Overview: DEFA Fairy Tale Films is a 5-film set of wildly surreal and colorful fantasy & fairy tale films from East Germany’s DEFA Studios from the 1960s to 1970s.

Blu-ray Verdict: The wildly surreal, music- and color-saturated world of fairy tale films or Märchenfilme from East Germany’s DEFA Studios are one of the great, still-overlooked subgenres in world fantasy filmmaking. Part Sid & Marty Krofft Saturday morning kiddie psychedelia, part sturdy Socialist moralizing, the Märchenfilme were one of DEFA’s most popular genres from the 1950s to 1970s.

SNOW WHITE (SCHNEEWITTCHEN) - 1961, dir. Gottfried Kolditz. This lovely live-action version of the classic Bros. Grimm tale is in many ways the prototypical DEFA fairy tale film, with Doris Weikow radiating storybook charm as Snow White.

Snow White may not quite have the timeless songs of the Disney version, the dwarves’ personalities are not quite as distinct from each other here, but nothing in this adaptation is scarier than the transformation and the first close up reveal of the Evil Queen’s hag disguise. Snow White however is much more faithful (actually one of the most faithful versions of the story), with the only major change being the very end with the Evil Queen. It is not as deliberate in pace and Snow White is, while not as famous in image, is much more interesting as a character here.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD (ROTKÄPPCHEN) - 1962, 72 min., dir. Götz Friedrich. Red Riding Hood (Blanche Kommerell) faces off against some of the mangiest and most terrifying forest creatures ever conceived, including The Big Bad Wolf (Werner Dissel) - basically an American Werewolf in East Germany. Sure to give your 6-year-old self nightmares for life.

Simply put, this is an East German fairy tale adaptation with glorious color and sets, but with a strange plot that also drags quite a bit. A kids’ film with the charm of a different era. Easily one of the three most known Brothers Grimm tales we got here. I have seen better DEFA fairytale adaptations for sure and, while it is also never on failure territory, I cannot deny it all felt a bit dull and stretched.

MOTHER HULDA (FRAU HOLLE) - 1963, 57 min., dir. Gottfried Kolditz. Lazy daughter Pechmarie (Katharina Lind) and hardworking stepdaughter Goldmarie (Karin Ugowski vie for the approval of magical Frau Holle, who lives in an insanely artificial Pee Wee’s Playhouse-meets-Lidsville underground world.

Frau Holle is not one of the best of what DEFA brought out, that is for sure - as I personally prefer Heart of Stone, Three Wishes for Cinderella and The Singing Ringing Tree - but it is still nicely done and follows the original closely and with respect. Sure it takes time to get going and there are times where it did feel on the stagy side, sometimes feeling more of a filmed stage version, but it was enjoyable, nonetheless.

THE DEVIL’S THREE GOLDEN HAIRS (WER REIßT DENN GLEICH VOR’M TEUFEL AUS) - 1977, 92 min., dir. Egon Schlegel. Crazy fantasy/comedy about a clumsy young man (Hans-Joachim Frank), who is forced to rob three hairs from the Devil (Dieter Franke). The Devil’s psychedelic lair with shrunken heads and gruesome Halloween décor must be seen to be believed.

The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs has been among the better and more interesting ones from DEFA, in my humble opinion, Enough to make one ponder quite why there aren’t any more older East German fantasy/fairy-tale films out there, and why those that exist aren’t better known regardless of their overall quality, the bumbling is occasionally a touch overdone, but most of it was greatly entertaining; but occasionally it was a little on the silly side.

SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED (SCHNEEWEIßCHEN UND ROSENROT) - 1979, 70 min., dir. Siegfried Hartmann. Excellent fantasy / fairy tale about peasant girls Snow White (Julie Juristová) and Rose-Red (Katrin Martin) trying to outwit an enraged dwarf (Hans-Peter Minetti) guarding a jewel-filled mine. Would make a good double bill with HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS.

Combined with a nice cast, it is absolutely true that Hans-Peter Minetti is very fine as the Ghost of the Mountains and there is good direction throughout with the set design also making a pleasing film for all ages. And although the often used and monotonous Pan-pipe (at least it sounded to me as a Pan-pipe) was getting on my nerves after a while, I still found myself engaged by the characters, with easily identifiable leads and the magician mountain spirit is suitably sinister and mysterious without resorting to scenery-chewing.

Bonus Features:
First ever U.S. release
New video interview with comics artist (Swamp Thing), film historian, and author Stephen R. Bissette
New commentaries by film historians Michael Brooke, Samm Deighan, Shelagh Rowan-Legg and Anne Golden
“Socialist Fantasies, the Bros. Grimm and DEFA Studios: Fairytale Filmmaking in East Germany” – new visual essay by film historian Evan Chester.

Official Trailer

Official Purchase Link

www.deafcrocodile.com