Jack and the Beanstalk

While on his way to sell the family cow a young boy by the name of "Jack" (Bobby Riha) meets a traveling salesman named "Jeremy Keen" (Gene Kelly) who convinces him to accept some magic beans in exchange. Needless to say when he gets home "Jack's Mother" (Marian McKnight) is devastated to learn of this as she desperately counted on getting something so that she could make ends meet. Naturally, Jack is also ashamed of being duped and in a fit of anger throws the beans out of the window. What he doesn't realize is that Jeremy was telling the truth and the beans were really magic with the end result being a huge beanstalk growing up into the clouds during the night. And there to meet him at the base of the beanstalk is Jeremy to escort him into a grand adventure. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although this film was rather short (approximately 60 minutes), it made good use of animation to go with the song and dance to provide some decent family entertainment. Admittedly, the special effects are rather quaint by today's standards but all in all I enjoyed this movie for the most part and have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.