Synopsis
The king of the faeries sends for a young hunter after his shadow escapes and threatens his kingdom.
Faeries
Director
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USA
Releases by Country
USA
25 Feb 1981
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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A well-made but predictable animated fantasy. Faeries and other short television specials suffer from poor pacing, with rare exceptions like Rudolph and A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The film is a solid half-hour, but doesn't quite live up to its source material, the 1978 book Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. Brian Froud designed the look of The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Jim Henson's Storyteller. Alan Lee and John Howe were the lead designers for Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I don't think you can overestimate the influence these men have had on the look and feel of modern fantasy.
An imaginative story, for fans of Disney's adaptation of The Black Cauldron or the animated series Dungeons & Dragons (1983). I enjoyed it, but I'd prefer a copy of the book, and the Jim Henson efforts do a much better job of capturing its style.
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While I didn't care for the boring ginger hero, I loved everything else, I could feel my pupils dilate and my heart skip at the sight of an evil tree, hags drinking from goblets fashioned from skulls, a spooky but beautiful castle, I had a smile for every adorable creature in faerieland.
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A mostly generic retread of Wizard of Oz by way of fairy folklore, Faeries is most notable for having been based on a book by fantasy artists Brian Froud and Alan Lee, who would go on to do better things; this also pales in comparison with Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears and even The Black Cauldron, let alone the Rankin/Bass Hobbit and Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings. Still, this animated TV special (which might have been a failed pilot?) moves briskly and features a few nice touches, namely a menacing evil shadow and a familiar, talented voice cast.
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FAERIES (1981) (no spoilers)
Young hunter Oisin (on the cusp of manhood) is brought into the faerie realm under the hill by Niamh (the Fairy Princess) so that he can help her father The Fairy King defeat his own shadow, which upon being animated has fled the kingdom to Squalor Web Castle where it plots with the darker residents of the realm of the fay.
Of a piece with the 1980 animated special GNOMES (but only a half-hour where that was an hour), both were tie-ins to popular art books at the time (in this case, FAERIES by Brian Froud and Alan Lee). This is definitely the weaker of the two - the abbreviated run-time allowing only for an overly…
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One of my favourite VHS tapes I had when I was a kid. I still find this film quite charming. The performance the voice actor gave for the Shadow King was definitely a highlight.
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I’ve been looking for this off and on for decades. When I was a young kid I’d get my mom to borrow this on VHS from my local library frequently. I’ve never met anyone else who has heard of it when I’ve tried to describe it. Thankfully I finally found it.
This plot actually movies at lightning speed. A kid is hunting in the forest and gets taken into Faerie Land by the faerie Princess and find out the king accidentally gave his shadow life and now it’s evil, and it’s up to the kid to save all the faeries. Considering this is 24 minutes long including credits, the number of creatures they fit into this is incredible. Love I could get this piece of nostalgia today.
Oh and Hans Conried, who voiced Captain Hook in Disney’s Peter Pan, voices the shadow!