"Rumpelstilzchen" is a German television (actually in Austrian/German co-production in the German language) movie from 2007, so this one is already relatively old and it is closer to its 15th anniversary now than to its 10th even. This is of course one of those many many fairy tale films that were made for German television over the last almost 20 years now and it is probably among the earliest, which is not too surprising because this is really one of the most famous works from the (again) many many fairy atles by the Brothers Grimm. So of course, this would we one of the first they turn into a movie. Which is a bit unusual is that here we have an 80-minute movie because most of the time, they only run for pretty much an hour exactly. Maybe this mostly applies to those they made later on. Niessner, the director, I cannot really say anything positive about him. He worked on many projects that are simply low quality and for the easily entertained as I see from his body of work. Writer Teubner's body of work seems more promising, even if he definitely was not a prolific writer, but a producer most of the time. So your expectations should not be too high for this film we have here. This also has to so at least partially with the cast. Katharina Thalbach is (of course) still as famous as she was back then and a good choice for Rumpelstilzchen. But the two lovebirds were so boring and unspired, the guy even more than the girl, but she makes things equal because she has more screen time. No good casting here sadly. This is especially disappointing because with the supporting cast they did a fine job. Schleyer gives maybe the best performance from the film being the first antagonist in here before Rumpelstilzchen takes over. Georg Friedrich is also a welcome inclusion as always. Andreas Schmidt and Sven Pippig playing Hinz and Kunz (especially the former) were nice too, although it made me a bit sad how both actors died at a relatively young age. Anyway, you can see that once again (as so many other times with these fairytale films) they managed to get together a decent cast here with some pretty well-known actors. And also as always, they used ne faces for the prince(ss) characters, but this is really where they messed up. It's telling that these two nowadays "act" in "Sturm der Liebe" and "Lena Lorenz". If that does not say anything to you, then let me add that these are somewhere near the pond scum of German television. But back to this one here: Admittedly, the writing is not helping either. Are we really supposed to believe that Fischer's characater is physically capable of pushing Friedrich's out of the way? Please. Oh yeah, Anna Böger I know too, but that's probably just me because I love the film "Shoppen".
"Rumpelstilzchen" was never one of my favorite Brothers Grimm tales, so I am not too surprised I did not like it too much. I thought it was too easy how the creature gives up and even vanishes in the end. Come on, why did the title character even come up with this riddle if it could have such fatal consequences. He won the baby fair and square and I also do not see him really as an antagonist either because it is just a deal with which he helps the girl. He did not get her in this situation. Still, in "Werner Beinhart", it was alright, so this story can definitely work, also for a visual medium. But here it does not and this has to do with lack of attention to detail. Like come on when the initial antagonist blames Friedrich's character and the female protagonist does not even get to say something, that was cringeworthy honestly. There were more moments like these. Just like there are far more Märchenperlen I appreciate. This is probably not even the only Rumpelstiltskin adaptation from these, but it is definitely not the superior. Or one of the better Märchenperlen ("fairytale pearls" is what the series is called) if we take a look at them all. I think they still make new ones here and there and they premier around the holidays. Just like this one did here. So unless you really really dig fairytales and have seen almost all the others, then my suggestion is to skip the watch here. Meaybe skipping it would also be better if you really like the Rumpelstiltskin tale (unlike myself) because the outcome here is on a level where you maybe like it a little less afterwards and you don't want that to happen, do you? The rating is certainly lower here on imdb than for most other Märchenperlen and it is still too high in my opinion. Also says it all that this adaptation of a pretty popular fairytale (everybody knows not only the name here in Germany, but also the story in contrast to stuff like "Jorinde and Joringel" for example) is not even close to 100 ratings. Thumbs-down from me. Best would be to skip.
"Rumpelstilzchen" was never one of my favorite Brothers Grimm tales, so I am not too surprised I did not like it too much. I thought it was too easy how the creature gives up and even vanishes in the end. Come on, why did the title character even come up with this riddle if it could have such fatal consequences. He won the baby fair and square and I also do not see him really as an antagonist either because it is just a deal with which he helps the girl. He did not get her in this situation. Still, in "Werner Beinhart", it was alright, so this story can definitely work, also for a visual medium. But here it does not and this has to do with lack of attention to detail. Like come on when the initial antagonist blames Friedrich's character and the female protagonist does not even get to say something, that was cringeworthy honestly. There were more moments like these. Just like there are far more Märchenperlen I appreciate. This is probably not even the only Rumpelstiltskin adaptation from these, but it is definitely not the superior. Or one of the better Märchenperlen ("fairytale pearls" is what the series is called) if we take a look at them all. I think they still make new ones here and there and they premier around the holidays. Just like this one did here. So unless you really really dig fairytales and have seen almost all the others, then my suggestion is to skip the watch here. Meaybe skipping it would also be better if you really like the Rumpelstiltskin tale (unlike myself) because the outcome here is on a level where you maybe like it a little less afterwards and you don't want that to happen, do you? The rating is certainly lower here on imdb than for most other Märchenperlen and it is still too high in my opinion. Also says it all that this adaptation of a pretty popular fairytale (everybody knows not only the name here in Germany, but also the story in contrast to stuff like "Jorinde and Joringel" for example) is not even close to 100 ratings. Thumbs-down from me. Best would be to skip.
