Fairy Tale Spotlight: Rolf Kauka's Once Upon a Time [Movie Review]

Throughout my life, there were a few memories of movies I have seen that I didn't know the names of. Like most people, I spent a lot of time on the internet typing in keywords in the hope that I would find out what the film was and then reconnect with it. I suppose the big mystery solved was "The Peanut Butter Solution." Two memories came from that movie, but I did not realize that they were one and the same. Finding that film was like killing two birds with one stone.

Another one that I ended up figuring out was "Invaders from Mars." I never rewatched it, but I did figure out that it was the movie I remembered, and that gave me some peace of mind.

I had a lot of success over a long period of time, but one scene that I saw while sitting in a daycare as a very young boy was still calling to me. It was a scene with a gypsy fortune teller and a man giving her a gold coin. Once she sees the gold coin, she tricks him into becoming her husband. He then looks at the camera and says, "You see? Fortune tellers always lie."

Now, I did remember this scene incorrectly, although I got it close. He doesn't actually say those words, but that's what I carried with me for damn near 30 years. But the point is that I found it. I finally found it, and I don't have any more mysterious scenes that leave me with an unsolved mystery.

"Rolf Kauka's Once Upon a Time" is an animated musical comedy from 1973. It is a dubbed-to-English film from West Germany. Although I thought it was an original creative idea, I did find out that it is actually based on a story I read a long time ago called "Mother Holle." I checked my notes on it, and apparently I really liked it.

Now, this movie had me very skeptical when I began watching it. I was really just wanting to see the movie behind that one scene I had been carrying with me, but within about 10 minutes, I was smiling. Within 30 minutes, I was laughing. The whole film is just so hilariously presented.

The film is full of sight gags and cartoony moments throughout. Most of the human beings in the movie are drawn in a silly looking way, however the more serious or heroic characters have a more rotoscoped look. You can use the "Gulliver's Travels" movie from 1939 as an example of this being done before.

The animals can sometimes switch from feral to anthropomorphic on a whim just to make the film more amusing. There is also a sudden transition to a ridiculous fairyland that happens towards the middle of the movie which completely derails the entire presentation...in a good way. It's also quite accurate to the original story.

The movie is a sort of Cinderella-type story. It involves an evil step-mother and step-sister. You have Maria who is the good daughter who is being mistreated. The reason the father isn't stepping in to help her is because he is always drunk unfortunately. A prince runs into Maria and promises to marry her someday, giving her an amulet so he can find her again, but that is later stolen and tossed into a well by the evil step-sister.

The well must have been magic because that leads both girls to a fantastic magical fairyland that blew me away. I mean... it's quite literally the best part of the film and the whole reason the original story exists in the first place. I was laughing and clapping my hands at all the antics found there. I don't wanna spoil any of it; just know that you'll likely find that whole long segment very pleasing.

I do also want to say that the evil characters in this movie are desperately wicked in all things. The step-sister in particular is a sort of wicked that actually made me angry. But I'll give the writers credit for being able to elicit that response.

Hilariously, there is this side character, a shoemaker, who has an actual fetish for terrible, evil women. He knows that the step-sister is a shitbag, and he wants her anyways. I loved this about him. He was a nasty person himself, but at least he knew what he wanted in life. He was a nasty man who wanted a nasty woman. That fact alone made him one of the best characters in the film, and there are a lot of fun scenes with him in it.

"Rolf Kauka's Once Upon a Time" is the very definition of an obscure hidden gem. Nobody knows about this movie today. It very likely only came out on VHS when it was released in the states. I am personally very sad that more people don't know about this wonderful movie. I recommend it. If you want to see it, there's a copy of it floating around on YouTube. Well worth your time.

This blog was written on June 26, 2024.

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