Search - Faerie Tale Theatre - Rip Van Winkle on DVD


Faerie Tale Theatre - Rip Van Winkle
Faerie Tale Theatre - Rip Van Winkle
Actors: Harry Dean Stanton, Ed Begley Jr., Tim Conway, Glenn Withrow, John Achorn
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Genres: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy
NR     2004     0hr 49min

A lazy man retreats to the forest to hunt with his dog and meets up with some strangers who gave him some strange brew that makes him so sleepy that he doesn't wake up for twenty years.

     
4

Larger Image

Movie Details

Actors: Harry Dean Stanton, Ed Begley Jr., Tim Conway, Glenn Withrow, John Achorn
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Creators: Marco Zappia, Bridget Terry, Fred Fuchs, Shelley Duvall, Mark Curtiss, Rod Ash
Genres: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sub-Genres: Action & Adventure, Romantic Comedies, 3-6 Years, 7-9 Years, 10-12 Years, Adapted from Books, Comedy, Family Films, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Studio: Starmaker II
Format: DVD - Color
DVD Release Date: 11/16/2004
Original Release Date: 03/23/1987
Theatrical Release Date: 03/23/1987
Release Year: 2004
Run Time: 0hr 49min
Screens: Color
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 1
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English

Similar Movies

Rip Van Winkle
Director: Will Vinton
2
   NR   1978   0hr 27min
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Director: Pierre Gang
8
   PG   2003   1hr 31min
Faerie Tale Theatre - Rapunzel
Director: Gilbert Cates
3
   NR   2004   0hr 51min

Similarly Requested DVDs

Run Silent Run Deep
Director: Robert Wise
   NR   1999   1hr 33min
   
Dragonheart - A New Beginning
Director: Doug Lefler
   PG   2000   1hr 24min
   
The Goonies
Director: Richard Donner
   PG   2001   1hr 54min
   
Babylon 5 - The Complete First Season
   NR   2002   15hr 56min
   
Love Actually
Widescreen Edition
   R   2004   2hr 15min
   
Faerie Tale Theatre - The Little Mermaid
Director: Robert Iscove
7
   NR   2004   0hr 51min
   
Schultze Gets the Blues
Director: Michael Schorr
   PG   2005   1hr 54min
   
Forbidden Warrior
Director: Jimmy Nickerson
3
   PG-13   2005   1hr 31min
   
 

Movie Reviews

Faerie Tale Theatre: Rip Van Winkle
Clob Lane | Toronto, Canada | 02/11/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Atmospheric and delightful version of the Washington Irving classic from Faerie Tale Theatre. Francis Ford Coppola creates a spellbinding film with Harry Dean Stanton turning in a great performance as the man who liked to sleep alot! Talia Shire is wickedly funny as Rip's wife, Wilma. Alot of people probably think the same thing as I do, that the sets are a little too fake such as the sheet used for water when the goblins talk about their misfortunate shipwreck. Overall however, it's another excellent episode."
Francis Ford Coppola seems to be directing in his sleep....
Toby Dammit | Chicago | 08/02/2003
(2 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, let me state that Faerie Tale Theatre is one of the best children's series ever made. It walks the fine line of being entertaining for both children and adults without pandering to either. However, this is by far the weakest entry in the series and should be avoided by all but completists. The dark aspects of Washington Irving's book have been toned down in service of a bland script and oddly tacked-on environmental message. There are glimpses of the sort of magic and wonder the story invokes, but mostly this is a lifeless and static adaptation. Francis Ford Coppola is the most acclaimed director to work on the show, but he's directing on autopilot here. The script by Mark Curtiss and Rod Ash (who have notably written the most as well as the lamest scripts in the series) wanders aimlessly in the first half before crashing to a halt in the second. Harry Dean Stanton as Rip is one of the few good things here, but Talia Shire is woefully miscast (although I think that was the point) as Rip's overbearing wife. The series always runs on a shoestring, but here it really shows. During Hudson's flashback of the storm at sea, even young children will be rolling their eyes at the toy boat tossing around on a blanket. Some of the set pieces do deliver (most memorably the encounter with the ghosts) and Carmine Coppola's music is pretty enough, but I can find little else to recommend here. Maybe if you need help falling asleep...."
Fine addition to the FAERIE TALE THEATRE series
Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 11/10/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)

"RIP VAN WINKLE is a fine addition to the FAERIE TALE THEATRE series, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Harry Dean Stanton in the titled role.

Rip Van Winkle (Harry Dean Stanton) is a good man, he's just a too much of a dreamer is all. His wife Wilma (Talia Shire) has had just about enough of his loafing ways, the house is falling about their ears and there's no money.

When Rip goes hunting in the forest he happens upon a group of ghosts, who offer him some of their stange green drink. Sleepy and confused, Rip sleeps away in the forest (for 20 years!).

Once awake, Rip now finds himself in an entirely different world to that he knew only yesterday. What has happened to Rip Van Winkle?

Featuring great performances from Roy Dotrice and Tim Conway. Harry Dean Stanton is suitably-bewildered in the title role, and Talia Shire has a ball as the frazzled Wilma."
Enough of Washington Irving's Magic Resonates
Martin Asiner | jersey city, nj United States | 06/20/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)

"RIP VAN WINKLE is the kind of pseudo-fairy tale that can mean nearly anything that the reader wants. In the hands of director Francis Ford Coppola, RVW is a surprisingly entertaining version of the Washington Irving novel that was resurrected by the Fairie Tale Theater. A previous reviewer castigated Coppola for what he termed the cheapness of the sets. Yet, as I watched the film for myself (no children involved), I was carried along by what I saw as a deliberately surreal style that successfully mimicked the much more somber tone of the text. Rip (Harry Dean Stanton)is presented as a henpecked husband of wife Vilma (Talia Shire), a woman whose cacophanous shrewishness more clearly suggests Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West than the shrill yelping of say Hillary Clinton. In such a non-threatening world, Vilma's harsh voice and equally harsh hairdo do little more than serve as plot devices to propel Rip into the haunted mountains of the Catskills, where the tale's true power resides. Rip leaves the outer level surreal world of his village to enter the inner level surreality of the Magic Mountain of Commander Heinrich. There he sees the magical ghosts whose own deaths 150 years ago prefigure his own looming sleep death of twenty years. Rip's return is a balancing of his own confusion of his long sleep with an equally confusing long sleep of the burgeoning united colonies. The silliness of the mayor (Tim Conway) suggests the subtext that the changes in Rip's village--astounding as they must seem to the bewildered Rip--are only the precursor to further changes that involve granting rights to women and people of color. When Rip finally accepts the reality of his new life, so does the viewer accept the notion that even the seeming reality of momentous changes must be viewed against future and even more momentous ones. RIP VAN WINKLE succeeds in resonating this message as well as far more "serious" films."