The Singing Ringing Tree Review

4 stars of surreally beautiful German fairy tale.

The Singing Ringing Tree is an East German film originally released in 1957, based on a story by the Brothers Grimm. Its original name was Das singende, klingende Bäumchen. It is directed by Francesco Stefani, with a screen play by Anne Geelhaar and first made it to the UK in 1960, when it was serialized by the BBC in December 1964.

It is presented here in 1080p HD for the first time courtesy of Network. This release includes the original German soundtrack with English subtitles and the German soundtrack with English voice-over narration.

“Once upon a time, a prince journeyed many miles and for many days, to seek the hand of a beautiful Princess in a far away land.”

A handsome Prince (Eckart Dux) has undertaken a journey to win the heart of a beautiful Princess (Christel Bodenstein). Upon arrival he is escorted to the throne room and presents her with a gift of pearls. Unfortunately the Princess is “spoiled and capricious” and rejects his generous gift.

Instead she decrees that he must find and bring her the fabled Singing Ringing Tree.

Although this seems impossible, many have tried and failed, he promises to return with the tree and sets out to scour the land.

His search eventually takes him to a magical kingdom, ruled over by an evil dwarf (Richard Krüger) who has the tree. He agrees to give it to him, but warns him that the tree will only sing if the Princess truly loves him. Over confident he is sure this will be the case and agrees to be turned into a bear if she does not.

Of course, the Princess is unimpressed by a tree which will not sing and the Prince is sent away, much to the chagrin of the King (Charles Hans Vogt). Now a bear he returns to the magic kingdom. What follows is a surreal voyage of self discovery and a tale of morality just as important today as it was then.

“Why do you threaten me? It’s not my fault the tree didn’t sing. You should have known that the Princess is bad tempered and arrogant.

The Singing Ringing Tree is a very unusual film, brightly coloured and packed with extravagant and fanciful characters including a giant fish and a horse with antlers. The sets are rudimentary but very effective and the costumes are lavish enough to give it an authentic fairy tale feel.

It is also dark enough to echo it’s Brother’s Grimm heritage, with some aspects which are undoubtedly quite scary for children. This is of course the point, the moral of the story that beauty comes from within, is reinforced by the idea that bad things will happen to you if you mistreat others, a healthy enough message.

It is presented here with two options, the wide screen version or the full screen. I would recommend the full screen as quite a lot of the image is lost in the wide  screen version. It is possible to watch either with out without the English narration, although I found it rather fun. You can also watch with or without the English subtitles of the German track.

Perhaps not for very young children in spite of it’s certificate, this is nevertheless an extravaganza to be enjoyed by the whole family.

“He told her it was most important to remember that a good deed was always more powerful than evil magic. She should never forget that.”

The Singing Ringing Tree is on Blu-ray 18 October from Network

Special Features

• Widescreen theatrical version with German audio or alternative music-only soundtrack

• Fullscreen version with English narrated soundtrack or alternative French and Spanish soundtracks

• Interview with a Princess: a 2003 interview with ‘The Princess’ Christel Bodenstein

• Image gallery

• Limited edition booklet by cultural historian Tim Worthington