The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

"The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" is a strange subject matter for an animated film for kids. It's based on the Caldecott Award winning book which itself is based on the real life exploits of Phillipe Petit. I say strange because I am pretty sure most parents would not be thrilled to see their kids to grow up to be tightrope walkers. Plus, technically speaking, what Petit did was illegal.

This short film is about a tightrope walk Petit made in the 1970s between the two towers of the World Trade Center. In fact, that pretty much IS the film.

The animation is nice and appears hand drawn and the story is, amazingly, narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal. Overall, worth seeing but not a films for small kids and I am not sure how many adults would watch it either.

I'll immediately put up my hand and admit I only watched this because Jake Gyllenhaal narrated it. To be honest, if he hadn't and I could turn back time, I wouldn't have chosen to see it. Jake manages to put emotion and a sense of "awesome!!" into what Phillipe tries to do, but this is essentially a cartoon, and the animation ain't all that. I guess as someone brought up on Pixar I would say this, but while this style of drawing would look brilliant in a book, on film it...doesn't. However, the plot, based on the true story of someone who attempted to walk between the Twin Towers, is short but sweet. Jake's breathless will-he-won't-he attitude actually had me wanting to know whether he WOULD or not. If Jake ever gets bored with acting, he should take up voice-overs, or narrate children's books or something because he has a very radio-friendly voice. I would suggest people watch for Jake, but otherwise, only if you REALLY want to watch a French dude tight-rope walk.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (2005)

*** (out of 4)

The title here is the same title to the children's book, which discusses Philippe Petit's historic and now legendary walk between the two Twin Towers.

This animated film lasts under ten minutes and it basically has someone reading the book to you while we get animated shots from the book. I must admit that this isn't the greatest thing ever made but I do think it would be the perfect way to introduce a kid to the events of that day. Both MAN ON WIRE and THE WALK wouldn't entertain young kids so this animated short would be perfect for them. The animation itself is rather raw but I liked that about it. It seems there are a couple versions of this out there with different narrators. Jake Gyllenhaal narrated one version but the one I've got has someone else.