At first glance a vanity project - written and originally illustrated by U2's Bono with music and narration from his best friend Gavin Friday - this actually ends up being the freshest take I've seen on this story, which has been done so many times before in the same, stale old schoolmasterly way.
This version bypasses all the introduction of the instruments, etc., and instead grounds the tale in personal feeling right from the start, with the boy Peter returning from his mother's funeral, straight away making an autobiographical connection to its creator's own mother's death as a child that succeeds in holding one's interest in the story and lending it emotional weight.
The musical instrumentation is similarly fresh and modern, but it's underused, and there's not much more to it than just the main theme repeated a bunch. The animation, too, is detailed and evocative, but feels somewhat generic and computerized, without anything to really make it stand out from every other cartoon today.
In conclusion, then, this new version of Peter and The Wolf is self-indulgent and slight, but short and enjoyable, with an immediacy the story hasn't had before, and it manages to make something very old and familiar feel like something new.
6/10.
This version bypasses all the introduction of the instruments, etc., and instead grounds the tale in personal feeling right from the start, with the boy Peter returning from his mother's funeral, straight away making an autobiographical connection to its creator's own mother's death as a child that succeeds in holding one's interest in the story and lending it emotional weight.
The musical instrumentation is similarly fresh and modern, but it's underused, and there's not much more to it than just the main theme repeated a bunch. The animation, too, is detailed and evocative, but feels somewhat generic and computerized, without anything to really make it stand out from every other cartoon today.
In conclusion, then, this new version of Peter and The Wolf is self-indulgent and slight, but short and enjoyable, with an immediacy the story hasn't had before, and it manages to make something very old and familiar feel like something new.
6/10.