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The Fool of the World (19.02.10)
This week sees the DVD re-release for one of Cosgrove Hall's very
best productions. The Fool of The World and The Flying Ship
is a Russian folk tale adaptation, produced in 1990. Like so many such
tales, it begins with a beautiful Princess and a royal decree that will
see her marrying the first suitor to bring her a ship that can fly. The
decree reaches the ears of lowly young Pyotr and his spoiled
brothers, and, after his siblings disappear with the money the family
have raised to buy such a ship, Pyotr sets off to look for them. He
soon encounters a strange wizened man, in whose wake comes a
swanlike flying ship and six extraordinary characters who whisk
him to the Tsar's Palace to fulfill the decree. Only, in true fairytale
tradition, the path to True Love does not run quite as smoothly as
planned...
Though the fairytale title may be unfamiliar, its content will
immediately connect with those who know of the adventures of
Baron Munchausen. Pyotr's fantastic new friends include a
sharpshooter, a chap with incredible hearing, and another with
great speed. But as we've already stated in the film's indexing, such
is the way of folk tales around the world, borrowing themes and
content as each community retells them and makes them their own.
But we're disgressing. All you need to know is that this 54min feature
is a gem. It was directed by Francis Vose and produced by Chris
Taylor, and it serves as a showcase for some exquisite stop-motion
animation, which explains why it went on to capture a rather coveted
International Emmy award, amongst other top prizes.
The DVD for The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship was released
by Revelation Films on February 10th. It was previously only available
as part of a Cosgrove Hall doublebill from Clear Vision, which is rather
hard to track down now, so its return to DVD is very welcome
indeed...
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/ F2010