Pierre et le Loup

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

A brave Russian lad, with help from his animal friends, goes hunting the most fearsome beast in the forest.

Back in the 1930's the Disney Studios was visited by the Russian composer Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891-1953) who performed on an old piano his new composition of Peter and the Wolf (1936). Walt was immediately charmed and determined to make it eventually into a cartoon.

A decade later, the result was a fine little film. Although quite a departure from the original's purely aural medium utilizing the listener's imagination, PETER AND THE WOLF works well as a narrated (by Sterling Holloway) cartoon. The animation is excellent, the characters vivid, the streamlined plot straight to the point. An attempt is still made by the animators to keep true to Prokofiev's design of using this tale as a child's introduction to the instruments of the orchestra. But too much analysis becomes arcane. The cartoon does not supersede the orchestral work. It simply gives it a new interpretation.

PETER AND THE WOLF was originally a segment of Disney's compilation feature MAKE MINE MUSIC (1946), but it quickly proved popular enough to act as a standalone short subject.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.

"Peter and the Wolf" is a wonderful Disney animated short. It is one of the segments from "Make Mine Music" (the 8th animated Disney classic). However, I was never really a fan of "Make Mine Music" and I don't remember much from it.

But I always loved "Peter and the Wolf" and I'm familiar with it, so I decided to write a review just for that one.

It is a perfect Disney classic. Along with "Fantasia", this is a good way to introduce classical music to children, so that they can appreciate this type of music since an early age. Classical music is often an underestimated sort of music, which is unfair.

However, "Peter and the Wolf" has the classical music of Sergei Prokofiev. It is a beautiful, soft and very relaxing music to hear.

The music is also used here for a peculiar aim: to represent thematically each character by the sound of several musical instruments (violins, flute and others).

The characters are adorable: Sasha (a bird), Sonia (a duck), Ivan (a cat) and the brave little boy Peter.

Peter is a very brave child because he decides to get out of his house (where he lives with his grandfather) to try to hunt a big bad wolf. But the wolf isn't just big - it is enormous! It is also quite scary, especially on his first appearance when he looks literally to the camera. This wolf is also absolutely amazing and majestic!

Once Peter leaves home he makes immediately friends (animal friends): Sasha, Sonia and Ivan. They have a great time together, but when they have to confront the wolf, they're all (except Sasha) in panic and absolutely frightened, especially Ivan.

Sasha doesn't show off his fear and confronts the wolf in a brave but at the same time hilarious way: he uses his beak as a defense and then he tries (unsuccessfully) to roll the wolf's lips. That's when the wolf takes the bird into his enormous and amazing mouth and starts to close it... Sasha is almost the wolf's lunch - a scene full of tension and suspense.

The beauty of the artwork and sceneries is another quality of this great and timeless classic.

This should definitely be on Top 250.

This is definitely an underrated short movie, that I haven't seen around for ages. Though when I was a kid, I was absolutely terrified of the wolf, and his music, provided by three french horns. My younger sister is still terrified of this movie, and she still refuses to see it. What makes it memorable, is the music by Prokoviev. I loved it how he used a different instrument for each character, such as the flute for the bird and the clarinet for the cat. Actually, contrary to another review, I liked Sterling Holloway's narration. Sure it got a little distracting, but it is a kids movie, and Peter and the Wolf is one of those works where a narrator is obligatory. The animation is spot on, but it is easy to get frightened by the wolf. All in all, a memorable and underrated musical memory. Before I round off, I once had the video where it had two other shorts, the land of symphony and Isle of Jazz short and the one with Mickey Mouse conducting the orchestra. I'm just wondering if I'm the only one who remembers them. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Childhood. Wonderful mother who bought the LP for me plus Dr. Seuss books in the early 50s. Ben and Me and so many others.

Now I'm 68 and still watching this gem. Love the music (Peter theme has always been MY theme; I whistle it regularly). Like that Sonia survives. Always have felt bad for the wolf. Sterling Holloway is the best! Walt Disney: thanks. (I also watch Ichabod and Mr. Toad every Halloween!).

Confession: I just bought Disney "Alice in Wonderland" DVD simply to hear Sterling and Ed Wynn! Really.

Disney is defintely a major part of American folk history.

P.S. Special mention as another voice and fillm actor: Eric Blore (Mr. Toad). One of my heroes Blore is.

Peter and the Wolf is an adaptation of the musical piece by soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev. The musical piece tells the story of a young boy's desire to hunt a wolf where in each instrument in the piece represents a character in the narrative (Peter-Strings, Wolf-French horns, Cat-clarinet,etc.) with the intention being to introduce children to the various musical instruments of the symphony. The short does a good job of syncing animation with the score and the timing of the animation is seamlessly integrating with the score bringing the score to life with vivid colors and fluid movement. It's a near perfect adaptation.

There are two downsides to the short however. The narration by Sterling Holloway is painfully tacked on and not only does it detract from the score, it also either a)describes things the audience can clearly see or b)provides pointless color commentary. Sterling Holloway is a great voice actor and his voice has given life to a number of great Disney characters and it's unfortunate that his voice is placed in the short. Another unfortunate shortfall that makes the short falter is a tacked on ending that changes an aspect of the original narrative despite there being no reason to do so. Without going into detail, it feels disingenuous and was clearly added after the fact since prior animated sequences make it clear it couldn't have happened.

Despite my problems with the short, it's still a well made short with some beautiful music and animation, I only wish its faults weren't so detracting.