New ‘Beanstalk’ Grows on You

CBS visits fairy tale noir Sunday when introducing a not-for-tots “Jack and the Beanstalk” that is kinder to the giant than to the customary hero of this centuries-old fantasy.

If you’re a traditionalist, don’t bother. This is not the “Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum” version with a ravenous Big Guy smelling “the blood of an Englishmun.”

“Jim Henson’s Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story” is dreamy and romantic, yet also mysterious and intriguingly dark, featuring big-business nastiness, murder and even goose abuse. Where is PETA when it’s needed?

Although the belabored schmaltzy ending lays an egg, the nearly four hours preceding it depart refreshingly from convention, making for one of the better prime-time two-parters of recent years. It would play better on a big screen, but it works well enough here.

No classic is so sacred that it’s exempt from revision. Yet what next? Little Red Riding Hood the Marxist? Snow White the tart? Mother Hubbard exposed as Mommy Dearest?

The protagonist in this tale, spun by the late Henson’s production company, lives in the present. He is naive, affable kadzillionaire industrialist Jack Robinson (Matthew Modine), great-great-great-grandson of the original Jack whose trade of his cow for a few beans yielded the soaring stalk that brought on the giant and subsequent legend.

All of which we see in flashback, but with a twist indicating that the Robinson fortune, on which the neo Jack now lives lavishly, sprang from a 390-year-old theft and slaying. Get out!

Meanwhile, the present Jack’s conscience is being touched, his social consciousness elevated thanks to his encounter with the enigmatic Ondine (Mia Sara), and no thanks to his greedy, entertainingly over-the-top Uncle Siggy (Jon Voight).

And what about the Robinsons’ seemingly immortal matriarch, Jack’s Auntie Wilhelmina (Vanessa Redgrave)? What’s her game? And what’s this about a family curse threatening to kill Jack pre-middle age as it did his father?

Written by James V. Hart, Bill Baretta and director Brian Henson, who is Jim’s son, “The Real Story” is especially appealing when operating on top of the beanstalk far above the clouds in a verdant, abundant paradise. Set before us is an idyllic realm we all would like to experience, one that’s home of the giant Thunderdell (co-writer Baretta), whose gentle, generous nature and soulfulness belie his bad reputation through the ages.

Working closely with Thunderdell on behalf of all things good are a gold harpist and a talking goose that lays golden eggs. And the colossus seems to have passed on his sterling character and family values to his son, who is also a sweet, hulking big body (maybe it’s a genetic glandular thing).

On one level, “The Real Story” is strictly feelgood. On another, it’s a mystery. Who hacked down the beanstalk, and why? What really happened to Thunderdell? And how does any of this relate to the story’s subtext of ending famine and alleviating hunger throughout the globe? Fe, Fi, Fo, find out for yourself.

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“Jim Henson’s Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story” can be seen Sunday and Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG-V (may be unsuitable for young children, with a special advisory for violence).