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Catch Stop-Action Animation At Its Best
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Published: March 26, 2008
The hauntingly beautiful and melancholy "Peter and the Wolf" is the class act to catch tonight on PBS.
Airing as a "Great Performances" presentation at 8 p.m. on WEDU, Channel 3, this 30-minute work was this year's Oscar winner for best animated short film.
With expertly crafted stop-action animation, the film is based on Sergei Prokofiev's classical composition. The Soviet composer wrote it in 1936 for a son who loved the fable about a young boy's encounter with a hungry wolf.
In the 1940s, the music and story gained worldwide popularity. Walt Disney produced a light-hearted animated version in 1946.
There have been dozens of recordings of the music and story over the years, including a 2004 Grammy-winning CD narrated by Bill Clinton, Sophia Loren and Mikhail Gorbachev.
"Peter and the Wolf" also has inspired parodies and numerous variations, including a "Sesame Street" version starring the Muppets, a Weird Al Yankovic comedy version and even a punk ballet.
This latest interpretation was produced in Poland under the direction of British animator Suzie Templeton. It was five years in the making.
Five years! A short documentary included in tonight's hourlong "Great Performances" explains why.
Each character was painstakingly created, and, to achieve fluidity in movement, the figures were moved only a few millimeters at a time for each frame of film. Some days, the crew recorded only three seconds of action.
Peter is a skinny, brooding young lad with enormous, penetrating eyes. He lives in the country with his aged grandfather in a battered fortress built to keep the wolves out.
An unhappy boy, Peter finds solace with his pet duck.
There is no narration, just Prokofiev's music, which showcases individual instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon) representing individual characters.
Much is left for the viewer to interpret. The film is visually stunning. Its mood and tone are dark, and it may not be suitable for very young children.
Even though the wolf destroys something that Peter dearly loves, he manages to bond with the animal.
HORTON'S WHO: Speaking of animated programs, now that "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!" is a big hit on the big screen, there is much interest in a recently released DVD of a 1970 version of the same Seuss classic.
A "deluxe" edition of this "Horton Hears a Who" features a 26-minute version of the story with the late, great character actor Hans Conreid as the voice of Horton the Elephant.
It was made for TV and directed by animator Chuck Jones (Bugs Bunny, Road Runner). It features five songs based on Seuss poems.
Also included on the Horton deluxe DVD are three more Seuss adventures: "Horton Hatches an Egg," a 10-minute 1942 Merry Melodies cartoon; a 1989 TV version of his "Butter Battle Book"; and a 1994 TV adaptation of "Daisy-Head Mayzie."
PRISON BREAK: Fox has renewed "Prison Break" for a fourth season, so it will be interesting to see if the writers get hero Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) behind bars for a third time.
In the first two seasons, he broke out of an Illinois prison, and this season he has been trying to get out of a hell hole in Panama. He was breaking out just as the writers strike cut the season short. When the story resumes in the fall, Scofield will be out for revenge on those who killed his love.
TUNE IN TONIGHT
Wife Swap, 8 p.m., ABC
An efficient and well-heeled New Yorker trades places with a carny worker. Funny thing is, both still end up living with clowns.
UFO Hunters, 10 p.m., History
The UFO investigative team checks out vortexes, those mysterious places on Earth where energy fields cross and things disappear. So that's were all the lost socks go.
For more TV listings, go to TBO.com, keyword: TV.
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