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Reid Taylor
Unregistered User
(2/18/03 8:09:26 pm)
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Attention Cannon Movie Tale fans
Attention Cannon Movie Tale fans! As most of you already know, most of these wonderful live-action musical fairy tale films have been out-of-print (meaning they have been discontinued, or taken off the market) and unavailable on video since 1990, when Cannon Films went bankrupt.
In 1993 MGM Home Entertainment re-released three of them on their label, The Emperor's New Clothes (w/ Sid Caesar and Robert Morse), Red Riding Hood (w/ Craig T. Nelson and Isabella Rossellini), and one of my personal favorites, Sleeping Beauty (w/ Morgan Fairchild and Tahnee Welch). Sadly, just in the past two months, MGM deleted them from their catalogue, and they are now officially out-of-print!
However, there are still some extra copies available in limited quantities on a few sites (eBay recommended for its low prices), which I have listed below for anyone who has not yet added them to their collection. If I were you, I'd act now, as they will not be out for grabs much longer.
The Emperor's New Clothes
Amazon
Movies Unlimited
Red Riding Hood
eBay 1
eBay 2
Amazon
Sleeping Beauty
eBay 1
eBay 2
Amazon
Movies Unlimited
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artsfan
Unregistered User
(2/20/03 1:48:55 pm)
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Cannon Movie Tales
Yes, Ebay is definetely the place to go for anything rare. I have
been fortunate enough to own a few of these excellent fairy tale
adaptations to my collection thanks to Ebay. I have purchased Snow
White ( starring the statuesque Diana Rigg as the Wicked Queen and
the comedic Billy Barty as Iddy the Dwarf), Hansel and Gretel (
starring the marvelous, though in this film quite terrifying, Cloris
Leachman as the wicked witch Grizelda), and Sleeping Beauty ( starring
the beautiful Morgan Fairchild as the Queen, Sylvia Miles as the
wicked Fairy of Red, Jane Weidlen of Go-Go's fame as the good Fairy
of White, and Raquel Welch's beautiful daughter Tahnee as the Princess
Rosebud). These versions are some of the most enjoyable and lavish
fairy tale productions I have ever seen. The storyline in Snow White
goes much deeper than just a jealous queen wanting to kill her more
beautiful step-daughter. In Cannon's version, we see Snow White
as a young child, when her father first marries the Wicked Queen.
This new queen obviously intends to fracture her husband's and step-daughter's
relationship by saying things like " you give her entirely
too much attention". She is sly and abusive, but at the same
time, comedic and at times humorous. She is not stonefaced much
like Disney's Wicked Queen. Instead she has personality, and makes
many kinds of gestures, which make her more entertaining. Nevertheless,
she is the same evil queen we have grown to know. Great performance
by Diana Rigg. Another standout in my mind is Cloris Leachman in
Hansel and Gretel. When the children first meet her, it appears
that there is nothing suspicious about her at all. She seems very
much like a Grandmother figure. When I first saw her I thought that
this witch would be mischevious and comedic. I was very wrong, because
when the children find out she is a witch, she does a complete 360.
She is menacing, frightening, hateful, abusive, and very threatening.
Many of her mannerisms and facial expressions remind me of The Exorcist.
And this version, in my opinion, is definetly not for young children
because at times, it can get unbelievably scary for what is intended
to be a child's story. For example, Hansel refuses to eat anymore
food. Grizelda(the witch) slowly moves away from his cage, picks
up a knife on a nearby table, approaches the sleeping Gretel, and
says " I'll just eat your sister. I'll roast her in my oven,
and eat her right in front of your eyes." She raises the knife
over Gretel and is about to stab her when Hansel quickly objects.
This, I must say, was very frightening. I did not expect it at all.
But it is very much closer to the dark feeling of the Grimm's original
fairy tale. I thoroughly enjoy these films, and I watch them often.
Ebay usually always has at least one or two, but they can get very
expensive. I bought Snow White for $40.00! But it was definetly
worth it, and I hope that you learned a bit more about these movies!
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reidtaylor
Unregistered User
(2/20/03 2:21:56 pm)
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Cannon Movie Tales
Yes, the more rare ones can sell for ridiculously high prices on eBay. The three I wrote about (The Emperor's New Clothes, Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty) just went out of print after being re-released by MGM, however, and there are still some brand new copies of them scattered across the internet. eBay has Red Riding Hood for as low as $4.99. See the links I posted.
Funny, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White are my favorites in the series too. As a matter of fact, I just received Sleeping Beauty in the mail today. I hadn't seen it in about two years, after my copy broke. I used to have all of the Cannon Movie Tales, and before today the only one I had left was Rumpelstiltskin. Now I'm trying to re-collect them, and I started with Sleeping Beauty, seeing as now it's going to become harder to get. It really is a fantastic movie, perhaps the best film adaption of the tale ever made.
I never really got why these films wern't all that successful. There's a huge cult following for them, hence the high prices they go for. Maybe they just didn't get enough publicity. The Disney Channel should just start showing them again. They haven't since like what, 1995?
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