Jack And The Beanstalk

Jack is a boy who lives with his animal friends Barnaby Bear, Dinah Dog, Squeeker Mouse and Phineas Fox. He's challenged to a race with Allegra, who turns out to be a witch. She takes Jack to the queen witch, Auriana. She plans on turning all her slaves into evil harpies.

Keroppi starring in an animated version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Note: Part of the "Sanrio Anime Festival" series of theatrical releases.

One day a native American boy named Lan meets two little bears at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, where he lives with his father. Lan names the brother bear ‘Jacky’ and the sister bear ‘Jill’. As Lan plays with the two bears, they become good friends. However their happiness doesn’t last for long. Lan’s father accidentally shoots the two little bears’ mother to death. Feeling sorry for them, Lan decides to take Jackie and Jill back home to live with him. (from AniDB)

This film stays very faithful to the original down to the smallest details, save for the kangaroo-rat that suddenly appears twenty minutes into the movie and subsequently follows Aladdin around, serving no purpose in the story but fulfilling the role of token animal mascot. The screenwriter needs no introduction; Akira Miyazaki single-handedly wrote five of the classic WMT series, including Perrine and Rascal, and participated in two others. The only other name among the staff that rings a bell, though, is Yukihide Takekawa, who was responsible for the music in the magnificent and unknown Unico pilot film. The story takes some illogical and confusing jumps at the point where Aladdin begins to court the princess, and the extravagant animation that had characterised Toei films of the 60s, when Toei had the best animators around, had become a thing of the past long before this point; but this is still an above-average film, in large part because of the screenplay that stays so faithful to the original. The character designs are slightly more western-looking than one is accustomed to seeing in anime.