The Singing Ringing Tree (German: Das singende, klingende Bäumchen) is a children’s film made by East German studio DEFA in 1957 and shown in the form of a television series by the BBC. It is a story written by Anne Geelhaar based on a variation of “Hurleburlebutz” by the Brothers Grimm, directed by Francesco Stefani.

The princess sends her father to find the singing ringing tree for her, but he is met by the prince, in the guise of a bear, who gives him the tree on condition that the king returns with the first thing the king sees on his return. This turns out to be the princess, who is now delivered into the hands of the dwarf. The dwarf, seeing the princess’s self-centred behaviour, casts a spell to make her ugly. The bear tells her that she will regain her beauty only if she changes her ways. Gradually she is won over by the bear and becomes beautiful again. Despite the dwarf’s attempts to keep her and the prince apart, she eventually falls in love with him and the singing ringing tree finally lives up to its name.

color, mono, fullscreen, 71 minutes, in German with optional English subtitles. DVD-R comes packaged as shown in color DVD case, wrapped in plastic!