Stop-Motion Finds A Dark Side of Peter

From AWN comes this story:

The new stop-motion version of PETER AND THE WOLF, co-produced by BreakThru Films in London and the Se-Ma-For studio in Poland, takes the saga of a brave Russian boy and his fight with a fearsome beast seriously. It's not too dark, being aimed at families, but it can get emotionally intense, judging by the rough cut AWN saw. This Peter is striking, not cute, his child's face hinting at yearnings frustrated in his sometimes-bleak day-to-day life. The boy yearns to escape into the wood outside his home ó an enormous, wondrous set that may be unprecedented in the stop-motion medium. In the wood is freedom and adventure, and terrible danger in the snarling wolf, which challenges the boy to become a man.



The film was five years in the making, involving more than a hundred British and Polish animators, craftsmen, sculptors and artists. It's directed by Britain's Suzie Templeton, who's made a considerable name for herself on the back of two exceptional stop-motion student shorts: Dog, a dark story of family bereavement, and Stanley, a black comedy about a henpecked husband whose love of gardening takes a scandalous turn.


This new stop-motion version of Peter and the Wolf resists Disneyfication and doesn't shy away from emotionally intense scenes. All Peter and the Wolf images © 2006 BreakThru Peter Ltd & Se-ma-for.

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