in the Penultimate Fantasy Airship to collect four Immaterias to give to a guy who will build you a smaller airboat to take you to the Giant's Castle, then make your way through a number of hobby enthusiasts giants to reach the chore wheel, and turn it so someone besides the Procrastination Giant has to go on trash duty and clean up the mess.
• Kirby: Triple Deluxe: Kirby's current adventure has him climbing the giant flower tree called "Dreamstalk" in order to save the kidnapped Dedede, and he stumbles into a Floating Continent called Floralia along the way.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: There are some Kinstones which, upon being fused, make a previously-planted bean grow at a fast rate until reaching the high skies. The resulting beanstalk can then be climbed by Link to find a valuable treasure in the clouds (in two instances being a Heart Piece, in another a Bomb Bag upgrade, and in the remaining one being a Quiver upgrade).
• Mickey Mouse games:
  • Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse: The fifth level, Mickey and the Beanstalk, is based on the animated short of the same name from 1947. Mickey travels up the beanstalk and into Willie the Giant's Castle, where he meets his 1947 counterpart at the end of the stage.
  • Land of Illusion: When Mickey meets Minnie at the Good Princess' Castle, she gives him the magic beans and advises him to plant them on the island below the Phantom's Cloud Castle so that a beanstalk will grow from them. Mickey also needs to collect the Cloud Shoes from the Stone Pyramid in the Desert so that he can walk on the clouds without falling through them. When Mickey plants the beans, a giant beanstalk does grow from them and he has to climb to the top so he can reach the Phantom Cloud's Castle, which is the game's final level.
  • Mickey Mouse 3: Dream Balloon: Stage 3 takes place on Willie the Giant's beanstalk. Mickey must climb to the top of the beanstalk while dodging giant insects, flying eggs, rain clouds, and Lucifer the Cat. The boss of the stage is Willie the Giant himself. A modified version of this level was also featured in its North American Dolled-Up Installment, Kid Klown In Night Mayor World.
  • Mickey's Ultimate Challenge: Once Mickey/Minnie has done collective deeds for the citizens of Beanwick, he/she has to give them items in exchange for 5 magic beans. After which he/she tosses them into the Wishing Well and wishes to find out the cause of the kingdom's rumbling, causing a gigantic beanstalk to sprout from the ground and breaking the wishing well. Mickey/Minnie climbs up the beanstalk to find the cause of the earthquakes: A snoring giant. Once he/she awakens the giant with an alarm clock, the giant remarks that he had the strangest dream and couldn't wake up, and befriends the mouse before Mickey/Minnie wakes up back in bed.
• Moshi Monsters: One of the missions is called "The Great Moshi Beanstalk" and it's about Dr. Strangeglove, the main villain in the series, growing a giant beanstalk to nab the Moshlings (little animals that exist in the game) at the top. The player succeeds in saving the Moshlings, but not before being captured by a giant who mistakes them and two Moshlings named Burnie and Weeny for toys.
• Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It: The level "Shake a Tower" revolves around Spoonerisms. At the end, you visit a stockroom full of pairs of jeans. The back of the jean stock becomes Jack and the Beanstalk, and a man surveying the jeans (a jean client) gets turned into a clean giant, who climbs up the stalk. You meet him at the top of the stalk, where he pours a bucket of thick butter down it so you can't climb as easily. To defeat the giant, you give him your hat, which contains a head louse. Turning it into a lead house, you crush the giant and tie bed sheets (from the beets in his shed) to climb back down. The client isn't done yet, and shows up once more at the bottom, where you deliver a crushing blow to defeat him for good.
• Rugrats Castle Capers: The "Beanstalk Babies" level takes place on the beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk. Enemies in this level include anthromporphic beans and giant insects. The boss of the level is Angelica as The Giant, although you don't actually have to fight her to defeat her, as the goal of the level is to rescue Kimi's Superthing doll.
• The Simpsons: Bart & the Beanstalk is a video game for the Game Boy that parodies the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, with Bart in the role of Jack, Mr. Burns in the role of the bean dealer, and Homer in the role of the giant.
• Spyro: Year of the Dragon: The level Charmed Ridge has a Mini-Dungeon that revolves around a man named Jack trying to find a golden goose on top of a tower using special seeds. You have to wisely use the seeds in order to reach the tower's top to help him.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Mario Kart 8: Part of Cloudtop Cruise takes place on a giant beanstalk.
  • Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: Bean Valley consists of a colorful forest/jungle that ends with a brick block that has a beanstalk leading to the clouds. There are more beanstalks up there connecting to Nimbus Land, where Mallow was originally born in as the long-lost prince.
  • Mario Party 5: The minigame "Leaf Leap" begins as the characters plant beans that grow into beanstalks. As these beanstalks grow, they have to jump from leaf to leaf to reach the top. The player that climbs the highest within the time limit wins.
  • Paper Mario 64: Since the villainous Huff N. Puff is clouding the sky with his Puff Puff machine during Chapter 6, sunlight isn't reaching the plants. Mario aims to defeat Huff N. Puff after destroying his machine, but to do so he needs to gather some items first: a Miracle Bean that can grow into a tall beanstalk, a Fertile Soil to plant the bean onto, and some Miracle Water to make it grow. With the items gathered and the beanstalk grown, Mario climbs it to reach the Cloudy Climb and look for the boss. At the end of the ordeal, he frees the sixth Star Spirit and continues on his adventure.
• Ten Made Jack — Odoroki Manenoki Daitoubou ("Up to the sky, Jack!" in Japanese) is a platformer for the PlayStation based on the folk tale, where as Jack players must leap from branches and leaves on the beanstalk to escape giants after him. Oddly enough Jack here isn't a human, but a blue-skinned goblin creature with a horn.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk (also known as The Great Beanstalk) is a video game for the PS1 and PC where the goal of the game is to get Buster Bunny and Plucky Duck into The Giant's castle by finding pieces of a key. This is done by using hints given by the loudspeaker (by Babs Bunny), and pointing and clicking on objects found in the game. There are a total of three keys to be found on Easy Mode, but changing the difficulty to Hard can give the player a longer adventure. Elmyra Duff takes on the role of a magical witch that can capture Buster or Plucky, hindering their quest for a bit.
• Yoshi's New Island: The World 1 boss Big Beanie is fought at the top of the giant beanstalk he is attached to.

Web Animation

• 50 Ways to Die in Minecraft: The Fairy Tale episode involves a few Jack and the Beanstalk parodies, which involve the giant crushing Jack after falling from the beanstalk and the giant refusing to eat an American because of "too much trans fat".
• The Happy Tree Friends TV episode "Dunce Upon a Time" has this trope as its gist. It's basically a grisly retelling of the fairy tale, though it also includes elements of Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin.
• The episode from Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers has "The Quest for RTX"

Web Videos

• The SuperMarioLogan episode "Jeffy and the Beanstalk" is about Jeffy being forced to eat green beans (again), except that he lies about eating them and buries them in the backyard. The next day, Jeffy discovers that the (cooked) green beans grew into a giant beanstalk and he climbs it. At the top, Jeffy encounters the Green Bean Giant, who turns him into a green bean after he “uses the name of green beans in vain”. Jeffy turns back to normal after relenting to eat the green beans he dislikes so much.

Western Animation

• The Addams Family (1992): In the episode "Jack and Jill and the Beanstalk", Uncle Fester has trouble sleeping, so Wednesday and Puggsley tell him the story of Jack and Jill and the Beanstalk, with Puggsley in the role of Jack, and Wednesday in the role of Jill. Jack and Jill recieve magic beans from the Big Bad Wolf when they loan him their alligator. When they get to the Giant's castle, the Giant is revealed to have an obsession with underwear, and has Rumpelstiltskin as his prisoner to make him a golden pair.
• Animaniacs:
  • The short "The Warners and the Beanstalk" has Yakko, Wakko and Dot in a parody of the story, with Hello Nurse as the harp and Ralph as the giant. It later turns into a parody of Green Eggs and Ham when the Warners try to coax the giant with gold eggs and meat.
  • The Pinky and the Brain special "Spell-Bound" features a cameo by the Warners (in a possible Call-Back to the earlier short) retrieving a singing harp resembling Dean Martin.
• In the Arthur episode "Just Desserts", Arthur eats too much, and has a fairy tale-esque dream. Part of his dream involves D.W. tossing antacid tablets into the ground and a beanstalk growing from them. When Arthur climbs to the top of the beanstalk, he encounters a giant made of eight years worth of food.
• A Betty Boop short, simply titled "Jack and the Beanstalk", has Bimbo as the role of Jack and Betty as the giant's prisoner/cook.
• Classic Disney Shorts: The 1933 short Giantland has Mickey Mouse telling a group of mouse children the story with himself in the title role.
• The Count Duckula episode "Duck and the Broccoli Stalk" provides a variation; Thanks to Dr. Von Goosewing's vegetable grower, Duckula, Igor and Nanny find themselves up a broccoli stalk and into a giant's castle.
• Happens in the Cow and Chicken episode "Chicken's Fairy Tale". Chicken trades Cow to a farmer for five Canadian jumping beans. Once the beanstalk grows, he, Flem and Earl climb it and end up next to the castle of a giant impersonated by the Red Guy. Just like in the "Chicken and the Beanstalk" example above, Cow is alerted by her "udder sense" that the three friends are in danger, so she changes into Supercow and saves them. Flem then lays a golden egg which they use to buy Cow back.
• DuckTales (2017): The episode "Jaw$!" opens with Scrooge and his family returning from a treasure hunt that involved climbing and chopping down a giant beanstalk. We don't get to see the adventure, only its aftermath, where the felled beanstalk caused property damage throughout the city.
• The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: In the episode "Snoopy and the Giant", a beanstalk grows in the garden that Woodstock has Snoopy make for him. When Snoopy and Woodstock climb the beanstalk, they come to the Giant's castle and find a room full of cookies. The Giant, who resembles Bill Meléndez, captures Woodstock, and Snoopy has to save him. When Snoopy and Woodstock get back home, Snoopy cuts down the beanstalk with a chainsaw, and when Woodstock tries to plant a new garden, Snoopy takes the key to his tractor.
• Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: In the Magnificent Muttley short "What's New, Old Bean?" spoofs "Jack and the Beanstalk", while on garden duty, Muttley imagines himself as Jack, and Dick Dastardly as the giant.
• The Family Guy episode "Grimm Job" parodies several fairy tales read by Peter. One story is "Jack and the Beanstalk", where Peter is Jack, Stewie is the golden goose, and Chris is the giant.
• In the Futurama episode "Leela and the Genestalk", Leela has a disease that makes her grow tentacles. A con man sells Fry some "magic beans" to allegedly cure Leela, but Farnsworth throws them out the window and they grow a beanstalk. When they get to the top, they meet a giant, along with several other genetically engineered people. However, there is nothing magical going on; the castle is a laboratory run by Mom, and the giant is actually a human suffering from severe gigantism who volunteered to try Mom's genetic engineering as a cure. The beans and the resulting beanstalk are also the result of her genetic experiments.
• Garfield and Friends: The U.S. Acres segment "Jack II: The Rest of the Story" begins with Orson reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to Booker, Sheldon, Wade, and Roy. The four decide to write their own sequel to the story after questioning the ending of Jack having an unconscious giant in his front yard. In this sequel, Jack is arrested for theft, attempted murder of a giant, and chopping beanstalks out of season. Meanwhile, the giant takes back the Goose that lays golden eggs and uses the gold to turn his castle into a mini-mall.
• Hokey Wolf: In "Bean Pod'ners", Hokey accidentally grows a beanstalk. He and Ding-a-Ling climb it and enter a castle that is home to a Gentle Giant and his dog. Of course, the wolves return to earth and chop down the beanstalk.
• Johnny Bravo: The episode "Johnny and the Beanstalk" revolves a hair stalk made from some magic hair tonic that leads to the castle of a very ditzy giant that treats Johnny like a toy.
• Johnny Test: The episode "Johnny and the Beanstalk" revolves around Johnny growing a giant beanstalk, although this version uses cereal pieces instead of magic beans.
• The Cbeebies show Kerwhizz has an episode called "The Fairy Tale Trail", on which the three protagonist teams race through the beanstalk and the giant's castle.
• Looney Tunes:
  • The 1942 short Foney Fables has a scene where Jack is chased down the beanstalk by a two-headed giant. The giant pauses after a while because one of his heads is sick.
  • The 1943 short Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk has Bugs Bunny going up the beanstalk to get some giant carrots and meeting a dopey giant.
  • The 1954 short Goo Goo Goliath has a drunken stork mistakenly delivering a giant baby, who was meant to go to the top of the beanstalk, to a normal-sized couple.
  • The 1955 short Beanstalk Bunny features Daffy Duck in the Jack role, Elmer Fudd as the giant, and Bugs... well, he's just along for the ride.
    Bugs: I don't remember any rabbit in "Jack an' da Beanstalk", but dere's gonna be one in dis one.
  • The 1957 short Tweety and the Beanstalk has Sylvester going up a beanstalk and trying to capture a giant Tweety while avoiding his owner.
    Giant: Fe, fi, fo, fat! I tawt I taw a putty tat!
• Mad Jack the Pirate: In the penultimate episode "Mad Jack and the Beanstalk", Snuk loses the money Mad Jack gave him to pay off Jack's landlord to a con man and is left with beans tied to string. Jack throws the beans in the sea, resulting in a giant bean stalk growing. Like in the fairy tale, they find a giant's castle on top of the beanstalk, and eventually rob it of a single, gigantic coin which they use to pay off the landlord.
• The Magic School Bus: In the episode "The Magic School Bus Gets Planted", the class does a play of "Jack and the Beanstalk".
• Max and Ruby has a trilogy of episodes parodying fairy tales, titled "Max and Ruby's Bunny Tales". The second segment of the first Bunny Tales episode parodies Jack and the Beanstalk, with a lesson on why green beans are good for you.
• In the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode "Donald and the Beanstalk", Donald accidentally trades away Boo-Boo Chicken for magic beans to Willie the Giant. It's up to Mickey, Donald, and Goofy to go up the beanstalk to retrieve the chicken from Willie.
• Pac-Man: In "Once upon a Chomp", the Ghost Monsters lure Pac-Man and his family into re-enacting the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, with Pinky as the giant.
• PAW Patrol: The Season 1 episode "Pups and the Beanstalk" revolves around Rubble dreaming of an adventure based on Jack and the Beanstalk. This dream is the result of an earlier incident where Chickaletta ate some seeds that were meant to be planted in Yumil's farm. In the dream, Alex Porter is a giant, and the first who tries to climb the beanstalk is Marshall.
• In the Peg + Cat episode "The Giant Problem", Peg, Cat, the Three Billy Goats Gruff, the Three Bears, and two of the Three Little Pigs are up a beanstalk and the giant and his wife want to have lunch with them, but they think that they want to have them for lunch, so they escape and cut the beanstalk down, but the giants turn out to be friendly, and they make later appearances in other episodes.
• Popeye:
  • The 1943 short Ration fer the Duration (remade in 1951 as Let's Stalk Spinach) has Popeye dreaming about climbing a giant spinach-stalk that his nephews grew.
  • The All-New Popeye Hour: In "Popeye and the Beanstalk", Popeye climbs a beanstalk and meets a giant that looks just like Bluto.
• Rick and Morty: While in a dimension on par with a standard fairy tale setting, Rick and Morty travel up a beanstalk to a giant's castle to steal his treasure, only for the giant to injure himself; Rick and Morty get the blame and are arrested in a more modern day setting with giants.
• Rugrats:
  • In the 1991 series episode "The Magic Baby", after Grandpa Lou tells the babies the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, they become convinced that Dil has eaten some magic beans (really some bean-shaped pieces of cereal) and that he now possesses the ability to grant wishes.
  • The direct-to-video Tales from the Crib special "Three Jacks and a Beanstalk", with the babies collectively playing the role of Jack, and Angelica is the giant.
  • The second season of the 2021 series has a four-episode story arc where Susie tells the babies Fractured Fairy Tale-esque stories to help pass the time while their parents paint the mural at Angelica's preschool. The first episode, "The Climb" has Susie tell the babies the story of Jackie and the Beanstalk, with her in the role of Jackie, Angelica in the role of the Bean Dealer, the babies in the roles of the Giants, and Dil in the role of the Golden Goose.
• Secret Squirrel: In "Cuckoo Clock Cuckoo", a giant steals the face of Big Ben for his cuckoo clock, and Secret and Morocco have to go to the top of the beanstalk (which conveniently contains an elevator) to retrieve it.
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: In the episode "Mario and the Beanstalk", Mario sells Princess Toadstool's royal cow to raise money for the Mushroom Kingdom Orphanage. Dealin' Delbert gives them garbanzo bean seeds, which grow into a beanstalk. Inside the Giant's Castle, King Koopa takes on the role of the Giant thanks to a magic spell he cast upon himself, and guards a goose that can lay gold coins. It's up to Mario and his friends to rescue the goose and the Mushroom Kingdom Orphanage.
• In the Tales from the Cryptkeeper episode "Chuck (and Melvin) and the Beanstalker", the titular brothers, returning from "Sleeping Beauty", find themselves in the castle from the tale. After they make off with the golden harp, it turns out to be merely painted gold. The harp's strings on the other hand...
• The Tales from the Goose Lady short "Jack and the Beatstalk" consists of a take-off of the story where Jack is a beatnik whose mother owns a coffee shop and the giant is a hippie who owns a magic coffee machine.
• In one episode of Timon & Pumbaa, Pumbaa brings home a trio of magic bugs that produce a beanstalk which takes the duo into the sky, where they encounter a giant bug that they decide to eat. Unfortunately, they neglect to realize that the bug is bigger than them, and as such, are at risk of being eaten by it.
• The Tom and Jerry Show: In the short "Beanstalk Buddies", Tom and Jerry's last bean falls off their plate, through the floor of their shack and into the ground. While they sleep, the bean grows into a beanstalk. Tom and Jerry's shack is carried with the beanstalk into the sky. The next morning, they encounter a giant whose treasures include a talking harp and a goose that lays golden eggs. After they return home with the treasures and the giant's dog, Tom and Jerry enjoy a seven-course meal, made for them by the harp.
• Total DramaRama: In "Beth and the Beanstalk", Beth, Owen, and Izzy climb a magical beanstalk and they find themselves in a parallel dimension inhabited by giant versions of their friends. In the end, it was left unclear if it was just a dream or not.

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