Peter and the Wolf (1946 film)

1946 American film

Peter and the Wolf

Directed by| Clyde Geronimi
Story by| Eric Gurney
Dick Huemer
Based on| Peter and the Wolf
by Sergei Prokofiev
Produced by| Walt Disney
Starring| Jimmy MacDonald
Pinto Colvig[1]
Narrated by| Sterling Holloway
Music by| Edward H. Plumb
Kurt Graunke (conductor)
Animation by| Ollie Johnston
Ward Kimball
Eric Larson
John Lounsbery
George Rowley (effects)
Layouts by| Charles Philippi
Hugh Hennessy
Backgrounds by| Claude Coats

Production
company

Walt Disney Productions

Distributed by| RKO Radio Pictures

Release date

* August 15, 1946 (1946-08-15) (USA)

Running time

| 15 minutes
Country| United States

Peter and the Wolf is a 1946 animated short based on the 1936 musical composition/fairy tale by Sergei Prokofiev, produced by Walt Disney and narrated by Sterling Holloway. It was originally released theatrically as a segment in Make Mine Music.[2] It was re-issued the following year accompanying a re-issue of Fantasia (as a short subject before the film), then released separately on home video in the 1990s.

## Background

[edit]

Prokofiev, while touring the West in 1938, visited Los Angeles and met Walt Disney. Prokofiev performed the piano version of Peter and the Wolf for "le papa de Mickey Mouse", as Prokofiev described him in a letter to his sons. Disney was impressed, and considered adding an animated version of Peter and the Wolf to Fantasia, which was to be released in 1940. Due to the war, these plans fell through, and it was not until 1946 that Disney released his version of Peter and the Wolf. It is not known if Prokofiev, by that point behind the Iron Curtain, was aware of this.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

In Disney's animated adaptation of Prokofiev's masterpiece, in which every character is represented musically by a different instrument. The apparent setting is Russia. A young Peter decides to go hunting for the wolf that has been prowling around the village. Along the way, he is joined by his friends Sasha the songbird, Sonia the duck, and Ivan the cat. All the fun comes to end, however, when the hungry wolf makes an appearance.[4]

## Differences from the original

[edit]

This version makes several changes to the original story, for example:

* During the character introduction, the animals are given names: "Sasha" the songbird, "Sonia" the duck, and "Ivan" the cat.
* As the cartoon begins, Peter and his friends already know there is a wolf nearby and are preparing to catch him.
* The hunters also get names at a later point in the story: "Misha", "Yasha", and "Vladimir".
* Peter day-dreams of hunting and catching the wolf and exits the garden carrying a wooden "pop-gun" rifle with the purpose of hunting the wolf down.
* At the end, in a complete reversal of the original (and to make the story more child-friendly), it turns out that the duck, Sonia, has not been eaten by the wolf. (The wolf is shown chasing Sonia, who eventually dives into an old tree's hollow trunk. The wolf sticks his snout in after her and begins to thrash about as feathers stream out from other holes in the tree. He returns in view with some of Sonia's feathers in his mouth, licking his jaws in visible satisfaction. Peter, Ivan, and Sasha tearfully assume that Sonia has been eaten. After the wolf has been caught, Sasha is shown mourning Sonia at the base of the tree. She comes out of the tree trunk at that point and they are happily reunited as they both race to Peter's village).

## In other media

[edit]

An audio recording of this version with expanded narration by Sterling Holloway was released on Disneyland Records (DQ-1242).

Peter and the Wolf is featured on DVD in the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection release of Make Mine Music and in Walt Disney's It's a Small World of Fun! Vol. 2. It is also featured on VHS in Belle's Tales of Friendship, the Disney version of Peter and the Wolf is featured and narrated by Belle instead of Sterling Holloway. This version was featured in House of Mouse.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Scott, Keith (October 3, 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media. p. 262. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
2. ^ "Peter and the Wolf (1946) Sparky: Trivia". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
3. ^ Bartig, Kevin (April 4, 2013). Composing for the Red Screen: Prokofiev and Soviet Film. Oxford University Press. p. 61\. ISBN 9780199967605.
4. ^ Rocher, Jean-Marc. "Peter and the Wolf (1946): Plot Summary". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved June 24, 2014.

## External links

[edit]

* Peter and the Wolf at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf

Films|

* Peter and the Wolf (1946)
* Peter & the Wolf (2006)

Albums|

* Peter and the Wolf (1975)
* David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (1978)
* Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf (2005)
* Petr & the Wulf (2010)

Other|

* Peter and the Wolf (TV special)

Related|

* 1988 parody album
* Once Upon a Time
* "Red-Handed"
* Big Bad Wolf (character)

* v
* t
* e

Walt Disney Animation Studios short films

Lists by year|

* 1923–1928
* 1928–1939
* 1940–1949
* 1950–1959
* 1960–1985
* 1986–1999
* 2000–present

Mickey Mouse
and friends|

| Short series|

* Mickey Mouse film series (1928–2013)
* Donald Duck film series (1937–2024)
* Pluto film series (1937–51)
* Donald & Goofy film series (1938–47)
* Goofy film series (1939–2007)
* Chip 'n' Dale film series (1951–54)
* Humphrey the Bear film series (1956)
* How to Stay at Home (2021)

|

Stand-alone shorts|

* Donald's Decision (1942)
* All Together (1942)
* Out of the Frying Pan into the Firing Line (1942)
* Morris the Midget Moose (1950)
* Donald and the Wheel (1961)
* Aquamania (1961)
* Donald's Fire Survival Plan (1966)

Additional
short series|

* Laugh-O-Grams (1921–1923)
* Alice Comedies (1923–27)
* Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927–28)
* Silly Symphony (1929–39)
* Winnie the Pooh (1966–1983)
* Roger Rabbit (1989–93)
* Prep & Landing (2009–11)
* Short Circuit (2020–22)
* At Home with Olaf (2020)
* Olaf Presents (2021)

Stand-alone
short films|

* Ferdinand the Bull (1938)
* The Thrifty Pig (1941)
* Food Will Win the War (1941)
* Stop That Tank! (1942)
* Chicken Little (1943)
* The Grain That Built a Hemisphere (1943)
* Education for Death (1943)
* Reason and Emotion (1943)
* The Pelican and the Snipe (1944)
* The Brave Engineer (1950)
* Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952)
* Susie the Little Blue Coupe (1952)
* The Little House (1952)
* Ben and Me (1953)
* Melody (1953)
* Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953)
* Football Now and Then (1953)
* Social Lion (1954)
* Pigs Is Pigs (1954)
* A Cowboy Needs a Horse (1956)
* Jack and Old Mac (1956)
* The Truth About Mother Goose (1957)
* The Story of Anyburg U.S.A. (1957)
* Paul Bunyan (1958)
* Noah's Ark (1959)
* Goliath II (1960)
* The Saga of Windwagon Smith (1961)
* It's Tough to Be a Bird (1969)
* The Small One (1978)
* Vincent (1982)
* Fun with Mr. Future (1982)
* Oilspot and Lipstick (1987)
* Off His Rockers (1992)
* John Henry (2000)
* Destino (2003)
* Lorenzo (2004)
* One by One (2004)
* The Little Matchgirl (2006)
* Glago's Guest (2008)
* Tick Tock Tale (2010)
* The Ballad of Nessie (2011)
* Paperman (2012)
* Feast (2014)
* Inner Workings (2016)
* Us Again (2021)
* Far from the Tree (2021)
* Once Upon a Studio (2023)

Based on
feature films|

* 7 Wise Dwarfs (1941)
* Casey Bats Again (1954)
* A Dairy Tale (2004, direct-to-video)
* Super Rhino (2009, direct-to-video)
* Tangled Ever After (2012)
* Frozen Fever (2015)
* Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017)
* Once Upon a Snowman (2020)

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