The Little Prince
by Stanley Donen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Clive Revill, Joss Ackland, Richard Kiley, Steven Warner, Victor SpinettiDirector: Stanley Donen
Brand: FOSSE,BOB
Cinematographer: Christopher Challis
Producer: Stanley Donen
Editor: George Hively
Editor: Peter Boita
Producer: A. Joseph Tandet
Writer: Alan Jay Lerner
Writer: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-04-06
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of The Little Prince
Movie Review: This charming and faithful film thoroughly "tamed" me.
Summary: 5 Stars
I cannot too highly praise this 1974 film of "The Little Prince" produced and directed by Stanley Donen. The presentation is rather that of an American musical or a "Singspiel": spoken dialogue interspersed with musical numbers. The lyrics and music of Lerner and Loewe do not terribly impress me but they are suitable and essentially effective. To my surprise and delight, everything else works: Richard Kiley is absolutely convincing as The Pilot. His acting is first rate, he sings very well indeed, and his handsome, expressive face and athletic body present a Pilot who is at the same time very strong and very gentle. I think of the exuberance of the scene in which he and the Little Prince playfully splash about in the water of the oasis or of the final moments when his sense of loss and sorrow comes across so powerfully as he carries the Little Prince in his arms after the snake has given its gift of transformation and the essence of the child is no longer in his body. Stephen Warner somehow speaks to me as The Little Prince, Saint-Exupery's Little Prince himself, incarnate in his every word and movement, and in the costuming as well.
The irrepressible Gene Wilder brilliantly zips about as a hyper-active and most loveable fox who allows himself (indeed desires)
to be tamed at last by love. The great choreographer Bob Fosse, at the height of his career, dances a shifty, jazzy snake, even if the length of the dance is a bit self-indulgent. The visual movement back and forth between animals and human actors is very effective. The ballet of the roses is delightfuly reminiscent of a production number in a 1930s Busby Berkley musical.
I should mention, in light of an earlier review, that since very ancient times the desert viper has been seen as a creature that both takes and gives life. The snake is an agent of transformation. Two snakes entwined on the staff of Hermes (Mercury) still signify the art of the physician and the science of medicine. The Little Prince does not, in effect, commit suicide; instead, with the help of the snake he ascends to a higher plane; he returns to his beloved planet with its rose and three volcanos. I have always found that children intuitively understand this, perhaps more easily than many of us adults who have been trained to fear snakes as harbingers of evil rather than as the wonderfully beautiful, lithe and complex creatures that they are.
All in all, I find this film a source of great joy and personally prefer it to the more recent operatic version of "The Little Prince" also available on DVD.
Summary of The Little Prince
A wandering child from a faraway place comes upon a pilot who crashlanded in the Sahara.Genre: Feature Film Family
Rating: G
Release Date: 6-APR-2004
Media Type: DVD
A pilot crash-lands in the Sahara desert, and is surprised to meet a tiny prince with a sword... but who doesn't know the story of the beloved book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry? The slim philosophical classic has delighted millions, and the 1974 musical of the book has its own charms. Scored by the estimable team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe and directed by Stanley Donen, this is a tuneful piece of whimsy that's better in moments than it is overall. Two guest appearances energize the second half: Gene Wilder as a lonely fox, and the superbly slinky Bob Fosse as a salacious snake (Fosse choreographed his own number, a welcome touch of Cabaret amidst the whimsy). Some of the book's slight observations don't translate well to the literalness of the screen, but that won't matter to kids, who should be hooked from the very first "Draw me a sheep." --Robert Horton
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