Stop-motion animators Tom Holland and Jim Danforth did their best with what the sculpts would allow - which wasn’t much - but it’s clear that the producers were looking for more kid-friendly monsters, ones that wouldn’t freak out the younger audience members. The models in this film - sculpted by effects man Wah Chang - using cannibalized armatures designed by the great Marcel Delgado, are rubber-like and goofy looking, and they never come close to looking like anything other than what they are, tabletop toys. What is worse is that not only was it a pale imitation of the creature Harryhausen created for his film, but it also had none of the personality you’d get from one of Ray’s creations. The giant cyclops from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
![jack the giant killer scenes jack the giant killer scenes](https://townsquare.media/site/442/files/2013/03/jack-slayer-review.jpg)
This is when the film really starts to dip into the familiar waters of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, as not only is Jack being played by the same actor who played Sinbad, and the wizard Pendragon is being played by the actor who played the magician Sokurah in that film, but the first giant we encounter is a blatant rip-off of the Cyclops from Ray Harryhausen’s film. Ingenious plan, but it relies on a woman letting that thing in her bedroom. His first attempt at a hostile takeover involved posing as a visiting prince at Princess Elaine’s birthday - where he gifts her with a magical music box - and said music box happens to contain a small anthropomorphic jester that would, later that night, release its contents and transform into a giant that would then make off with the Princess. The Black Prince’s plan is to rule Cornwall with the Princess as his puppet - forcing her father to abdicate to ensure her safety - and this makes Pendragon a perfect example of the type of villain who tends to make overly elaborate plans, ones that seem doomed from the outset. He soon finds himself battling the many minions of Pendragon ( Torin Thatcher) for the fair lady’s hand.
JACK THE GIANT KILLER SCENES MOVIE
The movie of Jack the Giant Killer – directed by Nathan Juran, who also directed The 7th Voyage of Sinbad – follows the adventures of a dashing farmer named Jack ( Kerwin Mathews), who upon saving the lovely Princess Elaine ( Judi Meredith), promptly falls in love with her.
![jack the giant killer scenes jack the giant killer scenes](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzY5NjQ3MzAwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODAwMjQ5MDE@._V1_.jpg)
The Black Prince seen here kicking it back in his crib. Another strange choice was in giving the villain the name Pendragon, as that name is most commonly associated with King Arthur’s lineage, but as Pendragon is a title given to an ancient British or Welsh prince - one holding or claiming supreme power - we can understand our “Black Prince” taking that name. Even though this makes the film’s title technically accurate – as he does kill a giant – it’s a little bit of a letdown in that area, nonetheless. Now in the case of Edward Small’s Jack the Giant Killer, we are introduced to Jack as he kills a giant – saving a lovely princess in the process – but that is the only giant he kills in the film’s 94-minute running time we do get a second giant, but it’s killed by a sea monster and not Jack. Myth Note: The Cornish folklore of “Jack the Giant Killer” regales us with tales of a young farmer named Jack whose exploits under the rule of King Arthur pitted him against a variety of giants, and after killing many of them – to the point that the species must have been on the brink of extinction – Jack was given a seat at the famous Round Table.
![jack the giant killer scenes jack the giant killer scenes](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/PAFHYN/taking-the-keys-of-the-castle-jack-unlocked-all-the-doors-scene-from-jack-the-giant-killer-PAFHYN.jpg)
“Once upon a time, there was a well-dressed sorcerer.” The Black Prince (Pendragon’s nom de plume) and his minions were then exiled to a land beyond the known world - I’m guessing Ireland - a place where Pendragon could scheme and wait for his eventual return to power in Cornwall. The movie begins with an opening that should be familiar to Disney fans – a big bejewelled storybook setting up the tale we are about to experience – from which we learn of an evil sorcerer named Pendragon, who rules over an army of giants, witches and hobgoblins, and whose reign of terror was stopped by the great wizard Herla. Though it did have a pretty great poster. It was the success of Harryhausen’s Sinbad film that spurred Edward Small to make his own fantasy adventure tale – using the same stop-motion techniques found in Harryhausen’s film – and that it had a less than successful impact on the box office should be a surprise to no one. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then special effects master Ray Harryhausen should have felt very flattered when producer Edward Small released his fantasy film Jack the Giant Killer back in 1962 – a film that not only borrowed elements from Harryhausen’s 1958 film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad but also its director and two of its primary cast members – and what makes the whole thing even funnier, is that Harryhausen had approached Small back in 1957 to help produce The 7th Voyage of Sinbad but Harryhausen couldn’t even get past Small’s secretary.