Rip Meeting the Dwarf (1896) User Reviews

Is the title really true?

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 September 2013]

The dwarf looks more like a small man with a hunchback to me. Anyway, Rip has a heart and takes the heavy burden of the dwarf's shoulders. The dwarf sits down on a stone and Rip is circling him eyeballing him suspiciously. Maybe he's asking himself the same question. Is it really a dwarf? A mythical creature? We're not getting a response as this very short film is over before anything else happens. Just like all the other Rip van Winkle shorts starring Joseph Jefferson. But with the large hat the dwarf is wearing, Rip won't have much success anyway in judging from the dwarf's facial features. All one can see is his long hair and beard.

I'd really only recommend it to those interested in the very early years of cinema. And even there you'll find more significant and watch-worthy projects than this one.

Rip van Winkle #2

[Tornado_Sam · 14 August 2018]

Because many films of the time often consisted of babies eating breakfast, blacksmiths at work or people playing cards, to have a film with a narrative was pretty much unheard of. So when W. K. L. Dickson attempted to create what I believe to be the very first adaptation of the Rip van Winkle story, it certainly felt new and different at the time. Unfortunately, the multi-scene film didn't yet exist at this point and instead of turning out one movie, they had to make eight, and if you read each title you'll know what happens in every one. "Rip Meeting the Dwarf" is number two in the serial, following "Rip's Toast" and preceding "Exit of Rip and the Dwarf". Except the dwarf here is really just a full-grown man hunching over on the ground with a huge beard. In this brief second installment to the series, Rip takes the keg off the shoulders of this "dwarf", sets it down, and the two begin an unheard discussion.

Like I've said previously, you really can't look at each individual segment and judge them because so little happens that you have to put them together to get the narrative. Even so, the whole serial wouldn't really interest anyone today except for people like me who are interested in the development of the story film.