Review of Peter & the Wolf (2006) by Paula P — 11 Nov 2009

The first time I was exposed to Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf was with the 1946 Disney animated short. That short is still a classic one, but when it came to this dark tale Disney played it rather safe with its telling. Suzie Templeton's Oscar winning short is anything but safe. Taking this tale and placing it in a modern setting, Templeton was able to bring this tale to life in a new manner and add some new additions to this tale to reflect the changes in culture since this story was originally created.

The movie is beautifully done in stop motion animation, which I am a huge fan of. The character designs are fantastic, and if it weren't for their enlarged eyes I would say that some of these characters looked almost real. Everything from the fur on animals to the grandfather's wrinkled skin was beautifully sculpted and spectacularly animated. Also, the film has that original King Kong quality where you can see the animator's finger imprints in the fur of animals where they moved the figure around to animate it. I don't know why I like that so much, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

This version of the tale doesn't have any sort of dialogue to it. Gone is the narration that usually accompanies what is going on screen. And no one talks once in the film. This allows the images to tell the tale, which is a far more moving experience. Seeing how the film changes Peter and the wolf's battle, especially with the new twist at the end, makes a more effective and ultimately thought-provoking film that begs the question of who is the more ferocious monster in this tale.

At only about 30 minutes in length I was amazed at how much Suzie Templeton's film was able to do. And long after the film was over I couldn't get it out of my head. It is a film that says so much without saying anything at all, and has proved that stop motion animation still has its place in the world of cinema.