Peter & the Wolf

Using some of Prokofiev's recognizable score, Bono takes the classic story, tweaks it, uses the same characters, and tells us a tale about anger and what it can do. Here a young boy whose life seems devoted to hurting other things, has lost his family and lives with his grandfather. He is a stern man and only sees that the boy is unpleasant. But as time goes by, he begins to realize that this anger has a cause. The boy is obsessed with potentially killing a wolf. These animals are known to live in the nearby forest. He manages to capture the wolf but has a surprise when he does so. It makes him realize that what we do in anger can have painful consequences. I thought it was a bit slow and could have benefited from more of the original score--but that is a small criticism. I was quite taken.

I can defiantly appreciate the animation and time put into this film. I think the choice to use a drawn wolf overtop the "real" wolf was a great and unique choice that applied to the messages and concepts of the film. That being said this short should have been much shorter. I felt that there where many unnecessary scenes that provided nothing to the story. It was almost as if the animator had added extra visuals just because they felt like animating more scenes. It was as if the animator didn't trust the audience enough to imply anything, instead they showed you each tiny little action or interaction. I think you should give this film a watch for the visual interest, but don't have high expectations.

At first glance a vanity project - written and originally illustrated by U2's Bono with music and narration from his best friend Gavin Friday - this actually ends up being the freshest take I've seen on this story, which has been done so many times before in the same, stale old schoolmasterly way.

This version bypasses all the introduction of the instruments, etc., and instead grounds the tale in personal feeling right from the start, with the boy Peter returning from his mother's funeral, straight away making an autobiographical connection to its creator's own mother's death as a child that succeeds in holding one's interest in the story and lending it emotional weight.

The musical instrumentation is similarly fresh and modern, but it's underused, and there's not much more to it than just the main theme repeated a bunch. The animation, too, is detailed and evocative, but feels somewhat generic and computerized, without anything to really make it stand out from every other cartoon today.

In conclusion, then, this new version of Peter and The Wolf is self-indulgent and slight, but short and enjoyable, with an immediacy the story hasn't had before, and it manages to make something very old and familiar feel like something new.

6/10.

The staff beyond this short went above and beyond an adaptation of Peter and the Wolf could do. The animation is beyond spectacular, being hand drawn and layered into realistic settings, so it is at once vibrant and never out of place. The sound track uses many variations of the inspiring song, with additional percussion by Aboriginal Australian instruments.

Story wise, it is a little different, but I really like how they handled the wolf and the cycle of violence. Without getting into too much spoiling, the jagged lines representing a child drawing of a wolf appear on characters acting evilly and disappear from the innoccent.

Peter and the Wolf is one of my favorite children's books, made into an animated short movie. It is an added surprise to hear Bono as the narrator, he adds a dramatic feel to the story. The illustration of this version of Peter and the Wolf is cool, and the narration is cool too. We have watched many Peter and the Wolf movies, this is my favorite version of the story. It's nice that they stuck to the essentials of the story but added some dramatic effect with use of finer illustration and dramatic sound. Love watching this with my mom and my grandma. Thank you for making this film for us to enjoy!