Stories to Remember - Pegasus & Beauty and the Beast | Classic Fairy Tale Books for Kids | Perfect for Bedtime Reading, Gifts & Children's Storytime

Like MERLIN AND THE DRAGONS(see my review) PEGASUS The Flying horse was a special I had recorded off of PBS station, channel 31. And also like that special the broadcast signal was rough and fuzzy! So glad I now have this hand drawn animated special with a crystal clear picture and sound! Besides being a fan of greek mythology I'm also both an animater and animation fan and one of the artists in the credits for this japanese animated telling of the Bellerophon myth is Kevin Alteri, a storyboard artist who later did directing and storyboarding on BATMAN the animated series produced by Bruce W. Timm! The character design has a very classical greek myth look to it and the hand drawn animation makes good use of cross dissolves in place of some inbetween drawings while there is flowing fuller dramatic figure action combined with limited movement to very good effect! Very dramatic staging and camera angles are used effectively and Ernest Troost's backround music is excellent, being soft and gentle for Pegasus's birth, to being exciting and thrilling for greek hero Bellerophon's battle with the dreaded Chimera a 3 headed monster! Throughout this tale Mia Farrow sweetly narrates and voices Urania, one of the many Muses who loves Pegasus and kisses him goodbye before Zeus turns him into the constellation, Pegasus the big dipper in the night sky! The next half hour special BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is faithful to the original fairy tale and it is interesting to compare it to the black and white french film BEAUTY AND THE BEAST by Jean Cocteau! The colourful hand drawn limited animation with line pastel deawings acheives a dreamlike effect that has a feeling similar to the dream like surrealism of Cocteau's masterpiece in a half hour running time. Kit Laybourne who is a canadian animater and wrote the THE ANIMATION BOOK is supervising animater of this heart tugging animated tale and once again Mia Farrow sweetly narrates and voices both Beauty and her mean stepsisters. Her warm, feminine voice is very well used in both specials and effectively wins me over to the side of both muse Urania and heroine Beauty! Enchanting hour of winning hand drawn animation for all ages!