Peter and the Wolf is one of Prokoviev's best and most accessible works, one of my first introductions to classical music as well. This animated short film is just outstanding(even better than Disney's version and the excellent ballet production with if memory serves correct Anthony Dowell as the grandfather), highly acclaimed and wholly deserving of it. The animation is great, very professional and detailed if not quite as refined as other animations seen. The atmosphere it evokes too is naturalistic, charming, sinister(but not too scary) and very Russian. The characters are modelled very well, standouts being the cat and the wolf. Prokoviev's music is fantastic as expected, the orchestra perform it beautifully and bring out the different personalities of their characters through the different instruments very successfully. The strings and horns are particularly good. The story has been tinkered a little, but the spirit is there as are the basic details, and it's still engaging and touching. The characters are very well-defined, Peter's a likable hero and the wolf is a very scary nemesis. In conclusion, an outstanding short film. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I loved this, watched with my 8 year old daughter. It has laughs and suspense and sadness and happiness.The animation is incredible, especially the cat, and the characters are so endearing.I enjoy having films for my daughter that aren't filled with inane dialogue and cute little witticisms, as there are really so few nowadays that are really funny for kids. She enjoyed just watching and listening to the music, as she was able to comment on what was happening, or what she thought of the characters, without being afraid of missing a line.We recommend it to all.

Updated retelling of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is a masterpiece of stop motion animation. Set in modern Russia it pretty much follows the story of young Peter going out into world despite his Grandfathers warning and encountering a wolf.What makes this film so special is that the film has so many small touches that add life and magic to the oft told tale. Look at all of the facial expressions. These are not inanimate objects these are real people and real characters. Look at all of the eyes how alive they seem. Director Suzie Templeton has added a much needed element, danger, to the proceedings. In all the years and all of the countless times I've heard the piece I never really feared for Peter or his friends, here at last I do. Its an edgy retelling that is more emotive since Peter is in very real danger of getting hurt or killed. There is an edge and a weight to the proceedings that I've never experienced before.Its not fair to compare this to the Disney version since they are two very different takes on the same story. Both valid, both excellent, but not rightly compared.Make an effort to see this film, it quite possibly a classic.

I saw Peter & the Wolf at its world premier in the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by the Philharmonia orchestra. That's an electric experience that will be hard to duplicate… But it certainly won't detract from watching the film in future. Is it a re-imagining of P&TW, a reinterpretation, or a modernisation? Actually, it's all three. Peter's stamping ground is visualised in a depressed, cold and windswept forest somewhere in Eastern Europe; it's hard to tell if it's pre or post Soviet economic bloc. It could be any time, and that is the first great achievement of the film. Peter is a wan, pale and sullen young boy, garbed in hoody and dirty trousers, a stroppy kid, the type who lives down the road – yet his surroundings are timeless. It raises the themes of conflict between rural and urban, youth and age and cruelty and compassion with great dexterity. It's an adaptation that speaks both to the past and the present, which is no mean feat.The plot is well-known and well-worn: the down-trodden Peter escapes the confines of grim homestead and taciturn, unsentimental grand-pappy with his pet duck and a bird with a broken wing (supported by a balloon, in a very nice touch) to go playing in the unbounded, frosty woods. Until the wolf creeps in. After suffering a great loss at the wolf's paws, Peter must rise to the occasion and capture the beast, who is much stronger and more ferocious than Peter is, but less clever… A rites of passage tale and an introduction to the orchestra for children, this version is actually quite gruelling in some respects. Impoverished and inhospitable, Peter's home life is plausibly miserable, and also easy to relate to: his run-ins with better clothed-and-fed peers and ugly hunters convey beautifully the threat of bullies and ignorant adults. Sharp and clever, but morose, Peter is a compelling hero, and the coda with him standing triumphant and grown, will provoke cheering and a quickened heartbeat.The stop-motion animation is far less slick than that seen in Wallace and Gromit, but extends a naturalistic, un-burnished and at times almost ghoulish appeal. The slightly jerky movements, warped faces and grimy sets combine to create a world at once familiar yet also deformed, blighted by neglect and insensitivity. The animation also works amazingly well with the music, the movements of people and animals alike assuming the beats, leaps and whirls of the instruments. I guess you could call this a true musical, because while the characters may not leap into spontaneous song and dance, the music actually speaks for them. I'm not much of a music critic, nor do I know Sergei Prokofiev's piece (or any of his music, for that matter) at all well, but I still loved the soundtrack. It did sound modern, and had obviously adapted and moulded to fit the film with small nuances and flourishes, but I'm sure Prokofiev would have approved.Considering the applause the film got, I'm certain no one else minded either.