Episode Description:
"A fresh spin on the classic tale of a greedy king, a desperate girl, and a girl who turns straw into gold -- fold a price" (-AIO)
Episode Review:
I didn’t have access to a Christian radio station when I was young, so I would have to wait to hear new AIO episodes until they were released on cassette tape. After receiving an album, I would excitedly crack it open and listen to each episode, one after the other, without stopping. It really didn’t matter if one or two episodes were sub-par because I was already onto the one. Today, because new episodes are oftentimes released once a month, we often need each episode to feel quite significant -- to feature storylines that advance plots and develop characters. That can mean disappointment when we’re provided with a new episode like “Rumpelstiltskin: A Wee Little Tale”, a fairy tale centric episode that, likely, nobody asked for.
It should be no surprise that Dave Arnold wrote this episode. After all, if you look at the list of episodes he’s written so far --“The Jubilee Singers”, “Sergeant York”, “Pinocchio: A Tale of a Foolish Puppet”, “When One Door Closes”, “There And Back Again” -- it’s clear that he has little interest in writing episodes that take place within the town of Odyssey. “But why write for Adventures in Odyssey if you have no intention of situating them within the titular town?”, you may ask. It’s a good question, and the answer may have something to do with the fact that Arnold has had various roles on the show, starting as an audio engineer/sound designer before becoming a producer, executive producer, occasional voice actor, and writer. Dave Arnold knows every part in creating an Adventures in Odyssey episode -- and my guess is that it’s important for him to not only create stories that challenges the audience, but that challenges the AIO team, too.
Think about it. What better way to challenge one’s writing then to take a Grimm fairy tale and it turn into a story that speaks biblical truths? What better way to challenge newer voice actors such as Gregory Jbara (voice of Pastor Knox), Daniel Hagen (voice of Jacques Henri), and Amy Pemberton (voice of Renee Carter) then to give them totally different roles to play? What better way to challenge sound designer, Nathan Jones, and composer John Campbell, then by giving them a totally new time period, setting and genre to produce sound for? If a team doesn’t challenge itself by creating new kinds of stories, it risks remaining on autopilot and giving a product that feels tired.
One of the reasons for its success is because Dave Arnold wrote a script that translates well into audio drama; the final product is noticeably far more digestible than other KIDS Radio comedies such as the recent “Drake and the Time that Time Forgot”, which feels overly busy, fast, and chaotic. This has been a significant problem in contemporary AIO episodes -- they often consider quick-pacing and randomness as “comedy”. Here, jokes land because the dialogue and information is clear, concise, while the sound designs stays restrained and selective. In other words, it's not only funny, but enjoyable to listen to.
Of course, we cannot discuss “Rumpelstiltskin” without also addressing the fascinating choice to include the character of Wilhelm Holstein, voiced by Daniel Hagen. My first reaction was “Is this Frederick Holstein? But that’s impossible!” I listened to a recent AIO podcast about the making of “Rumpelstiltskin” and I, too, like the producers, thought that they could have easily cast him as Frederick Holstein himself. However, at the end of the day, I’m glad that the show created a new character that could simply pay homage to the older character. After all, as much as Wilhelm does sounds like Frederick Holstein, it isn’t a carbon copy, and listeners would be much too distracted the entire episode trying to compare the two.
Overall, I thought “Rumpelstiltskin” was fun and engaging, and -- since I wasn’t very familiar with the original story-- I felt like I learned something, too! While I still won’t quite look forward to these sorts of episodes, “Rumpelstiltskin” shows that it can sometimes pay off to creative something that the audience doesn’t necessarily want, as long as the AIO team’s creative energy feels fully behind it.
"A fresh spin on the classic tale of a greedy king, a desperate girl, and a girl who turns straw into gold -- fold a price" (-AIO)
Episode Review:
I didn’t have access to a Christian radio station when I was young, so I would have to wait to hear new AIO episodes until they were released on cassette tape. After receiving an album, I would excitedly crack it open and listen to each episode, one after the other, without stopping. It really didn’t matter if one or two episodes were sub-par because I was already onto the one. Today, because new episodes are oftentimes released once a month, we often need each episode to feel quite significant -- to feature storylines that advance plots and develop characters. That can mean disappointment when we’re provided with a new episode like “Rumpelstiltskin: A Wee Little Tale”, a fairy tale centric episode that, likely, nobody asked for.
It should be no surprise that Dave Arnold wrote this episode. After all, if you look at the list of episodes he’s written so far --“The Jubilee Singers”, “Sergeant York”, “Pinocchio: A Tale of a Foolish Puppet”, “When One Door Closes”, “There And Back Again” -- it’s clear that he has little interest in writing episodes that take place within the town of Odyssey. “But why write for Adventures in Odyssey if you have no intention of situating them within the titular town?”, you may ask. It’s a good question, and the answer may have something to do with the fact that Arnold has had various roles on the show, starting as an audio engineer/sound designer before becoming a producer, executive producer, occasional voice actor, and writer. Dave Arnold knows every part in creating an Adventures in Odyssey episode -- and my guess is that it’s important for him to not only create stories that challenges the audience, but that challenges the AIO team, too.
Think about it. What better way to challenge one’s writing then to take a Grimm fairy tale and it turn into a story that speaks biblical truths? What better way to challenge newer voice actors such as Gregory Jbara (voice of Pastor Knox), Daniel Hagen (voice of Jacques Henri), and Amy Pemberton (voice of Renee Carter) then to give them totally different roles to play? What better way to challenge sound designer, Nathan Jones, and composer John Campbell, then by giving them a totally new time period, setting and genre to produce sound for? If a team doesn’t challenge itself by creating new kinds of stories, it risks remaining on autopilot and giving a product that feels tired.
One of the reasons for its success is because Dave Arnold wrote a script that translates well into audio drama; the final product is noticeably far more digestible than other KIDS Radio comedies such as the recent “Drake and the Time that Time Forgot”, which feels overly busy, fast, and chaotic. This has been a significant problem in contemporary AIO episodes -- they often consider quick-pacing and randomness as “comedy”. Here, jokes land because the dialogue and information is clear, concise, while the sound designs stays restrained and selective. In other words, it's not only funny, but enjoyable to listen to.
Of course, we cannot discuss “Rumpelstiltskin” without also addressing the fascinating choice to include the character of Wilhelm Holstein, voiced by Daniel Hagen. My first reaction was “Is this Frederick Holstein? But that’s impossible!” I listened to a recent AIO podcast about the making of “Rumpelstiltskin” and I, too, like the producers, thought that they could have easily cast him as Frederick Holstein himself. However, at the end of the day, I’m glad that the show created a new character that could simply pay homage to the older character. After all, as much as Wilhelm does sounds like Frederick Holstein, it isn’t a carbon copy, and listeners would be much too distracted the entire episode trying to compare the two.
Overall, I thought “Rumpelstiltskin” was fun and engaging, and -- since I wasn’t very familiar with the original story-- I felt like I learned something, too! While I still won’t quite look forward to these sorts of episodes, “Rumpelstiltskin” shows that it can sometimes pay off to creative something that the audience doesn’t necessarily want, as long as the AIO team’s creative energy feels fully behind it.
Writer: Dave Arnold
Director: Dave Arnold
Executive Producer: Dave Arnold
Sound Design: Nathan Jones
Music: John Campbell
Original Airdate: 05/01/19
Episode Reviewed: 05/28/19