Customer Reviews

Where is the narration? - By: John Armitt, 25 Oct 2008
I bought this DVD with such great expectations. Peter & the Wolf with a new audio recording, brand new animation with Hardman style stop motion & allin PCM, DTS or Dolby. What could be better? Well, the piece, as far as I can remember, was narrated. In fact Prokofiev himself wrote the narrative. So having the story without a narrator, is precicely the same as having a piano cencerto being presented with no piano & letting the orchestra play the roles of piano & orchestra. I know that the orchestra musically plays the roles of the various characters but this should bein addition to the narrative - not instead of. I am at a loss as to why this should be soin this otherwise fantastic production. The music is played brilliantly by the Philharmonia & the animation is also exemplary but this is spoilt when the final ingredient is missing. The production & music are without doubt worthy of a 5 but the missing narration ruined it for me so I only give it 2. I was originally thinking lower)not because of what there is but because of what there is not.

---

Scary for young children - By: Hen Pen, 18 Sep 2008
I've just seen this film & it is totally brilliant & i loved it. Except I didn't get to see the end as both our children were pretty terrified of it. They know the story really well from the music & the wonderful Ian Beck book which is probably our most read book. However for a 2 year old & 4 year old it was pretty scary. I'm amazed that its classified as U.

Thats my only reason for not giving 5 stars! So as long as you're 6 years or above consider this review a 5 stars!!!

---

A work of art made with huge dedication - By: A. J. Hodgson, 31 Aug 2007
In this animated film Suzie Templeton has remained fairly faithful to Prokofiev's original story. There are subtle differences where the story has been adapted for the modern audience & for when the medium of animation make a change necessary. Prokofiev's wonderful music remains unchanged. As there is no dialogue from any of the characters & no narration it is the animation alone which gives the film its narrative.
The hunters are portrayed as two incompetent & cowardly thugs which means that there is a tiny bit of violencein the film. In a scene near the beginning (before any of Prokofiev's music) Peter accidentally collides with one of the huntersin the street & so annoyed is the hunter that he pins Peter up against a wall & then throws himin to a rubbish bin.
The duck pondin the meadow is frozen over which allows for some really good animation as the bird & the duck skate & frolic across the ice. In the original narratored musical versions of this part of the story I suppose one could argue that the dialogue is slightly flawed when the bird says to the duck "what kind of bird are you if you can't fly?" because of course ducks can fly!. Could there be any children out there who grew up believing ducks can't fly as a result of listening to Peter & the wolf?. No such dialogue occursin this film version so no such misunderstanding can occur.
The animation & attention to detail throughout the film is magnificent. Every hair & piece of fur (all artificial) was placed with tweezers strand by strand & it took an artist a whole month to cover the wolf with fur!. The facial expressions are wonderful & the skin of the human characters is very life like, one of the best examples is the grandfathers hands which look old & veined.
The wayin which the animation is so accurately synchronised to the music is brilliant tooin this perfect marriage of the two art forms.
There is even humour. The funniest part of the film is when the bird escapes from the cat. He flies on to the branch of a tree & then deliberately poopsin the cats face at which the duck can be heard laughingin the background.
Templeton has given a twist to the ending of her film so do not read on if you want the ending to be a surprise. After Peter has caught the wolf he & his grandfather put himin a cage & take him to the city marketin grandfathers car. When they arrivein the city crowds gather & taunt the imprisoned wolf. Peter takes pity on the wolf. Having been at times virtually imprisoned himself by his over protective grandfather he makes a connection as he stares into the eyes of the wolf & so he opens the cage allowing the wolf to escape to freedom.

---

Agree with all the rest - By: B. L. Hargrave, 17 May 2007
This inspired me to make my own animation.
(Not quite to the same standard perhaps, but ok!)

This is one of the most captivating films I've seenin a long time. Animation, when its done this well, can draw youin far deeper than film. The models are amazingly good, as is the quality of the animation.

There is humour, darkness & a complex understanding of the story of Peter & the Wolf.

Brilliant.

---

This has done Prokofiev proud! - By: DangermouseZilla, 06 Mar 2007
What a fantastic short film!

I didn't realise this was only 30 minutes long, but it manages to feel like a full length feature because of the exquisite animation & of course the fabulous music.

The main thing that struck me when I started watching this, was the realism of the models used. they are so lifelikein both visuals & movement. Peter himself has the most emotive eyes, every scene where his eyes are visible mesmerises you as a viewer - it really is amazing how this film grips you.

The truth is, if the visuals had been poor, the film would still have been watchable as long as the music was well performed. In this case the music is fantastic & the visuals are the best I've seenin modelwork, this raises this beyond film, beyond art, & into another realm.

I can watch this over & over again. So much attention to detail has been given to this project. Little things such as movements of hands are done brilliantly. One of my favourite images is that of the Duck after Peter is locked backin the yard by his Grandfather. The Duck looks a bit forlorn & stares at the gate wondering if Peter is 'coming back out to play' - he raises his wings slightly a few times, you have to see it to understand exactly what I mean. But it gives the Duck a real feel of character.

I love this film, & hopefully you will too.