This initial episode of Shelley Duvall's excellent Faerie Tale Theatre television series is a comedic take on the old tale of The Frog Prince. Directed by Eric Idle and starring the late and great Robin Williams as the titular prince, it is one of the funniest episodes in the series as a whole.
The entire cast is top notch, with Williams being the stand-out. Though the costumes and sets are proudly low-budget, and the effects recall the 1933 King Kong, there is a simple charm to it all that one rarely finds with children's programming these days. The writing is wickedly funny, with great lines and gags that almost never fall flat.
What floored me was how raunchy the content got. FTT is famous for its use of innuendo, but the amount of sexual humor in this went off the charts. I am genuinely surprised they got away with things such as the newly transformed frog prince nude in the princess' bed or the king quickly marrying the two off "for moral reasons." Best of all is when the frog requests to sleep in the princess' bed and she states that she refuses to be "shacked up with a frog!"
I cannot think of a better way to start off this magnificent series.
The entire cast is top notch, with Williams being the stand-out. Though the costumes and sets are proudly low-budget, and the effects recall the 1933 King Kong, there is a simple charm to it all that one rarely finds with children's programming these days. The writing is wickedly funny, with great lines and gags that almost never fall flat.
What floored me was how raunchy the content got. FTT is famous for its use of innuendo, but the amount of sexual humor in this went off the charts. I am genuinely surprised they got away with things such as the newly transformed frog prince nude in the princess' bed or the king quickly marrying the two off "for moral reasons." Best of all is when the frog requests to sleep in the princess' bed and she states that she refuses to be "shacked up with a frog!"
I cannot think of a better way to start off this magnificent series.