Pierre et le Loup

Disney's version of the Sergei Prokofiev musical composition. Originally part of the movie Make Mine Music, this cartoon was released later on its own as a theatrical short. I saw it as a kid as part of a compilation video. It wasn't until I was grown up that I realized it was originally part of another movie. It's nicely animated with some likable characters and plenty of that old school Disney charm. The music is great. Sterling Holloway provides the narration. He possessed one of those distinctive voices that, once you hear it, you'll never forget. I won't cover the plot to the story as most people pretty much know the plot to Peter and the Wolf, right? So, give it a shot if you can find it on its own or, better yet, watch Make Mine Music and see it with many other fun cartoons.

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.

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.

Not quite as timeless or endearing as Sergei Prokofiev's original composition, but it's got its charm here and there. It follows the story pretty well and the animation team def had some fun with the bouncy characters, but Sterling Holloway thoroughly carries this whole short on his shoulders. The man could make even the most calm quiet scenes touching thanks to his charming voice.

On a side note, while you could argue that the final scene isn't faithful to the source material, I highly doubt you could get away with that in a 1946 American animated cartoon short, let alone one produced by Disney.

This 1946 version of Prokofiev's "Musical Fairy-Tale" is probably my favourite of Disney's animated adaptations. Peter and the Wolf was clearly ideal for this type of film - I read somewhere that Prokofiev wrote the piece with Disney in mind - and Uncle Walt doesn't let us down. It's (hilariously) funny, genuinely scary and even touching. Favourite moment: the wolf drooling over Sacha the duck's prone body. Shiver. Note: After many years unavailability in the UK, this is now available on DVD either separately or as part of Make Mine Music, the compilation film in which it received its original theatrical release. From memory (and it's been years), Peter and the Wolf is vastly better than anything else in the larger film - the only other bit worth a glance is a segment about a whale singing opera.