Next

The "sunburst" which rotates behind Shakespeare in the "Cymbeline" sequence was not present in the original storyboard nor fabricated for this purpose. Rather, it comes from a clock which was discovered by the director, by chance, in a skip nearby the studio on the day that scene was to be filmed.

During the "Cymbeline" sequence, one of the golden eagle's wings gets accidentally caught on the rotating sunburst.

"Peter the Director" looks exactly like Peter Hall and, naturally is reading one of Hall's books. The halo means that he's St. Peter, and that Shakespeare has been auditioning to get into Heaven. The plays Shakespeare runs through: 1) HENRY V - "Wooden O" (I.prologue) and "brave fleet with silken streamers" (III.prologue); 2) Julius Caesar ("Et tu"); 3) Antony and Cleopatra; 4) Coriolanus (V.iii. Volumnia kneeling to her son to save Rome); 5) Henry VIII; 6) Romeo and Juliet; 7) Henry IVs (part 2, V.i.); 8) Richard II "[Dashes the glass upon the ground]" (IV.i); 9) Henry VIs (Joan of Arc and the red and white roses); 10) Richard III (the little princes); 11) Troilus and Cressida (Achilles: "Come tie his body to my horse's tail,/Along the field I will the Troyan trail." V.viii); 12) A Midsummer Night's Dream; 13) Hamlet; 14) Othello; 15) Titus Andronicus ("..there they are, both baked in this pie;/Whereof their moth daintily hath fed..." V.iii); 16) The Tempest; 17) As You Like It; 18) Macbeth; 19) All's Well That Ends Well ("When thou canst get the ring upon my finger...and show me a child beggoten of thy body...then call me husband..." III.ii); 20) Taming of the Shrew; 21) Much Ado About Nothing; 22) Merry Wives of Windsor (V.v); 23) The Merchant of Venice (III.ii) 24) King John ("The wall is high, and yet will I leap down..." IV.iii); 25) Love's Labour's Lost; 26) Pericles (III.ii); 27) Lear; 28) Comedy of Errors; 29) Two Gentlemen of Verona; 30) Twelfth Night; 31)Timon of Athens; 32) Winter's Tale ("[Exit pursued by a bear.]"III.iii); 33) Measure for Measure; 34) Cymbeline "[Jupiter descends in thunder and lightening, sitting upon an eagle...]" V.iv).

Featured in Animated Century (2003)