Peter and the Wolf

Part 3 of the 4 clips (source: YouTube)

Peter and the Wolf is an animated short film by Suzie Templeton (released in 2006). The film based on the 1936 composition of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. It won an Academy Award in 2008 for Best Animated Short Film.

The intertextual references include one of the main characters being a Wolf. The Wolf is portrayed as a wild, hungry and scary character to the innocent boy, Peter, and his friends (a Duck and Magpie). The narrative of the film focuses on how Peter wants to escape onto the other side of his Grandfather's land, which is boarded off with large scraps of material. The idea of there being another world behind something relates to our own idea of our Wolf going through a tree into another world. Obstacles such as his Grandfather stop Peter from going and exploring the other side which could link to how our Wolf likes to be in the darkness of the woods.

I researched some animators in the Animation Department and according to IMDB, a number of animators have helped create other well-known films. Tim Allen participated in the making of Tim Burtons Corpse Bride, "Nakoma" in Pocahontas and in other Walt Disney films including, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Martin Davies was involved in the production of Chicken Run whilst Jan-Erik Maas contributed to this years Coraline.

I remember watching this when I was younger, or another earlier adaption and was frightened of the Wolf as it is represented as an evil creature- killing one of Peter's animal friends. It has moral meaning which many children stories do. In this case, it could be to perhaps forgive and forget, because Peter sets the Wolf free when his Grandfather captures it.

I was amazed to discover how the first part of the short film includes a POV shot in the Wolf's perspective(39secs to 47secs) which Roxxy and I are creating for our music video. We have planned to use a POV shot when the Wolf steps through the door into the other world and also when he follows the band down the street. The latter depends on whether we manage to find an actual dog which could look like a wolf, if not we will use the handheld camera technique to represent the Wolf instead. We could experiment with the camcorder to see what it looks like.