The Singing Ringing Tree

This East-German fairytale adaptation from 1957 (loosely based on the Brothers Grimm story ‘Hurleburlebutz’) was an instant hit with young and old when it came into the cinemas. Despite the film being produced and originally released in a Communist country the BBC later purchased the film and broadcast it as a three-parter in the early 1960s as part of its ‘Tales from Europe’ series. The film has remained a classic throughout all the decades and is now available fully restored on HD Blu-ray.

When a handsome Prince (Eckart Dux) hopes to win the hand of the beautiful but spoiled and arrogant Princess (Christel Bodenstein) he is disappointed to learn she isn’t interested in his present: a little treasure box containing plenty of valuable pearls. What’s more, she isn’t interested in him either, much to the chagrin of the long-suffering King (Charles Hand Vogt) and her nurse/chaperone (Dorothea Tiesing). In her usual foul mood she angrily demands the Prince bring her the legendary ‘singing ringing tree’.
After riding off and searching the land for this mythical tree the Prince encounters a strange, magical garden inhabited and ruled over by a scheming dwarf (Richard Krüger) who indeed offers him the enchanted tree, however, because the dwarf is somewhat on the evil side there are conditions attached: if the arrogant Princess still rejects the Prince despite fulfilling her latest demand he will need to return to the magical garden and – in the clutches of the dwarf’s power – will then be turned into a bear… ouch! Of course what the dwarf doesn’t mention is that the tree in question will only sing and ring once the Princess falls in love, well, no chance of that! As expected, the Princess scorns the Prince once again because the “ugly tree” fails to sing and the Prince is doomed to return to the dwarf’s domain where he promptly morphs into a bear while his horse is turned into a stone sculpture.

With her mood changing faster than one can say “Get stuffed, you darn primadonna” the Princess has a change of heart however and sends her father to search the land for the tree. The King, too, enters the magical land of the dwarf where he encounters the Prince/Bear who hands him the tree with the warning that the King must come back with the first thing he sees upon his return to the castle. Unfortunately it turns out to be his fickle daughter and after the tree fails to sing and ring again she makes life intolerable for all those around her, even demanding the poor goldfish in the fountain should be removed so she can plant the blasted tree in it. And so it goes on until the Prince/Bear comes to fetch her and, tree over his shoulder, brings her to the dwarf’s domain where the little fella decides that the Princess needs to learn a few lessons… A spell makes her look ugly with a big nose and stringy green hair. Her beautiful looks will only be restored when she changes her self-centred behaviour. As the weeks and months go by, the dwarf, unbeknownst to the Princess, throws subtle challenges at her, for example when a huge goldfish (looking more like a harmless papier-maché Loch Ness monster) in a pond gets into a perilous situation she saves him and apologizes for having treated all the goldfish back in the castle in a mean way and says she will never do it again. Whaddya know, her nose is restored to its former shape! When a dove breaks one of its wings she and the Bear look after it and her green hair reverts to the usual golden locks. In time the Princess becomes a nice and caring human being but the poor Prince has no chance of changing into human form again until… Not wishing to give the ending away but of course it’s a happy one!

THE SINGING RINGING TREE (DAS SINGENDE, KLINGENDE BÄUMCHEN) is good, traditional story-telling with enchanting special effects and surreal landscapes. Clearly the cast had great fun slipping into their various characters. Filmed at the DEFA studios in former East Germany, Francesco Stefani (a German film director of Italian descent) brought Anne Geelhaar’s screenplay successfully to screen by combining old-fashioned charm with pure magic though at the time of its release the film gave children up and down the land nightmares.

This Blu-ray edition features the Widescreen Theatrical Version with German audio or alternative music-only soundtrack, the Fullscreen version with English narrated soundtrack or alternative French and Spanish soundtracks, a 2003 Interview with Christel Bodenstein (‘the Princess’), Image Gallery plus Limited Edition booklet.