Review: JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales “Rumpelstiltskin”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales looks to the story of “Rumpelstiltskin” for its latest inspiration and delivers a particularly gross take on the story that would likely make Lloyd Kaufman and the people over at Troma proud. Jizzelda is a neglected woman with few prospects at hand who finds herself out on the streets. Some manipulation of the truth gets her into the orbit of Prince Lionel, but when their relationship turns into more of a deadly ultimatum, Jizzelda’s lies get her in way over her head. Her pleas are heard by the mischievous Rumpelstiltskin, and after he helps out Jizzelda through a gross quid pro quo, she’s stuck in an unfortunate arrangement with him that leaves her more vulnerable than ever before.

Our Take:

So far JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales has proven that some episodes will take fairy tales and push them to radically different places that just use the kernel of the original idea for something unique, while other installments will remain close to the source material, only to wildly exaggerate certain elements of the story to disturbing effect. “Rumpelstiltskin” is an example of the latter and it makes for yet another shocking and humorous episode of this messed up series.

“Rumpelstiltskin” begins in an interesting place and it really digs into the premise that at its core the “Rumpelstiltskin” story is a tale of domestic abuse. It’s a powerful angle to frame this around and it’s also a clever pivot that the story’s women in plight, Jizzelda, chooses to put herself in an even more dangerous situation. She’s not trapped into a situation where she’s forced to lie, but rather she chooses to be in this relationship, only for it to very quickly reveal itself to be an even worse situation than she was in before

“Rumpelstiltskin” is an episode that’s all about extremes, but there’s also a nice casual weirdness that permeates through the installment. A good example of this is how the bartender, Chaffino, is impaired by some kind of massive skin disease, but it’s never fully explained or drawn attention to, other than his ridiculous name. It’s a nice way to foreshadow the severe grossness that eventually overwhelms this episode.

The characters in JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales all play upon a certain simplicity, but the boorish Prince Lionel has an especially off-putting character design that’s intentionally meant to look ugly. All of the material with his spewing eye socket is likely to incite mass cringes. It’s another area in which the dire nature of Jizzelda’s situation is hammered in by the filth that surrounds her.

To go one step further here, Rumpelstiltskin is an especially gross character. The makeover that he gets for the series turns him into a Genie-like force of nature with elastic properties. The ways in which he manifests and moves around are generally disgusting and the various passions that he expresses all skew towards vile. The episode does an exceptional job in this regard and all of this becomes even more entertaining by the fact that Warwick Davis voices Rumpelstiltskin and he very much conjures that Leprechaun magic. It sounds like he’s having such a fun time in this unhinged role. Keith David also delivers a jovial and entertaining performance as the arrogant Prince Lionel.

There are once again some really impressive animated sequences in this episode that are simultaneously gorgeous and disgusting. The moment where a character’s face slowly melts off is a particular highlight, but all of Rumpelstiltskin’s shenanigans find different ways to be visually interesting. The character operates in a way which breaks the rules of reality, so it’s a delight when reality bites back during the final act and an absurd comeuppance occurs.

Surprisingly, “Rumpelstiltskin” leaves the major part of the fairy tale to the episode’s final minutes. Jizzelda still experiences the tragedy of losing her baby, but the story then quickly goes off the rails and submits to madness. A sentient monster made out of eye puss devours Rumpelstiltskin, Lionel, and Jizzelda, only for the newborn baby to team up with the morbid creation to become the new rulers of the land. It’s gross and unexpected, but in that sense it remains consistent with the rest of the episode. It’s a needlessly grim finale, but it doesn’t necessarily underscore the general message of the fairy tale.

There’s a lot in “Rumpelstiltskin” that can come across as offensive, but there are also many jokes that reflect a lighter and sillier tone. Rumpelstiltskin’s constantly changing list of names and the fact that he goes by Skyler for so long is a cute affectation. It’s also a nice touch that Jizzelda and Prince Lionel’s baby is born with an eye patch, like his father, but that this adorable detail actually serves a story purpose in the end. There’s also a certain innocence over all of the items that Prince Lionel requires of Jizzelda. They’re all extremely specific to his closed off life and they wouldn’t be nearly as intimidating if this megalomaniacal tyrant wasn’t attached to them. It leads to a softness that playfully mixes with the episode’s darker subtext.

Much like with the original “Rumpelstiltskin” story, the moral of this episode is to tell the truth and to not write checks that you can’t cash because it’s going to catch up with you. However, that message gets buried pretty easily under all of the craziness that’s present in this episode. The moral of the story isn’t entirely erased, but “Rumpelstiltskin” is an episode of JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales that’s more interested in outrageous visuals and absurdity than helpful lessons about honesty. This is strangely an episode that’s both predictable and spontaneous and provides a further glimpse at the places that this series is willing to go. This may be a polarizing episode of the series in some ways, but it also feels like the perfect example of how this series wants to revise and get ridiculous with classic stories. It’s another strange, successful installment of the series.