Sergei Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf (2006)

Sergei Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf is a thirty minute stop motion animated short film from British director Suzie Templeton who worked in collaboration with the Polish animation studio Se-ma-for. Peter and the Wolf is the story of a young boy and his animal friends (a duck, a bird, and a cat) who encounter and attempt to capture a dangerous wolf outside his grandfather’s cabin in the woods. The film is a remake of the famous story and music Sergei Prokofiev wrote in 1936. Each character is represented (or played since there is no voice acting) by a musical instrumental accompaniment such as a flute to represent the bird and an oboe to represent the duck. The combination of each character’s theme plays off each other together to make one memorable (and highly recognizable) composition.

The short won the Oscar for best animated short film in 2006 and it was well deserved. The characters are all incredibly detailed and fluid in their movements as well as providing a real sense of emotion in their facial expressions and mannerisms. Peter in particular, with his large eyes, displays a wide range of feeling with a simple glance or gesture. It is easy to understand everything that he is thinking from a simple close-up. Even a character like the grandfather, with his short amount of on screen time, has a personality and his own specific feelings. Almost overshadowing the characters are the sets and locations in the film. It’s obvious that each set was painstakingly build and sculpted to perfection. The forest is lush and extremely detailed. Every pebble and blade of grass seems carefully placed and realistic. The grandfather’s cabin in particular is full of intricate little details like small trinkets being tipped over or dust on furniture and worn wood. The environments are very realistic, but maintain their fantasy quality through their use of colors. Every location seems to have a different color palate making each one feel very unique from the next. The town is very realistic and detailed; full of life and texture as well as being very dark and gray while the forest outside the cabin is full of green and yellow making it seem like a paradise by comparison.

The character models are also incredibly detailed. Every wrinkle in the grandfather’s hands can be seen and the fur on the wolf is amazingly lifelike as it reacts to his own movement and the wind in the forest. This is a film that demands repeated viewing in order to fully take in all of the details and visuals. The music serves as the only form of dialogue and it is all that is truly necessary as the characters’ actions alone make the plot move along at an easy to follow pace. Each instrument feels unique to each character and with the perfect synchronization it is impossible not to become engrossed in the story. Well worth a recommendation, this is a film that everyone should take the short amount of time to see.