The version of Peter & the Wolf most set in my head is the Disney telling, in which the duck isn’t eaten and all the animals live happily ever after — cute, but not much of a story. Suzie Templeton’s stop-motion adaptation is, aside from being visually stunning, a much more complex tale about animals and humans. After capturing the wolf, Peter chooses to release it rather than sell to an animal show, taxidermist, or butcher. Peter himself is trapped by the bleakness of the town where he lives, the high walls behind which he is locked all day long, and the constant threat of unchecked and aggressive soldiers harassing him, and still he gives up the money that would come from selling the wolf — even after the wolf kills his only friend, the duck — to allow the creature its freedom. The kinship suggested between boy and wolf isn’t the puppy dog sort in which the wolf would lick Peter’s face and they’d live on as great friends; it’s the kinship of knowing his own human life is made richer by the presence of wild, even dangerous animals outside the walls of his home.

1. I loved this version – sinister, earthy, and I felt so sad for the duck…

   
   

   — fiona robyn · Apr 7, 05:23 AM    #

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