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Peter and the Wolf

M'Sharak

M'Sharak

Definitely Herbert. Maybe.
Moderator
Last night, I watched on Great Performances a showing of a short (c. 30 minute) animated film based on Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, followed by a documentary/"making of"-type show about the film. From what I can find, it was a joint British/Norwegian/Polish production which has been winning awards since it first appeared in 2006.

I thought it was extremely well-done. Has anyone else seen it?

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/peterandwolf/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_the_Wolf_(film)
http://www.breakthrufilms.co.uk/peterandthewolffilm/
 
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I have the uber-PC Patrick Stewart narration. He's cool, but the happy ending makes me contemplate hanging myself.
 
Never heard of this before; sounds interesting. How does it compare to the classic Disney short?
 
Kegek said:
Never heard of this before; sounds interesting. How does it compare to the classic Disney short?
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You know, I'm not sure if I've ever seen the Disney short, but the one I'm talking about here looks nothing at all like anything you'd expect to see in a Disney movie. It's almost eerie in places and the puppets used in its animation have an almost exotic quality to them. The links in my first post might give you a hint about the visual appearance of the production, and I think it's possible to view or download the short from one of the pages..
 
M'Sharak said:
Maestro said:
No we're not.
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Ah, okay -- the Nagano/Opera Lyon recording, then? The many recorded narrations would make a whole thread of their own. I liked Vincent Price's, among others.
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I don't recall who did the recording. My copy of the CD is in my office at school, where I will occasionally torment the cherubs with the PC narration of Captain Picard.

(While the cherubs manipulate my FC Picard action figure to mimic conducting the music -- one of them even made him a baton.)
 
M'Sharak said:
You know, I'm not sure if I've ever seen the Disney short, but the one I'm talking about here looks nothing at all like anything you'd expect to see in a Disney movie.
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I expected as much. The Disney version is a pretty good short; worth seeing. I must have seen it a hundred times as a child; was essentially my introduction to Prokofiev.
 
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Kegek said:
The Disney version is a pretty good short; worth seeing. I must have seen in a hundred times as a child; was essentially my introduction to Prokofiev.
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I'll have to check it out. I think my introduction to that piece (and possibly Prokofiev, though that's uncertain) was a 1941 recording narrated by Basil Rathbone.

Maestro said:
(While the cherubs manipulate my FC Picard action figure to mimic conducting the music -- one of them even made him a baton.)
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One form of music appreciation, I guess. :lol:
 
I like the Sergei Prokofiev musical version of Peter and the Wolf.

Here are the instruments used in the story. Link.

I remember getting a record of it from IHOP as a kid. It was narrated by Captain Kangaroo. I wish I still had it, it might be worth something.
 
Vanyel said:
I like the Sergei Prokofiev musical version of Peter and the Wolf.

Here are the instruments used in the story. Link.
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The film I spoke of in the first post also uses Prokofiev's music, and the same instruments are used. The story is presented in a different format and with different pacing, being shown instead of narrated, but it is still recognizably the same story.
 
M'Sharak said:
Vanyel said:
I like the Sergei Prokofiev musical version of Peter and the Wolf.
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The film I spoke of in the first post also uses Prokofiev's music, and the same instruments are used. The story is presented in a different format and with different pacing, being shown instead of narrated, but it is still recognizably the same story.
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And the Disney version also uses Prokofiev's music. It both shows and narrates the action; which works surprisingly well. I believe all the permutations of Peter and the Wolf discussed here are based on Prokofiev's classic introduction to music.
 
The version you are speaking of won an Oscar for best animated short film. You can get info about it here. I haven't seen it, but from what I gather it is a somewhat darker vision than the classic Disney version - probably a great version to introduce to older kids who might have already seen the Disney version when they were younger.

Oh, and the most awesome version of Peter and the Wolf? Music by Wendy Carlos, narration by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Now THERE'S a chestnut!
 
Star Treks said:
I haven't seen it, but from what I gather it is a somewhat darker vision than the classic Disney version - probably a great version to introduce to older kids who might have already seen the Disney version when they were younger.
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I'd be inclined to agree. It is dark -- maybe a little too dark in places for very young children -- but there is also humor mixed in with the darkness.


When the wolf first appears, the duck is swallowed, but the bird and the cat take refuge in the tree, out of the wolf's reach. The cat, having been shown earlier trying to catch the bird, finds the proximity of the bird too hard to resist and tries again, but misses and slips partway down the tree. The wolf naturally goes after the cat again, who escapes, but to a branch which is too thin and threatens to break under his weight. You next see the bird chuckling almost maliciously at the spot in which the cat has found himself.

Turnabout is funny. :D
 
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