The Dancing Princesses (Faerie Tale Theatre episode)

Infobox Television episode


Title=The Dancing Princesses
Series=Faerie Tale Theatre
Season=6
Episode=3
Airdate=November 14 1987
Writer=
Director=Peter Medak
Prev=The Little Mermaid
Next=None

"The Dancing Princesses" is the 27th and final episode of the television anthology "Faerie Tale Theatre". The story is adapted from the Brothers Grimm collection story of The Twelve Dancing Princesses and stars Lesley Ann Warren as the eldest princess.

Plot

A widowed king is struggling to raise his six daughters whom he loves dearly but is very protective of. One day, when going through the royal bills he is shocked to see that his daughters' shoe bills have skyrocketed. After questioning the royal shoemaker the king discovers that for the past month the princesses have been wearing out their dance slippers every night and require a new pair by each morning. This is odd, because the king locks up the princesses' bedroom every night and the guard outside says that they're as quiet as mice.

The king questions his daughters about this strange phenomenon but they refuse to acknowledge that anything is going on. The king then decrees an open challenge: any prince in all the land may come to castle and stay there for three days, during which he must solve the mystery of the worn-out dance slippers. The winner of the challenge may choose any one of the princesses as his bride.

The first to answer the challenge is Prince Heinrick who immediately becomes smitten with Jeanetta, the eldest princess, but is duped when she puts sleeping potion into his wine every night, causing him to fall into a deep sleep and unable to stand guard at the princesses' chambers. After the third day Prince Heinrick is summarily kicked out.

Elsewhere, a weary soldier is resting after a long journey. He sees the royal proclamation nailed to a nearby tree but doesn't think much of it. While resting an old woman strikes up a conversation with him about the royal challenge, hinting that he should take it. The soldier is kind to her and gives her a farthing, and the old woman repays his kindness with an enchanted invisibility cloak and the advice, "Don't drink the wine."

The soldier arrives at the palace, and when the six princesses see him in his dirty clothing they burst into laughter. The king, now even more annoyed with his daughters, decides that he'll make an exception just this once and allows the soldier to take up the challenge despite not being a prince. That night, at dinner, the soldier follows the old woman's advice and avoids the tainted wine.

But Jeanetta does not give up and visits the soldier's room before bedtime, where she gives him milk laced with the sleeping powder. The soldier pours the milk in a flower pot when she isn't looking, letting Jeanetta think that her ruse has worked. When the princesses think the soldier is fast asleep, they get dressed in their finest ballroom gowns and perform a ritual that opens a secret passageway in their bedroom to open.

The soldier, using the invisibility cloak, follows the princesses through the passageway into an enchanted underground kingdom. The six princesses meet up with six princes who bring them to a silver ballroom where they dance the night away. At dawn the princesses return to their bedroom, and the soldier pretends that he was sleeping soundly the entire night.

At breakfast, the king asks the soldier whether he knows the secret yet, but the soldier pretends that he doesn't, and says that he would like to spend the day getting to know the six princesses so he can decide on whom he would like to marry. Although at first the princesses are against this idea, they each spend time with him and find themselves charmed by the soldier's kindness and intelligence; all except Jeanetta, who insists that she will be happiest when he leaves the palace.

That night the hidden soldier once again follows the princesses underground. At breakfast on the morning of the third day, the king asks the soldier whether he knows his daughters' secret. The soldier says that yes he does and he reveals the secret, much to the shock of the six princesses. It is then revealed that the princesses have been feeling trapped under their father's protectiveness, and the secret kingdom was a small way of achieving their dreams. King and daughters reconcile.

The king then asks the soldier which princess he would like to marry. The soldier says that he would like marry Jeanetta, whom he has fallen in love with. The other princesses, although disappointed, enthusiastically encourage their eldest sister to accept, and she does on the condition that the soldier tell them how he discovered their secret. The soldier complies and demonstrates the invisibility cloak.

At the wedding between Jeanetta and the soldier, the king muses to his late wife that it's "one down, five to go".

Cast

ee also

List of Faerie Tale Theatre episodes