Review of Peter & the Wolf (2006) by Chris L — 29 Jul 2009

A beautiful stop-motion fable of the story of Peter and the Wolf. PETER AND THE WOLF, an Oscar-winning short directed by Suzie Templeton, is a warm, stirring, exciting, and thrilling telling of the classic story in conjunction with Prokofiev's wonderful score. Simply put, the 45 minutes goes by fast, even when the short does not use words. Instead, gestures and body language is used extensively and to great effect, especially when the wolf comes along.

Peter is a solemn and lonely boy bored of living in the woods with his grandfather. His father continually warns him of the wolf on the other side of the wall. Taking no heed, Peter's curiosity to see the wolf becomes all too real soon enough. Three animals: a duck, bird, and cat accompany him. In a thematically clever move, the animals (as in the other film versions) are as follows: flute represents the bird, oboe for the duck, and clarinet for the cat. The grandfather is represented by a bassoon, and Peter by strings. The wolf himself is represented by three horns.

When they come along, the close encounters and chase sequences are thrilling and spell-binding in their clever invention. The film does show one unfortunate death, though not of a human. The story is small but stirring. Peter gets his due, in the end. Let's leave it at that. All in all, PETER AND THE WOLF is a beautiful stop-motion fable of the story of Peter and the Wolf, PETER AND THE WOLF, an Oscar-winning short directed by Suzie Templeton, is a warm, stirring, exciting, and thrilling telling of the classic story in conjunction with Prokofiev's wonderful score. See this if you liked CORALINE. Be ready for more Critiques and Opinions on Every Game and Movie I Can Get My Hands On!