Once Upon a Time (1973)

ONCE UPON A TIME is a West German fairytale compilation heavily indebted to the Walt Disney classics of old. It suffers from a real cheapness in terms of look and tone, with crude animation throughout and animated characters who are more than a little unpleasant. The version I saw, available for showing on Amazon Prime, suffered from having a typically blunt American dub job which took away any nuance that might have once existed. The plot is original but a bizarre mix of the most famous fairy tales of old, with elements of the Cinderella story popping up regularly.

I also saw this movie on the Family Film Festival around 1980 and fell in love with it. I've been searching for a copy for years. It is now available on DVD through Amazon.com. My copy arrived today and I just finished watching it. It's everything I remember!!! I'm so glad to know there are other people besides me who remember it. The music is what has stayed with me more than almost anything, especially the prince singing "Maria, Maria" and the babies' song too! I'd forgotten about the shoemaker; he's so funny! It's a marvelous cartoon. I'm so glad it's now available for all of us who remember it so fondly, and for a whole new generation who, I hope, will love it too!

I was doing laundry one day and all of a sudden I had a flashback of watching this movie about a beautiful young woman who has a horrible stepsister and stepmother, the girl meets and falls in love with a handsome prince, the girl and her stepsister fall into a well and enter this magical world where they are tested of their heart. There are crying little babies who are hungry and it is the beautiful young girl that proves to be the most kind and the most maternal. I remember seeing this movie when I was four maybe five years old during the mid eighties and I fell in love with it! I used to watch the movie over and over again...but it is nowhere to be found! There has to be a copy somewhere out there!

This was my favorite movie growing up, and I would love to see it again. Even though I cannot speak German, I am very tempted to buy the VHS tape in German (Der Zauberstein). There is still a line from this movie that my family quotes to each other when we do something exceptionally dumb ("The stone is not right, the girl is not bright.") I hope that one day I can share this movie with my children.