Peter, the wolf and the Oscar
Twenty-five years after Zbigniew Rybczynski’s celebrated Tango (produced in 1981 but an Oscar winner in 1983), the team at Se-ma-for production studios in Lodz have once again been honoured with an Academy Award, this time for Best Animated Short Film.
Last night, the American Academy crowned Suzie Templeton’s Peter and the Wolf, co-produced by UK-based BreakThru Films.
Templeton’s film is an animated version of Sergei Prokofiev’s musical tale for children, which was written and composed in 1936. Peter lives in a world where he has to confront evil and his struggle against the wolf leads to his transformation. A fragile little boy, Peter discovers his own strength and, with the help of a few friends, becomes a true hero.
The research and preparation for the film took three years. Templeton co-wrote the screenplay with Marianela Maldonado and the final version that emerged from the 15 or so preliminary versions differs in several ways from Prokofiev’s original story. One of the most difficult aspects was dramatising the relationship between Peter and the wolf and bringing it to its climax.
The film was made on a realistic set composed of natural materials. In keeping with the director’s vision, Marek Skrobecki (who was set designer on Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List) created a forest 22 metres long and 16 metres wide, with 1,700 trees.
The film’s score was recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Mark Stephenson, in All Hallows Church in London.
(Translated from French)
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