Pedro y el lobo

Peter lives in the countryside with his oppressive and restrictive grandfather. He is unwelcome in the town and his only friend appears to be his duck. Playing outside on the ice one day, Peter's grandfather takes and locks him in the house – leaving the duck unprotected when a wolf comes. Witnessing the death of his friend in the jaws of the wolf, Peter sets out to get instant revenge with a deadly and dangerous plan.

In this updating of the famous story, we find ourselves in a modern (yet also ancient) setting that feels like it is Eastern Europe. The story is well delivered and is a good mix of issues regarding the young boy Peter and the variety of emotions he goes through across the film. Although it is short it is engaging and interesting and I found all of it to be easy to watch and enjoyable. The plot is easy to follow but will provide food for thought for older pre-teens. Animation wise the film looks great. Some viewers will bemoan the washed out and depressed look of the film but for me this was a strength as it allows the touching moments of happiness to stand out more but more importantly gives the whole thing a nice edge that I thought worked and drew me in.

It also suits the character of Peter as here he is dead eyed and worn down but yet with sparks still in him. It is an interesting character and one that the silent "script" brings out well. Of course this is more to do with the skill of the animators as they bring out so much with the stop motion figures. It does lack the smoothness that modern child audiences will be used to but it is better for it, suiting the rough, bleak feel of the film and, despite what I said about not being "smooth", it looks great throughout. The music is good as well, matching the mood of any individual scene and shifting well when required – as another reviewer commented, it is a good way of getting children into this type of music.

Overall then an engaging and enjoyable animated take on a famous story. It has a great bleak atmosphere and a strong story and central character. Shown over Christmas 2006, it proved to be a welcome break from mass produced cartoons with simple cloying messages and is worth seeing if you get the chance.

I recently caught the PBS showing of this Oscar winning short and was engrossed by the terrific stop motion puppet animation. It is among the finest animation I've seen and shows animators are still using many of the old techniques (non computerized) to good use.

Not only was the animation first rate, but I felt it offered a perfect accompaniment to Sergei Prokofiev's composition. I have fond memories listening to Peter and the Wolf as a child on my parent's record player. This adaptation provides a wonderful visual for the story that I only could imagine as a youth.

I also found the additional filmmaker's comments on how this project came together insightful. I have very minor qualms with this production as I have tried to reconcile my imagination of how the story should look with the creative vision of the directors of this film. Overall, it is a fine piece of work and was well deserving of its acclaim.

This film earned the Oscar it got. Some very excellent traditional stop motion animation, combined with modern editing techniques.

The story is placed in a more modern world and given some new twists. A modern but deteriorating Russia set against an almost primal wilderness. The main character, Peter, has lost his Disney-like cuteness. And that's a good thing! He's a more streetwise but daydreaming Peter. Tough but lonely. The animation on the characters is simply superb. They even animated the fur of the wolf and cat!

Go see this animation as well as Dog, another one of Suzie Templeton's great little shorts.

Peter and the Wolf is one of Prokoviev's best and most accessible works, one of my first introductions to classical music as well. This animated short film is just outstanding(even better than Disney's version and the excellent ballet production with if memory serves correct Anthony Dowell as the grandfather), highly acclaimed and wholly deserving of it. The animation is great, very professional and detailed if not quite as refined as other animations seen. The atmosphere it evokes too is naturalistic, charming, sinister(but not too scary) and very Russian. The characters are modelled very well, standouts being the cat and the wolf. Prokoviev's music is fantastic as expected, the orchestra perform it beautifully and bring out the different personalities of their characters through the different instruments very successfully. The strings and horns are particularly good. The story has been tinkered a little, but the spirit is there as are the basic details, and it's still engaging and touching. The characters are very well-defined, Peter's a likable hero and the wolf is a very scary nemesis. In conclusion, an outstanding short film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I loved this, watched with my 8 year old daughter. It has laughs and suspense and sadness and happiness.

The animation is incredible, especially the cat, and the characters are so endearing.

I enjoy having films for my daughter that aren't filled with inane dialogue and cute little witticisms, as there are really so few nowadays that are really funny for kids. She enjoyed just watching and listening to the music, as she was able to comment on what was happening, or what she thought of the characters, without being afraid of missing a line.

We recommend it to all.