The Happy Prince (1974 film) explained

Genre:	Animation
Director:	Michael Mills
Voices:	Glynis Johns Christopher Plummer
Narrated:	Christopher Plummer
Composer:	Ron Goodwin
Country:	Canada
Language:	English
Producer:	Michael Mills Gerald Potterton Murray Shostak
Runtime:	25 minutes
Network:	CTV (Canada), Reader's Digest Films (U.S. syndicator) BBC (UK)

The Happy Prince is an animated short film adaptation of the short story by Oscar Wilde. The film was produced in 1974 by the Canadian-based Potterton Productions as a follow-up to its 1971 film The Selfish Giant. It is narrated by Christopher Plummer.

Plot

A royal statue makes friends with a small swallow. The statue is moved by the suffering he sees around him and asks the swallow to peel off his gold covering leaf by leaf and give it to various poor and needy people.^[1]

Artists

• Written for the screen and directed by Michael Mills
• Master animator: Jim Hiltz
• Animators: Robert Browning, Paul Driessen, Sebastian Grunstra, Julian Harris, Terence Harrison, Geoff Loynes, Gary Mooney, Paul Sabella, Paul Schibli, Don Stearn, Mike Stuart
• Background design: Sue Butterworth, John Dawson, Diane Desrosiers, Timothy Elliott, Michel Guerin, Caroline Price
• Sound editors: Peter Hearn, Gerard Senecal

Music

Howard Blake was originally hired to score the film, and after writing a theme for the bird, and a song, he called the director and found out they had hired Ron Goodwin without telling him.

References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20121019012139/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/101218?view=synopsis BFI synopsis

External links

• BFI (UK): The Happy Prince